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Minor MLB Transactions: 4/20/21

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Tuesday’s minor moves from around baseball:

  • The White Sox selected right-hander Alex McRae before their game against the Indians and optioned righty Zack Burdi to their alternate site. McRae, a 10th-round pick of the Pirates in 2014, amassed 33 innings with the team from 2018-19, but he struggled to an 8.18 ERA with similarly unappealing strikeout and walk percentages of 14.6 and 12.8, respectively. The Pirates outrighted McRae after his second season in the majors, and he caught on with the White Sox on a minor league contract. The 28-year-old threw three scoreless innings for the club in 2020, but it then outrighted him before bringing him back on another minors deal.
  • The Phillies have signed left-hander Rob Kaminsky to a minors pact and added him to their player pool, per a team announcement. Kaminsky, the 28th overall pick of the Cardinals in 2013, left the St. Louis organization when the team traded him to Cleveland in a 2015 deal centering on slugger Brandon Moss. The 26-year-old rejoined the Cardinals on a minor league contract heading into last season and wound up making his MLB debut. Kaminsky allowed one earned run on three hits and two walks (three strikeouts) in 4 2/3 innings with the Cardinals, who outrighted him in September.

MLB, MLBPA Hold First CBA Talks

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Major League Baseball and the MLBPA held their first round of collective bargaining talks on Tuesday, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com reports. The meeting took place via video conference and featured “dozens of people,” including members of player leadership, according to Passan. It was the first time MLB and the union have negotiated since the players rejected the league’s proposal for a delayed 154-game regular season on Feb. 1.

The current CBA expires on Dec. 1, and if the two sides don’t reach a deal by then, the sport could experience its first work stoppage since the 1994-95 strike. The relationship between the league and the players has taken an especially contentious turn over the past couple years, which could make it difficult to achieve labor peace by the start of December.  At the same time, both sides understand that failure to reach an agreement could cause serious damage to the $10 billion-per-year industry, Passan writes.

As negotiations continue, the union will turn some of its focus toward “spending and competitive integrity,” per Passan. Along with pushing for teams to spend more, the players would like to earn more money earlier in their careers – which could mean changes to the current service-time setup. Under today’s rules, a player must have six years of big league service time to reach free agency. With that in mind, many clubs have kept talented prospects in the minors for seemingly longer than necessary in order to gain a seventh year of control.

On the ownership side, there continues to be a desire to increase the number of playoff teams per season. More than half of the league’s teams (16 of 30) made the playoffs during the shortened 2020 campaign, but the field reverted to 10 this year after the union turned down an expanded postseason as part of the league’s 154-game proposal.

Adrian Morejon To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Padres left-hander Adrian Morejon will undergo Tommy John surgery, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. He’ll miss the rest of this season and likely a sizable portion of next year as a result.

Morejon last appeared for the Padres on April 11, when he departed a start against the Rangers during the first inning with a left forearm strain. A Tommy John procedure looked like a realistic possibility for the 22-year-old at that point, and that’s unfortunately the route he will have to take.

Morejon, a Cuba native, signed an eyebrow-raising $11MM bonus with the Padres in 2016 and has since ranked among Baseball America’s top 100 prospects on an annual basis. However, Morejon hasn’t yet taken on a significant workload during a professional season, having never thrown more than 65 1/3 innings in an individual year. He combined for 27 1/3 major league innings as a swingman from 2019-20 before earning a rotation spot heading into this season with 14 frames of 3.21 ERA ball and 17 strikeouts in spring training. But Morejon’s 2021 will now end after just two starts and 4 2/3 innings.

The season-long loss of Morejon is obviously a blow to the Padres’ depth, but the team is still in enviable shape in its rotation. Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Joe Musgrove, Dinelson Lamet, Chris Paddack and Ryan Weathers are their top options in the majors, and elite prospect MacKenzie Gore could debut sometime this season.

Nationals Place Juan Soto On 10-Day IL

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The Nationals have placed star slugger Juan Soto on the 10-day injured list with a strained left shoulder, the team announced. They recalled outfielder Yadiel Hernandez to take Soto’s place on the roster.

The loss of Soto is yet another early season blow for the Nationals, who own a 5-9 record and the majors’ third-worst run differential (minus-22). Of course, their struggles haven’t been Soto’s fault. While the 22-year-old phenom’s .300/.410/.460 line across 61 plate appearances pales in comparison to his 2018-20 production, that only goes to show how great he has been since breaking into the majors. After all, Soto has still been 31 percent better than the league-average hitter this year, according to FanGraphs’ wRC+ metric.

Tuesday’s game against St. Louis will be the first time this season that the Nationals will start someone other than Soto in right field. The role will go to Andrew Stevenson, who has hit .263/.341/.390 in 264 major league PA since he debuted in 2017. The addition of Hernandez gives the Nats another corner outfield option, though the 33-year-old is a completely unproven commodity in the majors.

Reds Place Mike Moustakas On 10-Day IL

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The Reds have placed third baseman Mike Moustakas on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 17, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer was among those to report. The team reinstated infielder Alex Blandino from the COVID-19 list in a corresponding move.

Moustakas hasn’t been in the Reds’ lineup since April 14 because of what the team has called a non-COVID-related illness. Cincinnati did, however, list him in its starting lineup for Tuesday’s game against the Diamondbacks before reversing course.

Moustakas, who’s in the second season of a four-year, $64MM contract, got off to a fast start this month before his illness sidelined him. The 32-year-old has slashed an excellent .289/.404/.553 with two home runs and as many walks as strikeouts (seven) in 47 plate appearances. Since Moustakas has been out, the Reds have turned to Kyle Farmer at the hot corner.

Neil Walker Announces Retirement

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Longtime major league second baseman Neil Walker has retired from baseball at the age of 35. Walker broke the news to Sweeny Murti of WFAN as a guest on the “30 for Murti” podcast.

A Pittsburgh native, Walker was a first-round pick (No. 11) of his hometown Pirates in 2004. Five years later, Walker made a 17-game big league debut, and he became both a regular and a consistently solid contributor beginning the next season. During a 3,386-plate appearance run from 2010-15, the switch-hitting Walker put up five seasons of at least 2.4 fWAR (including a career-high 4.1 in 2014, when he won a Silver Slugger Award) and batted .273/.338/.443 with 93 home runs.

Walker’s time with the Pirates concluded when they traded him to the Mets for left-hander Jon Niese prior to the 2016 campaign. The move didn’t work out at all for the Bucs, with whom Niese’s production spiraled, though Walker continued to perform well in Queens. He batted .275/.344/.462 and smacked 33 HRs over 757 PA in a Mets uniform in parts of two seasons, but with the team out of contention late in 2017, it traded him to the Brewers for the stretch run.

Walker didn’t re-sign with the Brewers, instead returning to New York n a one-year, $4MM guarantee with the Yankees. With a .219/.309/.354 line in 398 trips to the plate, Walker turned in his worst offensive season as a regular in 2018. He enjoyed somewhat of a bounce-back campaign the next season on a $2MM deal as a member of the Marlins, though he still had to settle for a minor league contract with the Phillies going into 2020. While Walker did make it to the majors for a 12th straight season, he struggled enough over 18 games that the Phillies designated him for assignment in September.

Although Walker had a less-than-ideal ending, he still enjoyed a far more successful and lucrative career than the vast majority of major leaguers. He’ll end with a .267/.338/.426 line, 149 homers and 21.6 fWAR/19.6 rWAR across 1,306 games and 5,152 trips to the plate. Walker also earned nearly $52MM in the bigs, per Baseball-Reference.com.

MLBTR congratulates Walker on an impressive career and wishes him the best in retirement.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Yasiel Puig To Sign With Mexican League Team

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Outfielder Yasiel Puig hasn’t been able to find work in the majors, but it does appear he’ll play professional baseball in 2021. Puig will sign with Veracruz of the Mexican League, Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes reports.

Now 30 years old, Puig starred with the Dodgers at times from 2013-18. However, there were some off-field issues along the way, including two reckless driving arrests. The Dodgers moved on from Puig in a trade with the Reds heading into 2019, during which he went on to slash .267/.327/.458 with 29 home runs and 19 stolen bases in 611 plate appearances between Cincinnati and Cleveland.

Statistically, Puig did enough with the Ohio teams to earn another contract going into last season, but he sat on the open market into the summer. While the Braves appeared to have a deal with Puig in the middle of July, that fell through when he tested positive for COVID-19. Puig didn’t end up playing in MLB last season as a result, nor did he garner major interest as a free agent this past offseason – likely because of serious off-field allegations.

Last October, a woman filed a civil lawsuit against Puig, who she claims sexually assaulted her at a Los Angeles Lakers game in 2018. Puig and his legal team categorically denied those allegations last week, when the 30-year-old called them “totally false.” He also expressed a desire to return to MLB, but he’ll have to play at a lower level for at least the time being.

Twins Place 3 On COVID List, Select Luke Farrell

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The Twins have placed a pair of outfielders – Max Kepler and Kyle Garlick – as well as left-hander Caleb Thielbar on the COVID-19 injured list, the team announced. Kepler tested positive for the virus, manager Rocco Baldelli announced to Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com and other reporters. Garlick tested positive over the weekend, while Thielbar is on the list as a close contact.

The Twins have been hit hard by COVID over the past several days, as their games against the Angels on Saturday and Sunday were both postponed. The club was previously scheduled to face the Athletics on Monday, but they were also unable to play then. However, the Twins will return to action Tuesday with a doubleheader in Oakland.

To fill their empty roster spots, the Twins reinstated outfielder Brent Rooker from the 10-day IL, added lefty Lewis Thorpe as the 27th man for their doubleheader, recalled infielder Travis Blankenhorn and selected righty Luke Farrell. The 29-year-old Farrell appeared with four different teams – most recently Texas – from 2017-20 and combined for a 5.00 ERA in 63 innings. The Twins signed him to a minor league deal during the offseason.

Giants Designate Trevor Gott For Assignment

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The Giants announced that they’ve designated right-hander Trevor Gott for assignment and optioned lefty Sam Selman to their alternate training site. The pair of moves makes room for lefty Jake McGee and righty Logan Webb to be reinstated from the injured list.

This is the second time since the offseason that the Giants have designated Gott, who lasted just one day on their roster this time. The Giants selected Gott heading into Monday’s game against the Phillies, though he didn’t make an appearance. Now, with McGee and Webb back from a brief stay on the COVID list, he’s once again in DFA limbo.

The 28-year-old Gott is in his third season in the San Francisco organization, with which he saw significant action in 2019, totaling 52 2/3 innings. The Giants’ reliance on Gott has dwindled since then, however. All told, Gott has pitched to a 5.46 ERA (with a much better 4.23 SIERA) and a 24 percent strikeout rate against a 9.2 percent walk rate in 64 1/3 frames as a Giant.

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