Tigers Release Johan Camargo
The Tigers released infielder Johan Camargo from a minor league contract, tweets Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press. The switch-hitter had signed with Detroit in late June.
Camargo made 22 appearances for their Triple-A team in Toledo. He struggled over 88 trips to the plate, hitting .238/.295/.400. Camargo connected on three homers and kept his strikeouts to a modest 17% clip but was weighed down by a .254 average on balls in play. He’d fared much better in Triple-A with the Royals earlier in the season, when he hit .298/.412/.544 in 15 contests.
Between the organizations, Camargo still has a solid .263/.346/.460 showing at the top minor league level on the season. That hasn’t gotten him back to the big leagues, which he’d reached every year between 2017-22. Camargo got semi-regular run at third base for the Braves during his first couple seasons but has been in a utility capacity since 2019. He’s a career .255/.313/.410 hitter over 416 MLB contests.
Camargo returns to the open market and could look to catch on with a third organization for the stretch run. He can play anywhere on the infield and carries a .303/.376/.500 line over parts of six seasons in Triple-A.
Blue Jays Expected To Select Davis Schneider
The Blue Jays plan to promote Davis Schneider before tomorrow’s game in Boston, as first reported by Johnny Giunta (Twitter link). Toronto will need to create a vacancy on the 40-man roster to select his contract.
Schneider, 24, has spent six seasons in the minors. The Jays selected him in the 28th round of the 2017 draft out of a New Jersey high school. Schneider moved slowly up the ladder, first reaching Double-A last season. He had a solid .253/.366/.457 showing between a trio of minor league levels in 2022 but was nevertheless left unprotected in the Rule 5 draft.
After going unselected, he remained in the Jays’ system and was assigned to Triple-A Buffalo. Schneider has been one of the better hitters in the International League this season. Over 392 trips to the plate, he’s hitting .275/.416/.553 with 21 home runs. The 5’9″ hitter has walked at a huge 18.4% clip against an average 21.9% strikeout rate. While this year’s Triple-A environment has been very offense-heavy, that production still stands out.
Schneider ranks eighth among 88 International League batters (minimum 300 PA’s) in on-base percentage. He leads the league in walk rate and ranks 10th in slugging output. That breakout showing led Baseball America to slot him 15th among Toronto prospects in their recent farm rankings — the first time he’d made an organizational top 30 list at BA. The outlet points to a jump in Schneider’s minor league exit velocities and strong strike zone awareness.
Defensively, he bounces between second base, third base and left field. He’ll bring some flexibility to the bench but is regarded as more of a bat-first utility type. The Jays have Santiago Espinal, Cavan Biggio and Ernie Clement on the big league bench with a primary middle infield duo of Paul DeJong and Whit Merrifield while Bo Bichette is hurt.
Adam Ottavino Intends To Return To Mets In 2024
The Mets’ deadline sale has generated plenty of headlines over the past few days. New York moved a number of star players but also held a few veterans whose names had been floated in rumors — among them José Quintana, Brooks Raley and Adam Ottavino.
Ottavino is one of a trio of players still on the Mets’ roster who’d have the choice to become a free agent at year’s end. Carlos Carrasco is headed to the open market; Ottavino and Omar Narváez have player options for next season. (The club holds an option on Raley.) Narváez seems a lock to return on a $7MM salary after slumping to a .200/.295/.260 line and missing a good chunk of the season with a strained calf. Ottavino’s option seemed a closer call, but the veteran reliever indicated this afternoon he’s leaning towards exercising it.
The Brooklyn native tells Anthony DiComo of MLB.com he intends to return for a third season with the Mets. Ottavino suggested he was likely to trigger the $6.75MM option on his existing contract. He left open the possibility of trying to renegotiate the deal if he pitches well enough over the next two months, though he indicated he’d do so as a means of tacking on more years rather than prioritizing the average annual value. The Mets don’t have to consider a renegotiation, of course. There’s ostensibly still a chance that Ottavino looks to extend the contract, the Mets decline, and he’s left to reconsider the possibility of opting out.
That said, the hurler seemed quite committed to returning to Queens for his age-38 campaign. “I want to be here no matter what,” Ottavino told DiComo. “This is a good place for me. I love the organization. I love being able to play where I’m from.”
Next year’s Mets will be a quite different team from the one that entered this season. Owner Steve Cohen and GM Billy Eppler have each made clear the club doesn’t anticipate being as active at the top of the free agent market as they had been. Cohen frankly stated yesterday that the ’24 roster won’t carry the same expectations as this year’s group.
Ottavino doesn’t seem deterred by the organizational messaging. The right-hander opined he “(knows) that we’re not going to stink next year.” More broadly, he said he’d value team success more when it’s built on continuity. “I really want to win, but I’ve come to realize it means more to me when I feel invested with the team, when I’ve been with the team for a while,” he told DiComo. “I don’t like feeling like a hired gun. … When I came here, I really wanted to prove myself again and stay. Once I was able to do that, now I feel like I’m bought into everything we’re doing around here.”
While Ottavino has sole discretion on whether to play out his contract, his deal does not contain a no-trade clause. If he exercises the option, there’d be nothing prohibiting the Mets from exploring trade possibilities during the winter. Barring an excellent final couple months, however, New York likely wouldn’t find a huge prospect return if they put Ottavino on the trade market.
While the 13-year MLB veteran is having a solid season, his production has taken a step back from his first year in Queens. Ottavino owns a 3.48 ERA across 44 innings. He’s racking up ground-balls at a massive 58.1% clip but has slightly worse than average strikeout (21.6%) and walk (10.3%) tallies. Ottavino fanned over 30% of opponents against a meager 6.2% walk percentage en route to a sterling 2.06 ERA through 65 2/3 frames a season ago.
The average velocity on Ottavino’s sinker and sweeping slider are each down a tick relative to last season. That has contributed to a drop in whiffs, though his lower arm angle has remained a very challenging look for same-handed hitters. Righties have only four extra-base hits and a .273 slugging mark in 118 plate appearances against him.
Yankees Place Domingo Germán On Restricted List Due To Alcohol Abuse
August 3: Germán’s entry into a treatment program was preceded by an incident in the Yankees’ clubhouse, reports Lindsey Adler of the Wall Street Journal. According to the report, the pitcher was apparently intoxicated when he entered the clubhouse in preparation for the Yankees’ game on Tuesday. Adler writes that Germán argued with teammates and manager Aaron Boone and flipped a couch amidst those confrontations. He eventually went into the stadium nap room while the rest of the team prepared for the game.
August 2: “Domingo Germán has agreed today to voluntarily submit to inpatient treatment for alcohol abuse,” the Yankees said in a press release today. “He will be placed on the restricted list for the time that he is away from the club. It is critical that Domingo completely focuses on addressing his health and well-being. We will respect his privacy as he begins this process.”
General manager Brian Cashman met with reporters this evening (relayed by Bryan Hoch of MLB.com and Andy Martino of SNY). The GM said Germán has battled alcohol issues in the past and had an incident — about which he declined to go into detail — yesterday. As the team did in its statement, Cashman expressed that his foremost concern is for Germán and his family. The right-hander will not return to the playing field this season.
Germán, 30, has pitched for the Yankees since 2017. He was suspended for the entire shortened 2020 schedule after violating the MLB – MLBPA domestic violence policy the preceding September. He returned to the club in ’21 and has worked mostly out of the rotation in the three years since then. Germán etched his name into the history books six weeks ago, throwing a perfect game in Oakland on June 28.
Altogether, Germán carries a 4.56 ERA through 20 appearances on the season. Players on the restricted list aren’t paid or credited with MLB service, so Germán will forfeit what remains of this year’s $2.6MM salary (roughly $838K). He’d been on track to surpass five years of service this season but seems likely to now fall a bit shy of that mark. He’ll be eligible for arbitration again during the upcoming offseason.
Trey Mancini Clears Waivers, Reaches Free Agency
Trey Mancini has gone unclaimed on waivers and become a free agent, tweets Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times. According to his transaction log at MLB.com, he’d been released upon being designated for assignment two days ago.
There was little suspense with this sequence of events after Tuesday’s trade deadline passed. He was DFA to clear space for the recently acquired Jeimer Candelario. As a player with over five years of MLB service, he can decline any minor league assignment while retaining all of his salary. With no trade lined up, Mancini had to go on waivers, where his contract made it a lock he’d be unclaimed.
He’d signed a two-year, $14MM free agent deal in January. The move didn’t work out as he or Chicago had envisioned. His few months on the North Side were among the worst of his career. Mancini hit .234/.299/.336 with only four home runs through 263 trips to the plate. He struck out at an alarming 29.7% clip, the highest rate of his career.
Mancini hit a career-high 35 home runs in 2019 before missing the 2020 campaign after a colon cancer diagnosis. His return to the diamond after beating the disease was one of the sport’s best stories the following season. Mancini spent another season and a half with the Orioles, hitting .260/.334/.421 in a little more than 1000 trips. It wasn’t the impact production of his ’19 campaign but remained slightly above-average offensive output.
Baltimore dealt Mancini to the Astros in a three-team trade at last summer’s deadline. His production slumped in Houston, as he mustered only a .176/.258/.364 line through 186 plate appearances. Mancini collected a World Series ring but didn’t play much of a role in the Astros’ championship run.
The Cubs’ hopes for a rebound didn’t materialize. Mancini carries a .210/.282/.348 slash through 449 plate appearances dating back to last year’s trade. As a player who’s best suited for first base or designated hitter — he’s a below-average defender in the corner outfield — the lack of offensive productivity pushed him off the Chicago roster. The 31-year-old has a career .263/.328/.448 line in just under 3400 trips to the dish.
Mancini is due around $2.2MM through season’s end and $7MM next year. The Cubs will be on the hook for virtually all of that money. Any team that adds him in free agency within the next season and a half would pay just the prorated league minimum salary for time spent in the majors, which’ll come off the Cubs’ ledger. The well-respected veteran is sure to at least find minor league interest and could land an immediate MLB roster spot elsewhere now that there’d be virtually no financial cost for another team to add him as a bench bat.
Mariners Add Ryder Ryan To 40-Man Roster
The Mariners announced they’ve selected reliever Ryder Ryan onto the 40-man roster. He was immediately optioned to Triple-A Tacoma, so he’ll have to wait a little longer for his first MLB call. Seattle had an opening on the 40-man after designating Kolten Wong for assignment on Tuesday.
Ryan, 28, has spent seven years in the minors. Originally a 30th-round draft choice by Cleveland in 2016, he’s been traded twice. The right-hander went to the Mets at the ’17 deadline in the Jay Bruce deal and to the Rangers over the 2020-21 offseason as the player to be named later in the Todd Frazier swap. Ryan spent two years in Triple-A with Texas but never cracked the big league club and became a minor league free agent last winter.
The North Carolina product signed a minor league pact with Seattle. He’s spent the season in Tacoma, working to a 3.72 ERA through 38 2/3 innings in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. Ryan has solid if unspectacular peripherals — a 23% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk percentage and 48.4% grounder rate.
It’s unclear what spurred the M’s to select his contract without immediately bringing him to the MLB roster. Speculatively, it’s possible his minor league deal had contained an opt-out provision that required them to do so or allow him to head back to free agency. In any case, getting added to the 40-man gives him a good chance at securing a big league look down the stretch.
Rays Place Shane McClanahan On Injured List
6:40pm: Tampa Bay has officially placed McClanahan on the IL, Topkin tweets. The club said they are “in the process of gathering further information” and will provide updates when they become available.
6:13pm: The Rays plan to place Shane McClanahan on the 15-day injured list, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The two-time All-Star felt some soreness on the outside of his forearm during yesterday’s start against the Yankees.
Tampa Bay sent McClanahan for imaging this morning. Topkin that the Rays still don’t have a set diagnosis from initial testing. The 6’1″ left-hander is slated for further evaluation in the coming days but will need at least two weeks on the shelf.
Until there’s more clarity on the issue, the overall timetable remains unknown. Yet even a best-case scenario for the Rays sees them lose arguably their best pitcher for a couple weeks while they battle for a division title. Tampa Bay has gone 26-27 since the start of June, a couple months of average play after their league-best performance through May. As a result, they’ve dropped two games back of the Orioles in the AL East.
They’re still in great shape to secure a playoff spot. The Rays sit three games clear of the second-best Wild Card team and 7.5 up on the top non-playoff club. They’ll need to track down Baltimore to snag a first-round bye, though, and any extended absence from McClanahan would only make that more challenging.
The 26-year-old was on a Cy Young pace last year before a late-season shoulder impingement knocked him to sixth in the voting. He hasn’t been quite as good this season but remains one of the top pitchers in the sport. Through 115 innings, McClanahan carries a 3.29 ERA with a strong 25.8% strikeout rate. He missed a couple weeks earlier in the season with back tightness but returned not long after a minimal stay on the shelf.
Pitching injuries have been an all too familiar occurrence for Tampa Bay this year. The Rays were without Tyler Glasnow early and lost Jeffrey Springs and Drew Rasmussen to season-ending surgeries midway through the season. They dealt top first base prospect Kyle Manzardo to Cleveland for Aaron Civale to fortify the starting staff. That acquisition could take on even more importance if McClanahan misses a notable chunk of time. Tampa Bay optioned rookie Taj Bradley to Triple-A after acquiring Civale; he’d seem the likeliest candidate for a recall to take McClanahan’s active roster spot.
Rangers Move Martín Pérez To Bullpen
The Rangers brought in some new additions to their rotation at the deadline, acquiring both Max Scherzer from the Mets and Jordan Montgomery from the Cardinals. One of them will replace Nathan Eovaldi, who recently landed on the injured list. Another opening will be created by veteran Martín Pérez getting bumped to the bullpen, reports Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News. “It doesn’t mean that’s where he’s going to stay,” manager Bruce Bochy said of the move for Pérez. “But for this time around, that’s the plan.”
Pérez, 32, has a long track of being a serviceable major league pitcher. By the end of the 2021 season, he had tossed 1102 2/3 innings, allowing 4.71 earned runs per nine innings. His 15.3% strikeout rate was well below average, but his 8.3% walk rate and 49.2% ground ball were both solid enough to allow him to be of use.
For 2022, he signed a one-year, $4MM deal with the Rangers and went on to have a career year. He made 32 starts and posted a 2.89 ERA over 196 1/3 innings, getting his strikeout rate up to a career high of 20.6% while still limiting walks and grounders. That earned him a well-deserved raise, as the Rangers issued him a $19.65MM qualifying offer, which he accepted.
Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to build off that late-career breakout. His strikeout bump has vanished, as his 14.4% rate this year is low even by his standards. The walk rate is still solid at 8.6% but he’s only getting grounders at a 41% clip, a huge drop from last year’s 51.4% rate. His ERA on the year is 4.98, with only five qualified pitchers worse than him in that department this year. It’s also been trending in a bad direction, as he had a 2.41 ERA at the end of April but a 6.15 mark since the start of May.
With those results, it’s not shocking that he’s been nudged out of the starting mix. This is a road he has travelled down before, as the Red Sox bumped him to the bullpen in 2021, though he was able to get back on track with the aforementioned breakout in 2022. Perhaps he will do so again at some point but the Texas rotation will now seem to consist of Scherzer, Montgomery, Jon Gray, Andrew Heaney and Dane Dunning.
Dunning started the year in the bullpen but jumped into the rotation when Jacob deGrom landed on the injured list, later to require Tommy John surgery. In 16 starts since the start of May, Dunning has a 3.43 ERA. His 17.6% strikeout rate in that time isn’t especially impressive but he’s higher than Pérez in that department while also walking just 6.7% of hitters and keeping the ball on the ground at a 44.9% clip.
It seems those strong results will allow him to keep his starting gig, at least for the time being. As Bochy mentioned, the club could mix things up again in the months to come, though the group could get a bit more crowded. Bochy expects the club to have Eovaldi back after a minimum IL stint, per Kennedi Landry of MLB.com, which will make it harder both for Pérez to get back in the mix and for Dunning to keep his spot. Perhaps Eovaldi’s return would see Dunning hold his spot and Heaney get bumped to the bullpen since the latter has a lackluster 4.36 ERA on the season. But he has been trending better of late, with a 2.95 mark in his last four outings.
Of course, the final few months could also see some plot twists that change all of this, best laid plans and whatnot. The AL West is shaping up to be a fascinating race to watch in the final months, as the Rangers made their aforementioned rotation additions while the Astros got Justin Verlander and the Angels nabbed Lucas Giolito. The Rangers will undoubtedly be making whatever moves they feel give them the best shot at success in the weeks to come, with the large salary of Pérez not enough to keep him from the bullpen. He’ll return to the open market this winter while Dunning will qualify for arbitration for the first time.
Athletics Select Zach Neal, Designate Tyler Wade
The Athletics announced that they have recalled infielder Jonah Bride and selected right-hander Zach Neal. In corresponding moves, they optioned left-hander Hogan Harris and designated infielder Tyler Wade for assignment.
This will be the second stint of the year on Oakland’s roster for Neal. The 34-year-old signed a minor league deal with the A’s in April and got selected in May, but was designated for assignment after just over a week on the roster. He made just two appearances, allowing three earned runs in 3 1/3 innings. He cleared waivers and was outrighted to Las Vegas, choosing to accept that assignment despite having the right to elect free agency.
On the year as a whole, he’s tossed 66 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level over 15 appearances, nine of those being starts. He has a 5.40 ERA in that time, striking out just 16.6% of opponents but limiting walks to a 4.6% rate. He figures to give manager Mark Kotsay a multi-inning option out of the Oakland bullpen.
Wade, 28, has bounced on and off the roster all year. He was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason and has thrice been selected to the roster, the most recent of which was just on Tuesday. He’s managed to get into 26 games amid all those transactions, hitting .255/.309/.314 in 55 plate appearances. He’s twice cleared waivers this year and accepted an outright assignment despite having the right to elect free agency. It’s possible the same sequence of events happens here, though perhaps the recent trade deadline has created new job openings around the league.
He has stolen 42 bases in 357 games in his major league career while playing the three infield spots to the left of first base as well as all three outfield positions. However, he’s hit just .217/.293/.300 in that time. He’s out of options but could be retained via arbitration for two seasons beyond this one.
Yankees Place Anthony Rizzo On IL With Post-Concussion Syndrome
The Yankees are placing first baseman Anthony Rizzo on the injured list today, with Aaron Boone telling reporters that Rizzo has a “likely” concussion. He says the club has traced this to a collision he had with Fernando Tatis Jr. of the Padres on May 28, per Deesha Thosar of Fox Sports. Rizzo passed concussion protocol at the time but recently complained of fogginess, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. He will be evaluated week to week while Jake Bauers and DJ LeMahieu handle first base, per Hoch. The club has now made it official, listed Rizzo’s ailment as post-concussion syndrome. Infielder/outfielder Oswaldo Cabrera was recalled in a corresponding move.
It’s an unusual injured list move, as players with concussions or concussion-like symptoms usually find themselves out of action in the immediate aftermath of the event in question. In this instance, the Yankees seem to believe Rizzo is being impacted by something that happened over two months ago. The play in question can be seen in this video, relayed on Twitter by Talkin’ Baseball. The slow motion replay appears to show Tatis, while attempting to get back to first on a pickoff throw from the catcher, make contact with Rizzo’s head via his hip. Rizzo then appears visibly dizzy in the moments after.
Rizzo was removed from that game and sat out the club’s next three contests, but was back in the lineup June 2. He’s hit .172/.271/.225 in 192 plate appearances since that collision, which perhaps lends credence to the idea that he has been affected in some way. Still, it seems strange on the surface that it took over two months to hone in on a diagnosis. Rizzo himself tells Hoch that he was more tired of late but thought it was just due to the typical grind of the season. He added that he would sometimes wake up feeling hungover and forget the number of outs during games. “I didn’t just forget how to do this all of a sudden,” he said, in reference to his declining results. It seems the situation is still evolving, with the club planning to reevaluate Rizzo regularly in the weeks to come in order to navigate a path forward.
Rizzo’s struggles have been just one part of a fairly tepid Yankee offense this year, as they were also without Aaron Judge for almost two months. He was on the IL from early June to late July thanks to a right great toe sprain. Overall, the club is hitting .231/.302/.404 for a wRC+ of 95 this year, with that mark placing them 21st out of the 30 clubs in the majors.
There are lots of moving pieces in the position player mix now, with Judge back but having served as the designated hitter recently. That’s pushed Giancarlo Stanton into the outfield alongside players like Bauers, Harrison Bader, Billy McKinney, Greg Allen and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. LeMahieu and Kiner-Falefa have also been splitting third base with Josh Donaldson on the injured list, but it seems like Bauers and LeMahieu will now be covering first as well. Cabrera should be able to be plugged in wherever needed, as he’s played all four infield positions and the outfield corners.