Dodgers Place Clayton Kershaw On 10-Day IL With Forearm Discomfort
6:04PM: More will be known once Kershaw undergoes more tests, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told MLB.com’s Juan Toribio and other reporters that the team is going ahead as if Kershaw’s 2021 season is over.
4:03PM: The Dodgers have placed Kershaw on the 10-day injured list with left forearm discomfort. Righty Mitch White was called up to take Kershaw’s spot on the active roster.
TODAY, 7:14AM: Things are not looking good for Kershaw, who looks like he might be “out for a while,” per ESPN’s Jeff Passan (via Twitter). Tests still must be completed, but Kershaw himself spoke of the injury, detailing it as similar to what he’s been dealing with all year, that quote provided in full here by ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez.
OCTOBER 1: Dodgers star Clayton Kershaw left this evening’s start against the Brewers in the second inning due to what the team called forearm discomfort (via Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic). Kershaw was tagged for three runs on five hits in that brief time, although his fastball velocity was in its customary 90 MPH range.
More will be known after further evaluation, but it’s an obviously concerning development. Any forearm injury is worrisome for pitchers, and Kershaw missed more than two months earlier in the season because of inflammation in the area. He returned from that IL stint on September 13 and was making his fourth start since coming back.
There’s no indication at this point that Kershaw’s in line for another extended absence. But it’s hard to imagine a more inopportune for such a development. The Dodgers entered play two games back of the Giants in the NL West, with a possibility of being eliminated from division contention tonight. Max Scherzer is lined up to start a potential Wild Card game, but Kershaw would no doubt be a key component of a potential NLDS pitching staff if he’s healthy. The three-time Cy Young award winner is slated to hit free agency this offseason.
Mets Activate Robert Gsellman, Designate Brandon Drury
The Mets have activated right-hander Robert Gsellman from the 60-day injured list. In corresponding moves, utilityman Brandon Drury has been designated for assignment, while right-hander Tylor Megill has been optioned to Triple-A.
Gsellman will get a couple more chances to get on the mound during what been an another injury-plagued year for the swingman. A right lat strain sent Gsellman to the IL back on June 21, thus limiting him to only 26 2/3 innings in 2021. Since injuries also greatly limited Gsellman in 2020, he has pitched a total of 40 2/3 innings over the last two seasons.
All this missed time has had an adverse effect on Gsellman’s earnings, considering that 2020 and 2021 were both arbitration-eligible years. Gsellman will be arb-eligible for a third and final time this winter, but won’t get much beyond his $1.3MM 2021 salary. On the plus side, this low price tag could make the Mets inclined to bring him back rather than non-tendering him.
Drury signed a minor league deal with New York last winter and ended up earning $1.55MM in guaranteed salary once the Mets selected his contract. In 88 plate appearances at the big league level, Drury provide above-average (112 OPS+, 114 wRC+) offense, hitting .274/.307/.476 with four homers. Much of that production, however, was packed into a seven-game hit streak in late July. It seems likely that the seven-year MLB veteran will have to settle for another minors contract this offseason in order to catch on with another team.
Cubs Select Joe Biagini, Place Tommy Nance On Injured List
The Cubs have placed right-hander Tommy Nance on the injury list, which seems to hint at a COVID-related absence given the lack of a reason given for Nance’s placement. Taking Nance’s spot is righty Joe Biagini, whose contract was selected from Triple-A Iowa.
Patrick Wisdom, Austin Romine, David Bote, and Nick Martini have also been placed on Chicago’s IL (without any official cause) within the last three days, as the Cubs have apparently been hit with a coronavirus outbreak just as their season comes to an end. No official details have been given about any of the players, so it isn’t known who might have a positive case, or if some players are being held out for contact tracing or other precautionary reasons.
Barring a quick turn-around, it appears as though the placement will end Nance’s rookie season. The 30-year-old posted a 7.22 ERA over 28 2/3 relief innings for the Cubs, as Nance began his big league run with 12 1/3 scoreless frames before batters caught up to him in a big way. Nance wasn’t drafted, as he began his pro career by signing with the Cubs after an indy ball stint in 2015, and then delivered a 3.29 ERA over 123 innings in Chicago’s farm system, missing the 2017 season due to injury.
If Biagini appears in one of Chicago’s final two games, it will mark the sixth consecutive season that the righty has seen at least some action at the MLB level. Perhaps best known for his strong performance in 2016 as a Rule 5 pickup for the Blue Jays, Biagini has since shown flashes of that early, but his numbers cratered after being dealt to the Astros in 2019. Biagini had a 10.42 ERA over 19 innings with Houston 2019-20, while also struggling with a shoulder problem last year. The Cubs inked Biagini to a minor league deal last winter, and he has a 5.50 ERA in 91 2/3 frames with Iowa.
Rockies Hire Bill Schmidt As General Manager
The Rockies have removed the “interim” tag from Bill Schmidt, as Schmidt will officially take over the team’s front office as the new general manager. Schmidt has been serving as the interim GM since May 3, a week after former general manager Jeff Bridich resigned.
The club also announced promotions of two other in-house executives. Danny Montgomery goes from special assistant to the GM to being a newly-minted vice president and assistant GM of scouting, while assistant GM Zack Rosenthal had the vice president title added to his current duties.
“After five months as our interim general manager, it became increasingly clear that Bill was the right person to lead this franchise forward,” Rockies president/COO Greg Feasel said in the press release. “We already knew Bill as a trusted and respected baseball professional within the game. He came into a challenging situation and quickly impacted the play on and off the field. Bill’s promotion also gives the organization an opportunity to promote two experienced individuals, Danny and Zack, to leadership roles that will be key in getting us to the next level.”
At the time of Bridich’s departure, the Rockies announced that a wider search for a new GM/president of baseball operations would take place after the season, though the club has now decided to stick with a familiar face. Schmidt has been working in Colorado since October 1999 in various scouting capacities, and has been running the team’s drafts since 2000. Schmidt was promoted to VP of scouting in 2007, a title he held until becoming interim GM. Before joining the Rox, Schmidt also worked as a scout and minor league coach with the Reds and Yankees, a minor league coach with the Brewers, and as a national crosschecker for the Indians.
Schmidt’s hiring is something of an old-school move, as teams have generally trended towards younger and more analytically-inclined front office executives in recent years, rather than older, more established baseball lifers. Schmidt is known to be widely respected around the sport, and his hiring will surely be applauded by peers pleased to see him finally getting a shot to run a big league organization.
It is fair to wonder if Rockies fans are as enthusiastic, however. Bridich was also a longtime front office employee before he was hired as GM in 2014, and the hiring of Schmidt (and even the promotions of Montgomery and Rosenthal) reflect more continuity within an organization that many fans and pundits believe is in need of a shakeup. Owner Dick Monfort is known to be very loyal to his employees — perhaps to a fault, as the team’s insularity has been seen as a chief reason for the Rockies have had only five winning seasons since the Monfort brothers become majority owners in 2005.
Thanks to a brutal 19-34 start, the Rockies will finish under the .500 mark yet again this season, despite a respectable 55-51 mark since May 30. That performance over the last four months quite possibly inspired the team’s decision to mostly stand pat at the trade deadline, moving only Mychal Givens despite the number of impending free agents (most notably Trevor Story and Jon Gray) on the roster. The Rockies have designs on re-signing Gray, while Story is as good as gone but the team didn’t find any acceptable trade offers, so the decision was made to keep Story and at least recoup a draft pick via the qualifying offer.
Schmidt now faces a tall order in getting the Rockies on track, considering the potential free agent losses, a farm system seen as being lacking in impact talent, and the ever-difficult NL West. It will be interesting to see how Schmidt’s approach differs from Bridich, who relied mostly on free agency to make his moves and didn’t swing many major trades (apart from moving longtime stars Nolan Arenado and Troy Tulowitzki) in his tenure as GM.
Pirates Promote Oneil Cruz
TODAY: Cruz’s promotion has been officially announced by the Pirates. Right-hander Tanner Anderson has been placed on the 10-day IL due to a right foot contusion.
OCTOBER 1: The Pirates are planning to promote shortstop prospect Oneil Cruz to make his major league debut, reports Héctor Gómez of Z101 (Twitter link). The 22-year-old checked in as the game’s #50 overall farmhand on Baseball America’s midseason update. Cruz is already on the 40-man roster.
Cruz signed with the Dodgers out of the Dominican Republic over the 2015-16 international signing period. Los Angeles included Cruz, who was then in Low-A, as part of a package headed to Pittsburgh for Tony Watson at the 2017 trade deadline. The left-handed hitter has spent the past four years climbing the minor league ranks, moving fairly slowly but posting big numbers at every level.
In 2018, Cruz hit .286/.343/.488 while spending the entire season at Low-A. He split the 2019 campaign between High-A and Double-A and was added to the 40-man roster that offseason to keep him from selection in the Rule 5 draft. Last year’s canceled minor league season obviously cost Cruz the chance to play in games, although he was part of the Bucs’ alternate training site group.
As Cruz has aged, he’s continued to fill out one of the bigger frames in affiliated ball. The 22-year-old is now listed at 6’7″, 210 pounds, and he’ll soon become the tallest shortstop in major league history. That atypical profile has led to some concern among prospect evaluators he’d eventually have to move off the position, but he’s worked there exclusively in the minors this year and has continued to hold his own. In their midseason report, BA pegged Cruz as a capable defender, and evaluators credit him with one of the better arms in the minor leagues. There’s still some sentiment he could wind up moving into the outfield eventually, but it seems he’ll at least get an opportunity to first try and stick on the left side of the infield.
While there may be some questions about his long-term defensive home, there’s no debate concerning Cruz’s power potential. His exceptional size and athleticism leads to some of the game’s biggest power projection, with Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs grading his raw power as a future 80 on the 20-80 scouting scale. BA, meanwhile, pegs his power potential at a 70 on the same scale.
Cruz’s size has led to some trepidation about his ability to consistently make contact. Longer-levered players can sometimes have trouble synchronizing their swing mechanics, and Cruz indeed had some alarming strikeout numbers early in his minor league career. As he’s climbed the ladder, he’s ironed out those issues significantly. Cruz has taken 302 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A this season, hitting .310/.375/.594 with seventeen home runs and a 22.8% strikeout rate that’s right in line with this year’s major league average.
With Cruz performing at a high level on both sides of the ball, the Pirates will give him a two-game cameo to close out the season. He can still be optioned to the minors in one more season, and he’s only played in six career Triple-A games. It’s certainly possible he starts next season back in the upper minors, whether for developmental or service time reasons. (Barring a change to the current service time structure in the upcoming collective bargaining agreement, the Pirates would only have to keep Cruz in the minors for a couple weeks to delay his path to free agency by an additional season). But whatever long-term plans the organization has, they’ll reward his consistently strong performance with his first big league call to close out this season, giving fans a glimpse at one of the most exciting young players in the organization in the process.
Giants Activate Jake McGee, Option Thairo Estrada
The Giants will activate southpaw Jake McGee today, bringing their nominal closer back to the roster in time for a tune-up before the postseason begins next week. To make room on the roster, infielder Thairo Estrada has been optioned to Triple-A, per Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com (via Twitter).
McGee returns after two lost weeks due to a right oblique strain. Fortunately for McGee and the Giants, it was on the milder side of oblique problems, so McGee is able to return even before the regular season is out, let alone the playoffs. After being part of the Dodgers’ World Series team last year, McGee is looking to capture his second ring in as many years, and the veteran lefty has been a major part of the Giants’ success.
McGee has a 2.72 ERA/3.45 SIERA over 59 2/3 innings out of San Francisco’s bullpen, with a 4.2% walk rate that ranks among the league’s best. That excellent control has helped McGee overcome some hard contact, and with a .228 BABIP, it’s fair to say McGee that had some good fortune behind his 2021 numbers.
Though the Giants are pretty flexible with their late-game relief alignment, McGee has gotten the bulk of save chances this year, with 31 saves in 36 opportunities. Seven other pitchers have also gotten saves for the Giants this year, with Tyler Rogers leading the second-choice pack with 13 saves, and rookie Camilo Doval stepping up in recent days with three saves. In short, manager Gabe Kapler will have plenty of bullpen arms to work with as the Giants head into October, as the club is more apt to roll with the hot hand or play matchups rather than deploy McGee in a traditional closer role.
Phillies Recall Seranthony Dominguez, Place Connor Brogdon On 10-Day Injured List
The Phillies have recalled Seranthony Dominguez from Triple-A for the final two games of the season. Connor Brogdon surrenders his roster spot, heading to the 10-day injured list with groin tightness, per the team.
Dominguez makes his return from Tommy John surgery. Still just 26-years-old, Dominguez was going to be a key piece for the Phils bullpen before the injury. He has not appeared in the Majors since 2019. Over his first two seasons, Dominguez flashed potential as a high-leverage arm, making 80 appearances from 2018-19 and logging 82 2/3 innings with a 3.27 ERA/3.20 FIP, 30.2 percent strikeout rate, 10.0 percent walk rate, and very strong 54.8 percent groundball rate.
Brogdon appeared in 56 games this year with a 3.43 ERA/3.77 FIP over 57 2/3 innings. Brogdon picked up 10 holds and a save while accruing 1.0 rWAR/0.7 fWAR as one of the more consistent arms in a much-maligned Philly bullpen.
Brogdon and Dominguez have yet to overlap in the Phillies’ bullpen, but they should both play a role next season. The Phillies maintain team control over Dominguez for the next three seasons and Brogdon for the next five.
Nationals Activate Gerardo Parra, Place Josh Rogers On 10-Day Injured List
The Nationals have placed starter Josh Rogers on the 10-day injured list with a hamstring strain. The move allows local legend Gerardo Parra to return to the active roster from the injured list. Parra will bring baby shark back to Nats Park for the final two games of the season.
The 34-year-old Parra received more run than one might have expected this season, stepping to the plate 105 times and slashing .232/.288/.347 with a pair of home runs. Parra continues to be a positive clubhouse influence and fan favorite. Just two years removed from their title run, Parra is one of surprising few links left to that title team.
As for Rogers, the southpaw was a scrap heap pickup from the Orioles who gave the Nats some valuable innings down the stretch. The 27-year-old has some fan fav flair of his own, bringing a bouncy energy to the mound in six starts totaling 35 2/3 innings. Rogers did enough to likely earn himself a look next year for the pitching-needy Nationals.
Rogers finishes the year with a 3.28 ERA/5.83 FIP, the latter number due to a disinclination to miss bats. Rogers has just a 14.6 percent strikeout rate and 8.6 percent swinging strike rate, well below the 22.6 percent and 10.9 percent mark averaged by starters throughout the game. Regardless, with only Patrick Corbin, Josiah Gray, and Stephen Strasburg (if healthy) guaranteed rotation spots next season, Rogers should have a continued opportunity to prove he can continue to keep runs off the board in Washington.
Red Sox Bullpen Changing Shape
The Red Sox bullpen – ranked 12th in the Majors with a collective 3.97 ERA – will have to make room for a couple of extra bodies today. With the season coming down to two final games against the Nationals, manager Alex Cora is all-hands-on-deck, telling starters Nathan Eovaldi and Nick Pivetta to be ready out the bullpen, if necessary, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (via Twitter). Both Pivetta and Eovaldi have spent the entire season pitching out of Boston’s rotation.
Eovaldi and Pivetta are a necessary safeguard in part because Garrett Whitlock still isn’t ready to return. Whitlock has a chance to return for Sunday’s game, which is more than can get said for Josh Taylor. The 28-year-old southpaw is out for the foreseeable future, per The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey (via Twitter). Taylor has been a major contributor, pitching in 61 games and serving as the primary southpaw among Boston’s relief corps. A back injury has ended his season. He has a 3.40 ERA/2.83 FIP, holding same-handed hitters to a measly .146/.222/.159 line in 90 plate appearances.
Without Taylor, Darwinzon Hernandez, Austin Davis, and deposed starter Martin Perez are the other lefties available to Cora against the Nats, who boast a lineup heavy on lefties or switch-hitters, most notably Juan Soto, but also Josh Bell, Yadiel Hernandez, and Keibert Ruiz, whom the Nats often feature near the middle of the order.
As for Whitlock, he’s been one of Boston’s most valuable players, which is certainly a surprising development for the Rule 5 pick. Regardless, the 25-year-old stabilized the Red Sox bullpen with 72 1/3 innings spread across 45 appearances, good for a 1.99 ERA/2.89 FIP. Whitlock has picked up eight wins, two saves, and 14 holds en route to a 1.5 fWAR season.
Without Whitlock, Cora will leave open the possibility of using Eovaldi or Pivetta out of the pen. Tanner Houck and Chris Sale are set to start the final two ballgames, making everyone else on the roster on call as they try to hold off the Mariners and Blue Jays for the final playoff spot in the American League. Presumably, Eduardo Rodriguez would be available to start a potential one-game playoff.
Free Agent Notes: Correa, Iglesias, Rodriguez
The upcoming free agent shortstop market has been talked about for awhile now, and we’re still a few months off from seeing how the whole thing plays out. Perhaps the most coveted of the soon-to-be available shortstops is the Astros’ Carlos Correa. One potential match for Correa’s services will be the Tigers, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.
The Tigers are an up-and-coming team with plenty of financial flexibility, and it’s certainly interesting to think about Correa once again teaming up with his former skipper A.J. Hinch. As hard as it is to imagine Correa leaving Houston, they do have prospect Jeremy Pena waiting in the wings, making an exit at least feasible. The Tigers, meanwhile, have one of the most open shortstop situations in the game, with incumbent Niko Goodrum easily able to shift into a super-utility role.
Angels’ closer Raisel Iglesias figures to be another in-demand free agent this winter. His priority, however, is re-signing with the Angels, writes Jeff Fletcher of the Orange-County Register. Iglesias made the most of his first season with the Angels, tossing 69 innings in 64 appearances with a 2.61 ERA/2.87 FIP. He has notched 34 saves, a mark that will look attractive to contenders this offseason.
In terms of rotations arms, there are few with the upside of the Red Sox’ Eduardo Rodriguez. Rodriguez and the Red Sox spoke about a possible extension earlier in the year, but there wasn’t much progress made and the two sides ultimately decided to table talks until the offseason, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. After complications from COVID-19 cost Rodriguez all of 2020, he has returned to his usual stable workload, making 31 starts for the playoff hopefuls.
Rodriguez hasn’t quite pitched to his pre-2020 level, though his 4.77 ERA may be a touch inflated. A 3.33 FIP suggests the 28-year-old hasn’t lost a step. He’s tossed 156 2/3 innings with an above-average 27.4 percent strikeout rate, 7.0 percent walk rate, 44.2 percent groundball rate, all numbers that will look good on Rodriguez’s free agent resume this winter.