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Astros Sign Fernando Rodney

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JULY 31: The club has announced the signing. Rodney will go to the team’s alternative training site.

JULY 28: The Astros are nearing a deal with veteran right-hander Fernando Rodney, Adam Spolane of SportsRadio 610 in Houston reports. The Octagon client is currently playing for the independent Sugar Land Skeeters, and the Astros have been negotiating a buyout of that arrangement. The deal is till pending a physical for Rodney, MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart tweets.

Rodney, now 43 years of age, would join his 12th MLB club if he ultimately gets into a big league game with the Astros. The longtime late-inning reliever split the 2019 season between the A’s and Nationals, struggling with the former but serving as a steadying presence in what had been a tumultuous bullpen with the latter. Rodney has a reputation for making any given appearance a rather adventurous outing, but his overall body of work with the World Champion Nationals was solid. In 33 1/3 frames, he logged a 4.05 ERA with 9.5 K/9, 4.3 BB/9, 0.81 HR/9 and a 48.3 percent ground-ball rate. Rodney’s heater still averaged 94.2 mph with the Nats last year.

The Astros’ bullpen has some notable names at the back of the mix, including Roberto Osuna and Ryan Pressly, but the pitching staff on the whole lacks experience. That’s particularly true with Justin Verlander currently shelved. Other Astros arms on the sidelines include Brad Peacock (shoulder), Austin Pruitt (elbow), Rogelio Armenteros (elbow) and Jose Urquidy (no reason provided). Rodney would add some depth and experience to a pitching staff that right now is carrying an eye-opening seven rookies.

MLB, Union Agree To Rules Changes

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JULY 31: The 7-inning doubleheader rule is now official. There’s no word yet on the proposed roster extension.

JULY 29, 2:04pm: These measures are union requests that the league is presently considering, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter).

1:45pm: It appears that the recent run of COVID-19 infections within the Marlins organization has prompted further contemplation of rules changes. The MLB Players’ Association has reached out to its members to gauge their sentiment regarding a few potential tweaks, per Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic (Twitter links).

Most notably, it appears the union has discussed with the league the possibility of keeping the 30-man active roster in effect all season long. The plan had been for it to ramp down to 26 players over the course of the campaign. But there’s now consideration of maintaining maximum flexibility for the entirety of the season.

The idea here, presumably, would be to make it easier for teams to manage workloads and deal with any coronavirus-related matters that arise. With more players to work with, for example, it’s easier to be proactive with isolating anyone who may have experienced possible transmission.

The other potential modification relates to doubleheaders. It’s possible the league could utilize a pair of seven-inning games or a regular nine-inning contest followed by a shorter, seven-inning affair. That would make it easier to squeeze in twin bills, as may well be needed to accommodate the scheduling modifications that have already proven necessary.

In both cases, the matters appear only to be under consideration at this time. Ghiroli cautions that “no firm decisions” have been reached just yet.

Rangers Select Greg Bird, Jimmy Herget; Designate Ariel Jurado

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The Rangers announced they’ve selected the contracts of first baseman Greg Bird and righty Jimmy Herget. To create 40-man space, the team designated righty Ariel Jurado for assignment.

Bird, 27, turned in an impressive showing upon his call-up in 2015 but has fallen flat since. He dealt with numerous injuries and couldn’t replicate his early success with the Yankees. The Texas org picked him up on a minors deal over the offseason.

As for Herget, who’s closing in on his 27th birthday, this’ll be his second look. He threw 6 1/3 innings last year with the Reds, failing to record a strikeout. In 58 1/3 Triple-A frames last year, he worked to a 2.91 ERA with 10.4 K/9 against 5.5 BB/9.

Jurado, 24, was dropped after getting quite a few looks over the past two seasons. He carries a 5.85 ERA in his 177 career innings at the game’s highest level. He hadn’t yet appeared in 2020.

Aroldis Chapman Cleared To Return To Yankees

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Star closer Aroldis Chapman is headed back to the Yankees, per ESPN.com’s Marly Rivera (Twitter link). Having previously tested positive for COVID-19, he had to register a pair of negative tests.

It isn’t yet clear whether Chapman will jump right onto the active roster at this time. He hit the injured list on July 11th, so he has been out of action for a decent stretch, but perhaps he won’t require much of a ramp-up if he has been able to throw while on the sideline.

The Yanks worked out a new deal last fall with Chapman, who could’ve opted out and tested free agency. The 32-year-old is earning a pro-rated portion of a $16MM salary this year and will be due the same in each of the next two campaigns.

It’s good to hear that Chapman was able to clear the virus in short order. And it’s obviously also great news for the back of the Yankees pen. Chapman’s flamethrower of a left arm wasn’t quite as hot last year, when he averaged a mere 98.2 mph on his four-seam fastball, but he offset that by gaining confidence in his slider.

Even in his slightly less-dominant form, Chapman remained an absolute force. He threw 57 innings of 2.21 ERA ball last year, sporting a 14.1% swinging-strike rate while allowing just 0.47 homers per nine.

White Sox Promote Nick Madrigal, Designate Kelvin Herrera

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The White Sox have called up second baseman Nick Madrigal, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN.com (via Twitter). His promotion had been anticipated but was not yet confirmed to be imminent.

Reliever Kelvin Herrera was designated for assignment to create 40-man and active roster space. He was in the second season of a two-year, $17MM deal.

Madrigal, the fourth overall pick in the 2018 draft, will not have a chance to accrue a full season of MLB service. He will, however, be on track to ultimately qualify for arbitration after the 2022 season as a Super Two player.

It’ll certainly be fun to watch the 23-year-old in the majors. He has quite an unusual skillset, with negligible power but otherworldly contact ability and plate discipline.

A consensus top-50 prospect leaguewide, Madrigal have to keep hitting and walking at a tremendous rate to be an above-average MLB hitter. Last year, over the three highest levels of the minors, he logged 532 plate appearances of .311/.377/.414 hitting. Though he managed only four home runs, Madrigal amazingly struck out only 16 times while drawing 44 walks.

As exciting as it is for the Sox to welcome Madrigal, bidding adieu to Herrera represents an acknowledgement of a disappointment. The 30-year-old signed his contract after recovering from a major foot procedure but just hasn’t returned to form.

As MLBTR’s Connor Byrne examined in depth recently, the once-excellent reliever has struggled mightily in Chicago. He limped to a 6.14 ERA in 51 1/3 innings in 2019 and was shelled for four earned runs over his first two outings in 2020. Worst still, his typically upper-nineties fastball velocity has drooped to about 94 mph thus far this season.

With the decision, the White Sox will owe Herrera the remainder of the pro-rated portion of his $8.5MM salary this year. They’ll also still have to pay him a $1MM buyout on a 2020 vesting/club option.

Cubs Sign Cody Allen To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs announced Friday that they’ve signed right-hander Cody Allen to a minor league contract and assigned him to their alternate training site in South Bend. The team’s player pool is now up to 58.

It wasn’t that long ago that Allen, 31, was considered one of the game’s best closers. He’s struggled considerably over the past two seasons, but from 2013-17, Allen was a ninth-inning buzzsaw in Cleveland, pitching to a 2.59 ERA and 2.86 FIP with 122 saves, 11.9 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and 0.86 HR/9.

In the two years since that dominant stretch, though, Allen’s average fastball has dipped by a bit more than three miles per hour. He stumbled to a 4.70 ERA in his final year prior to free agency but was still able to land a sizable one-year deal with the Halos. Unfortunately, he was clobbered for an ERA north of 6.00 and cut loose before the season had even reached the halfway mark. Allen carries a 5.10 ERA with 109 strikeouts against an unpalatable 53 walks in his past 90 MLB frames.

Two years ago, a bullpen featuring both Allen and Craig Kimbrel would’ve been the envy of 29 other teams in the league. Both pitchers have seen rapid downturns in performance now, however. The Cubs badly need one or both former stars to figure things out, as their patchwork bullpen has already proven to be a major weakness early in 2020. Chicago relievers have already yielded 20 runs on 18 hits and a ghastly 20 walks in just 18 2/3 innings. Seven of those hits have left the yard.

Cardinals-Brewers Game Postponed Due To Positive Covid-19 Tests

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11:55am: The Cardinals issued a statement that the two tests which came back positive were performed Wednesday prior to their game with the Twins at Target Field in Minneapolis. The Cardinals have not been to Miller Park yet. That statement carries particular significance for the Twins and for the Indians, who used Target Field’s visiting clubhouse last night.

10:32am: The league announced that tonight’s game has been postponed. They’ll attempt to make it up as part of a doubleheader Sunday. MLB’s statements reads as follows:

Today’s scheduled game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the St. Louis Cardinals at Miller Park has been rescheduled as part of a traditional doubleheader on Sunday, August 2nd at 1:10 p.m. (CT).  The rescheduling as a result of two positive COVID-19 tests in the Cardinals’ organization is consistent with protocols to allow enough time for additional testing and contact tracing to be conducted.

That statement seems to represent a departure from the protocols of just one week ago, when the Marlins/Phillies series was played to completion despite as many as seven known positive cases by Sunday. It’s surely frustrating for some fans to see, but it’s also in the best interest of completing a 2020 season to update protocols based on the efficacy of the standing regulations.

9:35am: SportsGrid’s Craig Mish tweets that two Cardinals players have tested positive so far. Both were pitchers, Saxon adds.

9:25am: The Athletic’s Mark Saxon reports that if the remainder of the Cardinals’ roster tests negative, the series against the Brewers could still begin tomorrow. It remains unclear how many players and/or staff members on the club have tested positive, however.

8:47am: Tonight’s game between the Brewers and Cardinals will be postponed due to positive Covid-19 tests within the Cardinals organization, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter links). Joel Sherman of the New York Post adds that the Cardinals are isolating at their hotel and have not been to Miller Park.

It’s a discouraging development for the league, which had previously emphasized that the current outbreak within the sport was contained within the Marlins organization. Neither the Brewers nor the Cardinals have played (or will play) the Marlins in 2020 under the realigned schedule.

The number of positive tests will be telling, but it’s easy to imagine widespread implications. The Brewers will obviously be directly impacted, but they’re unlikely to be alone. The Cardinals just traveled to Milwaukee from Minneapolis, for instance, after completing a two-game set with the Twins. Minnesota hosted the Indians last night, meaning the Cleveland players and staff were in the same visitors clubhouse that had just hosted the Cardinals. Both the Twins and Indians, then, could feel the impact of the Cardinals’ tests even if none of the players on either roster have tested positive yet. The Pirates, whom the Cardinals played in their first series of the season, are also likely on alert after today’s news. The Cards had been scheduled to take on the Tigers next week, but as we saw with the Marlins, Phillies and their upcoming opponents, that now could be subject to change, too.

The hope, of course, is that the number of positives is minimal or even singular. Postponing a game based on a small number of positive tests would surely draw some criticism from fans, but the league would be justified in pointing to the prior Marlins outbreak as justification for not allowing a series to commence after a small number of players tested positive. The Marlins had four positives prior to that series, played the three games anyhow, and by yesterday were up to a staggering 17 positives among players and two on the coaching/training staff.

Eighteenth Marlins Player Tests Positive For Covid-19

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The Marlins have received yet another positive Covid-19 test among their players, bringing the total to an alarming 18 cases, Daniel Alvarez Montes of El ExtraBase reports (via Twitter). The Marlins also have two positive cases on their coaching/training staff, bringing the total to 20 members of the team’s traveling party.

In better news for the Marlins, veteran outfielder Matt Joyce, who missed all of Summer Camp, has tested negative and been cleared to join the team, per SportsGrid’s Craig Mish (Twitter link). To be clear, Joyce was not counted among the 18 positive Marlins cases that have emerged since Opening Day.

Miami’s entire alternate training site reportedly tested negatively recently, and they’ve added several new players via waivers and free agency as they look to offset the enormous toll that the Covid-19 outbreak has taken on their team. It’s troubling, though, that players continue to test positive even though it’s now been five days since the team completed its final game of the opening series against the Phillies. Presently, Miami is slated to resume play early next week, but it’s not clear if the continual positive tests will impact that.

Certainly, the risk of further spreading Covid-19 infections throughout the league is the primary concern, but there’s also the matter of the Marlins being able to field a Major League roster whenever they do seek to return to the field. The team has additional players in reserve at its alternate training site, but of the group that opened the season there, only four had Major League experience (Ryan Lavarnway, Travis Snider, Jordan Yamamoto and Josh A. Smith).

The Marlins have since claimed Mike Morin, Justin Shafer and Josh D. Smith off waivers in addition to signing Logan Forsythe and Pat Venditte. Their additions are crucial, as the Marlins opted to take a very young group to alternate camp for development purposes. A dozen players there are 22 years old or younger — many of them not particularly close to MLB ready. Joyce will presumably need some time to ramp up at their alternate site, but he’ll give the Fish a much-needed option in the relatively near future.

Commissioner Rob Manfred said earlier this week that the Marlins outbreak does not qualify as a “nightmare” scenario, although at that point, there were 11 known positives on the roster as opposed to the current 18. And while the positive tests since Opening Day had been confined to the Marlins until this morning, the Cardinals have now reportedly had a pair of players test positive as well, causing their scheduled game in Milwaukee to be postponed.

Injury Notes: Simmons, Odorizzi, Kershaw, Bowman

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There’s still no official timeline on Andrelton Simmons’ return from his latest ankle injury, but the Angels shortstop said Thursday that his injury isn’t as bad as the ankle issue that cost him more than a month of his 2019 season, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. The slick-fielding shortstop hasn’t undergone an MRI to this point and noted that his range of motion is already improving.

Simmons had two separate IL stints for problems in the same ankle last year and limped to a .264/.309/.364 slash line in 424 plate appearances. However, his 2017-18 numbers with the Angels had seemed to indicate an upward trajectory with the bat: .285/.334/.419 in 304 games. A strong 2020 output might cause teams to view the 2019 season as an outlier for Simmons, a free agent this winter, but the recurrence of ankle troubles shortens his window to perform and serves as a red flag for interested clubs. Obviously, it’s also a critical loss for an Angels club that spent significantly this winter and hopes to return to the the postseason in this year’s expanded format. Simmons is among this generation’s most gifted defenders and leads all MLB players, regardless of position, with 192 Defensive Runs Saved since his 2012 debut. (Kevin Kiermaier is second … at 115.)

Some more injury updates from around the game…

  • Jake Odorizzi threw a bullpen session yesterday and feels that his lower back strain has healed, La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes. However, the right-hander will still face some live hitters at the Twins’ alternate training site over in St. Paul before he’s activated from the injured list. Odorizzi tabbed Monday as a potential date to face hitters. Right-hander Randy Dobnak could get another start as Odorizzi finalizes his rehab. The 30-year-old Odorizzi enjoyed a career year with the Twins in ’19, pitching to a 3.51 ERA with 10.1 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and 0.91 HR/9 in 159 innings. He accepted a one-year, $17.2MM qualifying offer last November and will be a free agent again this winter.
  • Clayton Kershaw could join the Dodgers’ rotation as soon as Sunday or Monday, manager Dave Roberts told reporters Thursday evening (link via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com). The three-time Cy Young winner and five-time NL ERA leader was scratched from his Opening Day start just hours before first pitch due to back tightness and replaced by rookie Dustin May. Since Kershaw hit the IL, the Dodgers have also lost Alex Wood, prompting them to bring up another young right-hander, Tony Gonsolin, to take the ball in tonight’s game. Kershaw tossed a bullpen session yesterday, and all indications right now are that his IL stint will be rather brief.
  • The Reds announced yesterday that they’ve reversed their option on right-handed reliever Matt Bowman and instead placed him on the 10-day injured list due to an elbow sprain. That’s both an ominous diagnosis for the 29-year-old Bowman and important distinction with regard to service time. Because Bowman was determined to have an injury that existed prior to being optioned to alternate camp, he’s been brought back up and placed on the Major League injured list, where he’ll receive MLB service time and MLB pay. The Reds didn’t offer a potential timeline for Bowman, who tossed 32 frames for them a year ago and recorded a solid 3.66 ERA with 25 strikeouts against 13 walks (three intentional) with just two homers allowed.

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