Pirates Designate Josh VanMeter For Assignment
The Pirates have designated infielder Josh VanMeter for assignment. In other moves, right-hander Hoy Park and left-hander Eric Stout were called up from Triple-A, with Stout acting as the 29th man for today’s doubleheader with the Mets.
Acquired in a trade with the Diamondbacks in March, VanMeter’s first season in Pittsburgh has resulted in a .187/.266/.292 slash line over 192 plate appearances, a step down even from the modest offense VanMeter produced in 649 PA with the Reds and D’Backs in 2019-21. VanMeter’s biggest asset has been his defensive flexibility, as he has mostly played first and second base this season while also making a few appearances as a third baseman, left fielder, catcher, and three mop-up pitching cameos.
This versatility has kept VanMeter in part-time and bench roles over the last four seasons, though with the season winding down, the Pirates will now open up more playing time for their younger players. VanMeter is out of minor league options, so the DFA route had to be pursued in order to remove the 27-year-old from Pittsburgh’s roster. A team in need of infield depth could potentially have VanMeter on the radar for a waiver claim, and the expanded September rosters create a bit of extra leeway for VanMeter’s out-of-options status.
Twins Select Louie Varland, Designate Jake Jewell
TODAY: The Twins designated right-hander Jake Jewell for assignment, as Varland’s selection is now official. Jewell had just been claimed off waivers from the Guardians three weeks ago,
SEPTEMBER 6: The Twins are calling up one of the top pitching prospects in their system, as they’ll select the contract of right-hander Louie Varland to make his big league debut Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, per Patrick Reusse of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (Twitter link).
Varland’s call to the Majors continues a nice development story for a North St. Paul native who’ll now suit up for his hometown club. He’s one of just four players ever to be drafted out of Division-II Concordia University in St. Paul — older brother Gus Varland, currently in the Dodgers’ system, is another — and the Twins grabbed him well down the board, in the 15th round. (The Varland brothers, just one year apart in age, faced off against one another earlier this season, when both started the same game for their respective teams’ Double-A affiliates.) The younger Varland pitched just 8 2/3 innings in the Twins organization in 2019 after being drafted and didn’t pitch in 2020, when there was no minor league season.
A D-II 15th-round pick with 8 2/3 professional innings (all coming in Rookie ball) obviously isn’t going to carry much prospect fanfare, but Varland erupted with a 2021 breakout that saw him named the Twins organization’s minor league pitcher of the year. Beginning the season in Class-A Fort Myers, Varland came roaring out of the gates with a 2.09 ERA and a massive 38% strikeout rate before being promoted to High-A Cedar Rapids, where he largely repeated that success. In 55 2/3 frames with the Kernels, he posted a 2.10 ERA with a 29.9% strikeout rate. Varland walked just 7.1% of his opponents between the two levels, and by the conclusion of the ’21 season, he featured prominently among Twins prospect rankings.
It’s been more of the same for Varland in 2022 — this time between Double-A (105 innings, 3.34 ERA, 26.4% strikeout rate) and Triple-A (21 1/3 innings, 1.69 ERA, 32.1% strikeout rate). The right-hander explained to FanGraphs’ David Laurila this time last year that despite throwing just 90-92 mph during his college days, he’s now sitting 94-95 mph and peaking in the upper 90s after working with the Twins’ development staff.
“I would put it to our pitching coordinators and the pitching coaches with my teams,” Varland told Laurila. “But also Martijn [Verhoeven], our [motion performance] coach. He really cleaned up my mechanics so that I could pitch with an efficient arm path. That was really the root of it all; everything has stemmed from that.”
The results speak for themselves, as Varland has ascended from obscurity to the Major Leagues in short order — and with a career 2.61 ERA, 30% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate in the minor leagues. MLB.com ranks him 10th among Twins prospects, while Baseball America has him listed 16th and FanGraphs at No. 25. Varland complements a high-spin four-seamer that now draws plus grades with a trio of offspeed offerings: a changeup, a slider and a seldom-used curveball. Both the changeup and slider have potential to be above-average pitches, per that group of scouting reports, with MLB.com suggesting the changeup is already there. He’ll be controllable through at least the 2028 season.
Once he’s formally selected to the roster — which may not happen until tomorrow, if he is indeed slated for a Wednesday debut — Varland will immediately join the Twins’ rotation mix for the remainder of the season and for the 2023 campaign as well. He’ll have a full slate of three minor league option years, meaning he could be moved up and down on an as-needed basis for awhile he doesn’t immediately seize a starting job. And, with the reworked arm slot and mechanics unlocking some additional velocity, it remains possible that Varland could eventually end up a hard-throwing bullpen piece, should a role in the rotation not pan out.
Mets Designate Adonis Medina For Assignment
The Mets designated right-hander Adonis Medina for assignment, and also made Max Scherzer‘s 15-day IL placement official. In corresponding moves, New York selected the contract of left-hander Alex Claudio and called up right-hander Yoan Lopez from Triple-A. Lopez will be the 29th man for today’s doubleheader against the Pirates.
Medina has been up and down from Triple-A multiple times this season, and all of the shuttling may have had an adverse effect on his performance. The righty has a 6.08 ERA over 23 2/3 innings with the Mets and a more palatable 3.71 ERA in 26 2/3 frames for Triple-A Syracuse, though Medina’s minor league walk rate is a troubling 12.1%.
This is the third time that Medina has been designated for assignment within the last year, with the first of those DFA stints keeping Medina in transactional limbo throughout the entirety of the offseason lockout. The Pirates claimed Medina off waivers from the Phillies once the lockout was over, and a subsequent DFA from Pittsburgh resulted in Medina being traded to the Mets just prior to Opening Day.
Medina received some top-100 prospect attention as recently as 2019, but he has yet to make a big impact in the majors, pitching only 11 2/3 innings with the Phillies prior to this season. Generally a below-average strikeout pitcher, Medina has posted grounder rates around the 50% mark during his career, usually relying more on soft contact and keeping the ball in play rather than missed bats. Medina has worked as a starter for much of his career but he primarily been a reliever this season in Syracuse, and his 14 Mets appearances were all out of the bullpen.
Claudio inked a minor league deal with the Mets during the offseason, and the southpaw is now on the verge of making it a ninth consecutive season with some MLB action. Speaking of low-strikeout grounder specialists, Claudio has a 17% strikeout rate and 59.8% groundball rate over his 344 1/3 career innings in the majors. Claudio was a generally reliable bullpen arm throughout his time with the Rangers and Brewers from 2014-20, posting a 3.44 ERA and eating plenty of innings — his 83 appearances led the big leagues in 2019.
The Brewers opted to non-tender Claudio following the 2020 season, in part due to his lack of strikeouts or high velocity, as well as the idea that Claudio (who has pretty big career splits) would be hampered by the three-batter rule. Signing with the Angels in the 2020-21 offseason, the southpaw had only a 5.51 ERA over 32 2/3 innings with Anaheim in 2021, and also pitched in the Red Sox farm system after the Angels cut him loose midway through the campaign.
The Mets’ lack of left-handed relief depth has been an ongoing story of their season, with Joely Rodriguez being the only southpaw regular within the bullpen mix. Such left-handed pitchers as Chasen Shreve, Nate Fisher, Rob Zastryzny, Sam Clay, and Thomas Szapucki have all gotten some looks, and Claudio will become the latest southpaw to get a shot at catching on as extra depth.
Mets Place Max Scherzer On 15-Day Injured List
10:12AM: Scherzer has been officially placed on the IL, retroactive to September 4.
8:58AM: The Mets are placing ace Max Scherzer on the 15-day injured list, manager Buck Showalter announced to reporters Wednesday morning (Twitter link via Newsday’s Tim Healey). The team is hopeful that he’ll return after a minimum stint on the shelf. Scherzer departed his most recent start due to “fatigue” in the same left oblique muscle he strained earlier in the season — an injury that kept him sidelined for nearly two months.
Scherzer, 38, has been sensational for the Mets when healthy enough to take the mound. The three-time Cy Young winner has logged a 2.26 ERA while striking out 30.6% of his opponents against just a 4.6% walk rate. He’s averaged 6 1/3 innings per outing, even with a pair of early exits due to an increasingly problematic left oblique. Scherzer had been slated to start this Friday in Miami.
The injury to Scherzer comes in conjunction with a sequence of brutal losses to the last-place Pirates and Nationals. The Mets have dropped three in row while watching the Braves cruise to six straight victories, culminating in the evaporation of what was once a whopping 10.5-game lead in the NL East for the Mets; the two teams are currently tied with identical 85-51 records.
Even with Scherzer sidelined, the Mets have a strong top four in the rotation, with Jacob deGrom, Carlos Carrasco, Chris Bassitt and Taijuan Walker all active. Walker has struggled of late, with a 6.25 ERA since the All-Star break, although the majority of the damage against him came in one appearance: an eight-run meltdown against Atlanta. Both David Peterson and Trevor Williams are stretched out enough to make starts in place of Scherzer. Peterson started for the Mets both on Aug. 27 and Sept. 2, working a combined 11 1/3 innings, so he’d certainly be an option to step in for Scherzer on Friday against the Marlins.
MLBPA Receives Majority Support To Represent Minor Leaguers, Requests Recognition From MLB
The Major League Baseball Players Association announced Tuesday morning that a “significant” majority of minor leaguers have signed authorization cards in favor of the MLBPA creating a minor league bargaining unit. The MLBPA has formally requested that MLB recognize its new effort to represent minor leaguers. Evan Drellich of The Athletic first reported that the union had received majority support from minor leaguers on the matter and requested voluntary recognition from MLB.
The MLBPA first sent authorization cards to minor league players last week — a first step toward unionizing minor league players who have previously lacked the representation and collective bargaining capabilities enjoyed by Major League players. If MLB chooses not to acknowledge the the MLBPA as the new bargaining unit for minor league players, the MLBPA can (and surely will) file a motion with the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). That will prompt an election among the minor league players, and if there’s a majority among those who vote in that election, the NLRB would subsequently require Major League Baseball to recognize the MLBPA as the bargaining unit of minor league players.
It’s another notable step in what appears to be a fast-moving process. MLB has yet to comment on the unionization effort whatsoever, so it remains wholly unclear when or whether the league will provide a response. The MLBPA can push forward and pursue an NLRB-prompted election at any time, so if commissioner Rob Manfred and his team continue to remain silent on the matter, the union can still advance the process. An MLBPA official told MLBTR last week that the proposed unionization efforts would give minor leaguers their own separate bargaining unit under the MLBPA umbrella, adding that any minor league CBA would be negotiated independently of the Major League CBA that was completed earlier this year.
“Minor league Players have made it unmistakably clear they want the MLBPA to represent them and are ready to begin collective bargaining in order to positively affect the upcoming season,” MLBPA executive director Tony Clark said in a statement released Tuesday morning.
Drellich’s piece contains quotes from several minor league players on the matter and notes that there would still be some hurdles regarding the Rookie-level Dominican Summer League, as the league is not based in the United States. Still, Drellich emphasizes that the players union has told minor leaguers that it plans to attempt to bargain over the working conditions of DSL players as well.
The move to add the majority of minor league players to the MLBPA ranks would see union membership skyrocket from 1,200 — the 40 players on the 40-man rosters of all 30 MLB teams — to more than 5,000. The MLBPA has already bulked up its staff in preparation for the move, announcing last week that it had hired every employee from Advocates for Minor Leaguers as a new full-time employee of the MLBPA.
Currently, neither the salaries nor benefits of minor league players are collectively bargained. Minor league players are only paid during the season, and their minimum salaries range from $400 per week in the lower levels — where seasons are only three months long — to $700 per week in Triple-A (via the Associated Press).
Mark Littell Passes Away
The Royals announced that former big league reliever Mark Littell has passed away. He was 69 years old.
A Missouri native, Littell split his MLB career between the state’s two clubs. He signed with the Royals as an 18-year-old in 1971, and he reached the majors just two years later. The right-hander struggled over his first eight outings, including seven starts, posting a 5.68 ERA. That’s hardly surprising for a 20-year-old hurler, though, and Littell spent most of the following two seasons at Triple-A.
After a brief return to the majors in 1975, Littell moved to the bullpen full-time by ’76. He thrived in that role, working multiple innings as an old-school fireman and finding great success. He pitched to a 2.08 ERA in 104 innings over 60 outings that season, finishing 37 games in the process. Littell’s contributions even earned him some down-ballot MVP support.
That year didn’t end as Littell would’ve liked, as he surrendered Chris Chambliss‘ famed walk-off home run to clinch the American League Championship Series for the Yankees. That was the only run he allowed in 4 2/3 innings through the series, though, as Littell continued to pitch exceptionally well until his final offering of the season. He returned to throw another 104 2/3 innings the next season, posting a 3.61 ERA. Littell made two appearances in that year’s postseason, allowing three runs in as many innings in another defeat to the Yankees.
The following offseason, Kansas City traded him to their in-state rivals in a deal that brought back former Cy Young finalist Al Hrabosky. Littell had two great seasons to kick off his tenure with the Cardinals, working to a sub-3.00 ERA while tallying more than 60 appearances in each of 1978-79. His production dipped thereafter, and he threw his final big league pitch in 1982. Littell didn’t partake in that year’s postseason, but he’d been a member of the St. Louis squad that won the World Series.
Altogether, Littell appeared in nine MLB seasons, working to a career 3.32 ERA over 532 innings. He finished 181 of his 316 appearances, including 56 saves. Littell fanned 466 batters, a 20.5% rate that was well above the league average at the time.
MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, friends, loved ones and former teammates.
The Rangers’ Breakout Slugger
The Rangers’ shift from a rebuilding mindset into a win-now mode began in the offseason with a combined $556MM spent on Corey Seager, Marcus Semien and Jon Gray. It continued over the summer when Texas held onto several trade candidates of note (e.g. Martin Perez, Matt Moore) and overhauled their leadership; gone were manager Chris Woodward and longtime president of baseball operations Jon Daniels, leaving the team likely to conduct a managerial search this winter and leaving third-year GM Chris Young with full baseball operations autonomy.
Another aggressive winter seems likely, as the Rangers still have plenty of work to do on an improved but flawed roster. There’s been talk of a new contract with lefty Martin Perez, following his breakout in a return to his Rangers roots, but that’d only be one piece of the puzzle. There’s hope that Josh Jung will solidify third base, but there are questions behind the plate, in the outfield and on the pitching staff.
Texas has currently dropped nine games in a row, erasing any delusions that perhaps this team may be turning the corner right now, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t bright spots to the season. Seager has hit well. Semien has shaken off a disastrous start and, since mid-May, looked quite strong. Gray has lived up to his own multi-year deal. Perhaps the brightest spot of all, however, has come in the form of a breakout for slugger Nathaniel Lowe.
Acquired in a Dec. 2020 trade that sent three minor leaguers to the Rays, the now-27-year-old Lowe had a solid but uneven first year in Texas. He homered six times in his first 22 games (98 plate appearances) as a Ranger before settling in at a more modest, but still productive pace. Lowe continued hitting well but “only” chipped in another 12 home runs over his next 544 plate appearances. He finished the year as a .264/.357/.415 hitter — 14% better than league average, by measure of wRC+.
For much of the 2022 season, Lowe looked quite similar; he posted a 115 wRC+ in the season’s first half slashing .270/.323/.429. Since the All-Star break, however, Lowe has been not only the Rangers’ best hitter, but one of the best hitters in Major League Baseball. He’s slashing an absurd .363/.414/.632 with 11 homers, nine doubles and two triples in just 186 plate appearances. In that time, 52.3% of the balls off his bat have been hit 95 mph or greater; his average exit velocity has spiked from 89.3 mph to 91.3 mph, and he’s gone from barreling 7.9% of the balls he puts into play to a much heftier 12.9%.
This torrid six-week stretch has bolstered Lowe’s season line to a robust .302/.355/.500, and he’s hitting .282/.356/.455 in a total of 1172 plate appearances since being traded to Texas in the first place.
This is probably the best stretch of Lowe’s big league career, but he’s been quietly productive from the day he got to the big leagues in 2019 and increasingly looks the part of a bona fide middle-of-the-order hitter. Skeptics will point to this year’s .358 average on balls in play and wonder when he might regress, but it’s not a given, or even likely, that he will. Lowe touts a .346 BABIP in 1417 career plate appearances, suggesting that he’s capable of sustaining a mark well north of the league average (.291 this season).
Unlike many players who keep their BABIP figures high, Lowe isn’t beating close grounders and getting there via his wheels; rather, he does so by effectively spitting on any shifts against him. Lowe leads the Majors in opposite-field hits dating back to 2021, and he’s tied with Giancarlo Stanton for the game’s third-base wRC+ mark when hitting to the ball the opposite way during that time (only Tim Anderson and Aaron Judge have been better).
Lowe has only been shifted in 20.1% of his plate appearances this season, which isn’t among the very lowest rates in the league but is well below the league average. Moreover, the only lefties who rank below him (min. 250 plate appearances) are Raimel Tapia, Nicky Lopez, Luis Arraez, Steven Kwan, Luis Guillorme, Luis Gonzalez, Joey Wendle, Michael Harris II, Adam Frazier, Eric Hosmer, Riley Greene, Brandon Nimmo, Brendan Donovan and J.P. Crawford. There are some good hitters in that bunch (Kwan, Arraez, Nimmo and Harris in particular), but it’s mostly a list of contact-oriented hitters who don’t pose much of a power threat. With the exception of Harris, there’s no lefty-swinging slugger in MLB who is shifted less frequently than Lowe.
Similarly, Lowe isn’t fazed by left-handed pitching. His 141 wRC+ mark against lefties over the past two seasons is 26th among qualified hitters and trails only Matt Olson, Yordan Alvarez and Anthony Rizzo for the top mark among left-handed hitters in that time. Again, it’s tempting to say there’s just been some small-sample, BABIP-related luck in play, but in 2022 Lowe has punched out less against fellow lefties and hit for more power than against southpaws than when holding the platoon advantage. It’s not a simple case of some bloop singles falling in and inflating his stat line; he’s genuinely been a better hitter against lefties this year.
If there’s a knock on Lowe’s game, it has nothing to do with his work at the plate. His defense, however, is quite suspect by most public measures. Defensive Runs Saved (-7) and Statcast (11 outs and 8 runs below average) feel he’s been among the game’s worst defenders at his position (or at any position, for that matter). No player in the Majors has made more errors at first since the start of the 2021 season than Lowe’s 20. (Miguel Sano is close, in far fewer innings, but the point stands.)
Even if there’s a move to more designated hitter work in Lowe’s future, though, his bat should more than carry him at that position. He doesn’t draw many walks but has above-average contact skills, even when chasing pitches off the plate, and his ability to flip balls out to left field (or, in some instances, crush them into the left-field seats) should serve him well in that capacity even if he never pares back his higher-than-average chase rate.
Although Lowe has now played in parts of four Major League seasons, he’ll finish out the 2022 campaign shy of three years of Major League service time. At two years, 145 days he’ll be a lock for Super Two status and reach arbitration this winter, where his power numbers and durability will serve him well. That shouldn’t matter much for a Rangers club that spent more than a half billion dollars in free agency that winter, and finishing at two-plus years of service means Lowe will be controllable for another four seasons, through his age-30 campaign.
The Rays deservedly have a reputation for being a risky team with which to trade, and there’s plenty of time for any of Heriberto Hernandez, Osleivis Basabe or Alexander Ovalles to make the trade look more palatable from their vantage point. All three are having strong seasons, and Hernandez in particular is ranked anywhere from 23rd (Baseball America) to eighth (FanGraphs) among Tampa Bay farmhands. But as things stand right now, the Rangers have a middle-of-the-order complement to Semien and Seager for the next four years, and they’re not desperately missing any of the players they surrendered to acquire him.
Nick Neidert Undergoes Knee Surgery
Marlins right-hander Nick Neidert recently underwent surgery to address a right knee injury, tweets Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. The 25-year-old has been on the minor league injured list since August 9. Further details about the procedure aren’t clear, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if that brings his 2022 season to an end.
It has been a frustrating year for Neidert, a former second-round pick of the Mariners. Traded to Miami in the Dee Strange-Gordon swap, Neidert was at one point viewed as a potential back-of-the-rotation stalwart. He’s generally performed well in the minor leagues but hasn’t managed to translate that into MLB success. Neidert carried a 4.70 ERA through 44 MLB innings heading into this season, and the Marlins outrighted him off their 40-man roster just before Opening Day.
He’s subsequently had a solid run with Triple-A Jacksonville, pitching to a 1.96 ERA through 46 innings. The Georgia native fanned an above-average 26.1% of batters faced while only walking 4.9% of opponents, and he reclaimed a spot on the 40-man roster in July. Neidert came up for a spot start, tossed five innings of two-run ball, and was optioned back to Jacksonville. After one additional Triple-A start, he landed on the shelf.
Neidert continues to count against Miami’s 40-man roster while he’s on the minor league injured list. The Marlins could recall him and place him on the MLB 60-day IL if he’s indeed out for the season, although doing so would require paying him at the prorated $700K minimum rate.
Injury Notes: García, Oller, Iglesias
The Marlins activated outfielder Avisaíl García from the injured list today, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald, after missing over a month due to a hamstring strain. Fellow outfielder Peyton Burdick was optioned in a corresponding move.
It’s been a disappointing season for García, the first of a four-year, $53MM deal he signed with with the Marlins. The Fish were surely hoping García could add some thump to their lineup after he hit 29 homers with the Brewers last year and slashed .262/.330/.490 for a wRC+ of 115. But he’s hit just seven long balls in 88 games this year, producing an overall line of .232/.269/.322, wRC+ of 68.
The Marlins are 17 1/2 games out of a playoff spot now and won’t be playing for much down the stretch. But García will look to get back into a groove and finish the season strong, going into the winter with some momentum and optimism for 2023.
Some other injury notes from around the league…
- The Athletics announced a series of roster moves today, one of which was placing righty Adam Oller on the 15-day injured list. Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle relays that Oller’s IL placement is due to “right rib costochondritis.” The club hasn’t provided a timeline for the hurler, but he’ll miss at least the next couple of weeks. Since there’s only about four weeks remaining on the schedule, it’s possible that he’s done for the year. Acquired from the Mets in the Chris Bassitt trade, Oller made his MLB debut this year, tossing 73 1/3 innings with a 6.01 ERA, 13.4% strikeout rate, 11.2% walk rate and 31.7% ground ball rate.
- The Rockies placed infielder José Iglesias on the 10-day injured list today due to a right hand contusion. Iglesias signed a one-year, $5MM deal with the Rockies in the offseason and became the first shortstop atop Colorado’s depth chart not named “Tulowitzki” or “Story” since 2006. He’s having another season typical of his career, providing solid defense while hitting a bit below league average. His batting line for the year is .300/.337/.392, producing a wRC+ of 92. Though that’s 8% below league average, his defensive contributions have allowed him to rack up 1.4 fWAR on the year. This offseason will feature another batch of superstar shortstops, including Dansby Swanson, Trea Turner, Carlos Correa and Xander Bogaerts, assuming those latter two opt out of their respective contracts. Iglesias isn’t quite at their level but will be in the next tier down, next to players like Elvis Andrus. With Iglesias out of the lineup the past three days, Alan Trejo has been slotted into the shortstop position.
Orioles Designate Jonathan Araúz For Assignment
The Orioles announced that infielder Jonathan Araúz was reinstated from the restricted list and designated for assignment.
Araúz, 24, made his MLB debut with the Red Sox in 2020 and was with them until June of this year, when he went to the division-rival Orioles on a waiver claim. In his big league career, he’s gotten into 68 games and hit .200/.269/.314. He’s played 35 games in the minor leagues this year between the two organizations, hitting .192/.264/.238 in that time.
Yesterday, the O’s placed Araúz on the restricted list when they claimed reliever Jake Reed off waivers. A reason was not provided for his absence, but the club has now cut him from the roster altogether. Since the trade deadline has passed, the Orioles will have no choice but to place him on outright waivers or release waivers in the coming days.
He’s never been much of a threat with the bat but at least has enough defensive versatility to have played the three non-first-base positions on the infield. He’s in his second option year, meaning any team interested in Araúz could keep him in the minors for the remainder of this season and another campaign.