Braves Activate Travis d’Arnaud, Designate Kevan Smith
The Braves announced Wednesday morning that they’ve reinstated catcher Travis d’Arnaud from the 60-day injured list and opened a spot on the roster by designating fellow backstop Kevan Smith for assignment.
The 32-year-old d’Arnaud played in just 23 games this season before undergoing surgery to repair a ligament in his thumb. It wasn’t an especially productive start to the campaign for d’Arnaud, who batted just .220/.253/.341 in 87 plate appearances. However, the veteran backstop posted a mammoth .321/.386/.533 line with nine homers and eight doubles in 187 plate appearances for the Braves in 2020.
The 2021 season is the second of a two-year, $16MM deal inked by d’Arnaud in the 2019-20 offseason. He signed that deal on the heels of a breakout .263/.323/.459 run through 92 games with the Rays. All told, over the past three seasons, the former No. 37 overall pick and longtime top prospect has combined for a healthy .266/.325/.448 batting line. That’s about six percent better than league average, by measure of wRC+, but it’s particularly hearty output for a catcher. Dating back to 2019, the average catcher has been about 12 percent worse than league average at the plate.
Atlanta gets its starting catcher back at a pivotal juncture, as the Mets have begun to fade after a nearly three-month run atop the division. Both the Braves and the Phillies have overtaken the Mets, and it’s now Philadelphia that holds a one-game lead over Atlanta and a two-game lead over New York. A healthy d’Arnaud will go a long ways toward improving the Braves’ lineup, as neither Smith nor deadline acquisition Stephen Vogt has provided much of anything with the bat since joining the organization.
Smith, 33, came to the Braves with a solid enough track record at the plate — .272/.321/.384 in 726 plate appearances from 2016-20 — but hasn’t been able to come close to his former levels of production. In 101 plate appearances with the Braves, he’s mustered a tepid .165/.248/.198 batting line with a 28.7 percent strikeout rate that is more than 10 percent higher than his career mark. The Braves will put Smith on outright waivers or release waivers within the next week.
White Sox Place Carlos Rodon On 10-Day Injured List
The White Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve placed lefty Carlos Rodon on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Aug. 8, due to left shoulder fatigue. Right-hander Matt Foster is up from Triple-A Charlotte to take his spot on the active roster. Chicago also announced that catcher Yasmani Grandal, who’s been out since early July after undergoing surgery to repair a torn tendon in his knee, will begin a minor league rehab assignment with Double-A Birmingham.
Rodon, 28, had been lined up to start tomorrow’s Field of Dreams game against the Yankees, but that start will now instead go to righty Lance Lynn. The South Siders haven’t provided a firm timeline for Rodon’s recovery, but manager Tony La Russa tells reporters he expects it to be longer than a minimum stint on the IL (Twitter link via ESPN 1000’s Connor McKnight). Notably, Rodon has a history of shoulder troubles. He underwent shoulder surgery back in 2017 and missed most of the 2020 campaign with shoulder pain as well.
The ChiSox have had the American League Central more or less wrapped up for quite some time now, so there’s little sense in rushing Rodon back. His absence won’t seriously hinder the team’s commanding 10.5-game lead in the Central, and the team’s focus is surely on making sure he’s at full strength to close out the regular season and play a pivotal role in the postseason rotation.
Rodon serving as a key to the Sox’ postseason starting staff would’ve seemed far-fetched, to say the least, not long ago. The White Sox non-tendered Rodon last December after a pair of injury-ruined seasons in 2019-20 that saw Rodon combine for a grisly 5.74 ERA in 42 1/3 frames.
That non-tender looked to end Rodon’s time with the Sox, but just shy of two months later, he returned on a one-year, $3MM deal. It wasn’t the most well-received signing in recent memory among White Sox fans, but Rodon has proved any naysayers wrong by not only rebounding to previous levels but instead rising to new heights entirely, as recently explored by MLBTR’s Anthony Franco.
The 2021 version of Rodon has been the overpowering ace that the Sox perhaps hoped he’d eventually become when selecting him with the No. 3 overall draft pick back in 2014. Through 19 starts this season, Rodon has pitched 109 2/3 innings of 2.38 ERA ball while fanning an outstanding 36.2 percent of his opponents against a very tidy 6.8 percent walk rate. He’s bumped his average fastball velocity to a career-high 95.8 mph, fanned 10 or more hitters on five occasions and thrown a no-hitter that was very nearly a perfect game.
Along the way, Rodon has cemented himself as one of the team’s frontline starters, joining the aforementioned Lynn among the league’s more dominant hurlers. Rodon’s ERA is sixth-best among pitchers with at least 100 innings thrown — Lynn leads the way at 2.04 — and no pitcher in baseball has whiffed a higher percentage of his opponents (again, min. 100 innings pitched).
The injury shouldn’t impact the White Sox’ chances of reaching the postseason. However, Rodon himself would be best-served with a quick return to full strength, as he’s set to return to the free-agent market this winter. The dominance he’s shown to date should already position him for a hefty multi-year contract, but a lengthy absence may give teams some pause — particularly given the deep free-agent class and the number of alternative options on the market. He’ll already be viewed much differently than when the Sox cut him loose back in December, but a quick return and healthy finish would make for an even more bullish outlook.
Marlins’ Jose Devers Undergoes Shoulder Surgery
Marlins infielder Jose Devers underwent surgery yesterday to repair a labrum tear in his right shoulder, tweets Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. He’d been on the injured list since mid-June and will now miss the remainder of the 2021 season.
Devers, 21, entered the season ranked tenth among Marlins farmhands at Baseball America and made his big league debut back on April 24. He appeared in 21 games but tallied just 46 plate appearances, batting .244/.304/.317 along the way. It was an aggressive jump for Devers, who played just 33 games at Class-A Advanced in 2019, didn’t have the benefit of a minor league season in 2020, and made his debut before the Triple-A campaign even kicked off in early May. Devers did play in a dozen Triple-A games in between a pair of big league stints, hitting .231/.250/.308 in 41 plate appearances at the top minor league level.
Acquired in the Giancarlo Stanton trade with the Yankees, Devers has never been viewed as a likely offensive force. He’s a fleet-footed, contact-oriented hitter with no real power of which to speak and strong defensive skills up the middle. Devers has hit just one professional home run, which came as a 17-year-old with the Yankees’ Gulf Coast League affiliate back in 2017, and has a .071 career ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average).
Between that lack of pop and the presence of Jazz Chisholm and Miguel Rojas in the middle infield, Devers’ role in 2022 (and likely moving forward) could be that of a utility infielder. The Marlins will probably want to get him some more minor league playing time next season, given his general lack of experience in the upper minors.
Fernando Tatis Jr. Preparing To Play Outfield
Fernando Tatis Jr. was placed on the injured list 10 days ago, and it seemed as though the Padres star was perhaps closer to a season-ending surgery on his bothersome shoulder than a return to the field. Now, however, it looks as if Tatis has once again recovered enough from his latest shoulder issue that he’ll be able to get back into San Diego’s lineup, and a new position appears to be in the works.
Rather than take any grounders at his normal shortstop position, Tatis has instead been working out as an outfielder, with Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writing that the Padres are planning to shift Tatis between center field and right field when he returns from the 10-day IL. Tatis took batting practice on the field yesterday, so if he continues to progress well, it seems like he might not be far away from yet another fairly quick recovery from what seemed to be a serious injury.
While surgery seems inevitable, Tatis and the Padres hope that the procedure can wait until after the season, and the move to the outfield will theoretically help reduce wear-and-tear on Tatis’ shoulder in the interim. There doesn’t appear to be any concern over how Tatis will be able to handle the position change from a defensive standpoint, as Padres outfield coach Wayne Kirby had rave reviews of Tatis’ workouts.
“His instincts are impeccable. He shouldn’t have any problem,” Kirby said about Tatis as an outfielder. “His speed will make up for whatever he doesn’t read. If he makes a false move, I’m sure he can make an adjustment.”
Tatis would play every day in center or right field, leaving Trent Grisham still getting the bulk of everyday assignments at the other position, while Tommy Pham and Wil Myers might end up splitting time in left field. (Myers has almost exclusively played outfield for the last four seasons, but given his past work at first base, he could possibly also find some at-bats in a platoon with Eric Hosmer.) With Tatis playing on the grass, Jake Cronenworth would remain as the regular shortstop and Adam Frazier would remain at second base, with Ha-Seong Kim as the backup infielder. It wouldn’t be what the Padres anticipated as their regular lineup down the stretch, yet the new alignment might be necessary to keep Tatis healthy.
It could also open up some interesting possibilities for the team heading into 2022, since Pham is a free agent this winter and San Diego could opt to just keep Tatis in the outfield if he takes to the new role as smoothly as Kirby imagines. Cronenworth could remain as the everyday shortstop in that scenario, and top prospect CJ Abrams is expected to make his MLB debut at some point in 2022. Or, since there are plenty of star shortstops available in this winter’s free agent class, the aggressive Padres front office could explore another high-profile acquisition. The Padres may also have another lineup spot to work with if the National League adopts the designated hitter.
Red Sox Sign Alex Claudio
The Red Sox have signed left-hander Alex Claudio to a minor league deal and assigned him to Triple-A Worcester, relays Bill Koch of the Providence Journal (Twitter link). The veteran southpaw was released by the Angels last month.
Claudio signed with Los Angeles on a one-year contract over the offseason on the heels of a pair of decent but unspectacular years with the Brewers. The 29-year-old was a frequently-utilized option for Angels manager Joe Maddon, who turned to him 41 times over the club’s first 98 games. Claudio pitched to a career-worst 5.51 ERA over 32 2/3 frames, partially due to the highest walk rate (10.1%) of his career.
That said, Claudio did strike out batters at a 20.3% clip, the highest rate of his career (excluding his 12 1/3 inning debut season in 2014). That’s well below league average for a reliever, but the soft-tossing Claudio has long been known as a groundball specialist. He’s no longer inducing grounders on over 60% of balls in play — as he did at his 2016-18 peak with the Rangers — but the southpaw’s 52% grounder rate this season remains above-average.
In other Red Sox news, Koch notes that Worcester released reliever Marcus Walden over the weekend. The 32-year-old pitched 106 innings of 4.50 ERA ball for the Red Sox between 2018-20 but was outrighted off the 40-man roster in Spring Training. Walden worked 42 2/3 innings with Worcester this year, posting a 4.01 ERA with a 20.8% strikeout rate.
Marlins Outright Austin Pruitt
AUGUST 10: Pruitt has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-Jacksonville, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. As a player with more than three years of MLB service, Pruitt had the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency. Doing so would’ve meant forfeiting the remainder of his $617.5K salary, though, and he has indeed accepted an assignment to Jacksonville, where he made his first appearance this evening. If he’s not selected back to the 40-man roster before the end of the season, Pruitt will qualify for minor league free agency this winter.
AUGUST 5: The Marlins are designating right-hander Austin Pruitt for assignment in order to open a roster spot for lefty Braxton Garrett to be recalled from Triple-A, tweets Christina De Nicola of MLB.com.
It’s a bit of a surprise, given that Miami just acquired Pruitt alongside outfield prospect Bryan De La Cruz in the trade that sent right-hander Yimi Garcia to Houston. Then again, Pruitt himself was in DFA limbo at the time of that swap, having recently been designated by the Astros. It was clear at the time that De La Cruz was Miami’s target in that swap, and today’s move only further underscores that reality.
Pruitt, 31, did appear in one game with the Marlins and toss a scoreless inning. He’s pitched just 3 2/3 innings so far in 2021, allowing a pair of runs on four hits with no walks and a strikeout in that short time. That marks Pruitt’s first action since the 2019 season; he missed all of the 2020 campaign with an elbow fracture that required surgical repair — a procedure that also sidelined him well into the 2021 season.
Prior to that injury, Pruitt had spent parts of three seasons with the Rays, working to a 4.87 ERA and 4.28 FIP in 199 2/3 frames. Pruitt didn’t miss tons bats in that time (17.2 percent strikeout rate, 9.9 percent swinging-strike rate), but he excelled at keeping the ball on the ground, inducing weak contact and limiting walks. Pruitt’s 5.8 percent walk rate in that three-year stretch was considerably better than the league average, and he also posted a healthy 48.9 percent grounder rate while getting opponents to chase out of the strike zone at a hearty 34.2 percent clip. Those traits, plus elite spin rates on his curveball, all surely appealed to Houston when trading for Pruitt in the 2019-20 offseason.
With the deadline to trade big league players behind us, Pruitt will be placed on either outright waivers or release waivers. Any of the other 29 teams will have the opportunity to claim.
Garrett, the No. 7 overall draft pick in 2016, returns to the Majors on his 24th birthday. He’s tossed 22 1/3 innings for Miami already this season, working to a 4.37 ERA with a below-average 20.2 percent strikeout rate and a 9.1 percent walk rate.
Noah Syndergaard Likely To Work In Relief Upon Return From Injured List
The Mets have been without Noah Syndergaard over the past two seasons as a result of his March 2020 Tommy John surgery. He’d embarked upon a minor league rehab assignment in May, but renewed elbow inflammation forced the club to shut him down for an additional six weeks.
Syndergaard is throwing again in hopes of a late-season return, but it seems the setback has cost him a chance at making it back as a starter. General manager Zack Scott suggested this evening the team is hoping to get the hard-throwing righty back as a reliever at some point next month (via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com).
Allowing Syndergaard to work in shorter stints upon his return would reduce the amount of time he’ll need to ramp up arm strength in preparation. The 28-year-old still hasn’t begun a rehab assignment, and he’ll surely need multiple weeks to build back up even if he’s working toward a bullpen workload. With a little less than eight weeks remaining in the season, it seems the club would rather shorten that process and get Syndergaard back in some capacity as quickly as possible.
The Mets got good work from the starting rotation early in the season, but that hasn’t been the case in recent weeks. Since July 18 — when New York placed Jacob deGrom on the injured list due to forearm inflammation — Mets starters have a 5.79 ERA that ranks 26th leaguewide. Marcus Stroman and Tylor Megill have pitched well lately, but Taijuan Walker has been bombed over his past five starts and Rich Hill hasn’t missed bats since being traded to New York.
deGrom was shut down from throwing for two weeks following his own setback on July 30. The two-time Cy Young award winner is still hoping to pitch this season, but he’s facing similar time pressures as Syndergaard. There’s no indication at this point that the Mets are considering bringing deGrom back as a reliever as well. That said, there’s still plenty of uncertainty regarding his projected timetable.
The Mets’ rotation woes have contributed to a disastrous few weeks that has seen them fall to third place in the NL East. New York is still only 2.5 games back of the Phillies (and a half game behind the Braves), so there’s plenty of opportunity to right the ship. Getting some sort of contributions from Syndergaard — even if it’s not in the role hoped for entering the season — would be a nice boon to their chances of climbing back atop the division.
The final two months of the year are also critical to Syndergaard personally. He’s slated to hit free agency at the end of the season. His late-season form will certainly have an effect on the market he’ll find. Before the injury woes, Syndergaard looked like one of the top starting pitchers in this year’s class thanks to a 3.73 ERA/3.25 FIP between 2018-19.
Astros Reinstate Pedro Baez From Injured List
The Astros announced they’re activating reliever Pedro Báez from the 60-day injured list in advance of tonight’s game against the Rockies. Bullpen colleague Rafael Montero is landing on the 10-day injured list with right shoulder discomfort in a corresponding move. To open space for Báez on the 40-man roster, the club transferred righty Andre Scrubb from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.
Báez, signed to a two-year deal over the winter, is finally in line to make his Astros debut. The 33-year-old missed a few weeks in Spring Training after testing positive for COVID-19, then felt soreness in his right shoulder during his attempt to ramp up a throwing program. The latter issue has kept him out of action for the past few months as the soreness has persisted. Fortunately, he’s now apparently healthy and able to contribute for the stretch run.
During his time with the Dodgers, Báez was quietly one of the league’s more consistent and productive relievers. He posted an ERA between 2.63 and 3.35 during each of his seven seasons in L.A. While Báez’s run prevention numbers never wavered, his peripherals have tailed off in recent seasons. The righty struck out a career-worst 18.6% of opponents last year with accompanying dips in swinging strike rate and velocity.
That came in a 17-inning sample during an anomalous year, though, and the Astros felt comfortable enough to add Báez on a $12.5MM guarantee. If he pitches at or near the level he showed throughout his Dodgers’ tenure, Báez would be a significant upgrade to a Houston relief unit that’s middle of the pack in terms of ERA (3.97) and strikeout/walk rate differential (15.2 percentage points).
Houston added Montero alongside Kendall Graveman from the Mariners at the trade deadline as part of an effort to shore up the bullpen. Montero had a nightmarish time in Seattle, but he’d begun his Astros tenure with six innings of one-run ball. He left Sunday’s game against the Twins with a shoulder issue, though, and his recovery timeline remains uncertain.
Scrubb is also down with a shoulder issue. The 26-year-old landed on the IL on July 19 with a strain. Today’s transfer rules him out for sixty days from that date, so he’s looking at a mid-September return in a best case scenario. There’s no word on whether or not the team expects he’ll be able to pitch again this season.
Manager Dusty Baker provided reporters (including Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle and Mark Berman of FOX 26) with updates on a pair of different injured players. Star third baseman Alex Bregman still isn’t ready to return, and his allotted twenty-day rehab window has passed. League rules stipulate that position players not prepared to return after the conclusion of their rehab period must remain inactive for at least five days before reembarking on a minor league assignment, so Bregman can’t return to game action until Friday.
Starter José Urquidy, meanwhile, is scheduled to begin his own rehab assignment tomorrow. Baker said the club is hopeful he’ll be back on a big league mound by September 1. Urquidy has been out since June 30 with right shoulder discomfort.
Rays Reinstate Randy Arozarena; Place Ryan Yarbrough On COVID-IL, DJ Johnson On 10-Day IL
5:21 pm: Cash didn’t sound particularly optimistic regarding Johnson’s prognosis, noting that the righty’s shoulder injury is “pretty severe” and will require him to miss “substantial time” (via Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times).
1:37 pm: The Rays announced a series of roster moves, including the reinstatement of outfielder Randy Arozarena from the COVID-related injury list and the placement of right-hander DJ Johnson on the 10-day injured list due to a right shoulder sprain. While these transactions were expected, the club also announced that southpaw Ryan Yarbrough has been placed on the COVID-19 list. Righty Louis Head has been recalled from Triple-A to take Yarbrough’s roster spot.
League rules don’t require Yarbrough’s exact situation to be made public, so it isn’t known whether or not the lefty has tested positive for the coronavirus himself, or if he is being held out as a precautionary measure due to contact tracing or symptoms. (Yarbrough had another brief one-day stint on the COVID-IL earlier this season due to vaccine side effects.) Whatever the reason, it would now seem unlikely that Yarbrough will make his next scheduled start on Wednesday against the Red Sox, so the Rays may need to go with a bullpen game in this key AL East matchup.
Yarbrough has a 4.76 ERA/4.26 SIERA over 119 innings, usually working as a traditional starting pitcher but also making a few appearances as a bulk pitcher behind an opener. The southpaw is among the league’s best pitchers at limiting hard contact and avoiding walks, though his 19.6% strikeout rate is far below average.
Arozarena returns after just a few days on the COVID-IL for being a close contact to a positive case. Head is also back in the big leagues in short order after being optioned to Triple-A over the weekend, as teams are able to make quick recalls of players in the event of injury.
Johnson’s shoulder problem arose during Sunday’s game, with the right-hander falling to the ground after throwing a pitch. Manager Kevin Cash ominously reported that Johnson said he felt a crack in his shoulder, though further tests revealed only a sprain rather than a more serious injury. Johnson was making his third appearance for Tampa Bay after being acquired in a deadline deal with the Indians.
Cubs Activate Rowan Wick From Injured List
The Cubs are activating reliever Rowan Wick from the 60-day injured list before the second game of today’s doubleheader with the Brewers, the team informed reporters (including Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Sun-Times). He’ll be making his season debut whenever he gets into a game. The Cubs already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so no corresponding move is required.
Wick hasn’t pitched since last September on account of a left oblique strain. The righty was one of the Cubs’ top relievers from 2019-20, combining for 50 2/3 innings of 2.66 ERA ball. Wick punched out a solid 25.7% of batters faced in that time, albeit with a slightly elevated 10.3% walk rate.
At 52-62, the Cubs have fallen into fourth place in the National League Central. The team is playing out the string at this point. Still, Wick’s return gives him a few weeks to log some innings and look to cement himself as a back-end option for the team going into 2022.