Cardinals Claim Justin Miller Off Waivers From Nationals, Move Jack Flaherty To 60-Day Injured List
The Cardinals have claimed Justin Miller off waivers from the Nationals, who recently designated the right-hander for assignment. St. Louis moved Jack Flaherty to the 60-day injured list to make room on the 40-man roster and optioned Roel Ramirez to clear an active roster spot, per MLB.com’s Jeff Jones (via Twitter). Moving Flaherty is largely clerical, as he was not expected to return from tearing his oblique before August.
Miller, 34, had trouble getting anyone out in his last appearance with the Nationals, turning a 5-0 relaxer into a bit of a nail-biter against the Mets. He gave up a two-run homer to Pete Alonso, followed by a solo shot to Billy McKinney. Kevin Pillar yanked another potential homer foul, but Miller recovered to strike him out.
Despite some rough outings this season, Miller has been a productive member of the bullpen in years past. He owns a 4.63 career ERA in 159 1/3 innings with the Nationals, Rockies, and Tigers. He’s a fastball/slider guy who hasn’t had much life on the heater of late. All three home runs he gave up this season came on the four-seamer — averaging 93 mph, down just a touch from where it usually sits.
Ramirez, 26, made just one appearance for the Cardinals. He faced four batters, gave up one hit and two walks while tagged for three earned runs. Ramirez has options remaining, so he can be moved freely between Triple-A and the Majors without being exposed to waivers.
Orioles Acquire Kelvin Gutierrez From Royals For Cash Considerations
The Orioles have acquired Kelvin Gutierrez from the Royals for cash considerations, per the team. The Royals had designated Gutierrez for assignment. He’ll now join the Orioles, who have optioned him to Triple-A. Both teams have confirmed the deal.
The 26-year-old third baseman saw the most Major League time of his career this season for Kansas City, posting a triple slash line of .215/.254/.296 in 142 plate appearances. Between Hunter Dozier and Hanser Alberto, the Royals figure to have third base covered, even with Emmanuel Rivera recently hitting the injured list and Alcides Escobar being traded to Washington.
Baltimore has Maikel Franco at third base on a one-year, $800K contract. The former Royal and Philllie doesn’t necessarily fit into the O’s long-term plan. The 28-year-old has a 75 wRC+ on the season, not exactly stolid production at the hot corner. Gutierrez also has some experience at shortstop, should the Orioles want to use him there while Freddy Galvis is on the injured list.
The Orioles moved Travis Lakins to the 60-day injured list to make room on the 40-man roster for Gutierrez. Lakins was injured in his start last Tuesday. His injury has been labeled as right elbow pain, though an official diagnosis has not been revealed as of yet.
East Notes: Rays, Walls, Yankees, Britton, Mets, Peterson, Syndergaard
The Rays have activated Taylor Walls from the injured list, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). The move comes after Luis Patino was optioned back to Triple-A yesterday. Walls would give manager Kevin Cash a five-man bench, which would be unusual for the Rays. Still, for now, Walls is back on the active roster, having recovered from a bout of wrist tendonitis. Certainly, the return of Walls puts the immediate future of Wander Franco into question, though there’s been no indication of a roster move at this time. For what it’s worth, Walls held his own with a .222/.337/.333 line in 95 plate appearances, good for a 96 wRC+to pair with stellar marks on the defensive side of the ball — he was credited with 8 DRS, 2.0 UZR, and 2 Outs Above Average in just 214 1/3 innings at short. Staying on the East Coast…
- Zack Britton is throwing off the mound today for the first time since going on the injured list. He is eligible to return to the Yankees on Monday, per Kristie Ackert of the NY Daily News (via Twitter). Britton has just five appearances on the season. The Yankees might very well try to get him back into games ahead of the All-Star break so as to allow for a measured ramping up process.
- As for the Mets, David Peterson has been diagnosed with a strained right oblique that will keep him out for around eight weeks, at best guess, but maybe less, per Anthony DiComo of MLB.com (via Twitter). It hasn’t been a great year for Peterson, who owns a 5.54 ERA/4.77 FIP through 115 starts totaling 66 2/3 innings.
- Noah Syndergaard, meanwhile, was throwing today, but he timetable remains the same. The Mets are looking tentatively at a September 1st return for Thor, notes DiComo.
Orioles Place Hunter Harvey On 10-Day Injured List, Recall Zac Lowther
The Orioles have placed Hunter Harvey back on the injured list with a right lat strain, per Rich Dubroff of baltimorebaseball.com. Harvey’s career continues to switchback from potential high-impact arm to star-crossed former prospect. The former first round pick has produced promising bottom-line results since moving to the bullpen full-time in 2019, though his opportunities has been limited because of injuries. This season, the 26-year-old appeared nine times for 8 2/3 innings of work with a 4.15 ERA/4.31 FIP. He’s shown decent control (8.3 percent walk rate), but for the second consecutive season, he has struck out less than 17 percent of opposing batters, a rate that falls well below the 23.3 percent league average (small sample caveats apply). Harvey now goes back on the 10-day injured list, not quite a month since coming off it: He missed the first 64 days of the year with an oblique injury.
Zac Lowther has been added to the active roster to claim Harvey’s roster spot. The 25-year-old southpaw made his Major League debut earlier this season, starting one game and pitching twice out of the bullpen, covering a total 5 1/3 innings. Lowther was knocked around for nine earned runs on 11 hits. On the plus side, he only allowed two walks — good for a 6.9 percent walk rate — and he missed some bats, posting a solid 24.1 percent strikeout rate. Because of the small sample, both the good and the bad here can be taken with a grain of salt. Lowther was the O’s No. 19 ranked prospect by Baseball America entering the season.
Baltimore also received bad news on Travis Lakins, who left his first start of the year earlier this week in just the second inning. Manager Brandon Hyde said that Lakins has a “significant elbow injury,” Dubroff noted. The 27-year-old right-hander has been a reliever for the O’s, pitching 23 times out of the pen before starting last Tuesday’s game. He has not, however, proved particularly effective in either role, logging a 5.79 ERA/5.11 SIERA in 28 innings. He’s neither missed very many bats (19.5 strikeout rate) nor done enough to limit free passes (13.8 percent walk rate). Still, his ability to handle multiple innings had value for the Orioles, who will dig deeper into the organization to fill innings.
NL Injury Notes: Diamondbacks, Gallen, Cardinals, O’Neill
It’s Saturday morning, which means it’s time to check in on a couple of potentially consequential injures from yesterday’s ballgames…
- Zac Gallen was removed from yesterday’s start due with what the Diamondbacks described as right hamstring tightness. He’ll have an MRI done today. The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan provides video of the pitch that took Gallen out of the game. It’s yet another setback for Gallen in what was supposed to be a breakout season. He missed the beginning of the season with a hairline fracture in his forearm, then went back on the injured list for another 39 days with an elbow sprain. Speculatively speaking, another IL stint appears likely here. Especially given the state of Arizona’s season, they are likely to be cautious with Gallen. When has has been healthy, he’s been effective, making eight starts with a 3.69 ERA/3.75 FIP in 72 innings with a strong 27.3 percent strikeout rate, slightly high 10.7 percent walk rate, and 44.6 percent groundball rate.
- Cardinals outfielder Tyler O’Neill appeared to take a fastball off the wrist yesterday, per MLB.com’s Zachary Silver (via Twitter). Upon further review, O’Neill was clipped in the right pinky, though he did leave the ballgame. The team is optimistic, though he will undergo further testing today, per The Athletic’s Katie Woo (via Twitter). A Gold Glove Award winner in 2020, O’Neill’s bat has caught up to his glove this season as he’s slashed .276/.329/.558 with 15 home runs in 237 plate appearances. The Cardinals have struggled to get the most out of their outfielders, ranking 22nd in the game by measure of fWAR with 2.6, with O’Neill himself adding 2.1 fWAR. Harrison Bader is recently returned from injury, but losing O’Neill would be a blow. In the short term, Tommy Edman will shift to the outfield, though if O’Neill ends up on the injured list, St. Louis would likely call-up another outfielder.
Kyle Schwarber Leaves Game Due To Hamstring Injury
10:12PM: Schwarber did injure his right hamstring, Nationals manager Davey Martinez told MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato and other reporters. Schwarber will receive an MRI tomorrow to determine the extent of the problem.
7:10PM: Nationals left fielder Kyle Schwarber left tonight’s game after suffering an apparent right leg injury. Schwarber singled in the second inning but stepped awkwardly while rounding first base, leaving Schwarber favoring his leg (particularly the upper portion, making a hamstring injury a possibility). Gerardo Parra replaced Schwarber as a pinch-runner and in left field.
It certainly seems as if the injured list will be required for Schwarber, which would cut short one of the most remarkable power binges in baseball history. Schwarber has cracked 16 home runs over his last 20 games prior to tonight’s contest, with a .333/.407/.987 slash line in that 86-plate appearance stretch. This exceptional hot streak resulted in NL Player Of The Month honors for Schwarber in the month of June, and helped fuel a resurgence for the Nats in the NL East standings, as Washington has won 14 of its last 17 games.
Losing Schwarber would represent another huge blow for the Nationals lineup, especially with Trea Turner already day-to-day with a finger injury and several notable pitchers (including Stephen Strasburg, Daniel Hudson, and Erick Fedde) already on the IL. While Washington is only two games behind the Mets for the division lead, the team is also only 40-39 and seven games out of a wild card berth.
It is certainly still possible the Nationals are an extended cold streak away from being sellers, rather than buyers, at the trade deadline — and ironically, a healthy Schwarber would suddenly be a prime trade piece, as his contract is only guaranteed through this season. Schwarber signed a one-year, $10MM free agent deal with the Nats last winter that breaks down as $7MM in guaranteed salary, and a $3MM buyout of an $11.5MM mutual option for 2022 (a buyout that Schwarber looks likely to take rather than exercise his end of the mutual option).
Injured List Returns: Gregorius, Reyes, Gray
While top players continue to hit the injured list on a near-daily basis, several notable names also made their return to the field today. The latest…
- The Phillies activated shortstop Didi Gregorius off the 10-day injured list prior to today’s 4-3 victory over the Padres, with infielder Nick Maton heading to Triple-A in the corresponding move. Gregorius hadn’t played since May 12, as his initial right elbow injury was slow to heal, and led to a setback in his minor league rehab assignment. The veteran shortstop had hit only .229/.266/.364 in his first 128 plate appearances of the season, but Gregorius celebrated his return to the lineup with a solo home run and a walk in four PA tonight.
- Franmil Reyes was activated off the Indians‘ 10-day IL, and infielder Yu Chang was optioned to Triple-A. Reyes suffered an internal oblique strain on May 23, and he’ll return about halfway between his projected recovery timeline of 5-to-7 weeks. The struggling Cleveland lineup is in need of Reyes’ offensive production, and he picked up where he left off by collecting three hits in tonight’s 6-3 Tribe loss to the Astros. Reyes is now hitting .268/.325/.577 with 11 home runs over 163 PA.
- Sonny Gray tossed five innings of one-run ball (on five hits and one walk, with eight strikeouts) in the Reds‘ 2-1 victory over the Cubs. A right groin strain sidelined Gray on June 9, and his return will boost a Cincinnati team that is trying to stay close in the NL Central and NL wild card races. With tonight’s outing in the books, Gray has a 3.27 ERA and an impressive 30.8% strikeout rate over 55 innings this season. Right-hander Ashton Goudeau was optioned to Triple-A to create roster room for Gray’s activation off the 10-day IL.
Yasmani Grandal Day-To-Day With Calf Tightness
10:05PM: Grandal is day-to-day with the injury, as manager Tony La Russa told The Athletic’s James Fegan (Twitter links) and other reporters that the Sox will monitor Grandal’s condition to determine if an IL placement is eventually necessary, or if another roster move is necessary to get another catcher on the roster. For now, the plan seems to be for Collins to start tomorrow’s game and Danny Mendick to act as the emergency catcher. Zavala left tonight’s Triple-A game, so he is likely to at least be added to Chicago’s taxi squad.
8:49PM: White Sox catcher Yasmani Grandal left tonight’s game due to left calf tightness, the team announced. It isn’t yet clear when the calf issue surfaced for Grandal, as was replaced behind the plate by Zack Collins prior to the bottom of the fifth inning, more than two innings as Grandal’s last at-bat (he struck out to end the top of the third).
Between that strikeout and a single in his first plate appearance, Grandal’s slash line now sits .190/.388/.441 through 243 plate appearances. Despite the lack of batting average, Grandal still has a 135 wRC+ due to his power (14 homers) and his exceptional on-base skills. Grandal’s 59 walks ranks second among all players, as the Rangers’ Joey Gallo leads baseball with 63 free passes, though Gallo has the benefit of 80 more plate appearances than the Chicago catcher.
It isn’t yet known if Grandal will be placed on the injured list, though such a move would leave the White Sox without yet another key bat. Luis Robert, Eloy Jimenez, Adam Engel, and Jake Lamb are all on the IL, while Nick Madrigal has been lost for season after hamstring surgery. Yoan Moncada also suffered a bruised hand while sliding into third base yesterday, and will miss at least Chicago’s current three-game series with the Tigers while recovering.
Collins figures to get the majority of starts at catcher if Grandal is sidelined, and Collins took an above-average 106 wRC+ (and .236/.333/.400 slash line in 127 PA) into tonight’s game with Detroit. Yermin Mercedes has played two games at catcher this season, and Seby Zavala is also available at Triple-A.
White Sox Interested In Adam Frazier
The White Sox are “taking a close look” at Pirates second baseman Adam Frazier, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). The 29-year-old is amidst a stellar campaign that earned him his first career All-Star nod last night.
Chicago surely isn’t alone in taking an interest in Frazier, who has a .326/.393/.468 line (139 wRC+) through 346 plate appearances this season. He broke into the majors in 2016 and immediately settled in as a fairly productive, high-contact bat. Over his first three-plus seasons, Frazier’s ability to put the ball in play resulted in league average offense (.279/.342/.420), despite lacking impact power. He slumped to a .230/.297/.364 mark during last year’s shortened season but has more than rebounded during this season’s first half.
In actuality, Frazier’s true talent level probably hasn’t bounced around as much as those numbers would suggest. Because he specializes in making contact, his production is more dependent than most players on ball-in-play results. Last season, Frazier’s BABIP fell to .246; this year, it’s sitting at a sky-high .361. Over the course of his career, Frazier has a more ordinary .312 BABIP, and it’s fair to presume it’ll settle in around that mark moving forward.
Frazier has made some modest process improvements this season. His contact rate is up nearly four percentage points, to a career-high 88.6%. He’s traded in some grounders for a few extra line drives. But Frazier hasn’t started hitting the ball with dramatically more authority. His hard contact rate is in the 4th percentile leaguewide, while his barrel rate (essentially how often a batter hits the ball hard at an optimal launch angle for power) is in the 3rd percentile, per Statcast. All in all, Frazier likely isn’t all that different than the player he was entering 2021.
That’s not to say he’s not a quality player. As mentioned, Frazier has an established track record of solid work at the plate. He’s a career .282/.345/.422 hitter, six percentage points better than league average by measure of weighted runs created. Advanced defensive metrics have suggested he’s an average or better gloveman at second base, and he’s rated highly as a corner outfielder when asked to man the grass.
In addition to his solid play on the field, Frazier’s an eminently affordable target for contending clubs. He’s making just $4.3MM this season (exactly half of that remains due from now through the end of the year) and is controllable next year via arbitration. He’ll certainly be in line for a nice raise given his production this season, but even a salary in the $8MM – 9MM range in 2022 would be more than reasonable for a player of his caliber.
A year and a half of Frazier’s services would hold a lot more value to a contender than it would for the rebuilding Pirates. Pittsburgh isn’t making the playoffs this season, and they’re not expected to next year either. There’s little reason for the Pirates not to take offers on Frazier (as they did over the offseason) and he looks like a virtual lock to wind up elsewhere before the July 30 trade deadline.
It’s not hard to see the appeal for the White Sox. Second baseman Nick Madrigal is out for the season after undergoing hamstring surgery, and the Sox have been relying on Leury García and Danny Mendick since he went down. Prospect Jake Burger has gotten work at second in the minors and was called up to make his MLB debut today. It’s unclear, though, whether Chicago would feel comfortable turning to Burger, whose more natural position is third base, at the keystone during a pennant race.
The White Sox have also been tied to Eduardo Escobar over the past couple weeks. An Escobar trade remains a possibility (and, as Heyman notes, would surely require a lesser prospect package than the one required to land Frazier), but other teams have jumped into the bidding for the Diamondbacks infielder in recent days.
Brewers Place Kolten Wong On 10-Day Injured List
Prior to tonight’s game, the Brewers placed second baseman Kolten Wong on the 10-day injured list due to left calf tightness. With right-hander Alec Bettinger also optioned to Triple-A, infielder Pablo Reyes and lefty Hoby Milner were called up from Triple-A to fill the two open roster spots.
This is already the third IL visit of the season for Wong, who missed about four weeks total due to two separate left oblique strains. Wong initially hurt his calf last Sunday and sat out four games in an attempt to rehab the issue without another IL trip, though Wong had to make an early exit from yesterday’s game in his return to the field.
The stop-and-start nature of Wong’s debut season in Milwaukee is all the more frustrating for both the second baseman and the team considering how well Wong has performed when he has been able to play. Wong has a .291/.346/.485 slash line and seven home runs through 214 plate appearances, with a 125 wRC+/OPS+ that would represent the best of his career over a full season. Between this offensive production and his usual excellent defense over 53 games, Wong still has a 1.7 fWAR — the second-highest total of any Brewers player, and the tenth-highest fWAR of any second baseman in baseball with at least 200 PA.
Jace Peterson has been starting at second base in Wong’s absence, and Daniel Robertson can also come off the bench to team with Peterson in a platoon if he isn’t needed elsewhere around the infield. Reyes has played mostly third base for the Brewers this season but he has also clocked a few games as a middle infielder.
Wong’s injury perhaps makes infield depth an even bigger target for the Brewers than it already was, considering the team’s preference for versatile, multi-positional players. Milwaukee has overcome a lot of injury absences to take a healthy lead in the NL Central, but the Brew Crew’s position player mix is currently short some notable names in Wong, Lorenzo Cain, Daniel Vogelbach, and Travis Shaw.