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Latest On Tommy Pham

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Padres left fielder/designated hitter Tommy Pham suffered a broken hamate bone in his hand less than a month ago, but it doesn’t appear that will bring an end to his season. Rather, the Padres could bring back Pham from the IL “any day,” Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune writes. Pham is even closer to returning than first baseman Eric Hosmer, who landed on the IL on Sept. 8 with a fractured left index finger, according to Acee.

It had been several years since the Padres contended, but they’re in the thick of the race this season with the NL’s second-best record (31-17). The only problem is that they’re stuck in a division with the Dodgers, owners of the NL’s top win-loss mark at 33-14. A division title may be not be in the cards for the Padres, then, but they’re nonetheless a formidable team who should be able to earn a playoff spot in the next couple weeks.

Pham, whenever he returns, could be a key piece of the puzzle for San Diego as it aims for its first-ever World Series. The 32-year-old hit a subpar .207/.316/.293 in 95 plate appearances this season before going on the IL, but the Padres acquired him from the Rays last winter because of his excellent track record. Pham was quietly one of the majors’ most valuable outfielders from 2017-19, during which he slashed .284/.381/.475 with 65 homers and 65 steals over 1,754 trips to the plate between the Cardinals and Rays. If Pham’s able to come back this year, the Padres will hope he revisits his St. Louis/Tampa Bay production from the past.

Latest On Justin Verlander, Lance McCullers Jr.

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With nine losses in their past 11 games, the reigning American League champion Astros have fallen under .500 (23-24) and find themselves fighting for their playoff lives. The Astros have gone almost the whole year without 2019 AL Cy Young winner Justin Verlander, which certainly hasn’t helped matters, but they’re hoping to get him back for a start in the final week of the regular season, Brian McTaggart of MLB.com relays.

Verlander, who’s recovering from a forearm strain, threw 55-60 pitches Saturday and will soon face live hitters, which is a “very, very positive sign,” according to manager Dusty Baker.

In Baker’s estimation, no matter how late in the campaign, a Verlander return would be like a major late-season acquisition. Baker’s not wrong in that regard, as Verlander has long been an elite starter and could help decide whether the Astros make the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season or sit home in the fall.

Without Verlander, who has only taken the mound once (on July 24), the Astros’ formerly elite rotation has been a middle-of-the-pack unit. Zack Greinke and Framber Valdez have posted far better field-independent pitching numbers than ERAs; on the other hand, the opposite has been true for Cristian Javier; Jose Urquidy has only made two starts; and Lance McCullers Jr. logged a 5.79 ERA before going on the injured list Sept. 6 with neck problems. Like Verlander, though, McCullers is on his way back, per McTaggart, who writes that he’ll return to the team’s rotation Wednesday.

Phillies To Place Rhys Hoskins On 10-Day IL

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The Phillies will place first baseman Rhys Hoskins on the 10-day injured list with a left UCL injury, Todd Zolecki of MLB.com reports. In better news for the club, catcher J.T. Realmuto (hip flexor) will avoid the IL, while right-hander Zack Wheeler (finger) should return to the mound this week.

The Hoskins news continues a rough few days for the Phillies, who have dropped three in a row – including a 6-2 defeat to the Marlins on Monday. The 27-year-old Hoskins hasn’t played since Saturday, when he suffered a forearm injury, and it’s unclear whether he’ll be able to take the field again this season. Time’s running out in 2020 for him and the Phillies, who are an even 23-23 but are still in possession of a playoff spot in the National League.

If Philly does break its eight-year playoff drought this season, it’ll have Hoskins to thank to some extent. Although Hoskins is stuck in an 0-for-10 slump, he has slashed a rather effective .245/.384/.503 (138 wRC+) with 10 home runs in 185 plate appearances. That’ll be tough production for the Phillies to replace in the season’s final couple weeks, especially considering Hoskins has played almost every game at first for the team this base. Otherwise, only the now-gone Neil Walker and the historically light-hitting Phil Gosselin have lined up there for the Phillies.

Braves Sign Pablo Sandoval

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The Braves have signed third baseman/first baseman Pablo Sandoval to a minor league contract, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Sandoval will head to their alternate site.

It didn’t take long for Sandoval to find a new team, as the Giants placed him on release waivers Sept. 10. To say the least, the two-time All-Star has gone through an up-and-down career. He was hugely important to the Giants from 2008-14, a span in which they won three World Series titles, but floundered after signing a five-year, $95MM contract with the Red Sox before 2015.

Sandoval didn’t get through his whole contract with Boston, which released him in 2017. He returned to San Francisco thereafter and turned back into a useful bench piece last season, but his year was cut short because of Tommy John surgery. The Giants re-signed Sandoval in January, but the 34-year-old switch-hitter could only muster a .220/.278/.268 line with one home run in 90 plate appearances this season before they cut the cord on him.

Sandoval will now join an organization whose third basemen rank dead last in the majors in fWAR (minus-0.4). Austin Riley and Johan Camargo, the NL East-leading Braves’ only third base choices so far, have combined for a .220/.272/.396 line through 294 plate appearances. The Braves optioned Camargo to their alternate training site on Sept. 9.

Steve Cohen Agrees To Purchase Mets

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4:54pm: SNY is not in the deal, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets.

4:17pm: Billionaire Steve Cohen has agreed to purchase the Mets from Fred Wilpon and Jeff Wilpon, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports. Cohen will need approval from 23 MLB owners to acquire the team, and if they sign off on his purchase in November, he’ll own 95 percent of the franchise, according to Tim Healey of Newsday. The deal values the Mets at roughly $2.475 billion, Healey adds.

“I am excited to have reached an agreement with the Wilpon and Katz families to purchase the New York Mets,” Cohen announced.

The Cohen purchase has been a long time coming for the Mets, who have been in on-again, off-again negotiations with him dating back to last winter. Cohen was seemingly in line to buy the team for $2.6 billion before, but the prior deal between him and the Mets collapsed in February. Cohen, who’s a minority owner of the Mets now, would have ended up with 80 percent of the franchise had that agreement gone through. He’ll now take over almost the entire organization, though it’s unclear whether he’ll get the coveted SNY Network in the sale.

After the Mets resumed their attempt to sell the team, Cohen vied against an Alex Rodriguez-Jennifer Lopez team and a Josh Harris-David Blitzer tandem, among others, in order to land the club. Cohen won out for exclusive negotiations on Aug. 28, though Rodriguez was reportedly none too pleased with the Wilpons for how they handled the process.

Of course, Mets fans also aren’t big fans of the Wilpon family, who have been part of their ownership since the 1980s. The Mets have recently endured serious struggles under the Wilpons, who are at the helm of a franchise that hasn’t won a World Series since 1986, has gone to the postseason four times in the 21st century and hasn’t made the playoffs since 2016.

At 21-26 this season, it doesn’t appear the Mets will snap their playoff drought. Considering the difficulties they’ve faced over the past couple seasons, it’s anyone’s guess which changes Cohen will make if he takes over the team before next season. General manager Brodie Van Wagenen could end up on the chopping block, though, as the beleaguered second-year exec has overseen back-t0-back disappointing teams.

Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton Likely To Return This Week

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The Yankees seem set to get a pair of important reinforcements back, as manager Aaron Boone told Jon Morosi of MLB Network Radio on Monday that sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton are likely to return from the injured list this week. Judge resumed swinging Monday, while Stanton did so on Sunday.

The Yankees have gone almost the entire past month-plus without Judge, who has been on the IL twice since Aug. 11 because of calf issues. He returned from his first stint Aug. 26, but Judge didn’t last the full game and went back on the IL after that. The injury problems cut off what was an excellent opening to 2020 for Judge, who has slashed an elite-level .292/.343/.739 with nine home runs in 71 plate appearances. The Yankees have primarily turned right field over to Clint Frazier, who’s having a terrific year at the plate in his own right, in Judge’s absence.

Stanton, meanwhile, hasn’t played since Aug. 8 on account of a left hamstring strain. Like Judge, Stanton got off to a great start this year with a .293/.453/.585 mark and three home in 54 trips to the plate. A corner outfielder for most of his career, Stanton saw all of his action at designated hitter this year before winding up on the shelf. New York has used various players at DH as subs for Stanton.

In spite of prolonged absences for Judge and Stanton, the Yankees have put up above-average offensive numbers this year, as they rank ninth in wRC+ (107) and 12th in runs (223). They were supposed to boast a stacked offense, though, and the fact that they haven’t has led to a relatively disappointing 26-21 start and a four-game deficit in the American League East. But if Judge and Stanton are their usual selves when they return, they could help the Yankees lock down a playoff spot and perhaps make a serious World Series run in the postseason.

Braves Release Robbie Erlin

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The Braves announced this afternoon that they’ve released left-hander Robbie Erlin, who’d been designated for assignment over the weekend. The veteran southpaw is now free to sign with any club.

Erlin, 29, opened the season with the Pirates but was designated for assignment and picked up off waivers by the Braves shortly thereafter. The longtime Padres hurler made a pair of solid starts for the Braves early in his tenure, tossing eight innings and holding opponents to a combined two runs, but he’s been hammered over his five most recent outings. Overall, he’s put together an ugly 8.49 ERA with Atlanta and an 8.10 mark on the season as a whole.

Rough 2020 results aside, Erlin isn’t far removed from a solid 2018 campaign in San Diego. He tossed 109 frames that year between a dozen starts and 27 relief outings, working to an overall 4.21 ERA and 3.31 FIP with averages of 7.27 strikeouts, 0.99 walks and 0.99 homers per nine innings pitched. Prior to his poor results from 2019-20, Erlin had compiled a lifetime 4.40 ERA and 3.58 FIP in 257 2/3 MLB frames.

It’s impossible to simply ignore his recent results, but perhaps a club with some other ideas for his pitch selection might have ideas about how to help him return to form. Erlin did scrap his once-effective sinker entirely in 2020, gravitating more toward four-seamers and curveballs than ever before.

Neil Walker Elects Free Agency

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The Phillies announced that veteran infielder Neil Walker, whom they designated for assignment last Friday, has elected free agency after clearing waivers. Philadelphia also reinstated Scott Kingery from the injured list and optioned lefty Ranger Suarez to the alternate training site.

Walker, 35, struggled to a .231/.244/.308 slash through 18 games and 41 plate appearances prior to being designated on Friday. The Phils opted to swap him out for fellow infielder Ronald Torreyes, who gives them an option at shortstop — a position not in Walker’s repertoire — and to provide better overall glovework at other spots around the infield.

Although Walker wasn’t particularly sharp with the Phillies, he notched a solid .261/.344/.395 batting line with the Marlins just last year. He was also a consistently productive hitter from 2010-17, slashing a combined .273/.342/.439 in 4294 plate appearances between the Pirates, Mets and Brewers. He’ll be eligible to sign with any club for the duration of the season should he choose. If he does latch on with a new club by tomorrow, he’d still be eligible for his new club’s postseason roster.

Brewers Claim Billy McKinney; Trey Supak, Ronny Rodriguez Designated For Assignment

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The Brewers announced Monday that they’ve claimed outfielder Billy McKinney off waivers from the Blue Jays, who had designated him for assignment on Friday. He’s been optioned to the Brewers’ alternate training site. Milwaukee also added righty Justin Topa as the 29th man for their doubleheader today and reinstated right-hander Ray Black from the 45-day injured list.

In order to make room on the 40-man roster for McKinney and Black, the Brewers designated right-hander Trey Supak and infielder Ronny Rodriguez for assignment.

The 26-year-old McKinney was a first-round pick (No. 24 overall) by the Athletics back in 2013 and has since bounced around the league in a series of high-profile swaps. Oakland initially sent him to the Cubs as part of the Jeff Samardzija/Jason Hammel trade, but McKinney never made it to the big leagues in Chicago. Instead, the Cubs shipped him to the Yankees alongside Gleyber Torres in 2016’s Aroldis Chapman deadline swap. Nearly two years to the day later, the Yankees flipped McKinney to Toronto as part of their return for lefty J.A. Happ.

McKinney appeared in only two games for the Yankees and has spent the other 122 games of his big league career with the Toronto organization. He’s shown some pop, evidenced by a .209 ISO, 18 homers, 21 doubles and a triple in 407 plate appearances with the Jays, but McKinney has also been prone to strikeouts and infield flies without drawing much in the walk department.

Overall, McKinney is a .231/.291/.437 hitter with a 25.8 percent strikeout rate and a 7.3 percent walk rate in the Majors. He’s drawn average reviews for his glovework in right field and below-average marks in left. McKinney has never played center in the Majors but does have a handful of innings at first base. He’s out of minor league options after this season, so there will be increased pressure for him to make the club in 2021 — if he survives on the 40-man roster until next year’s Spring Training, that is.

The decision to designate Supak is somewhat of a surprise, given that he’s long been regarded among the organization’s better pitching prospects and put together a nice season in Double-A last year. True, the Milwaukee farm has been regarded as one of the lower-ranking systems in the game for several seasons, but Supak looked to have an opportunity to make it to the Majors this year.

Supak spent most of last year in Double-A, where he pitched 122 2/3 frames of 2.20 ERA ball with 6.9 K/9, 1.7 BB/9, 0.44 HR/9 and a 44.8 percent grounder rate. It’s a very pitcher-friendly setting, and the right-hander’s fielding-independent metrics weren’t as bullish as that rudimentary ERA — 3.14 FIP, 3.59 xFIP — but it was still a promising season all around. Supak was hit hard in a brief seven-game Triple-A stint, but that was true of most pitchers, given the offensive eruption throughout Triple-A that coincided with changes to the composition of the ball itself.

Milwaukee can’t trade Supak at this point, so he’ll now surely be run through outright waivers. He has a minor league option remaining beyond this season and a relatively strong minor league track record, so it wouldn’t all be a surprise to see another club place a claim. Perhaps of note, the club that originally drafted Supak, the Pirates, has the top waiver priority at present. (They’ve since turned over the top of their front office, however.) If Supak goes unclaimed, Milwaukee will be able to outright him to its alternate site and keep him both in the organization and in the 60-man player pool.

As for the 28-year-old Rodriguez, he never got into a game with the Brewers after coming over from the Tigers in a December waiver claim. He’s a versatile utility piece with a bit of pop but overwhelming on-base issues, as can be seen in his career .221/.254/.396 batting line. Rodriguez did swat 14 big flies in 294 MLB plate appearances last year, but he also carries a career 24.8 percent strikeout rate and has seen a dismal 18.2 percent of his fly-balls register as infield pop-ups. Thirty percent of Rodriguez’s plate appearances have resulted in either a punchout or a pop-up, and he’s walked at just a 4.6 percent pace in the Majors.

Athletics Sign Jake Lamb

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Sept. 14: The Athletics announced that they’ve signed Lamb to a Major League contract after he’d become a free agent (i.e. cleared release waivers). Lefty A.J. Puk, who is slated to undergo shoulder surgery, was moved to the 45-day injured list to open a roster spot. Oakland also placed Frankie Montas on the paternity list and added righty James Kaprielian as the 29th man for today’s doubleheader.

Sept. 13: The A’s are set to sign corner infielder Jake Lamb, as first reported last night by Shayna Rubin of the San Jose Mercury News (Twitter link). The Diamondbacks designated Lamb for assignment on Thursday.

Jake Lamb | Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

The left-handed hitter isn’t officially eligible to sign until Monday, Rubin adds; presumably, he’s still on release waivers, although it’s a lock he’ll clear them since any team that claims him would absorb what remains of Lamb’s prorated $5.515MM contract. By waiting until he clears waivers, the A’s will leave the Arizona organization on the hook for all but the prorated portion of the league minimum salary. As Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle points out (on Twitter), Lamb’s deal should be finalized before Tuesday’s deadline for players to be eligible for a new team’s playoff roster.

Lamb came up as a third baseman, but he saw an increasing amount of time at first base in his final couple seasons in the desert. The A’s have Matt Olson locked in at first, so Lamb’s path to playing time in Oakland is surely back at the hot corner. The A’s just found out yesterday that star third baseman Matt Chapman was lost for the season. With Chapman out, Rule V pick Vimael Machin and veteran utilityman Chad Pinder have taken most of the third base work over the past week. Neither Machin nor Pinder has hit well this season, though, so the A’s are adding another bat to the mix. Additionally, Pinder also seems ticketed for the injured list after getting scratched from yesterday’s lineup with a hamstring strain.

Of course, that Lamb was designated for assignment this week speaks to his own recent struggles. While he once looked like a building block for the Arizona organization, the 29-year-old has never returned to form after a 2018 shoulder injury that eventually required surgery. Over the past three seasons, Lamb has combined for a paltry .199/.307/.330 line (73 wRC+) in 514 plate appearances. He’s continued to draw his fair share of walks, but the power he showed from 2016-17, when he combined for 59 home runs, has evaporated. Lamb has just 12 long balls over the past three seasons. He was off to the worst start of his career before the Diamondbacks moved on, hitting .116/.240/.140 in 50 plate appearances.

Lamb will be a free agent at season’s end, so he’s a short-term stopgap for the A’s. Oakland has a 40-man roster spot available already, and further space can be cleared by placing Chapman on the 45-day injured list.

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