Blue Jays Select Reese McGuire, Move Julian Merryweather To 60-Day IL
The Blue Jays have selected the contract of catcher Reese McGuire and moved right-handed reliever Julian Merryweather to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding move, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet was among those to report. The team also optioned catcher Riley Adams to Triple-A Buffalo.
McGuire – whom Toronto acquired from Pittsburgh in 2016 – impressed earlier in his major league career, hitting an eyebrow-raising .297/.343/.539 with seven home runs in 138 plate appearances from 2018-19. But 2020 didn’t go well off or on the field for McGuire, who was arrested prior to the season and then proceeded to hit a terrible .073/.073/.146 over 45 plate appearances. The Blue Jays outrighted McGuire off their 40-man roster last month, but he’s now back with a team that’s looking for help behind the plate. Danny Jansen has posted horrid production so far this year, while Alejandro Kirk will be out for the foreseeable future with a left flexor strain.
Merryweather went on the IL on April 14 with a left oblique strain, and his shift to the 60-day version means he won’t return until at least the middle of June. The hard-throwing 29-year-old served as a bright spot for Toronto’s bullpen in the early going this season, as he put up 4 1/3 innings of scoreless, one-hit ball with seven strikeouts, a walk and two saves.
Tanner Roark Clears Waivers, Becomes Free Agent
Right-hander Tanner Roark has cleared waivers and become a free agent, Scott Mitchell of TSN tweets. The Blue Jays designated Roark for assignment last week.
It’s no surprise that the 34-year-old Roark is heading to the open market, as there was no expectation he’d be traded or claimed because of his $12MM salary. On the heels of a solid several seasons divided among the Nationals, Reds and Athletics, Roark signed a two-year, $24MM deal with the Blue Jays going into 2020, but the move went south in a hurry for the club. Roark posted a 6.80 ERA in 47 2/3 innings last year, and despite the Jays’ injury troubles this season, he barely factored into their rotation. Roark tossed seven frames over three appearances (one start) and gave up five earned runs before the Jays cut the cord on him.
Roark boasted a respectable track record before signing with Toronto, so the likelihood is that he’ll find a different team soon. However, this trip to free agency won’t be nearly as lucrative as Roark’s previous one. He may have to settle for a minor league contract.
Braves Activate Max Fried
Max Fried will make his return to Atlanta’s rotation Wednesday with a start against Washington, the team announced. The Braves optioned left-hander Sean Newcomb to Triple-A in a corresponding move.
Fried hurt his right hamstring while running the bases on April 13, adding injury to insult in what was an awful outing. The 27-year-old yielded eight runs (seven earned) on nine hits and two walks in that game prior to his departure. It was the second poor start out of three to begin 2021 for Fried, who has put up an atrocious 11.45 ERA in 11 innings. Along the way, Fried has allowed 23 hits, including three home runs.
The issues that haunted Fried before his IL placement didn’t rear their head during the 2020 season, when he came in fifth in National League Cy Young voting. Last year’s version of Fried logged a marvelous 2.25 ERA over 56 innings, totaled 50 strikeouts against 19 walks, and gave up only two home runs. He also registered a 53.0 percent groundball rate, which has fallen to 41.5 this season.
Fried hasn’t been the only letdown in the Braves’ rotation this year, as newcomers Charlie Morton and Drew Smyly have joined him in preventing runs at a below-average clip. And the team has received zero contributions from Mike Soroka, who hasn’t pitched because of shoulder troubles. Thanks in part to the adversity their starting staff has faced, the Braves are just 13-16. However, the back-to-back-to-back National League East champions are still only 1 1/2 games back of the top spot in their division.
Rays Place Diego Castillo On 10-Day IL, Activate Pete Fairbanks
The Rays announced that they have placed right-hander Diego Castillo on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Tuesday, with right groin tightness. The club reinstated righty Pete Fairbanks from the 10-day IL in a corresponding move.
Tampa Bay will have to go at least the next week-plus without its primary closer in Castillo, who easily leads the team with seven saves in nine attempts. Beyond that, Castillo has posted a more-than-respectable 3.14 ERA/2.87 SIERA with an outstanding 34.5 percent strikeout rate over 14 1/3 innings. The early results suggest Castillo is well on his way to a fourth consecutive solid season to begin his major league career.
Fairbanks made three appearances and threw 2 2/3 innings before the Rays placed him on the IL on April 9 with a right rotator cuff strain. The 27-year-old said then that he was likely to miss about a month, which proved to be accurate. Fairbanks accumulated 26 2/3 quality frames as a member of the Rays last season, when he posted a 2.70 ERA/3.48 SIERA with a 33.3 percent strikeout rate, a 12 percent walk rate and a 46.8 percent groundball rate.
Indians Place Roberto Perez On IL, Select Rene Rivera, DFA Ben Gamel
The Indians have placed catcher Roberto Perez on the 10-day injured list with a fractured right ring finger, selected the contract of fellow backstop Rene Rivera, and designated outfielder Ben Gamel for assignment, Mandy Bell of MLB.com was among those to report.
Perez suffered the injury April 13 on a crossup with reliever James Karinchak, but it has become enough of a problem for him to land on the IL three weeks later. Perhaps thanks in part to the injury, the defensively adept Perez has recorded an unproductive .131/.274/.295 line with three home runs in 73 plate appearances this year.
The Indians will now pair catcher Austin Hedges with Rivera, whom they signed to a minor league contract last month. Rivera, 37, is a journeyman who hasn’t hit much in the majors since he debuted in 2004, and he totaled a mere 24 plate appearances with the Mets from 2019-20.
Gamel was another minors signing for the Indians in the offseason, and though he made their Opening Day roster, the 28-year-old didn’t do enough to hold down a spot. He wound up going 1-for-14 with a double and six strikeouts against three walks before the Indians sent him down on April 17.
Gamel has one more minor league option left, and considering he has put up passable offensive numbers throughout his career and lined up at all three outfield positions, he could catch on someplace else via trade or waivers in the next week.
Joey Votto Suffers Fractured Thumb
Reds first baseman Joey Votto suffered a fractured left thumb on Wednesday, manager David Bell told C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic and other reporters. Votto will miss “weeks,” likely around a month, according to Bell.
The 37-year-old Votto incurred the injury on a fourth-inning hit by pitch from White Sox left-hander Dallas Keuchel in a game the Reds ultimately won, 1-0. Votto stayed in through the fifth inning, but the Reds then replaced him with Kyle Farmer. It was a cruel way for Votto to leave the 1,800th game of his decorated career.
Votto’s injury continues what has been a tough start to the season for the former NL MVP, six-time All-Star and potential Hall of Famer. Through 118 plate appearances, Votto has batted a so-so .226/.305/.425 – a far cry from his lifetime line of .303/.418/.516. Votto’s walk and strikeout rates are also much worse than his career marks, though his bottom-line results looked due for a turnaround before Wednesday’s injury. According to Statcast, Votto ranks near the top of the league in expected slugging percentage, average exit velocity, expected weighted on-base average, hard-hit percentage and expected batting average.
Cincinnati and Votto will now have to wait even longer for a possible 180 from the franchise icon, and the Reds will have to find a replacement(s) in the meantime. Alex Blandino is the only other Red who has started a game at first base this year.
Twins Place Alex Kirilloff On Injured List, Activate Miguel Sano
The Twins announced that they’ve placed outfielder/first baseman Alex Kirilloff on the 10-day injured list due to a right wrist sprain and reinstated Miguel Sano from the injured list in his place. Kirilloff’s IL placement is retroactive to May 4. Minnesota also optioned lefty Brandon Waddell to Triple-A St. Paul and recalled fellow southpaw Lewis Thorpe, who’ll start tonight’s game.
It’s an ill-timed setback for the Twins and for the 23-year-old Kirilloff, a former first-round pick and consensus Top 50 overall prospect in MLB who’d been their hottest hitter of late. Kirilloff was called up for an audition two weeks ago, and while he got out to a miserable 0-for-15 start, he’d finally begun to see his huge hard-contact rates bear fruit.
Kirilloff homered four times in the Twins’ series victory over the Royals this past weekend and came back with a pair of doubles Monday against the Rangers. Over his past seven games, Kirilloff had put together a blistering .321/.333/.857 batting line with seven extra-base hits and 11 runs knocked in.
The team has yet to provide a timetable for when the promising slugger might return to the club. Manager Rocco Baldelli rather vaguely told reporters yesterday that that the injury “doesn’t appear to be the most minor of things,” adding that Kirilloff would see a specialist (link via Meagan Ryan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune). It’s particularly concerning given that Kirilloff endured multiple IL stints in 2019 due to problems in that same right wrist.
Sano has been out for a bit more than two weeks due to a hamstring strain. He opened the season in a dreadful slump, going just 5-for-45 to begin the 2021 campaign. Sano has walked at what would (obviously) be a career-best 22.4 percent clip and has actually cut back on his prolific strikeout rate through his first 58 plate appearances, but some of those punchouts have simply been swapped out for pop-ups; he’s already up to six infield flies this year.
Phillies, Ruben Tejada Agree To Minor League Deal
The Phillies have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran infielder Ruben Tejada, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. The Primetime Sports client will presumably head to their Triple-A affiliate to open the season.
Outside of a brief, six-game resurgence with the 2019 Mets, we haven’t seen Tejada at the big league level since a rough showing with the Orioles back in 2017. He appeared in 41 games for the O’s that year and managed only a tepid .230/.293/.283 output in 124 trips to the plate.
The vast majority of Tejada’s career has come with the Mets, for whom he served as an oft-used utility infielder from his MLB debut as a 20-year-old in 2010 up through the 2015 season. Tejada logged significant action at shortstop, second base and third base in Queens and, in 2194 plate appearances as a Met, has posted a .254/.328/.322 batting line.
The Phillies currently have Jean Segura (quadriceps strain) and Ronald Torreyes (undisclosed) on the injured list, and they’re not exactly teeming with upper-level infield depth. The hope was that veteran infielder Greg Garcia could serve as this type of depth option, but he opted out of his minor league deal and was given his release earlier this week. As such, the most experienced infield pieces set to open the year in Lehigh Valley were former Red Sox prospect C.J. Chatham — whom the team released in late March but apparently re-signed, as he was announced as part of their Triple-A roster — and versatile Scott Kingery. Kingery has bounced between the Majors and the alternate site multiple times this year already as he looks to return to form after a disastrous 2020 season.
Cubs Grant Pedro Strop His Release
Right-hander Pedro Strop has asked his release from the Cubs, who have granted the request, tweets Bruce Levine of 670 The Score. He’s still in good standing with the organization, ESPN’s Jesse Rogers adds, indicating this was an amicable parting of ways. MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian tweets that the team remains open to bringing Strop back in the future.
Strop was away from the Cubs on a leave of absence due to personal reasons. Details surrounding that absence were not revealed, and it’s not clear at this point whether he’ll pursue an opportunity with another club. He pitched two shutout innings for the Cubs in 2021, but as of this weekend, Strop had returned to his home in the Dominican Republic.
Set to turn 36 next month, Strop has spent parts of 13 years in the Majors — eight of them with the Cubs. He came to the organization alongside Jake Arrieta in the franchise-altering deal that sent Scott Feldman to the Oriole and went on to become one of the team’s most vital relivers, pitching to a sub-3.00 ERA in his first six seasons in Chicago. Strop has tallied 375 innings in relief for the Cubs over the years and logged a 2.88 ERA while more than 28 percent of his opponents. He’s also been nails in the playoffs, logging a career 1.86 ERA in 19 1/3 postseason frames.
All told, Strop carries a lifetime 3.20 ERA through 505 2/3 big league innings split between the Cubs, Orioles, Rangers and Reds. If he indeed decides to explore other opportunities, there will no doubt be interest in him given his lengthy track record.
A’s Acquire Skye Bolt
The Athletics announced Wednesday that they’ve acquired outfielder Skye Bolt from the Giants in exchange for cash. Bolt is a former A’s draft pick who spent his entire career with the organization until being designated for assignment back on April 1 and subsequently claimed by the Giants. His time on the other side of the Bay lasted only a month, as he was designated for assignment by the Giants as well last week. He’ll now come full circle back to his original organization, where he’s been assigned to Triple-A Las Vegas.
The 27-year-old Bolt only appeared in two games with the Giants and struck out in his lone plate appearance with the team. He’s played in seven big league games dating back to 2019 but tallied only a dozen trips to the plate, going 1-for-11 with a walk and four punchouts.
Bolt spent the 2020 season in the Athletics’ 60-man player pool but never got the call from their alternate site to the big leagues. His last full season came in 2019 when he appeared in 89 games with Las Vegas, slashing .269/.350/.459 in 347 plate appearances. The 2015 fourth-rounder has never been considered one of the organization’s very top prospects, but his ability to play all three outfield spots and a knack for drawing walks (10.8 percent in the minors) has landed him in the middle tier of some A’s Top 30 lists. Overall, Bolt is a career .249/.335/.426 hitter in parts of five minor league seasons.