Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Royals Promote Daniel Lynch

By | at

MAY 3: Lynch’s promotion is official, Rogers tweets. To make room for him, the Royals optioned righty Jake Newberry and moved lefty Daniel Tillo (elbow surgery) to the 60-day injured list.

MAY 2, 7:58PM: Jakob Junis will be moved from the rotation to the bullpen to make room for Lynch, GM Dayton Moore told MLB.com’s Anne Rogers and other reporters.  Junis has a solid 3.47 ERA/3.35 SIERA and 28.7% strikeout rate over 23 1/3 innings this season, but Moore feels Junis can help strength a relief corps thinned by injuries.

6:00PM: The Royals announced that top pitching prospect Daniel Lynch will be called up on Monday.  Lynch will make his MLB debut as the starting pitcher in tomorrow’s game against the Indians.  K.C. has a full 40-man roster, so at least one corresponding move will have to be made to create room for Lynch on both the 40-man and the 26-man active roster.

The 34th overall pick of the 2018 draft, the left-handed Lynch has emerged as one of the more intriguing minor league arms in all of baseball, let alone in Kansas City’s farm system.  Lynch is a consensus pick as a top-100 prospect, albeit within a fairly large range of projections — Keith Law (17th), MLB Pipeline (24th), Baseball America (25th) all have Lynch very high on their boards, while Fangraphs (61st) and Baseball Prospectus (70th) aren’t quite as optimistic.

Fangraphs’ scouting report still pegs Lynch as “a very safe mid-rotation sort” based on his fastball alone, which has increased in velocity during his short pro career.  Lynch has hit the 99mph-threshold and regularly throws his fastball in the 95-97mph range.  His slider is another plus pitch, and his changeup is also turning into a plus offering.  “He’ll have to keep working on repeating his delivery to boost his command and control, but this is elite stuff from the left side,” Law writes.

The 24-year-old Lynch has a 2.74 ERA and 26.2% strikeout rate over 147 2/3 innings in the minors, but he’ll be making the jump to the Show without any Double-A or Triple-A experience.  He was originally set to begin the 2021 season at Triple-A, but clearly the Royals are impressed by what they’ve seen from Lynch at Spring Training and at their alternate training site.

Should Lynch remain with the Royals for the rest of the season, enough time has passed on the calendar that the team will control his rights for an extra seventh year, so Lynch would be controlled through the 2027 season.  However, it remains to be seen if Lynch is just getting a cup of coffee in the big leagues, perhaps as a fill-in for Brady Singer.  During Friday’s game, Singer’s start was cut short after two innings after he took a hard comebacker off his left heel to conclude the second frame.  X-rays were negative on Singer’s heel and he was expected to make his next scheduled start, though the Royals might be either considering a 10-day IL stint just to be cautious, or perhaps Singer could just be held back a day or two.

Mets Release Caleb Joseph

By | at

The Mets released Caleb Joseph from his split contract with the team, MLBTR has learned.  The move took place last week.  Joseph signed with New York in February and was a late cut at the end of Spring Training camp.

A veteran of seven big league seasons, Joseph is best known for his time as a backup and part-time catcher with the Orioles from 2014-18.  He also appeared in 20 games with the Diamondbacks in 2019 and three games back in the AL East with the Blue Jays last season.  Joseph has hit .222/.270/.351 with 32 home runs over 1367 career plate appearances in the majors, but is better known for his defense, particularly his pitch-framing and his ability to throw out baserunners.

Joseph’s release leaves the Mets without much experienced catching depth at the Triple-A level, though the club added another backstop by claiming Deivy Grullon off waivers from the Rays last week.  Grullon, Bruce Maxwell, and Patrick Mazeika are the top depth options behind the MLB catching combo of James McCann and Tomas Nido.

Jose Alvarado To Serve Two-Game Suspension

By | at

TODAY: Alvarado and the league have agreed to a reduced suspension of two games.  He will begin serving his suspension tonight.

SUNDAY: Jose Alvarado has been suspended three games for his part in Friday’s fracas between the Mets and Phillies, per an MLB release. Alvarado will appeal the decision.

In case you missed it, the Phillies were leading 2-1 in the top of the eighth inning when Alvarado hit Jeff McNeil on the elbow with his second pitch. With two outs and first base open, the Phillies elected to intentionally walk J.D. Davis to bring up Dominic Smith. A wild pitch moved up the runners as Alvarado struggled with his command. Smith appeared to disrupt Alvarado’s timing a couple of times in the at-bat, leading to an emotional celebration from Alvarado when he finally coaxed Smith into striking out to end the inning. Alvarado was amped, yelling at Smith and throwing his glove down. Though no punches were thrown, Alvarado’s incendiary behavior earned him an ejection.

On the Mets’ side, Smith was fined an undisclosed amount. Reliever Miguel Castro was also fined. Castro entered the game in the bottom of the inning. With one out, he walked Rhys Hoskins on back-to-back inside fastballs that were well off the plate. Hoskins took exception, and though the benches did not clear again, the game was brought to a halt as the umpires met to discuss. No other action was taken, however, and Castro was able to finish the inning.

Marlins’ Paul Campbell Issued 80-Game PED Suspension

By | at

Marlins right-hander Paul Campbell has been suspended for 80 games for violating Major League Baseball’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program, the league announced.  Campbell tested positive for Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (DHCMT).

Originally a 21st-round pick for the Rays in the 2017 draft, Campbell was selected out of Tampa Bay’s organization by the Marlins in last December’s Rule 5 draft.  Making his big league debut this season, Campbell had an 8.74 ERA over 11 1/3 innings for Miami, with a below-average 21.3% strikeout rate but with some respectable hard-contact numbers.  Control was also an issue, with six walks allowed in Campbell’s 11 1/3 frames.

Via the MLB Players Association, Campbell released a statement about his suspension, saying he “never knowingly, willingly, or intentionally ingested this substance in any form, nor have I ever heard of DHCMT prior to this situation.”

“Due to the fact that I do not know the origin of how this substance has entered into my system, I currently have no viable defense in support of my innocence.  I have unfortunately become one of the many athletes, across multiple sports, who are presenting themselves to the world and asking for members of the anti-doping world to help us find answers as to why this metabolite is continuing to show up in athletes’ bodies and ultimately costing them significant detours in their careers.”

DHCMT has been a subject of controversy in recent years, as The Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond explored in a piece last August.  Kent Emanuel, Tres Barrera, Chris Colabello, and Alec Asher are a few of the other MLB players who have been suspended for DHCMT, and Emanuel recently stated (hat tip to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal) that the league rejected an MLBPA proposal stating that a player couldn’t be suspended unless he had more than 100 pictograms of DHCMT in his system.

Dodgers Claim Phil Bickford, Designate Mike Kickham

By | at

The Dodgers have claimed right-hander Phil Bickford off waivers from the Brewers.  Both teams have announced the move, with the Dodgers designating left-hander Mike Kickham for assignment to create roster space.

Bickford pitched just one inning for the Brewers in 2021, to go along with his lone inning for the team last season.  Twice a first-round draft pick (for the Blue Jays in 2013 and, after opting to attend college, with the Giants in 2015), Bickford’s career has been stalled by injuries and a 50-game suspension for a drug of abuse in 2017.

The righty is still only 25 years old, however, and has yet to pitch in either Double-A or Triple-A ball.  It could be that some time in a proper minor league game environment will help hone Bickford’s potential as a relief pitcher, since he recorded a whopping 53 strikeouts in 32 2/3 bullpen innings (with a 2.48 ERA) for Milwaukee’s high-A affiliate in 2019.

Kickham signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers in the offseason and had his contract selected by the team yesterday.  He tossed two innings of mop-up work in the Dodgers’ 16-4 victory over the Brewers, though Kickham allowed three earned runs.  The 32-year-old has now appeared in four Major League seasons, though with a sizeable gap in between — Kickham pitched for the Giants in 2013-14 and then worked in the minors before resurfacing for 14 innings with the Red Sox in 2020.

Rockies Name Bill Schmidt As Interim GM

By | at

1:41PM: The Rockies have officially announced Schmidt as the new interim GM.  As per the team’s press release, “Schmidt will oversee all aspects of the club’s baseball operations,” which would perhaps imply that Feasel will either return his focus to business operations, or simply that Schmidt is the top voice in all baseball-related matters.

1:05PM: Rockies vice-president of scouting Bill Schmidt is expected to be named the club’s interim general manager, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding reports (Twitter link).  After former GM Jeff Bridich resigned last week, there had been speculation that an internal name would take on the interim position, with Schmidt and assistant general managers Zack Rosenthal, Jon Weil, and Zach Wilson all floated as potential candidates to assume the role.

Schmidt has almost four decades of experience in pro baseball, beginning as a minor league coach in the Reds, Brewers, and Yankees organizations while also working as a scout with the Reds and Yankees.  After working as a crosschecker with the Indians for four seasons, Schmidt joined the Rockies in 1999 and has become a fixture of the organization, assuming his current VP-scouting job in 2007.

Harding notes that Schmidt has been in charge of the Rockies’ drafts since 2000, which is a positive sign given how much notable homegrown talent the club has been able to find over the years.  The larger issue, of course, has been how that talent has been been developed and utilized by a Rockies franchise that has struggled to put a consistent winner on the field — the Rox have topped the .500 mark just six times in Schmidt’s 21+ seasons in Denver.  Building around that in-house talent was Bridich’s largest pitfall as GM, not to mention his falling-out with Nolan Arenado (speaking of prominent homegrown Rockies stars) that led to Arenado’s trade to the Cardinals.

The Rockies announced last week that the interim general manager would run the team for the remainder of the 2021 season, with team president Greg Feasel overseeing the baseball operations department on top of his previous responsibilities running the business operations.  A search for a permanent GM (and possibly a head of baseball operations) will take place after the season.

Schmidt faces some immediate decisions, as the 10-18 Rockies are in last place and are the only NL West team with a losing record.  If the team decides to rebuild, Schmidt might oversee some of the initial heavy lifting, such as potentially moving impending free agents Trevor Story and Jon Gray before the July 30th trade deadline.

With that in mind, the 2021 campaign could serve as something of an audition for Schmidt.  Since owner Dick Monfort is known to value continuity and familiarity, it isn’t out of the question that Schmidt could be a candidate to become the full-time GM.  Given that the Rockies have long been accused of an insular approach, the Colorado fanbase likely wouldn’t be pleased at another internal promotion, as it has been widely speculated that the Rockies would benefit from some fresh perspectives and a new approach in the baseball ops department (and less interference from Monfort).

Red Sox Claim Brandon Brennan From Mariners

By | at

The Red Sox have claimed right-hander Brandon Brennan off waivers from the Mariners.  Brennan has been assigned to Triple-A Worcester.  Righty Ryan Brasier was moved on the 60-day injured list to open up space for Brennan on Boston’s 40-man roster.

Seattle designated Brennan for assignment last week.  The 29-year-old righty came to the Mariners from the Rockies in the 2018 Rule 5 Draft, and posted a 4.56 ERA and an above-average 24% strikeout rate over 47 1/3 innings for the M’s in his 2019 rookie season.  Shoulder problems sidelined Brennan for over two and a half months of the 2019 season, and an oblique strain limited him to 7 1/3 innings in 2020.

Brennan hadn’t yet seen any MLB action this season, as he had been working at the Mariners’ alternate training site.  His addition will add a bit more relief depth to a Red Sox pen that has been without Brasier, who began the year on the IL due to a calf strain, and he was also recovering from a fractured pinky finger during the season.  It didn’t seem like Brasier was going to be back before June anyway, so his move to the 60-day IL is essentially just a procedural move on Boston’s part.

Rockies Release Ivan Nova

By | at

The Rockies released right-hander Ivan Nova from his minor league deal last week, The Athletic’s Nick Groke reports (via Twitter).  It was a brief stint for Nova in the organization, as he only just signed with Colorado back on April 12.

Nova also signed a minors contract with the Phillies in January, but he was granted his release near the end of Spring Training since he wasn’t going to make the Opening Day roster.  Nova’s deal with Philadelphia contained an out clause, and it isn’t known if a similar opt-out was also included in his Rockies contract — given the timing of the release, it’s possible that Nova had the ability to opt out of the deal if he wasn’t on Colorado’s big league roster by May 1, for instance.

A veteran of 11 MLB seasons, Nova posted an 8.53 ERA over 19 innings for the Tigers in 2020, missing much of the season due to right triceps tendinitis.  The right-hander has been a reliable innings-eater for much of his career (tossing 187 frames for the White Sox as recently as 2019) and also delivered some solid results despite a big fastball and a below-average strikeout rate, as Nova has relied on soft contact and 48.9% grounder rate.  With a 5.07 ERA/5.23 SIERA over his last 206 big league innings, however, it remains to be seen if Nova can offer anything more than just innings as he enters his age-34 season.

Pirates Sign Christian Bethancourt To Minors Contract

By | at

The Pirates have signed catcher Christian Bethancourt to a minor league deal, according to Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link).  Bethancourt will report to Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate for the beginning of the minor league season.

From 2013-17, Bethancourt hit .222/.252/.316 over 489 plate appearances with the Braves and Padres, primarily playing catcher but also getting some time as a corner outfielder, second baseman, and even as a pitcher over six relief appearances.  (He also played some first base in the minors.)  Bethancourt is still looking for a return trip to the majors, having played with the Brewers’ Triple-A team in 2018, the KBO League’s NC Dinos in 2019, and he has also inked minor league contracts with the Phillies in each of the last two offseasons but didn’t see any official playing time with Philadelphia.

Bethancourt will likely be deployed as catching depth, joining Andrew Susac and Joe Hudson as MLB-experienced backstops in Pittsburgh’s farm system.  Jacob Stallings and Michael Perez are the Pirates’ top two catchers at the big league level, and since the Bucs are still in the midst of a rebuild, it wouldn’t be a shock if Stallings (currently hitting a cool .246/.388/.400 in 80 PA) was moved before the July trade deadline.  This could open the door for Bethancourt or one of the other catchers to be bumped up to the active roster.

Latest On Padres Rotation

By | at

After a flurry of offseason acquisitions, the Padres entered the season with arguably one of the deepest pools of rotation candidates in the game. But just a month into the season, even the Padres are already looking at a bullpen game. Miguel Diaz will be the nominal starter today, but the 26-year-old right-hander has been working 3-4 inning stints at the Padres’ alternate site in preparation, writes Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He has appeared in 47 games for the Padres going back to 2017 and only three times as a starter.

In the near term, the Padres are holding out hope that either Ryan Weathers or Dinelson Lamet will be ready to start on Tuesday, adds Acee. Said manager Jayce Tingler, “Both of them were pretty aggressive with their bullpens today and came out reporting feeling well. We think that’s a good step for both guys. We’ll see how they respond tomorrow and go from there.”

Lamet has made just one start his year, going two scoreless before being removed because of forearm soreness. Weathers, 21, was the youngest starting pitcher in baseball, and he’d been nothing short of brilliant before leaving his last start with arm soreness. The young southpaw has a 0.55 ERA/3.23 FIP over 16 1/3 innings combined out of the pen and rotation.

There remains no word on Chris Paddack, who was placed on the injured list without an injury designation. Presumably, that points to something Covid-19-related (be it a positive test, close contact or self-reported symptoms). That could mean a quick turnaround for Paddack as we have seen with a few players this year, but only time will tell. If Paddack isn’t able to return shortly, the Friars hope that Lamet and Weathers could fill out the rotation. Otherwise, Diaz may be in for more than just a spot start.

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