Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Orioles Claim Anthony Castro, Designate Phoenix Sanders

By | at

The Orioles announced that right-hander Anthony Castro has been claimed off waivers from the Guardians, and subsequently optioned to Triple-A.  Right-hander Phoenix Sanders was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.  In addition, Baltimore outrighted infielder Richie Martin to Triple-A, as Martin cleared waivers after being designated earlier this week.

Castro has pitched in each of the last three MLB seasons, all with different teams — the Tigers in 2020, the Blue Jays in 2021, and the Guardians in 2022.  Cleveland acquired Castro from Toronto for Bradley Zimmer back in April, and Castro ended up posting a 7.43 ERA over 13 1/3 relief innings in the majors.

Within that small sample size, Castro issued 10 walks and allowed five home runs.  Control has been a persistent problem for Castro throughout his nine pro seasons, though at least at the minor league level, Castro has been able to mitigate a lot of those free passes due to some solid strikeout rates and grounder rates that routinely sit above the 50% threshold.  Over 596 1/3 minor league innings, Castro has a 3.47 ERA.

Between these decent numbers and a mid-90s fastball, Castro drew the Orioles’ interest, and he’ll now provide some extra bullpen depth for the surprise contenders.  He’ll take the place of Sanders, who was himself a waiver claim off the Rays roster less than two weeks ago.

Sanders has yet to see any Major League action with the Orioles, so his big league resume consists of the 14 2/3 innings he tossed for Tampa Bay earlier this season.  The 27-year-old’s first taste of the Show resulted in a very respectable 3.07 ERA.  Pitching mostly as a reliever during his career, Sanders posted a 3.46 ERA and a 29.55% strikeout rate over 260 innings in the minor leagues.

However, his work at Triple-A this year has been a struggle, with Sanders delivering only a 6.19 ERA over 32 frames.  Some back problems could be partially responsible, or perhaps Sanders had trouble adjusting to his first time being shuttled up and down between the minors and the Rays’ roster.  Given his past track record, it would seem possible that another club might grab Sanders in yet another waiver claim.

Giants Place Alex Wood On 15-Day Injured List

By | at

The Giants placed left-hander Alex Wood on the 15-day injured list due to a shoulder impingement, with the placement retroactive to September 1.  Outfielder Bryce Johnson was called up from Triple-A to take Wood’s spot on the active roster.

Given the date, it is possible Wood has thrown his last pitch of the 2022 season.  Manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area) that the team will re-evaluate Wood in a week’s time to see if a return is feasible.  Since the Giants are all but officially out of the wild card race, the club might decide to shut Wood down for the remainder of the campaign.  San Francisco will go with a bullpen game to cover Wood’s next scheduled start, and possibly for the rest of the season if Wood indeed doesn’t return.

As per most of the advanced metrics, Wood’s 2021 and 2022 numbers have been pretty much identical, with the southpaw posting a 3.60 SIERA last season and a 3.45 SIERA this year.  However, a few less bounces have gone Wood’s way, as while his real-world ERA was a solid 3.83 in 2021, that number ballooned to 5.10 in 2022.  Wood got great results from his sinker in 2021 and his slider was also a plus pitch, but both offerings have been below average this year in Statcast’s view.

Kapler noted that Wood has been trying to pitch through his shoulder problem, which could explain this downturn in production and, in particular, Wood’s recent shaky outings.  Over his last three starts and 12 1/3 innings, Wood has been tagged for a 7.91 ERA.

Shoulder and back injuries have hampered Wood in the past, most notably during the 2019-20 seasons when he pitched only 48 1/3 total big league innings.  Wood did rebound during the 2020 playoffs to help the Dodgers win the World Series, and he pitched well after signing a one-year, $3MM free agent deal with San Francisco in the 2020-21 offseason.  That resulted in a new two-year, $25MM contract to rejoin the Giants last winter.

Carlos Rodon is widely expected to opt out of his contract and re-enter free agency, leaving the Giants with Wood, Logan Webb, Alex Cobb, Jakob Junis, and Anthony DeSclafani under contract or under arbitration control for 2023.  DeSclafani is a question mark after missing most of the season due to ankle surgery, but the Giants still have a decent core rotation in place, even if some additions will likely need to be made.

Tanner Houck To Undergo Back Surgery

By | at

TODAY: Houck will indeed undergo back surgery next week, Cora confirmed to WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford and other reporters.  The current expectation is that the right-hander will be ready for the start of Spring Training.

SEPTEMBER 2, 3:37pm: After meeting with another specialist, Houck will likely undergo back surgery, Cora announced to reporters (Twitter link via MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo).

11:35am: What the Red Sox hoped would be a fairly short-term injury for righty Tanner Houck could actually prove to be a season-ender.  Houck, who was placed on the 15-day injured list in early August due to lower back inflammation, has yet to resume baseball activity, and manager Alex Cora tells reporters there’s a “good chance” he could miss the remainder of the year at this point (link via MassLive.com’s Chris Smith). Houck met with a back specialist yesterday, and there will be more information on his outlook in the near future.

Houck was diagnosed with a disc issue in his back not long after being placed on the injured list, and while he was slated to throw a bullpen session earlier in the week, that didn’t happen due to continued discomfort. Cora, Smith notes, said he was not sure whether Houck would require surgery to address the issue.

Prior to his injury, Houck had stepped up as a key late-inning option for the Sox, going 8-for-9 in save opportunities and adding a hold along the way. Since a May 15 shift to the bullpen, Houck has pitched to a pristine 1.49 ERA with a 22.6% strikeout rate, a 7.5% walk rate and a huge 58.2% ground-ball rate in 36 1/3 innings. Houck, John Schreiber, Garrett Whitlock and Matt Strahm have been Boston’s most reliable bullpen arms in 2022, though Whitlock has also spent time in the rotation and Strahm and Houck have now both missed substantial time due to injury.

The 26-year-old Houck has long rated as one of the better prospects in the Red Sox organization, and through parts of three big league seasons, he’s demonstrated the reasoning behind that evaluation. The 2017 first-rounder has tallied 146 big league innings, dating back to 2020, and carries a 3.02 ERA with a strong 27.6% strikeout rate, a roughly average 8.7% walk rate and an above-average 49.3% grounder rate. He’s worked both as a reliever and as a starter, finding success in both roles (3.22 ERA as a starter, 2.66 as a reliever).

While this wouldn’t be the manner in which the Sox hoped to see his first full big league season end, Houck has largely solidified himself as a key piece of the team’s long-term plans — whichever role he ultimately occupies. Houck will finish this season with one year and 100 days of Major League service time, giving him five additional seasons of club control (and another two years before he even reaches arbitration).

The Sox will see Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha and Rich Hill all reach free agency at season’s end — Wacha recently told the Globe’s Peter Abraham that he’d “definitely like to” re-sign in Boston — which could create a potential rotation vacancy for Houck. At the same time, there’s plenty of fluidity in the relief corps, particularly with Strahm also set to reach the market as a free agent. Houck could help stabilize the bullpen as well. That flexibility is a boon for the front office as they look to revamp the staff this winter, broadening the options they can explore both via free agency and trade.

Orioles Outright Denyi Reyes

By | at

The Orioles announced yesterday that right-hander Denyi Reyes has been assigned to Triple-A after being outrighted off the team’s 40-man roster.  Reyes was designated for assignment on Wednesday and cleared waivers.

Reyes is a veteran of seven pro seasons, with the first six coming in the Red Sox organization before he inked a minor league free agent deal with Baltimore this past offseason.  This time with the O’s saw Reyes make his Major League debut, as he tossed 7 2/3 innings over three appearances (posting a 2.35 ERA) this season.

Control has been Reyes’ biggest asset during his career, as he has only a 3.7% walk rate over his 584 1/3 innings in the minor leagues.  While Reyes has always been able to avoid free passes, his overall results have diminished as he has moved up the minor league ladder, resulting in a 4.18 ERA in 209 Double-A innings and an ugly 7.50 ERA in 42 frames of Triple-A ball.  Home runs have increasingly become a problem for Reyes, as his homer rate has spiked over the last two seasons.

Since he was previously outrighted off Boston’s roster back in 2020, Reyes had the ability to reject the Orioles’ outright assignment in favor of becoming a free agent.  With no word yet on his decision, it appears for now as if he’ll remain in the organization, giving the O’s some extra long relief depth.  Reyes has started 81 of 126 career games in the minors, but has seen more work as something of a swingman over the last two seasons.

Pitching Notes: Wheeler, Pomeranz, Flaherty, Hudson

By | at

Zack Wheeler underwent an MRI Thursday that didn’t reveal any structural damage, Phillies interim manager Rob Thomson told NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury and other reporters.  Wheeler received the testing after feeling soreness during a catch session, and while the issue seems to be just be elbow inflammation, it does present new questions about when Wheeler will be able to return to the rotation.  The right-hander was retroactively placed on the 15-day injured list on August 22, and was expected to miss two starts while recovering from forearm tendinitis.

“It’s feeling better and I’m sure if this was a playoff game, he’d say, ’Give me the ball.’  But he’s still feeling it a little bit so we’re going to wait and re-evaluate on Monday or Tuesday,” Thomson said.  The skipper said he isn’t too concerned about Wheeler’s status, but Wheeler won’t be activated from the IL on Tuesday, his first day of eligibility for reinstatement.  Wheeler is enjoying another strong season and has been a big part of the Phillies’ success, and the club naturally needs the righty back as soon as possible (health permitting) for the stretch run.

More on other pitching situations around baseball….

  • Drew Pomeranz has yet to pitch this season after undergoing flexor tendon surgery in August 2021, and his chances of a return seemingly took a hit when his rehab was shut down due to soreness two weeks ago.  However, Padres manager Bob Melvin told reporters (including Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune) that Pomeranz played catch on Friday and is slated to throw later this week.  After the shutdown, Pomeranz had a checkup with Dr. Neal ElAttrache but was told that some soreness is a routine part of the recovery process.  “There’s still a chance to get [Pomeranz] back here before the season is over,” Melvin said.
  • The Cardinals will activate Jack Flaherty off the 60-day IL Monday for a start against the Nationals.  Shoulder problems have limited Flaherty to only eight innings over three starts this season, marking his second consecutive injury-marred year.  With Flaherty back, Cards manager Oliver Marmol told reporters (including Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) that Dakota Hudson will move to the bullpen for now, and might not start again until a doubleheader against the Reds on September 17.  Despite below-average Statcast metrics almost across the board, Hudson has managed a 4.43 ERA over 126 innings, though his SIERA is a less-favorable 5.11.  It doesn’t seem like either Flaherty or Hudson are candidates for starting assignments in the postseason, though their work in September and October will give Marmol and company more to think about in determining roles on playoff rosters.

Zaidi: Giants Have Discussed Extension With Joc Pederson

By | at

Far more has gone wrong than right for the 2022 Giants, but the team’s offseason signing of outfielder Joc Pederson to a one-year, $6MM contract has proven to be a shrewd investment. Pederson has hit well in his first season as a Giant, and he’s apparently made a good impression on the organization in all facets, as president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said in an appearance on KNBR’s Tolbert & Copes show yesterday that he’s had discussions with Pederson and his agent about re-signing him (link to full 23-minute interview).

“We’d love to have him back next year,” Zaidi said when asked what the future held for Pederson. “We’ve talked some to his representative. I’ve talked to Joc about it himself. He’s from here. He’s played well. He was an All-Star for us.”

Pederson, 30, has indeed enjoyed a strong year in San Francisco. The Palo Alto native has appeared in 107 games, tallied 348 plate appearances and slashed .263/.339/.519 with 20 home runs, 17 doubles and three stolen bases (in five attempts). He’s walked at an 8.6% clip, and this year’s 21.6% strikeout rate is his lowest mark since 2019 (and tied for the third-lowest of his career). The Giants have shielded him from lefties almost entirely — he has just 46 plate appearances against same-handed opponents — but that’s nothing new for Pederson, who carries just a .210/.285/.334 batting line against southpaws (compared to .240/.342/.494 against righties).

It’s been the best offensive showing for Pederson since his career-high 36 home runs back in 2019, but defensive metrics on the slugger are down across the board. Each of Defensive Runs Saved (-7), Ultimate Zone Rating (-6.6) and Outs Above Average (-6) are critical of Pederson’s glovework. He’s also spent 10 games at designated hitter for the Giants, though, and Pederson’s pop against right-handed pitching is plenty sufficient to fill that role if the Giants are concerned about his defensive work moving forward.

If Pederson does reach the market, he’ll be one of the more appealing options on a fairly thin market for corner outfield bats. Aaron Judge, of course, is the top free agent on the market, and Andrew Benintendi will be in a nice position heading into his age-28 season on the heels of a strong all-around showing. Beyond that pairing, Pederson will slot into the next tier alongside names like Mitch Haniger, Joey Gallo and Jurickson Profar (who seems likely to opt out of the final year of his Padres contract).

As with any potential free agent, Pederson’s return (or his departure) is largely dependent on the context of the roster around him. In-house outfield options for the Giants next year include Austin Slater, LaMonte Wade Jr., Luis Gonzalez and Mike Yastrzemski — to say nothing of prospects Heliot Ramos, Luis Matos and Vaun Brown. Ramos and Matos, however, have had down seasons in the minors, just as Yastrzemski has in the big leagues. Struggles notwithstanding, however, Zaidi implied that the team plans to tender a contract to Yastrzemski in arbitration this winter and retain him for the 2023 campaign.

“It’s just been a down season for him,” Zaidi said of Yastrzemski. “He’s been frustrated. Last year, the batting average wasn’t there but he still hit 25 homers, so you still had offensive production in a certain way. He’s still a guy who brings a ton of intangibles to the table. He’s a great defensive player. We view him as part of this team going forward, and I know he’s going to be as motivated as anybody to come back strong next year.”

Yastrzemski, who just turned 32 a couple weeks ago, will be due a raise on this year’s $3.7MM salary but has stumbled to a .203/.303/.361 batting line in 439 plate appearances. He’s still drawing walks at a strong 11.6% clip, however, and Yastrzemski’s strikeout rate, exit velocity, hard-hit rate and broader batted-ball profile are all quite similar to his prior, more productive seasons.

The Giants can control Yastrzemski for three more years beyond the current campaign, so there’s good reason to place a reasonably low-cost bet on a rebound if the team doesn’t believe his skill set has begun to decline. That said, both Yastrzemski and Pederson are left-handed hitting outfielders who could require platoon partners — Yastrzesmki has struggled severely against lefties in each of the past two seasons — so the extent to which the Giants again want to lean on a platoon, matchup-based outfield set will drive the decisions on both players. For the time being, it sounds as though the Giants are open to again leaning heavily on both lefties in the outfield again next season.

J.P. Feyereisen Suffers Injury Setback, Likely To Miss Remainder Of Season

By | at

Rays reliever J.P. Feyereisen is dealing with renewed shoulder discomfort, manager Kevin Cash announced (via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times). It’s now “highly unlikely” he’ll make it back to the mound in 2022, per Cash. Feyereisen has been out since early June with what was initially termed a shoulder impingement.

It’s a tough blow to the Tampa Bay bullpen. Feyereisen was quietly one of the most effective relievers in the game early in the season. He only allowed one unearned run in 24 1/3 innings through June 2, the only pitcher in the majors to work 20+ frames without allowing an earned run. He certainly wouldn’t have sustained that pace over a full season, but the right-hander struck out a very strong 29.1% of opponents while posting an excellent 5.8% walk rate. He generated swinging strikes on 16.3% of his total offerings, a top 30 mark leaguewide (minimum 20 innings).

Feyereisen has been brilliant for more than a calendar year. The Rays acquired him from the Brewers in the May 2021 deal that sent Willy Adames to Milwaukee and also brought back Drew Rasmussen (a trade with which both clubs must be thrilled in retrospect). Since first donning a Rays uniform, Feyereisen has worked to a sparkling 1.48 ERA across 61 innings.

That quality showing seems likely to make him a core piece of Cash’s relief corps over the coming seasons. Feyereisen entered the season with one year and 108 days of MLB service time. He’s collected service time while on the injured list and will hit a full season, bringing him to 2.108 years this offseason. That seems likely to fall a bit shy of the Super Two cutoff for early arbitration eligibility — that date changes annually, but last year’s cutoff was set at 2.116 years, for reference. In that case, he’d make around the league minimum salary next season. Even if the Super Two cutoff is low enough that Feyereisen qualifies, he’ll still be plenty affordable in arbitration and is controllable through 2026.

Jared Walsh Undergoes Thoracic Outlet Surgery

By | at

The Angels informed reporters that first baseman Jared Walsh underwent surgery to correct thoracic outlet syndrome yesterday (via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). The club still anticipates he’ll be ready for Spring Training 2023.

It’s an unsurprising development, as the Halos announced last week that Walsh would be shut down for the year with TOS. It wasn’t clear whether that’d necessitate surgical repair, but he unfortunately had to go under the knife. Thoracic outlet syndrome, a condition in which nerves or blood vessels compress in the rib area, has become a more common injury around the league in recent seasons. It’s more frequently an issue for pitchers, but Walsh joins Rays catcher Mike Zunino as notable position players who’ve undergone TOS surgery in 2022.

The diagnosis perhaps comes as some explanation for Walsh’s dismal season. A breakout performer late in 2020, the lefty-swinging Walsh doubled down with a 29-homer campaign last year. He earned an All-Star nod amidst a .277/.340/.509 showing, looking as if he’d join Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani (and potentially Anthony Rendon, when healthy) as fixtures in the middle of the lineup.

Walsh remained an everyday player this season, but his results plummeted. He finished the year with a .215/.269/.374 line through 454 trips to the plate. His strikeout rate spiked to an unacceptable 30.4% clip, while his walks dipped to a meager 5.9% rate. Walsh’s average exit velocity and hard contact rate didn’t much change relative to last year, but his rate of homers per fly ball and general power production fell off.

Assuming he’s indeed healthy by the start of next season, Walsh figures to get another opportunity to cement himself as the primary first baseman. Since he went down, the club has leaned on journeyman Mike Ford at the position. Ford is off to a nice start through seven games, but it’s unlikely he’d leapfrog Walsh on the depth chart barring an otherworldly showing in September. Walsh will reach arbitration for the first time this offseason; he’s controllable through 2025.

The Giants’ Latest Pitching Reclamation

By | at

Heading into the 2021-22 offseason, Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi and general manager Scott Harris had the unenviable task of filling not just one or two, but four rotation spots. Each of Kevin Gausman, Anthony DeSclafani, Alex Wood and Johnny Cueto were free agents. Of the team’s 2021 starters, only Logan Webb was under club control.

Granted, much of that was the front office’s own doing. A generally risk-averse unit, at least insofar as signing free agents to lucrative multi-year commitments, the Giants inked each of Gausman, Wood and DeSclafani to one-year contracts prior to the 2021 season. The continued with a generally risk-averse approach this past offseason, replenishing their rotation for a combined $125MM paid out to Carlos Rodon (two  years, $44MM), DeSclafani (three years, $36MM), Wood (two years, $25MM) and Alex Cobb (two years, $20MM).

Obviously, a $125MM investment is hardly a no-risk proposition, but spreading that number out across four pitchers without committing more than three years in length isn’t exactly working without a net for a team that averaged a $179MM payroll from 2015-19, topped out at $200.5MM in 2018, and has averaged a $152.5MM payroll over the past two seasons.

The quintet of Webb, Rodon, DeSclafani, Wood and Cobb had plenty of potential to be a strong group. It also had plenty of potential to be an injury-plagued unit that created ample headaches for the front office. Each of Rodon, DeSclafani, Wood and Cobb came with lengthy injury histories. Depth beyond that group was needed, and the Giants lacked it in the upper minors.

What followed was a series of sensible additions. Matthew Boyd inked a one-year deal worth $5.2MM, as the Giants hoped the longtime Tigers southpaw would be back from flexor surgery by mid-June. Former Royals righty Jakob Junis put pen to paper on a one-year, $1.75MM contract after being non-tendered by Kansas City. Carlos Martinez, a former All-Star with the Cardinals, signed a minor league contract.

Of all the names in that group, Junis was likely the most anonymous. A 29-year-old righty and former 29th-round pick, he looked the part of a player-development success story for the Royals during his first two seasons before flaming out in his final three years with Kansas City. From 2017-18, Junis gave the Royals 275 1/3 innings of 4.35 ERA ball with a strikeout rate just below the league average, a strong walk rate and slightly below-average ground-ball tendencies. It wasn’t a star-caliber profile by any means, but ask any scout in the world and they’d be thrilled at the notion of unearthing a viable fourth or fifth starter in the 29th round of the draft.

The 2019-21 seasons, however, didn’t pan out as either Junis or the Royals hoped. Although he made what’s still a career-high 31 starts in 2019, his ERA spiked to 5.24 as his walk rate ticked upward and he began to allow increasing amounts of hard contact. Things got even worse in 2020, and by June of 2021, Junis found himself optioned to Triple-A for the first time since 2017. Between that and the 5.36 ERA Junis posted from 2019-21, it wasn’t a surprise that the Royals opted not to tender him a contract, instead setting him out into the free-agent market.

Junis’ one-year deal with the Giants looked like a sensible depth pickup of an experienced arm with one minor league option year remaining, but it’s proven to be far more than that. In 17 games for San Francisco, 14 of them starts, Junis carries a 4.04 ERA with a 20.9% strikeout rate and a superb 4.7% walk rate. Fielding-independent metrics like FIP (3.83), SIERA (3.72) and xERA (3.85) all feel he’s been a fair bit better than that. For much of the year, he’s sported an ERA in the mid- or low-3.00s, though a recent pair of six-run clunkers have inflated his ERA a bit.

Even with his recent scuffles, though, Junis has been far more than a simple stopgap in the rotation. He’s only averaging about five innings per start — more or less in line with the league average at this point — and has held opponents to three or fewer runs in 13 of his appearances on the season.

The Giants have altered Junis’ pitch selection and done so to good effect; he’s throwing his slider a career-high 51.9% of the time and has yielded only a .210/.255/.359 in the 192 plate appearances that have ended with that pitch. He’s also effectively scrapped his four-seamer and his cutter in favor of a sinker he’s throwing at a 30.6% clip, and while the pitch has still been hit hard, opponents are doing far less damage against the pitch than either of the previous two fastball iterations that Junis was using at a far higher clip.

Junis will probably end up giving the Giants anywhere from a win to two wins above replacement this year — he’s at 1.6 bWAR and 0.9 fWAR at the moment — which is a solid return on their minimal investment in and of itself. But the Giants will also retain Junis’ rights into the 2023 season, as he’s still arbitration-eligible and will finish out the year with five-plus years of service. He’ll be due a raise on this year’s salary, but jumping into the $3MM range for a serviceable fourth starter is nonetheless a bargain.

The Giants already have four starters under contract in 2023 — Webb, Wood, Cobb and DeSclafani — but could very well lose Carlos Rodon to free agency if he turns down his player option (which is a lock, so long as he remains healthy). They’re not going to simply replace Rodon with Junis and call it a day, so the likelihood is that they’ll add an impact starter and enter 2023 with Junis as the sixth or perhaps even seventh starter. That’d land him in the bullpen at the start of the season, likely in a long relief role, but given the injury histories of DeSclafani, Wood and Cobb, there ought to be innings available to him next year.

The Junis pickup obviously isn’t a masterstroke that’s going to alter the course of the franchise for years to come, but he’s quietly been quite valuable for a Giants club that has had its share of pitching injuries — and he’ll continue paying dividends on their investment into the 2023 season. Not a ton has gone right for the Giants this year, but their ability to rehab and, in some cases, reinvent pitchers remains quite strong.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top