Nick Senzel Suffers Season-Ending Toe Fracture
Reds center fielder Nick Senzel fractured a toe in his left foot during tonight’s loss to the Red Sox, he informed reporters (including Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer). The injury, suffered when he collided with the outfield wall, brings a premature end to his 2022 season.
The Reds have long since been out of the playoff picture, but it’s obviously not ideal to lose Senzel to another injured list stint. It’s unfortunately been a common occurrence for the former #2 overall pick. Senzel spent time on the COVID-19 list earlier this year, and he lost good chunks of the 2020 and ’21 seasons to physical maladies. He appeared in only 59 combined games over the prior two seasons, although he nevertheless started as Cincinnati’s Opening Day center fielder for the third straight year.
Senzel did manage a career-high 420 plate appearances over 110 games this year. The results, however, have been disappointing. He hit .231/.297/.306, connecting on just five home runs. While he only struck out in 18.1% of his plate appearances, he’s not drawn many walks and has gotten subpar results on batted balls. Senzel has just over 1000 plate appearances as a major leaguer and carried a .240/.304/.360 line into play tonight.
It’s theoretically possible tonight’s injury marks an end to Senzel’s time in Cincinnati. He’s arbitration-eligible through 2025, but he could be a non-tender candidate after another below-average campaign. He’ll only be due a modest raise on this year’s $1.25MM salary, and the Reds are likely to be in for another non-competitive season in 2023. The front office could use that as justification to give the former top prospect another opportunity to try to cement himself as a regular, but it’s fair to wonder whether they may look outside the organization for center field help this winter. Cincinnati has gotten just a .230/.293/.332 line out of the position on the season. That’s 25th among the league’s 30 teams by measure of wRC+, topping only the Astros, Phillies, Rockies, A’s and Guardians.
Harris: Tigers Plan To Hire General Manager
The Tigers made their most important front office hire of the offseason yesterday, tabbing former Giants general manager Scott Harris as president of baseball operations. At a press conference this afternoon, Harris informed reporters (including Tony Paul of the Detroit News and Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free-Press) he’ll look for a new GM who can serve as his top lieutenant in baseball ops.
“These jobs are increasingly large and complicated,” Harris said. “Every single year they get more complex. Having another bright and talented person to partner with in these jobs is critically important. I think it gives you an edge, bringing more talented people to this front office and empowering them to make decisions that ultimately can put out a better team on the field. That’s what we’re trying to do, and I think a GM is going to be a big part of that.”
Harris himself had served in that role for the last three years, working as San Francisco’s GM under president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. The Tigers gave him both an elevated title — a common occurrence for front office hirings, since teams often deny employees’ attempts to interview for lateral positions — and the opportunity to lead an organization for the first time. He’ll now search for a person to work in the point role he occupied for Zaidi the past few seasons in the Bay Area.
Last summer, former GM Al Avila promoted both Sam Menzin and Jay Sartori to assistant general manager. That makes both potential candidates for a bump to GM if the club stays internal. Menzin, it’s worth noting, led day-to-day baseball ops on an interim basis for the roughly five weeks between Avila’s dismissal and Harris’ hiring. While Harris didn’t mention either by name, he noted that internal executives would be under consideration if they fit the criteria he desires. Petzold speculates that Diamondbacks special assistant Jason McLeod could also garner a look, no surprise considering McLeod worked alongside Harris in the Cubs front office before the latter made the jump to San Francisco.
There’s no specific timeline for the GM hire, but Detroit’s front office heavy lifting is not finished. Harris will have final decision-making authority regardless of who is eventually tabbed. One of his key early calls will be settling upon a second-in-command.
Kurt Suzuki To Retire After 2022 Season
Longtime big league catcher Kurt Suzuki will retire once the 2022 season concludes, he tells Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. That comes the day after the Hawaii native’s 39th birthday.
“I feel like it’s time,” Suzuki told Fletcher. “I’ve had a great run, won a World Series, All-Star Game. Played 16 seasons. I’ve accomplished a lot of things I never would have dreamed of. I felt like it’s time for the next chapter. My three kids, all they’ve known is baseball.”
Suzuki began his professional career in 2004. A second-round pick of the A’s out of Cal State Fullerton, he made it to Oakland three years later. Suzuki debuted in June 2007 and cemented himself as the A’s primary catcher from essentially that point forward. The right-handed hitter topped 130 games every year between 2008-11, generally hitting at a slightly below-average level overall but better than average for a catcher. Suzuki’s high-contact approach made him a solid offensive backstop for much of his time in Oakland, and the A’s dealt him to the Nationals in the summer of 2012.
After finishing out that season in Washington, Suzuki wound up back in Oakland via trade in August ’13. He qualified for free agency for the first time after that year, signing with the Twins. Suzuki bounced back from a couple down offensive years to hit .288/.345/.383 and earn an All-Star nod that year, and Minnesota signed him to a two-year extension that summer. His production dipped during his final two seasons in Minnesota, but he rebounded with one of the best years of his career after signing with Atlanta going into 2017. He popped a career-best 19 home runs and hit .283/.351/.536 through 81 games, earning a midseason extension for a second season with the Braves.
Suzuki didn’t quite replicate his 2017 production, but he posted another above-average offensive season to wrap up his time in Atlanta. After hitting .271/.322/.444 with 12 longballs, he landed another multiyear deal in free agency. Heading into the 2019 campaign, the Nationals inked Suzuki to a two-year, $10MM deal to pair with Yan Gomes behind the dish. That contract paid off in year one, as the veteran hit another 17 homers with a .264/.324/.486 line in 85 regular season games. Suzuki saw his most extensive playoff action during the Nats run a World Series title that year. That included a go-ahead homer off Justin Verlander in the seventh inning in Game 2 of the World Series, the biggest play in a win that gave Washington a 2-0 series lead.
After another solid showing with Washington during the shortened 2020 campaign, Suzuki has played the last two seasons on successive one-year pacts with the Angels. He’s had a couple down years to wrap up his career, working primarily as a backup in Orange County.
Suzuki’s career totals won’t be finalized until the season concludes, but he’s not likely to change his ledger all that much over the final two weeks. As he noted, Suzuki has played in 16 consecutive big league seasons and surpassed 1600 games. He owns a .255/.314/.388 line with 143 home runs, 729 runs batted in and 594 runs scored. Suzuki made an All-Star game and played a key role on a World Series team. Baseball Reference values his career around 20 wins above replacement. FanGraphs, which factors in Suzuki’s below-average pitch framing metrics, pegs him around nine wins.
Independent of that discrepancy in value, there’s little doubt about the impressiveness of a major league career that lasted more than a decade and a half. It’s possible he’ll continue his baseball career in some capacity, as Suzuki indicated he’d be happy to discuss the possibility of assuming a non-playing role with Halos general manager Perry Minasian (with whom he’s also familiar from their overlapping stints in Atlanta). MLBTR congratulates Suzuki on his lengthy career and wishes him all the best in his post-2022 endeavors.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Giants Outright Willie Calhoun
The Giants have outrighted outfielder Willie Calhoun to Triple-A Sacramento, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. Calhoun was designated for assignment on Sunday.
Calhoun, 27, was once a highly-touted prospect of the Dodgers, cracking Baseball America’s top 100 in 2017. It was that year that the Dodgers traded him to the Rangers as the headliner of the deal that brought Yu Darvish to Los Angeles. However, a combination of injuries, underperformance and optional assignments have prevented Calhoun from establishing himself at the major league level. He’s only played more than half of an MLB season once, just barely reaching that threshold by getting into 83 games in 2019.
Earlier this year, he was optioned to the minors by the Rangers and publicly expressed a desire to be traded. Just over a month later, he was designated for assignment but cleared waivers and was outrighted. Since Calhoun has over three years of MLB service time, he could have rejected the outright assignment and elected free agency. However, since he has less than five years of service time, he would have had to forfeit the remainder of his $1.3MM salary. A couple weeks later, he finally departed the Rangers organization via a trade to the Giants.
The change of scenery seemingly served Calhoun well, as he hit .299/.386/.465 for Sacramento, registering a wRC+ of 115 in 41 games. That was enough to get him selected to the big league club last week, though he was designated for assignment after just nine plate appearances across four games.
It’s unclear whether Calhoun has accepted this outright assignment or elected free agency, though Calhoun should be able to return to the open market at season’s end regardless. All players with more than three years of MLB service time that have been outrighted off of their club’s 40-man roster can elect free agency at season’s end, meaning Calhoun can head to the open market shortly unless he accepts the assignment and is re-added to the roster in short order.
Twins Place Sonny Gray On IL With Hamstring Strain
The Twins announced that they have placed right-hander Sonny Gray on the 15-day injured list due to a right hamstring strain. His roster spot will go to fellow righty Trevor Megill, who has been reinstated from the COVID IL. Additionally, righty Dereck Rodriguez, who was designated for assignment on the weekend, has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A.
Gray, 32, started yesterday’s game against the Guardians but was pulled after throwing just 44 pitches in two innings. Though Gray could technically return on the last day of the season, October 5, it’s quite likely that this will conclude his 2022 campaign.
Acquired from the Reds in a March trade, Gray was very good when healthy enough to take the mound. He made two other trips to the IL, one for a hamstring strain in April and another for a pectoral strain in June. Around those injuries, he made 24 starts and threw 119 2/3 innings with a 3.08 ERA, 24% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate and 44.5% ground ball rate.
That has sort of been the story for the Twins as a whole as well, as they seemed to be the best team in the AL Central for much of the year until mounting injuries dragged them down. They had a lead as big as 5.5 games in late May, but have since slid down to third place, seven games back of the Guardians and three behind the White Sox. Given that their postseason chances are effectively gone at this point, it makes logical sense to let Gray put his feet up for the next little bit as opposed to taking a chance on making his injury worse. Gray joins 17 of his teammates on the IL, bringing the club’s total to 18.
Minnesota’s rotation is now left with Joe Ryan, Dylan Bundy, Bailey Ober and Josh Winder, leaving one spot to be filled. It’s possible that rookie Ronny Henriquez, who threw 73 pitches after Gray’s departure yesterday, could just step in, though that remains to be seen.
Gray is in the final guaranteed season of the extension he signed with the Reds back in 2019, though there’s a $13.1MM club option for 2023. That’s a bargain price for a pitcher of Gray’s caliber, making it a fairly easy decision for the Twins to exercise it and bring him back for 2023.
Canada Reportedly Planning To Drop Vaccine Requirement For Travellers September 30
According to a report from Eric Atkins and Robert Fife of The Globe and Mail, the government of Canada is planning to drop its COVID-19 vaccine requirement for people entering the country by September 30.
If this reports eventually proves true, it will have significant ramifications for the sporting world, especially with the hockey and basketball seasons both set to begin in October. For the baseball world, this will primarily impact the Blue Jays and their opponents, with Toronto being the only Canadian team in Major League Baseball.
The requirement, which went into effect in January of 2022, prevented travellers who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 from entering the country. This meant that any player who had not received the vaccine could not cross the border for games played in Toronto. It was reported back in March that such players would be placed on the restricted list and would not receive pay or service time while absent from the club. This led to various batches of transactions throughout the season, with most teams placing at least a couple of players on the restricted list in advance of games set to be played north of the border. The most extreme example was the Royals, who were without 10 players when they faced the Blue Jays in July.
Though the 2022 baseball season is nearing its conclusion, this could have an impact on the tail end of it. The Blue Jays finish the regular season in Baltimore but host the Red Sox from September 30 to October 2. Beyond that, the Blue Jays are likely to qualify for the postseason, currently in possession of the top American League Wild Card spot. This season will feature an expanded 12-team postseason for the first time, as agreed to under the terms of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. In this new format, the top two division winners in each league will get a bye past the first round. The remaining teams will face off in best-of-three contests, with the lowest-seeded division winner and top Wild Card team each playing host for all three games (if necessary). Should the Jays hang onto their current seeding, or if they advanced beyond the Wild Card round, their opponents will no longer have to worry about key players being unavailable for those games due to their unwillingness to get vaccinated.
Yankees Place Frankie Montas On IL With Shoulder Inflammation
The Yankees announced that right-hander Frankie Montas has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to September 17, due to right shoulder inflammation. In a corresponding move, outfielder Harrison Bader was reinstated from the injured list, a move that had been previously reported.
Montas, 29, was acquired from the A’s just prior to the trade deadline in early August. He had dealt with some shoulder inflammation in July and ended up missing just over two weeks. He received a cortisone shot and returned to make two more starts for the A’s before the deadline. The Yankees were evidently not satisfied enough with the results to go ahead and pull the trigger on the deal.
Unfortunately, the move to the Bronx hasn’t gone smoothly for Montas so far. Though he had a 3.18 ERA at the time of the trade, he’s registered a 6.35 mark since donning the pinstripes. His 25.8% strikeout rate with Oakland has been replaced by a 17.8% mark with the Yankees. It’s possible that the shoulder issue is playing a role in all of this, as his fastball velocity dipped in July, perked back up in August, before dipping again here in September. Montas tells Marly Rivera of ESPN that the current issue is similar to what he experienced last time and he has received another cortisone shot. Manager Aaron Boone spoke to the media (video from Rivera) and said that Montas will be shut down from throwing for about 10 days and could still ramp back up for starter’s work in what’s left of the season.
The last time Montas went down this path, he pitched on July 21, his first start since July 3. In that return start, he threw 53 pitches over three scoreless innings. He followed that up with 78 pitches over five innings on July 26 and then was traded before his next start. With just over two weeks now remaining on the schedule, that leaves a tight window for Montas to return, assuming he’s even able to follow a similar schedule this time around.
For the Yankees, this will put a dent in their rotation depth for the remainder of the season and potentially into the postseason, depending on how Montas heals. Despite a rough second half, they still have a 5.5-game lead over the Blue Jays in the AL East and are well-positioned to earn a bye past the first round of the playoffs. That would give them more time to get Montas built back up, assuming they are able to hang on over the coming weeks. In the short term, the Yankees are expected to get Luis Severino back from his own IL stint tomorrow, per MLB.com, while Boone says that Domingo Germán will be rejoining the rotation on Saturday, per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. Those two will slot into the rotation alongside Gerrit Cole, Nestor Cortes and Jameson Taillon. In the long term, though Montas was acquired with the hope of being a key contributor for the Yanks in the playoffs, it’s now uncertain how much of a role he will play there.
Maury Wills Passes Away
The Dodgers announced today that three-time World Series champion Maury Wills has passed away. He was 89 years old.
Wills had an incredibly impressive career, spanning 14 different big league seasons. He debuted as a shortstop with the Dodgers in 1959 at the age of 26. He played in 83 games that season and then six more in the World Series, with the Dodgers hoisting the trophy after defeating the White Sox. In 1960, Wills’ got to play a full season for the first time, stealing 50 bases. That was the first of what would eventually wind up as a six-year run as the top basestealer in the National League, with at least 35 in each year of that period and a whopping 104 in 1962. That 104 mark was the modern era single-season MLB record at the time, which stood until Lou Brock swiped 118 in 1974. It wasn’t just the running game that was impressive that year. Wills also batted .299, hit 13 doubles, 10 triples, six long balls and scored 130 runs. He was voted the National League Most Valuable Player that year, just ahead of Willie Mays.
Wills was with the Dodgers through the 1966 season, winning two more titles in 1963 and 1965. He also grabbed Gold Glove awards in 1961 and 1962 and played in seven All-Star games over five seasons, as there were two games in each of 1961 and 1962. He then went on to play two season for the Pirates, before being selected in the expansion draft for the newly-formed Montreal Expos. He was traded back to the Dodgers in June of 1969 and stuck with them through the end of the 1972 season.
After his playing days were over, Wills spent some time as a broadcaster before trying his hand as a manager. He was hired to manage the Mariners partway through the 1980 season, though his time as skipper was not very successful and ultimately brief. The M’s went 20-38 over the remainder of the 1980 campaign and then started 6-18 in 1981. He was fired at that point and wasn’t given another shot in the dugout, leaving him with a managerial record of 26-56.
Ultimately, Wills will surely be remembered for his incredible base stealing prowess. Across 1,942 career games, he stole 586 bases, a mark that puts him 20th on the all-time list of basestealers. He also scored 1,067 runs and notched 2,134 hits, including 177 doubles, 71 triples and 20 home runs. He earned three World Series rings, seven All-Star appearances, two Gold Glove awards and an MVP award. MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, friends and loved ones.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Cardinals Option Nolan Gorman
The Cardinals announced late last night that infielder Nolan Gorman has been optioned to Triple-A Memphis. Fellow infielder Juan Yepez was recalled from Memphis in his place.
It’s the first trip back to the minors for Gorman, who entered the season ranked among the sport’s top 50 prospects heading into the 2022 season. Gorman captivated Cards fans with a Herculean run through Triple-A prior to his initial promotion, raking at a .308/.367/.677 clip and belting 15 home runs in just 147 plate appearances. Upon his initial promotion, he delivered on the considerable hype surrounding his bat, slugging three homers in his first 11 games and carrying an OPS north of 1.100 in that time. Gorman cooled but was solid through the All-Star break.
It’s been a struggle for the 22-year-old as the season has worn on, however. He’s hit just .207/.273/.388 in the second half — including a grisly .150/.227/.250 with a 39.4% strikeout rate over the past month. Gorman has long been considered a bat-first prospect, and it’s worth noting that he moved from third base to second base once the Cardinals acquired Nolan Arenado, so Gorman’s current position is still relatively new to him. That said, both Defensive Runs Saved (-5) and Outs Above Average (-11) are quite down on his glovework through the first 549 innings of his career there.
Some early struggles in the career of a 22-year-old isn’t any great surprise, and Gorman still figures to be a key part of the Cardinals’ future moving forward. For now, he’ll be in Triple-A for at least 10 days, as he can only return sooner than that if he’s replacing an injured player. From a service time vantage point, Gorman won’t finish the current season with a full year (nor would he have even if he’d remained on the roster through season’s end). He’ll still be controllable for at least the 2028 season, though with 122 days of service under his belt, he could wind up reaching arbitration a year early as a Super Two player, if he accrues full years of service time in 2023-24. The more pressing short-term question is simply one of whether he’ll return this season and whether he’ll be a part of the team’s postseason roster.
With Gorman optioned out, second base seems likely to belong to Brendan Donovan for the time being. A rookie himself, the 25-year-old Donovan never generated the same prospect fanfare as Gorman but has nonetheless turned in a strong .282/.391/.373 batting line through 418 plate appearances to begin his big league career. Donovan has nowhere near the same level of power (or much power at all), but he’s walked at a hearty 12.4% clip while showing good bat-to-ball skills and proving to be a tough strikeout (15.6%).
In the long-term outlook, Donovan profiles best as a Swiss army knife who can play nearly any position at a capable level. He’s already logged time at all four infield spots and in both outfield corners this year, drawing particularly strong marks in small samples at the hot corner. Like Gorman, he’s controllable another six seasons, as he’ll finish the 2022 campaign about a week shy of a full year of service time. That’ll make him a slam-dunk Super Two player, barring future optional assignments, placing him on pace for arbitration following the 2024 season.