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Mets Scratch Jacob deGrom, Reinstate Robinson Cano

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2:57pm: The Mets have also activated Robinson Cano, who’ll step into the lineup at second base. He had been on the injured list with a left adductor strain.

2:15pm: The Mets have scratched ace righty Jacob deGrom from his scheduled start this evening, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports on Twitter. Michael Mayer of Metsmerizedonline.com first tweeted about the possibility.

Full details of the situation have not yet been fully reported. But it seems a stiff neck is to blame for the absence, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link).

Thankfully, it doesn’t sound as if this is expected to be a particularly serious problem. deGrom says an examination revealed no structural concerns; he was able to throw off the mound yesterday and is hoping for a fairly quick turnaround. (Via Sherman; Twitter links).

Willie McGee Opts Out Of Season

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Cardinals coach Willie McGee will not return to the bench when the team resumes play, Rick Hummel of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. He has opted out of the remainder of the campaign.

McGee, an MLB veteran who spent 13 of his 18 playing seasons in St. Louis, has tutored the club’s outfielders since 2018. The 61-year-old will attempt to fulfill some of his duties remotely.

The decision comes as the Cardinals try to make it through a COVID-19 outbreak that has spread to many of the team’s players and coaches. McGee has not tested positive, per the report. He says he’s particularly concerned with contracting the disease since he has high blood pressure.

Orioles Select Chandler Shepherd

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The Orioles announced that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Chandler Shepherd and optioned righty David Hess to their alternate training site. Baltimore’s 40-man roster is now up to a total of 39 players.

Shepherd, 28 later this month, made his big league debut with the O’s last season and allowed 14 runs in 19 frames — albeit with a solid 17-to-6 K/BB ratio. The longtime Red Sox farmhand had a solid track record in Triple-A prior to last year’s offensive explosion at that level, carrying a 3.91 ERA to that point in his career.

Shepherd has generally fared well in the upper minors while averaging a bit less than a punchout per frame and about two and a half walks per nine innings pitched. He sat at 92.2 mph with his fastball in last year’s debut effort and has posted roughly average ground-ball tendencies between Double-A and Triple-A.

Hess has a solid track record between Double-A and Triple-A over the past three seasons as well, but he’s yet to find success in the big leagues. He’s logged 190 1/3 frames since debuting back in ’17 and struggled to a 5.98 ERA with a 6.41 FIP in that time.

Cardinals’ Season To Resume Saturday

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Aug. 14: Major League Baseball has formally announced that the Cardinals will return to play in a doubleheader against the White Sox tomorrow. The league has also announced seven newly scheduled doubleheaders between now and season’s end: three against the Cubs (Aug. 17, Aug. 19, Sept. 5), two against the Pirates (Aug. 27, Sept. 18) and one apiece against the Twins (Sept. 8) and Tigers (date TBD).

Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that if the Cardinals are able to play the currently allotted games without any additional stoppages, they’d come in at 58 games through the scheduled end of season. If those final two unresolved games would be a determining factor in postseason eligibility, the Cards could play an additional game or two on Sept. 28 (the Monday after the season’s currently scheduled conclusion).

Aug. 13: The Cardinals have been out of action since July 29 because of a coronavirus outbreak, but they announced that they’ll return to the field this Saturday with a doubleheader against the White Sox. That will be the first of three doubleheaders in the coming days for the Cardinals, who will also play twin bills on Monday and Wednesday against the Cubs, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Having played a mere five games this season (some teams have already reached 20), St. Louis is in the unfortunate position of scrambling to complete a 60-game schedule by Sept. 27. The league’s hopeful the Cardinals will at least be able to approach a 60-game slate, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic relays. Of course, if the Cards play fewer than 60 but are in line for a playoff spot based on winning percentage, MLB could have a difficult decision on its hands in terms of how to map out the National League postseason bracket.

Although it’s a relief that the Cardinals are finally on the cusp of a return, they’re far from out of the woods when it comes to the coronavirus. Another staffer of theirs tested positive Thursday, Buster Olney of ESPN tweets. Furthermore, the team had to place left-hander Austin Gomber on the COVID-19 injured list because he’s “possibly at risk,” per Goold. Fortunately, though, Gomber has not tested positive to this point.

Ramon Laureano’s Suspension Reduced To Four Games

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Athletics outfielder Ramon Laureano’s six-game suspension has been reduced to four games after he appealed the punishment earlier this week, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports (via Twitter). He’ll begin serving that four-game ban tonight.

Major League Baseball initially brought forth a six-game punishment after Laureano charged the Astros’ dugout during Sunday’s game. He’d been plunked twice that game and three times in the series, and Laureano was rather clearly goaded by Astros hitting coach Alex Cintron, who has been suspended 20 games as a result of his role in inciting the benches-clearing fracas.

The extra two games of Laureano are no small perk for the A’s, who’ve gotten out to a 13-6 start and currently lead the AL West by four games. Laureano has gotten out to a .262/.398/.462 start at the plate while playing excellent defense. The A’s can turn to either Mark Canha or Chad Pinder if they prefer to stick with options already on the 28-man roster. If they plan to dip into their 60-man player pool, the A’s have Dustin Fowler, Luis Barrera and Skye Bolt as alternatives who are already on the 40-man roster.

Astros Activate Yordan Alvarez

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The Astros announced Friday that they’ve activated designated hitter Yordan Alvarez from the injured list. Righty Nivaldo Rodriguez was optioned to the team’s alternate training site to make space on the 28-man roster. This will mark the 2020 debut for Alvarez, last year’s American League Rookie of the Year. The 23-year-old has yet to suit up for the ’Stros after also missing all of Summer Camp.

Alvarez burst onto the scene in 2019, appearing in 87 games down the stretch and overpowering opposing pitchers with a gaudy .313/.412/.655 batting line, 27 home runs and 26 doubles in just 369 trips to the plate. He served primarily as a designated hitter, which is likely to be his primary role with the club moving forward, but Alvarez does experience at first base and in left field. Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle tweets, however, that Astros skipper Dusty Baker said this week that Alvarez won’t be playing the outfield when he returns. That could make it tough to get Alvarez and Michael Brantley in the lineup early, as Brantley has been hobbled by a quadriceps issue and working as the Houston DH recently.

The return of Alvarez is a boon for an Astros roster that has been ravaged by injury and underperformance throughout the season. Justin Verlander is sidelined for a yet-to-be-determined chunk of time owing to a forearm strain, and closer Roberto Osuna is dealing with a UCL injury that could necessitate Tommy John surgery. Pitchers Jose Urquidy, Brad Peacock, Austin Pruitt, Rogelio Armenteros, Joe Biagini and Cionel Perez are all on the injured list as well, and star center fielder George Springer has been slowed by a wrist strain over the past week.

The result is an Astros club that currently sits third in the AL West at 8-10. Houston’s collective .238/.330/.403 batting line translates to a 106 wRC+ that ranks ninth among big league teams. The pitching staff ranks 11th in ERA (4.09) but 20th in FIP (4.46) and 25th in xFIP (4.77). The Astros trail the division-leading Athletics (13-6) by four and a half games and the second-place Rangers (8-9) by half a game.

Mets Notes: Rotation, Rosario, Gimenez, Peterson

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Robert Gsellman’s first start as a member of the Mets’ rotation this week lasted just two innings, as the right-hander is still getting stretched out after opening the year in the bullpen. But manager Luis Rojas expressed confidence this week that the righty can “have some stamina for us” and “give us that depth to start a game” as he builds up (link via MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo). The 27-year-old Gsellman said he “felt like a little kid again” as he prepped for his first start since 2017, and DiComo notes that a move back into the rotation has long been something for which Gsellman has hoped. Righty Seth Lugo, too, has expressed interest in getting back into a starter’s role, but the Mets are more reluctant to alter his role given the resounding success he’s enjoyed as a late-inning weapon in recent years. Lugo has a career 2.50 ERA out of the ’pen and has punched out 28.3 percent of the hitters he’s faced in a relief role. Those numbers dip to 4.06 and 19.2 percent, respectively, in a nearly equal sample of innings as a starter.

More on the Mets…

  • Amed Rosario has struggled to begin the season while top prospect Andres Gimenez has thrived in his early looks at shortstop. However, Rojas told reporters yesterday that Rosario is still the team’s starting shortstop (link via Newsday’s David Lennon). Rosario was out of action due to what the Mets termed as a stomach illness, but Rojas acknowledged after the game that the team is also “looking to get him back on track” at the plate. Rosario is hitting .207/.207/.310 to Gimenez’s .286/.327/.388. Gimenez has also played sharp defense and is tied for the MLB lead with five steals, but for now, it seems as though he’ll continue to slot in around the diamond. That could mean a move back to second base once Rosario is well enough to return to the lineup, but a changing of the guard at shortstop still doesn’t sound imminent. Gimenez, 20, has been generally considered to be among MLB’s top 100 prospects for the past couple of seasons, although Rosario himself was regarded as an elite prospect prior to his own ascension to the Majors.
  • Left-hander David Peterson exited yesterday’s outing after just 74 pitches and revealed that he’s dealing with some shoulder fatigue (link via Mike Puma of the New York Post). Peterson, the Mets’ first-round pick back in 2017, had held the Nationals to a run one hit and a pair of walks through five strong innings. He said after the game that he’s not concerned with his shoulder issue. The Mets can ill afford any further hits to their rotation, particularly a loss of Peterson, who has been a godsend in the absence of Noah Syndergaard and Marcus Stroman. Through his first four MLB starts this year, Peterson has a 2.91 ERA and 3.96 FIP with a 17-to-8 K/BB ratio and just two homers allowed in 21 2/3 innings.

Taylor Cole Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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Angels right-hander Taylor Cole announced on Instagram that he underwent surgery on a bothersome shoulder Wednesday (hat tip to Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times). It’s unclear how much time Cole will need to recover, but he wrote that there’s “a difficult road” ahead.

The 30-year-old Cole, an ex-Blue Jay, appeared in the majors in each of the two previous seasons with the Angels. He prevented runs at an impressive rate in 2018 (2.75 ERA), but not so much last year (5.92). In all, Cole has thrown 87 2/3 innings of 4.62 ERA/3.31 FIP ball with 9.14 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and a 49.1 percent groundball rate since the Angels signed him to a minor league contract in 2018.

In the wake of his 2019 struggles, the Angels outrighed Cole in late March. He hasn’t rejoined their 40-man roster since then, but he was part of their 60-player pool.

Marlins Acquire Jesus Tinoco

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The Marlins have acquired right-hander Jesus Tinoco from the Rockies for fellow righty Chad Smith, Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald reports. Tinoco will join the Marlins’ player pool and report to their alternate training site.

This is the second trade involving Tinoco, who was part of the Troy Tulowitzki blockbuster between the Blue Jays and Rockies in 2015. Tinoco reached the Triple-A and major league levels for the first time last season, though he didn’t produce great numbers in either place. The 25-year-old did pitch to a 3.97 ERA in 34 innings at the minors’ top level, but he only logged 6.1 K/9 against 4.98 BB/9. In his MLB debut, Tinoco’s control issues continued, as he recorded a 5.5 BB/9 with a 4.75 ERA and 7.0 K/9 across 36 frames.

Smith, 25, was an 11th-rounder of the Marlins in 2016 who hasn’t advanced beyond Double-A yet. He owns a 4.46 ERA with 10.0 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9 in 149 1/3 minor league innings.

Red Sox President Sam Kennedy On Slow Start, Trade Deadline

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The Red Sox suffered their 13th loss in 19 games on Thursday, dropping an embarrassing 17-8 decision to the Rays. Before that, Red Sox president Sam Kennedy joined The Greg Hill Show on WEEI and expressed optimism that the team could still compete for a playoff spot, saying (via Ryan Hannable of WEEI.com) that “you can run off three or four wins and all of a sudden you’re two or three games back in the American League East and anything can happen.”

Kennedy isn’t wrong, but realistically, this is not going to be a playoff year for the Red Sox, who sit dead last in the AL and are dealing with health issues and various roster flaws. So, with the Aug. 31 trade deadline looming, the Chaim Bloom-led Red Sox could look to sell instead of buy over the next couple weeks.

In regards to the deadline, Kennedy said of Boston’s front office that “there are conversations going on given the condensed season.” As far as possible trade chips go, Kennedy unsurprisingly noted that you’d “never label anyone untouchable,” but he expressed a reluctance toward dealing those “who have grown up in the system.”

Superstar outfielder Mookie Betts grew up in Boston’s system, yet the club traded him to the Dodgers during the offseason. However, he was only a year from free agency then (he has since signed a mega-extension with the Dodgers). Boston doesn’t have those types of concerns with its two best players, shortstop Xander Bogaerts and third baseman Rafael Devers, whom the organization has developed into superb contributors. The Red Sox already inked Bogaerts to a six-year, $120MM contract before 2019, while Devers will enter arbitration for the first time during the offseason. Meanwhile, catcher Christian Vazquez – another homegrown product – has another two affordable seasons on his deal after this one.

Speculatively, designated hitter J.D. Martinez could make for a trade target for some teams, especially considering National League clubs are using the DH this season. Martinez is expensive, though, as he’s on a prorated $23.75MM salary this season and owed a combined $38.75MM from 2021-2022. And the fact that Martinez has an opt-out clause after this season could further complicate matters.

A Martinez trade doesn’t seem very likely, but the Red Sox have more obvious trade candidates in a couple pending free agents, reliever Brandon Workman and outfielder Kevin Pillar. One of Pillar’s fellow outfielders, Jackie Bradley Jr., could also wind up on the block, though he hasn’t done anything to boost his value during a miserable start to 2020.

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