Angels Place Anthony Rendon On Injured List
The Angels announced they’ve placed third baseman Anthony Rendon on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to July 5, with a left hamstring strain. Utilityman Jack Mayfield has been recalled to take his active roster spot. Los Angeles also announced that outfielder Scott Schebler, who had been designated for assignment, has cleared outright waivers and accepted an assignment to Triple-A Salt Lake.
This will mark the third IL stint of the season for Rendon, continuing what has been a disappointing campaign. When healthy, the 31-year-old has hit an average .240/.329/.382 with six home runs over 249 plate appearances. That’s a far cry from the star-level production Rendon had offered over the previous four years. Between 2017-20, he’d hit .307/.399/.550. That works out to a 146 wRC+ that tied for eighth among the 260 qualified hitters over that time frame.
Slow start notwithstanding, the Angels are surely hoping to get Rendon back onto the field rather quickly. Manager Joe Maddon suggested Rendon’s absence wouldn’t be too long (via Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com). That’s welcome news for the 42-42 club, which sits six games back in the AL Wild Card race. A return to health and peak form from Rendon could be critical to the team’s hopes of making a late-season run.
Schebler returns to Salt Lake, where he’s hit a solid .281/.355/.523 over 172 plate appearances this season. The left-handed hitter has twice been selected to the major league roster but only combined to make 34 trips to the dish at the highest level.
Giants Activate Tyler Beede, Designate Jimmie Sherfy
The Giants announced they’ve reinstated right-hander Tyler Beede from the 60-day injured list. Reliever Jimmie Sherfy has been designated for assignment to open active and 40-man roster space. Additionally, San Francisco placed outfielder Jaylin Davis on the 10-day IL with a left hamstring strain and recalled infielder Jason Vosler.
Beede is in line to make his first major league appearance since 2019. The former first-round pick underwent an ill-timed Tommy John surgery in March 2020. That cost him all of last season and almost the entire first half of 2021. Beede was a regular member of San Francisco’s starting five during his last healthy run. He made 24 appearances (22 starts) in 2019, tossing 117 innings of 5.08 ERA ball with average strikeout and walk rates (21.6% and 8.8%, respectively). There could be room for Beede to step back into the rotation; Logan Webb has been on the IL since last month due to a shoulder strain, and Sammy Long just hit the IL himself due to a low back strain.
Sherfy signed a minor league deal with the Giants over the offseason and earned a spot on the big league roster in early June. The 29-year-old pitched respectably over 10 2/3 innings, allowing five runs on nine hits and four walks with nine strikeouts. Sherfy has pitched in the majors in each of the past four years, combining for 56 innings of 3.21 ERA/3.99 SIERA ball. That solid track record could attract the interest of another club, although any acquiring team would have to keep the out-of-options Sherfy on the active roster or designate him for assignment themselves. The Giants will have a week to trade the right-hander or place him on waivers.
Dee Strange-Gordon Opts Out Of Deal With Cubs
Veteran infielder Dee Strange-Gordon has opted out of his minor league contract with the Cubs, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). He’s now a free agent, but Passan adds he’s expected to sign elsewhere in the next few days.
It’s the third time this season Strange-Gordon has been let go from a minor league deal after he didn’t crack the 40-man roster. The speedster signed with the Reds over the winter, was released in Spring Training, and hooked on with the Brewers in April. Strange-Gordon was released by the Brew Crew in late May and signed with the Cubs a few days later.
While Strange-Gordon hit well in a ten-game stint with the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate, his longer run with the Cubs’ top farm team didn’t go well. Between the two organizations, the 33-year-old has hit just .259/.299/.361 across 168 plate appearances in Triple-A West this season. It’s a continuation of Strange-Gordon’s offensive struggles throughout his 2018-20 tenure with the Mariners.
Nevertheless, it’s not surprising to hear there’s still interest in Strange-Gordon around the league. He’s a two-time All-Star and respected veteran who still has plenty of speed and has played both middle infield positions in the minors this year.
Brewers Acquire Rowdy Tellez
The Brewers have been baseball’s most active team on the trade front so far, and they’ve now struck up another deal to bring in some infield depth. Milwaukee is trading reliever Trevor Richards and minor league righty Bowden Francis to the Blue Jays in exchange for first baseman Rowdy Tellez, the two teams announced Tuesday.
Tellez, 26, brings another powerful left-handed bat to a Brewers club that recently lost first baseman Daniel Vogelbach to a hamstring injury. He’s shuffled between Triple-A and the big leagues with the Jays in recent seasons, at times looking like a possible long-term answer at first base/designated hitter for the Jays.
However, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.‘s shift across the diamond from third base to first base cut into Tellez’s opportunities, and the team’s signing of George Springer created a four-man carousel between the outfield and DH when everyone is at full strength; Springer, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Teoscar Hernandez and Randal Grichuk are all in line for regular at-bats when the lineup is healthy. That, coupled with the fact that Tellez hit just .209/.272/.338 in 151 plate appearances earlier in the year when Springer was on the injured list, likely prompted to the Jays’ willingness to move on from Tellez.
Those struggles notwithstanding, Tellez is an intriguing bat on which to buy low for Milwaukee. He mashed at a .283/.346/.540 clip with eight homers and five doubles in 127 plate appearances with the Jays in 2020 and belted 21 home runs for them in 2019. Entering the season, Tellez carried .250/.309/.488 batting line with 33 homers, 33 doubles, a 6.9 percent walk rate and a 25.7 percent strikeout rate in 609 trips to the plate.
Tellez struggled in his first exposure to Triple-A ball as a 22-year-old back in 2017, but his production at that level has steadily increased; he’s hitting .298/.400/.638 in 55 plate appearances there so far in 2021 and batted .366/.450/.688 in 26 games (109 plate appearances) there back in 2019 as well.
The hope for the Brewers is surely that Tellez can provide an immediate boost at a position that has been a point of frustration so far in 2021. Keston Hiura struggled with the move to first base and has twice been optioned to Triple-A Nashville, although to his credit, Hiura has been hitting quite well since his latest recall. Vogelbach was helping to solidify the position with a strong showing for the first few weeks of June, but the aforementioned hamstring injury came with a recovery timetable of at least six weeks.
It’s not clear just how the Brewers will divide the playing time up — particularly once Vogelbach is healthy — but Hiura and Tellez ostensibly form an intriguing platoon. Tellez can also be freely optioned for the remainder of the current season, so he could be an up-and-down piece in Milwaukee for now, just as he was with the Jays. Looking longer term, he’s under club control for three more years beyond the current campaign and will be eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter.
For the Blue Jays, this marks the second under-the-radar reliever they’ve picked up in the past week or so. They’re not even a week removed from acquiring Adam Cimber and injured outfielder Corey Dickerson (whose left-handed bat could potentially replace Tellez on the depth chart if he makes it back this season) in a trade that sent Joe Panik and minor league righty Andrew McInvale to the Marlins.
Richards, like Cimber, wasn’t an obvious trade candidate. He’d only just joined the Brewers in mid-May, coming over from the Rays as part of the Willy Adames trade, and is controllable through the 2024 campaign. So far in 2021, the 28-year-old has tallied 31 2/3 innings of 3.69 ERA ball while striking out 31.7 percent of his opponents against a 9.8 percent walk rate. He gives the Jays a pitcher with ample experience as both in the bullpen and in the rotation, having started 48 games between the Marlins and the Rays from 2018-19.
The 2020 season was a miserable one for Richards, who limped to a 5.91 ERA for Tampa Bay while posting career-worst strikeout and home-run rates. That came in a sample of just 32 innings, however, and he’s bounced back nicely through the season’s first three months. Overall, Richards owns a 4.34 ERA, 23.1 percent strikeout rate and 9.5 percent walk rate in 325 1/3 innings at the MLB level.
Francis, 25, was Milwaukee’s seventh-round pick in 2017 and has posted a solid season between Double-A and Triple-A thus far. He’s worked exclusively as a starter, tallying 59 2/3 innings with a 3.62 ERA, a 27.3 percent strikeout rate and a 7.1 percent walk rate. Francis is an extreme fly-ball pitcher who ranked 25th among Milwaukee farmhands on last week’s rankings from Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs. Longenhagen notes that a newly added slider quickly became the best of Francis’ four pitches in 2021 and calls him a potential back-of-the-rotation arm with a excellent feel for pitching but mostly fringe stuff on the mound.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that Tellez was headed to the Brewers in exchange for Richards (Twitter link). Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi tweeted that Francis was also going to the Jays in the deal.
Dodgers Designate Steven Souza Jr. For Assignment
The Dodgers announced Tuesday that they’ve designated veteran outfielder Steven Souza Jr. for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for right-handed reliever Jake Reed, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Oklahoma City.
Souza, 32, joined the Dodgers on a minor league deal back in mid-April after he was unable to win a roster spot with the Astros in Spring Training. The Dodgers called the former Rays slugger to the big leagues last month after he posted a mammoth .279/.444/.603 batting line with six homers, four doubles and 16 walks in 90 Triple-A plate appearances. Souza has functioned as a seldom-used bench piece and pinch-hitter, however, tallying just 28 plate appearances in 13 games and posting a .160/.250/.360 batting line in that time.
The past few years have been a roller coaster for Souza, who missed much of the 2018 season with pectoral injuries before suffering a catastrophic knee injury during Spring Training with the D-backs in 2019. Souza suffered tears of the ACL, LCL, PCL and posterolateral capsule in his left knee during a play at the plate and missed the entire season recovering from the subsequent surgery. That he’s been able to return to the Majors at all after such a devastating injury is a testament to his determination, but he’s yet to get a legitimate look with either the Cubs (for whom he played last summer) or the Dodgers, who now have a week to trade Souza, place him on outright waivers, or release him.
For the 28-year-old Reed, this will mark his first call to the Majors after eight years in pro ball. The former Oregon Duck was a fifth-round pick by the Twins back in 2014 and long rated as one of the organization’s more promising bullpen prospects. He posted video-game numbers in the lower minors before beginning to stumble at the Double-A level, although after spending a few seasons both there and in Triple-A, Reed’s numbers began to come around. He never parlayed that into a big league appearance with the Twins, however, and he’s now split the 2021 season between both L.A. clubs after first signing with the Angels as a minor league free agent.
Since being released from that deal and signing with the Dodgers, Reed has pitched 10 1/3 innings in OKC, holding opponents to three runs on 12 hits and just one walk with 11 punchouts. In parts of five Triple-A seasons, he’s pitched to a 3.89 ERA with a solid 26.1 percent strikeout rate, a slightly elevated 9.8 percent walk rate and a 41.4 percent ground-ball rate in 185 innings of relief.
Bud Black: German Marquez Won’t Be Traded
Starting pitching is at a premium this deadline season perhaps more than ever before, but Rockies skipper Bud Black rather decisively stated that one of the more coveted options on the market will be staying put. In an appearance with Jim Duquette on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM (Twitter link, with audio).
“He’s on a multi-year deal, so we have him a couple more years,” Black said of Marquez. “…He’s not going anywhere. Even though it might be out there — there might be some noise — we let our guys know, these guys aren’t going to be traded. That’s how our owner feels. That’s how so many people in our organization who are the decision-makers feel about German — and a few other guys, too.”
Obviously, Black doesn’t have final say over baseball operations in Colorado, but he’s no doubt in regular contact with interim general manager Bill Schmidt and the front office regarding the team’s direction as the July 30 trade deadline approaches. Absolutist statement such as this are rare this time of year, as most clubs take an open-minded approach to the deadline, but it seems the Rockies are none too keen on parting with their top starter. They’ve been unwilling to commit to a rebuild in recent years, and that doesn’t appear to have changed for the time being — in spite of a front office exodus that has seen GM Jeff Bridich step down and assistant GMs Jon Weil and Zach Wilson resign.
On the one hand, it’s understandable that any club would be reluctant to part with the 26-year-old Marquez. Under the contract extension he signed in April 2019, he’s being paid $7.5MM in 2021, $11MM in 2022 and $15MM in 2023 before the Rockies must decide on a $16.5MM club option (or a $2.5MM buyout) for the 2024 season. Pair that affordable contract with Marquez’s generally strong track record, and he has the makings of a core piece.
Despite pitching his home games at the hitter-friendly Coors Field, Marquez has pitched to an ERA comfortably south of 4.00 in three of the past four seasons. He’s sitting on a 3.59 mark at the moment and has combined an excellent 54.5 percent ground-ball rate with roughly average strikeout and walk percentages (24.2 percent and 9.5 percent, respectively). He’s also extremely durable. Marquez has only had one trip to the injured list since breaking into the Majors in 2016 — a brief stint for arm inflammation at the end of the 2019 campaign. He averaged 30 starts per year from 2017-19, made all 13 of his starts in 2020, and hasn’t missed an outing so far in 2021.
On the other hand, however, there’s a clear argument that these are the exact reasons the Rockies should be looking to move Marquez. Nolan Arenado is now in St. Louis. Trevor Story and Jon Gray will either be traded in the next 24 days or will very likely depart via free agency this winter. The Rox are on a collision course with their third straight losing season and their ninth playoff miss in 11 years. The farm system is ranked among the thinnest in baseball, and the top of the NL West looks more formidable each year. A Marquez trade could be the catalyst for a reshaping of the team’s farm system and its long-term payroll outlook.
That, however, simply hasn’t been the modus operandi for owner Dick Monfort. Even on the heels of a 71-91 recird in 2019 and an offseason in which he brought in zero help for the big league roster, Monfort proclaimed that the 2020 Rockies would win 94 games.
“I interpolated ’07, ’08 and ’09,” Monfort told the Denver Post in early February 2020. “I had an analytical staff go through and interpolate those numbers — and so in 2020, we’ll win 94 games and lose 68.” (Obvious, unforeseen circumstances rendered that prediction impossible to come true, but the 2020 Rockies went 26-34 — a .433 winning percentage that was actually worse than their 2019 percentage.)
Fatal optimism has been a hallmark of Rockies ownership, and the wholehearted dismissal of even considering a Marquez trade so far in advance of the deadline looks like a continuation of the status quo. It’s possible, of course, that a club blows the Rockies out of the water with a strong initial offer they can’t ignore, but such strong comments from Black make that decidedly unlikely.
It should be noted that an unwillingness to trade Marquez right now does not mean the Rockies will be similarly closed to the notion this winter. Schmidt is only the interim general manager in place of Bridich, and it would be sensible for Monfort to want a transaction as substantial as a Marquez trade to be engineered by whoever is hired to oversee baseball operations on a permanent basis. That’s a luxury the Rockies don’t have with regard to potential trades of Story, Jon Gray and C.J. Cron, all of whom are impending free agents, so it’ll fall to Schmidt and his lone remaining assistant GM, Zack Rosenthal, to spearhead any such negotiations.
Dodgers, Neftali Feliz Agree To Minor League Deal
The Dodgers have agreed to a minor league deal with veteran right-hander Neftali Feliz, as first reported by USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (Twitter link). The 33-year-old was cut loose after a pair of rough outings with the Phillies last month.
Feliz, the 2010 AL Rookie of the Year, has seen his once-promising career largely derailed by injuries, although he made a return to the Majors after a nearly four-year absence last month in Philadelphia. He’d dominated in Triple-A, earning that promotion to the bigs, but Feliz was immediately dropped into some high-leverage situations and surrendered the lead in both instances. The Phillies, trying for a second straight season to overcome a series of staggering bullpen struggles, designated Feliz for assignment as part of their ongoing reliever carousel.
It’s been years since we’ve seen Feliz at his best, although his recent work isn’t without its positive indicators. The right-hander’s fastball isn’t averaging 97.5 mph like it did when he was a rookie, but an average four-seam velo of 95.7 mph in his limited work with the Phils is nevertheless quite strong. Add in a 1.26 ERA and a 23-to-6 K/BB ratio in 14 1/3 frames with Triple-A Lehigh Valley earlier this year, and at the very least, Feliz seems well worth a no-risk look.
Bullpen help figures to be one area that the Dodgers will address in the three-plus weeks leading up to the deadline, but bringing Feliz into the mix right now gives them an upside lottery ticket to evaluate down the stretch.
Poll: Mitch Haniger’s Future In Seattle
With a year and a half to go before free agency, Mariners right fielder Mitch Haniger will be among the more talked-about names in the three-plus weeks leading up to the July 30 trade deadline. The veteran outfielder is in the midst of a bounceback campaign after a pair of injury-ruined seasons, batting .252/.304/.479 (116 wRC+) with 18 home runs, 16 doubles and a triple. Statcast pegs him at three Outs Above Average in right field.
Despite that nice showing, Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times reports that the team has not yet approached Haniger about an extension, even though he’d be open to such talks. This time of year, such revelations are often accompanied by the assumption that absent a contract extension, a player is likely to be traded. That’s sometimes true — it’s reportedly more or less the case with Starling Marte down in Miami, for instance — but every situation is different.
Firstly, the Mariners aren’t squarely out of postseason contention. It’d be tough to erase a seven-game deficit and overtake not one but two very good teams (Houston and Oakland) en route to a division title, but the M’s have played good ball as of late and are now five games over .500. A Wild Card berth would be more viable, and they’re looking at a more manageable 3.5-game deficit in that race. At the very least, GM Jerry Dipoto is going to want to see how his club performs over the next couple of weeks before trading away veteran contributors.
Beyond that, the Mariners may not feel forced to trade Haniger, even though this is the apex of his trade value. It’s true that they’d get more for trading one-plus season of him in the next three weeks than they would by marketing one year of Haniger this winter, but it’s not as though he’d be devoid of trade value in the offseason — or even next summer. And with the Mariners playing as well as they have been lately, there’s reason to at least wait until the deadline approaches to give this group a chance to decide its own fate.
The Mariners, after all, are staring down a two-decade postseason drought. If they’re within arm’s reach of a Wild Card berth and/or a division lead in the days leading up to the deadline, it’d be hard to fault the front office for opting to ride things out with the current group (or even for making some additions that don’t mortgage the future). The fanbase in Seattle is starved for playoff baseball, and the heavy lifting in their rebuild has already been done. We also regularly hear GMs, managers, coaches and veteran players talk about the importance of exposing young players to the pressure of a postseason chase. It’s hard to quantify the benefit of that type of experience, but most agree on its inherent value.
As for an extension, however, that’d be another beast entirely. The best-case scenario for the Mariners is that their vaunted farm produces a controllable outfield. Jarred Kelenic struggled in his first taste of the Majors earlier this year, but he was making the jump to big leagues at 21 and with just six games of Triple-A experience under his belt. He’s demolished Triple-A pitching since being optioned back down to Tacoma — .302/.382/.621, seven homers, seven doubles, one triple, 14.5 percent strikeout rate, 10.9 percent walk rate — and is still seen as a long-term cornerstone.
Kelenic and Julio Rodriguez entered the season as consensus top-five prospects in all of baseball. Taylor Trammell has been widely regarded as a top-100 prospect himself, and the Mariners of course have 2020 AL Rookie of the Year Kyle Lewis — though he’s currently sidelined by another knee injury. That doesn’t even take into account 26-year-old Jake Fraley, who has never been considered an elite prospect but has emphatically forced his way into the conversation with a .263/.437/.505 showing in 134 plate appearances so far.
Suffice it to say, the Mariners are deep in outfield talent and there are only so many spots to go around. Extending Haniger takes one of those long-term positions and commits it to a player who’ll turn 31 this winter and is five years older than any of the in-house alternatives. There’s something to be said for Haniger as a proven commodity, but the Mariners also likely trust they can assemble a high-quality outfield with younger, more affordable players. Doing so would allow them to dedicate their financial resources to other areas of need.
Considering their outfield depth, it’s not too surprising to hear the Mariners haven’t put forth a long-term offer for Haniger. That doesn’t necessarily make a trade a fait accompli, however.
It’s possible that three weeks from now, the team’s play will have solved any potential dilemma for the front office. Seattle’s final seven games before the trade deadline come against the Athletics and Astros, from July 22-28. They have an off-day on the 29th. If the M’s stay red-hot and come away with a pair of series wins in that pivotal seven-game stretch, Dipoto & Co. will likely be more emboldened to take a measured shot at a 2021 run. If the Mariners go something like 5-13 in their remaining 18 games leading up to the deadline, including some poor play against their top rivals, it becomes far likelier that we’ll see Haniger and other veterans marketed in a hurry.
It’s too soon to know just how that’ll all play out, but we’ll still open this one up for debate. As things stand right now, what’s the best course of action for the M’s to take with Haniger? (Link to poll for Trade Rumors iOS/Android app users)
What should the Mariners' approach be with Mitch Haniger?
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They need to sell high this month. Don't be fooled by a small chance at a 2021 playoff run. 51% (3,106)
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Ride out the 2021 season and shop him this winter/next summer. They're still in this, and the prospects aren't all ready. 28% (1,728)
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He's a proven player and a core piece. They should extend him. 21% (1,312)
Total votes: 6,146
Mets Exploring Rotation Market, Open To Rentals
As injuries continue to mount on the Mets’ pitching staff — young lefty David Peterson is out up to eight weeks with an oblique strain — acting general manager Zack Scott spoke with reporters about his team’s approach at the trade deadline (links, with video, via MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo and SNY’s Andy Martino). While Scott took a generally open-minded approach, he did acknowledge the opportunity for upgrades in the starting rotation, given the health woes that have plagued the Mets’ staff this year.
“It’s like we’ve gone the reverse of where we were earlier, where we had several position player injuries early,” said Scott. “…I think the same thing could be said, especially for the starting pitchers. There’s uncertainty, so we need to make sure we put our best foot forward there.”
The Mets came to Spring Training with visions of an Opening Day rotation featuring Jacob deGrom, Carlos Carrasco, Marcus Stroman, Taijuan Walker and likely Peterson. In a best-case scenario, rehabbing flamethrower Noah Syndergaard would be back from Tommy John surgery by early summer.
That, of course, hasn’t been the case at all in 2021. Carrasco still hasn’t thrown a pitch thanks to recurring hamstring troubles. The Mets’ current hope is that he’ll return by month’s end, but Carrasco’s timeline has proven to be quite tenuous to this point in the season. Syndergaard, meanwhile, is not expected back until early September. The team’s top depth option, southpaw Joey Lucchesi, will miss the next year-plus due to Tommy John surgery. Right-hander Jordan Yamamoto is on the 60-day IL due to shoulder issues.
Given that context, Scott’s mention of starting pitching upgrades is perfectly sensible. However, Martino reports that the Mets are “reluctant” to move the top-tier talents from their minor league system in trades. That curbs the quality of pitcher the Mets can reasonably hope to acquire. Scott voiced a willingness to acquire rental players, noting that the cost of impending free agents is “most of the time fairly reasonable” due to that lack of club control.
The Mets will surely gauge the price of more controllable arms, but if they’re indeed reluctant to part with their very best prospects, such names will be difficult to obtain. For instance, the New York Post’s Ken Davidoff writes that the Mets have at least gauged the Twins’ asking price on right-hander Jose Berrios but consider it to be “sky-high.” The Mets have also been linked to Minnesota’s Josh Donaldson, so it’s only natural that they’d also see where things stand with Berrios. (Some fans will inevitably speculate about eating the Donaldson contract to get Berrios at a lower prospect cost, but there’d be little sense in the Twins tanking the value of their most appealing trade asset and instead leveraging him to dump the salary of a veteran who is performing quite well.)
A Berrios-caliber arm may be tough for the Mets to line up given their apparent reluctance to deal from the top of the farm, but Scott noted that the brilliant performance of his team’s top three starters also means he doesn’t need to prioritize a top-of-the-rotation arm. “It could be just someone that helps us stabilize things until we get healthier,” he said of a potential rotation acquisition.
Given the performances of deGrom, Stroman and Walker to this point in the season, it’s only natural that the Mets don’t feel pressured to pursue another high-caliber starter. They’ll surely keep themselves informed of the market for such arms. But with deGrom looking once again like the runaway Cy Young favorite and both Stroman (2.59 ERA, 3.64 FIP) and Walker (2.44 ERA, 3.05 FIP) both thriving, there’s an argument that a steady fourth starter — even a rental — is the most logical piece to prioritize for now. Speculatively speaking, available rentals in that mold would include the Twins’ Michael Pineda, the Rockies’ Jon Gray or the Pirates’ Tyler Anderson. D-backs righty Merrill Kelly also fits that general description, and he has an affordable club option for the 2022 campaign as well.
KBO’s Hanwha Eagles Sign Hernan Perez, Release Ryon Healy
July 6: The Eagles have announced the signing. Perez will earn $400K total — $300K in salary plus a $100K signing bonus — for the remainder of the season, per Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency.
July 4, 11:49 am: Pérez is indeed being granted his release to sign with the Eagles, he confirms to Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (Twitter thread).
8:35 am: The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they’ve released first baseman Ryon Healy (h/t to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News). Utilityman Hernán Pérez is among the candidates to replay Healy on the roster, the Eagles confirmed.
The Eagles signed Healy to a one-year deal with an $800K guarantee last December. The hope was the 29-year-old would settle in as a middle-of-the-order force, but that didn’t prove to be the case. Through 268 plate appearances, Healy hit .257/.306/.394 with seven home runs.
Despite the underwhelming showing in the KBO, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Healy attract some interest from MLB teams on minor league deals if he’s now set to return to the United States. He appeared in the big leagues with the A’s, Mariners and Brewers between 2016-20, compiling an overall league average .261/.298/.450 line through 1606 trips to the plate. Healy broke in to the majors as a third baseman but saw increasing action at first base later in his big league tenure and was used exclusively at first with the Eagles.
Pérez signed a minor league deal with the Brewers in May and is with their Triple-A affiliate in Nashville. He’s gotten off to a fantastic .357/.396/.536 start across 91 plate appearances with the Sounds. Milwaukee has since acquired Willy Adames to play shortstop, though. That bumped Luis Urías to third base, which has coincided with an uptick in the latter’s offensive production. Second baseman Kolten Wong is currently on the 10-day injured list, but that’s expected to be a short-term stint, and utilityman Jace Peterson has been fantastic off the bench. It’s possible the Milwaukee front office doesn’t see an immediate role available for Pérez, regardless of his performance in Nashville.
If Pérez does wind up signing with the Eagles, he’ll assuredly land a better salary than he’s currently earning in the minors. The 30-year-old has appeared in the majors in each of the past ten seasons, including a ten-game stint with the Nationals earlier this year. Through 1846 plate appearances (the majority of which came in a previous stint with the Brewers), Pérez has hit .250/.280/.352 (72 wRC+) while appearing at every defensive position other than catcher.