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Dan Altavilla Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Padres reliever Dan Altavilla has undergone Tommy John surgery, he announced on Twitter. That’ll obviously prevent him from pitching again in 2021, and he’s likely to miss most or all of the 2022 season given the procedure’s 12-16 month general recovery timetable.

Altavilla made two appearances this year before going on the 10-day injured list with right elbow inflammation. He was transferred to the 60-day IL in late May. Evidently, his attempts to rehab the injury without surgery proved unsuccessful.

The 28-year-old has pitched in the majors in each of the past six seasons. Altavilla broke in with the Mariners and went to San Diego before last summer’s trade deadline as part of the seven-player Austin Nola deal. In 116 MLB innings, the right-hander has worked to a 4.03 ERA/4.11 SIERA with an above-average 26.1% strikeout rate but an elevated 12.1% walk percentage.

Altavilla signed an $850K deal with the Friars to avoid arbitration over the winter. Since he barely pitched this year, he’d be in line for the same or marginally higher amount if tendered a contract for 2022. That’s hardly bank-breaking money, but it’s possible the Padres decide to non-tender Altavilla rather than devote a 40-man roster spot to him all winter. (Players have to be reinstated from the IL over the offseason). If San Diego does tender Altavilla a contract, he’d be controllable through 2023.

Rangers Select John Hicks

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The Rangers announced they’ve selected the contract of catcher John Hicks. Outfielder Jason Martin has been optioned to Triple-A Round Rock to clear active roster space. A 40-man roster transaction has yet to be announced.

Starting catcher Jose Trevino suffered a forearm contusion after he slipped and fell earlier today, notes Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News (Twitter link). With Trevino unavailable, Texas needed another backstop to pair with Jonah Heim. That’ll open up an opportunity for Hicks’ first big league run in two years. The right-handed hitter saw MLB action every season from 2015-19, the bulk of which came with the Tigers.

Hicks flashed some power during his time in Detroit, but he never drew many walks and has struck out in 30.1% of his career plate appearances at the highest level. The 32-year-old signed a minor league deal with Texas over the winter and has hit .275/.352/.440 with three homers across 122 plate appearances with Round Rock. That’s league average production in a hitter-friendly Triple-A West environment.

Cubs Place Ryan Tepera On Injured List, Select Adam Morgan

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The Cubs announced they’ve placed right-hander Ryan Tepera on the 10-day injured list with a left calf strain and optioned right-hander Trevor Megill to Triple-A Iowa. Righty Tommy Nance was recalled from Iowa, while southpaw Adam Morgan was selected to the big league roster. To create 40-man roster space for Morgan, infielder Matt Duffy was transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.

Tepera has been quite productive this season. Through 37 2/3 innings, the righty has worked to a 3.35 ERA/3.28 SIERA. He’s punched out a strong 28.3% of opposing hitters- his second consecutive season missing plenty of bats- against a solid 8.3% walk percentage. Tepera has been a key piece of a Cubs bullpen that has surprisingly been one of the game’s best. Chicago relievers have a 2.95 ERA that trails only the Padres’ 2.85 mark, and they’re also near the top of the league in strikeout rate (29%), strikeout/walk rate differential (17 percentage points) and SIERA (3.67).

Morgan will try to emulate that work in his first taste of big league action this year. The 31-year-old pitched in the majors each season between 2015-20 with the Phillies, and he’ll now get an opportunity for a seventh straight campaign. While Morgan was generally underwhelming early in his career as a starting pitcher, he proved fairly effective upon a move to the bullpen. He has a 4.07 ERA/4.22 FIP with decent strikeout and walk numbers (25.5% and 9.1%, respectively) in 150 1/3 career innings as a reliever.

Unfortunately, Morgan was forced to undergo flexor tendon surgery last October. The Phillies outrighted him and he signed a minor league deal with the Cubs in January. He’s been fantastic over 16 1/3 innings with Iowa, working to a 2.20 ERA with a 32.3% strikeout rate and a 4.6% walk percentage.

Duffy went on the IL with a low back strain on May 23. Today’s transfer rules him out for sixty days from the date of his original IL placement, so he won’t return until at least July 22. The 30-year-old infielder has hit a solid .278/.377/.356 through 106 plate appearances this season.

Brewers To Select Aaron Ashby

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The Brewers are planning to call up left-handed pitching prospect Aaron Ashby, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). The 23-year-old is expected to work out of the bullpen initially, Passan notes. He isn’t on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move is forthcoming.

Ashby is one of the game’s more exciting pitching prospects. Milwaukee selected him in the fourth round in 2018 out of Crowder Junior College, and his prospect status has steadily improved throughout his time in pro ball. Ashby had a strong couple months at Low-A during his draft year, and that continued the following season. Between Low-A and High-A in 2019, he worked to a 3.50 ERA with a strong 25.5% strikeout rate and an elevated 11.3% walk percentage.

Clearly, Ashby’s control can be an issue at times, but his low minors performance has impressed evaluators. Each of Baseball America, Keith Law of the Athletic and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked Ashby among Milwaukee’s top ten prospects entering the season. BA suggested he’d likely settle in as a back-of-the-rotation starter, while Law noted Ashby had mid-rotation raw stuff but needed to develop better control to reach that ceiling. Longenhagen was arguably the most bullish, placing Ashby at #127 in his top overall prospects list, praising his mid-90s fastball and pair of quality breaking pitches and calling the southpaw a potential impact multi-inning reliever.

It’s been more of the same for Ashby in 2021, which he’s spent at Triple-A Nashville. Through 38 innings, he’s managed a 4.50 ERA with a stellar 33.3% strikeout rate but a very high 14.3% walk rate. Milwaukee is clearly comfortable enough with his bat-missing prowess to tolerate some potential control issues, as he’ll be thrust into a tight division race. The Brewers lead the Cubs by four games in the National League Central. Milwaukee dealt a pair of relievers (Drew Rasmussen and J.P. Feyereisen) in the Willy Adames trade last month, likely in anticipation of Ashby contributing at some point this season.

Even if he’s in the majors from here on out, Ashby won’t accrue a full season of MLB service. He’ll be controllable through 2027, and he’s unlikely to be eligible for arbitration until after 2024. Future optional assignments could obviously change that service time outlook.

Mets Designate Jerad Eickhoff For Assignment

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The Mets announced they’ve recalled left-hander Thomas Szapucki from Triple-A Syracuse. Righty Jerad Eickhoff was designated for assignment to create active roster space.

It’s the first big league call for Szapucki. New York’s fifth-round pick out of a Florida high school back in 2015, he’s been regarded as one of the more promising pitching prospects in the system for the past few years. Szapucki carved up low minors hitters over his first few pro seasons, drawing praise from scouts for low-mid 90s velocity and a pair of quality breaking balls. Unfortunately, he required Tommy John surgery in July 2017, knocking him out of action for almost two seasons.

Szapucki returned in 2019 and performed well across two levels of A-ball before earning a brief promotion to Double-A at the end of the season. Obviously, he didn’t log any game action last year due to the COVID-19 forced cancelation of the minor league season. Instead, he spent all of 2020 at the alternate training site, where reports suggested his velocity had fallen into the high 80s.

The injuries and diminished velocity took a small hit to Szapucki’s prospect status. He entered 2021 as Baseball America’s #16 farmhand in the organization, while Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs slotted him tenth in the system. Both outlets offered continued praise for his curveball, and Longenhagen noted that Szapucki’s velocity had bounced back into the low 90s during Spring Training 2021. He’s tossed 34 2/3 innings with Syracuse this season, working to a 4.41 ERA with a decent 23.8% strikeout rate but an elevated 13.8% walk percentage. Szapucki could be an option for a Mets rotation that lost Joey Lucchesi to Tommy John surgery last week.

When Lucchesi first went down, the Mets turned to Eickhoff. They were plenty familiar with the 30-year-old, who pitched for the division-rival Phillies from 2015-19. Eickhoff looked like a competent back-of-the-rotation starter early in his Philadelphia tenure, but he struggled over his last three seasons there and didn’t pitch in the majors last year.

Eickhoff’s return with the Mets lasted just two starts. Across ten innings, he allowed five runs on eleven hits (including an alarming four homers) with six strikeouts and four walks. The Mets will have a week to trade him or place him on waivers. Should Eickhoff clear outright waivers, he’d have the right to reject a minor league assignment and become a free agent.

Giants’ Gregory Santos Suspended For Performance-Enhancing Drug Use

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Giants’ right-hander Gregory Santos has been suspended for eighty games after testing positive for the banned substance Stanozolol, Major League Baseball announced this afternoon. He has been on optional assignment to Triple-A Sacramento.

Santos, who entered the season as Baseball America’s #23 prospect in the Giants organization, made his MLB debut in April. He’s appeared in three big league games, tossing two innings of six-run ball. Santos has spent most of the year with Sacramento, where he’s worked to a 5.17 ERA with worse-than-average strikeout and walk rates (20.5% and 12.3%, respectively) across 15 2/3 relief innings.

The River Cats only have 74 games remaining this season, so today’s suspension will end Santos’ 2021 campaign. He’ll be placed on the restricted list, which will open up a spot on the Giants 40-man roster.

Marlins To Select Steven Okert

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The Marlins are selecting the contract of reliever Steven Okert, general manager Kim Ng told reporters (including Craig Mish of SportsGrid). The club has vacancies on both the active and 40-man rosters following today’s trade of Corey Dickerson and Adam Cimber to the Blue Jays.

When he takes the mound, Okert will be making his first major league appearance in three years. The left-hander pitched for the Giants between 2016-18, tossing 48 1/3 innings of 4.28 ERA/4.01 SIERA ball. San Francisco outrighted him off the 40-man roster just before the start of the 2019 season, though, and he spent the entire year at Triple-A Sacramento. Okert elected minor league free agency after 2019 but didn’t sign anywhere during last year’s COVID-19 impacted campaign.

Okert returned to affiliated ball on a minors deal with the Marlins in February. He’s earned his way back to the highest level with a stellar 20 innings at Triple-A Jacksonville. The 29-year-old has pitched to a pristine 1.80 ERA with the Jumbo Shrimp, striking out an elite 38.2% of batters faced while walking a minuscule 5.3% of opponents.

MLB Suspends Hector Santiago 10 Games For Foreign Substance

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3:10pm: The league actually did not further inspect Santiago’s glove, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers reports (Twitter link). The ejection and suspension are based solely on the umpire’s discretion. That’s a rather surprising development and one that, speculatively speaking, could prompt some union pushback.

2:20pm: Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that Mariners lefty Hector Santiago has been suspended 10 games and been fined an undisclosed amount for possessing a foreign substance on his glove in the fifth inning of Sunday’s game against the White Sox. Santiago is appealing the decision.

Mariners manager Scott Servais said after the game that umpire Phil Cuzzi was mistaken and that there was no illegal substance on Santiago’s glove — only rosin (which is permissible under MLB rules) and sweat. The league, after conducting an analysis of Santiago’s glove, clearly does not agree and has elected to punish the veteran lefty. Santiago’s suspension will be held in abeyance until the appeal process is complete. As ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweets, Santiago’s case will now be heard by an arbiter  who works for Major League Baseball, which all but eliminates the possibility of the suspension being overturned. It could potentially be reduced, Passan suggests.

The 33-year-old Santiago has been quite effective with the Mariners thus far in 2021 after not pitching in the big leagues last season. He’s worked to a 2.65 ERA with a 23-to-7 K/BB ratio in 17 innings of work. This year’s 32.4 percent strikeout rate is easily a career-high, which will raise some eyebrows in light of the suspension, but it should be noted that Santiago hasn’t seen any appreciable uptick in spin rate this year. The spin on his four-seam fastball, in fact, has dropped from its previous levels, while the spin on his slider is right in line with his career marks.

Under the league’s new enforcement policy for foreign substances, the Mariners won’t be able to replace Santiago on the roster if his suspension is indeed upheld. They’ll have to play a man down while he serves his punishment.

Baker: Astros Don’t Expect Bregman Back For At Least A Month

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The Astros have been rather vague with their timeline for Alex Bregman’s return from the injured list, but manager Dusty Baker said in an appearance on Sports Talk 790 today that he doesn’t expect Bregman back for at least another month (Twitter link).

Injury updates on Bregman have been handled somewhat clumsily from the beginning. The third baseman himself initially said there was no timetable, which isn’t particularly surprising, but he also added at the time of the injury that he wasn’t sure whether he was dealing with a Grade 1 or Grade 2 strain of his hamstring. Last week, Baker told reporters that the expectation was for Bregman to be out “two to three works or more,” and while today’s statement doesn’t technically invalidate that tentative timeline, it certainly paints a more pessimistic outlook with regard to Bregman’s return.

The first-place Astros have a 1.5-game lead over the second-place Athletics, so the absence of one of their best all-around players is a particularly notable blow. The 27-year-old Bregman is enjoying another strong year at the plate, hitting .275/.359/.428 with seven homers and 14 doubles through 262 plate appearances. That’s in line with last year’s production, but his bat has fallen off since 2019’s ridiculous .296/.423/.592, 41-homer showing that earned him a second-place finish in AL MVP voting.

With Bregman sidelined, the Astros have turned to young Abraham Toro to handle the bulk of the work at the hot corner. The 24-year-old Toro has ranked as one of Houston’s better prospects for the past few years, and after a rough showing at the plate early in the season, he’s returned from Triple-A with a .294/.385/.471 in 39 plate appearances. That follows up on a massive .352/.485/.593 performance in 68 Triple-A plate appearances.

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