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New York Notes: DeGrom, Tanaka, Hicks, Cessa, Gsellman

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After tossing 60 pitches in a simulated game today, Jacob deGrom looks likely to be ready for Friday’s season opener.  (The New York Post’s Dan Martin was among those to report the news.)  While a simulated game isn’t a substitute for a real outing, of course, deGrom’s strong results were encouraging — he didn’t allow a hit against any of the 14 batters faced, and recorded nine strikeouts.  Back tightness caused deGrom to leave last Tuesday’s intrasquad game after only an inning of work, leading to fresh questions as to whether or not the Mets ace would be ready for the start of the season.

With the Mets and Yankees squaring off in exhibition action tonight, here are some notes from both Big Apple franchises…

  • DeGrom isn’t the only star pitcher showing progress, as Yankees right-hander Masahiro Tanaka looked good during a bullpen session today.  Manager Aaron Boone told the New York Post’s George A. King III and other media that Tanaka will likely next face hitters possibly as early as Tuesday, which would mark the first time Tanaka has faced live batters since being hit in the head by a Giancarlo Stanton line drive on July 4.  Tanaka fortunately escaped with only a mild concussion, and if he continues to rehab well, Tanaka may end up missing only one start.  “It is possible he will be able to start at the back end of the second trip through the rotation,” King writes.
  • Aaron Hicks underwent Tommy John surgery last October, but told MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch that his right elbow “feels good right now,” and he is on pace to make the Yankees’ Opening Day roster.  Throwing has been a particular source of improvement, as Hicks said “the ball has been coming out really well this past week.  I feel like I’ve been able to get a lot more carry on my ball, especially throwing to home [plate].”
  • Also from Hoch’s notes piece, Luis Cessa has arrived at the Yankees’ Summer Camp after recovering from COVID-19.  The right-hander tested positive before arriving in camp, and went through the standard procedure of a two-week quarantine and two consecutive negative test results before being allowed to join his teammates.  Cessa played catch today and will throw off a mound on Monday, though it isn’t yet clear if he will ready for the Yankees’ first game.
  • Robert Gsellman has been battling tightness in his right triceps, Mets manager Luis Rojas told MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo and other reporters.  While Gsellman has started to play catch off of flat ground, Rojas wasn’t sure if Gsellman would be available for the Opening Day roster.  The right-hander has been a workhorse reliever for the Mets over the last two seasons, tossing 143 1/3 relief innings and posting a 4.45 ERA, 2.55 K/BB rate, and 8.1 K/9.  Gsellman missed six weeks with a similar injury last season, though Rojas said “there’s nothing of concern as far as past history.”

Cole Hamels To Miss Start Of Season

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TODAY: Snitker confirmed that Hamels will miss the beginning of the season and will likely be placed on the 10-day injured list.  (Gabriel Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution was among those to report the news.)

JULY 16: The Braves will likely open the season without left-hander Cole Hamels, manager Brian Snitker said Thursday (via Mark Bowman of MLB.com).

Hamels signed a one-year, $18MM contract with the Braves in the offseason, but the former Phillie, Ranger and Cub has since endured an injury-laden few months. He didn’t pitch at all in spring training because of inflammation in his throwing shoulder. The 36-year-old Hamels looked like a lock to miss the start of the season then, but the game’s months-long shutdown seemed to make it likely he’d be ready for the abbreviated campaign. Instead, though, Hamels has battled another problem – triceps tendinitis – that has slowed him in Summer Camp.

The good news is that Hamels was able to throw a side session Thursday without experiencing any pain, according to Bowman. However, it remains unclear how much time the long-effective innings eater will miss. If and when he’s able to take the mound in 2020, Bowman notes the Braves will be cautious with him, at least at first, with three- to four-inning appearances.

As for how the Braves will proceed without Hamels, Bowman lists touted young righty Kyle Wright, veteran RHP Josh Tomlin and lefty prospect Tucker Davidson as candidates for the last spot in their rotation. Mike Soroka, Max Fried, Mike Foltynewicz and Sean Newcomb are slated to occupy the top four spots for the back-to-back NL East champions.

Athletics Select Jordan Weems’ Contract

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6:54PM: The A’s have officially selected Weems’ contract and added him to their 40-man roster, as per a team announcement.

6:32PM: Right-hander Jordan Weems has been told he will be part of the Athletics’ Opening Day roster, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports.  Weems will need to be added to the 40-man roster, so the A’s will have to make another transaction prior to their July 24 season opener.

The news marks quite a journey for the 27-year-old Weems, who is in line for his first taste of big league baseball after being drafted by the Red Sox in the third round of the 2011 draft.  Originally selected as a catcher, Weems transitioned to pitching in 2016 and posted some solid numbers (3.87 ERA, 2.00 K/BB rate, 9.4 K/9) over 200 innings, though only 15 of those frames were at the Triple-A level.

After electing free agency last fall, Weems signed a minor league deal with Oakland in December and has since turned some heads within his new organization.  “He has a riding fastball, that split-finger fastball and an occasional breaking ball,” according to A’s pitching Scott Emerson.  “For a converted guy to be able to command the top part of the zone with a fastball and something soft at the bottom of the zone is pretty good for a guy who hasn’t done much pitching.”

This repertoire and a live fastball that has touched 98mph also attracted the attention of other teams, as Slusser writes that Weems “likely would have had multiple big league offers elsewhere” had the A’s decided against putting him on the MLB roster.  If he hadn’t made the roster, Weems had an opt-out clause in his minor league contract.

Blue Jays To Place Chase Anderson On 10-Day IL Due To Oblique Strain

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TODAY: Anderson will begin the season on the 10-day injured list, Montoyo told reporters today.

JULY 12: Chase Anderson suffered an oblique strain while preparing for a bullpen session and is day-to-day with the injury, Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo told Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi and other reporters.  Montoyo’s description would seem to indicate that Anderson suffered a very mild strain, as more serious oblique injuries have been known to keep players out of action for months at a time.

Still, the timing of Anderson’s issue creates doubt as to whether or not the right-hander will be ready for the beginning of the season.  If a replacement is needed within Toronto’s rotation, the Jays have several potential arms behind the starting four of Hyun-Jin Ryu, Tanner Roark, Trent Thornton, and Matt Shoemaker.

Speculation has already focused on whether or not top prospect Nate Pearson could take that fifth starter’s role, and such hurlers as Anthony Kay, Ryan Borucki, Thomas Hatch, Jacob Waguespack, or others could also potentially get the call if the Jays wanted to limit Pearson’s service time.  As Davidi notes, the team would gain an extra year of control over Pearson by keeping him on the taxi squad for roughly a week into the season.  Regardless of the specific timing of the promotion, it seems very likely that Pearson will make his MLB debut at some point in 2020.

Anderson was acquired from the Brewers at the start of November, coming off a season that saw him post a 4.21 ERA, 2.48 K/BB rate, and 8.0 K/9 over 139 frames (starting 27 of 32 games).  The 32-year-old has posted solid numbers over his six MLB seasons with Arizona and Milwaukee, working mostly as a starter and averaging 143 innings per year.  Anderson has been relatively durable over his career, though it’s worth noting that he missed close to two months of the 2017 season due to a left oblique strain.

Justin Grimm, Logan Morrison To Make Brewers’ Opening Day Roster

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6:01PM: Right-hander Justin Grimm has also been told he will make Milwaukee’s roster, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets.  Grimm signed a minors contract last December, and will thus also require a 40-man roster spot before being officially selected.

Grimm posted solid numbers over 180 1/3 innings out of the Cubs bullpen from 2013-16, including a 4.10 ERA over 52 2/3 frames for Chicago’s 2016 World Series championship club.  Since that memorable year, however, Grimm has struggled, and he didn’t pitch in the big leagues at all in 2019.

11:00AM: The Brewers plan to add Logan Morrison to the Opening Day roster, reports Robert Murray (Twitter link). He’ll need to be added to the 40-man roster. Morrison signed a minor-league deal with the club in January.

The 32-year-old has impressed both in the spring and into summer training camp since arriving as a non-roster invitee. He did hit 3 home runs in 33 Spring Training plate appearances, though it would be rash to draw conclusions from such a small showing. Of course, Craig Counsell and the Brewers have seen more good signs to warrant including him as part of their Opening Day 30.

With Justin Smoak in the fold and slotted in as the regular first baseman, Morrison doesn’t figure into the Brewers’ everyday starting lineup, though he’ll be the first off the bench if Smoak needs a day off. Ryan Braun is in line to get the lion’s share of at-bats at DH, but with Braun’s status for Opening Day questionable due to soreness, Morrison could see an expanded role early in the season.

The last two seasons have been unequivocally disappointing for Morrison, who’s not far removed from a 38-homer showing with the Rays in 2017. Since then, he’s bounced between a few teams, making stops with the Twins, Yankees, and Phillies, but he hasn’t caught on anywhere. Last year, he appeared in just 29 games for the Phils and posted a dismal .663 OPS. He posted solid numbers at the Triple-A level, hitting .308/.369/.640, but the Major League production has not been there. Of course, the Brewers will look to unlock a version of Morrison closer to his 2017 self, and if that happens, he could be a real bargain-bin find for the Brew Crew.

Yoshihisa Hirano Cleared To Join Mariners’ Camp

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TODAY: Hirano is still on the injured list but he has been cleared to join the Mariners’ Summer Camp.  As per the Japan Times and other outlets, Hirano revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19, and was kept from training for almost two weeks while battling virus symptoms.

JULY 14: The Mariners announced that they have placed right-handed reliever Yoshihisa Hirano on the injured list. The club didn’t provide a reason for Hirano’s IL placement, but Greg Johns of MLB.com notes that he’s the only Mariner who hasn’t been cleared to report to Summer Camp.

Hirano joined the Mariners as one of their most notable acquisitions during the winter, when the team handed the former Diamondback a one-year, $1.6MM contract in free agency. If healthy, he’s an obvious candidate to rack up a substantial number of innings in a bullpen that’s light on proven options and just lost righty Gerson Bautista to a flexor strain.

Hirano, 36, is a two-year major league veteran who emigrated from his homeland of Japan after a dominant run there. While last season didn’t go nearly as well for Hirano as his initial campaign did, he has overall been a respectable late-game option in the bigs. Across 119 1/3 innings in Arizona, Hirano recorded a 3.47 ERA/3.85 FIP with 9.05 K/9, 3.39 BB/9, a 47.7 percent groundball rate and 47 holds.

Dodgers Add 3 To Player Pool, Activate Pedro Baez From Injured List

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Outfielder Terrance Gore and infielders Kody Hoese and Devin Mann have all been added to the Dodgers’ 60-man player pool, MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick reports (Twitter link).  In other roster news, right-hander Pedro Baez was already in the player pool but has now been activated from the 10-day injured list.

There is some mystery to the Baez news, as Gurnick notes that the team hadn’t previously announced that Baez was on the IL, or why he had been absent from Summer Camp.  The lack of information inevitably leads to COVID-19 speculation (whether Baez tested positive for the virus or perhaps was just held up by a delay in getting test results back), though we won’t know for certain unless Baez agrees for such information to be made public.

Whatever the case, the Dodgers bullpen will be bolstered by the return of a pitcher who become a key part of the relief corps.  The 32-year-old has a 3.03 ERA, 3.15 K/BB rate, and 9.5 K/9 over 339 career relief innings for Los Angeles, and delivered just a touch below those career norms over 69 2/3 frames in 2019.  Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told Gurnick and other media that Baez is expected to be ready for Opening Day, and will throw a simulated game against teammates at some point this week.

Of the new players joining the player pool, Gore is the best-known name, as the outfielder has appeared in 100 Major League games over the last six seasons.  The majority of that experience has come as a pinch-running specialist, as Gore has only 77 plate appearances (and a career .608 OPS) to his resume, though he has stolen 40 bases from 49 attempts.  That total jumps to 45-for-55 if you count postseason games, and Gore was a valuable bench piece for the Royals in their back-to-back trips to the World Series in 2014 and 2015.

Hoese was selected 25th overall in the 2019 draft, and the Tulane product has a .299/.380/.483 slash line over 171 plate appearances as a pro.  Since Hoese has yet to play above the A-ball level, his inclusion in the player pool is likely more about getting him some high-level reps in training camp than it will be about potentially making his MLB debut in short order.  The same could be true of Mann, a fifth-round pick in 2018 who has also yet to advance beyond high-A.   Hoese and Mann rank seventh and 22nd, respectively, on MLB Pipeline’s list of the top 30 Dodgers prospects.

Reds Designate Scott Schebler For Assignment, Add Brooks Raley To 40-Man Roster

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The Reds have added left-handed pitcher Brooks Raley to the 40-man roster and have designated outfielder Scott Schebler for assignment, as reported by Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Schebler, a mainstay on Reds teams of 2017 and 2018, has seen himself swiftly fall out of favor with the club as it collects a new crop of young outfielders. Jesse Winker, Phil Ervin, Nick Senzel, and Aristides Aquino have overtaken Schebler for playing time, and new arrivals Nicholas Castellanos and Shogo Akiyama only further cut into Schebler’s role.

Last year was a disaster for the 29-year-old Schebler, who limped to a .123/.253/.222 batting line, albeit in just 95 plate appearances. In the two years prior, however, Schebler was a different player, even reaching the 30-homer benchmark in 2017. From 2017-2018, he notched a .785 OPS while playing all three outfield positions on a consistent basis. That’s a player who can provide some value for a team, and teams with a thin outfield mix should have some interest in Schebler, who must either be traded or exposed to the other 29 teams via waivers in the next 7 days. Should he pass through waivers, he may then be released or assigned outright to the minors. That’s not a given, though, and he may be worth a claim as a depth outfielder.

Raley, meanwhile, is a particularly interesting case: the 32-year-old southpaw hasn’t appeared in a Major League game since 2013, when he was with the Cubs. After a stint in the Angels’ and Twins’ minor league systems, he commuted to South Korea, where he’s played in the KBO since 2015.

He’s getting a chance with the Reds this year as a non-roster invitee, and now he’s parlayed that into a spot on the 40-man roster. Nothing is certain, but there’s a decent chance he cracks Cincinnati’s Opening Day 30, joining a bullpen that will be key to the Reds’ performance this year. There’s no question that the rotation can be up there with the best in the National League, but the bullpen will need to collectively improve if they’re to compete in the Central division.

In five seasons with the KBO’s Lotte Giants, Raley threw 910 2/3 innings, making at least 30 starts every year. He struck out a total of 755 batters and posted a 4.13 ERA. Last year was his best in terms of home run prevention, but he also surrendered more walks than ever.

Collin McHugh Opts Out Of 2020 Season

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Red Sox right-hander Collin McHugh has announced his intention to opt out of the 2020 season, according to Ian Browne of MLB.com. Per Browne, McHugh said that his arm hasn’t recovered as well as he’d hoped after an elbow procedure in December.

As such, McHugh expected to spend a portion of the season on the injured list, and manager Ron Roenicke relayed (video courtesy of Rob Bradford of WEEI) that McHugh felt it best to spend that time at home with family during the pandemic. McHugh will be removed from the Boston 60-man player pool and 40-man roster.

The 33-year-old appeared to be making progress towards a return to action, but that progress seems to have stagnated recently, preventing McHugh from throwing live batting practice and ramping up into intrasquad game action.

McHugh signed on with the Red Sox in March, agreeing to an incentive-laden contract that only guaranteed him $650K for the season, but that would have allowed him to earn up to $3.625MM based on innings pitched and time spent on the active roster.

Interestingly, as Alex Speier of the Boston Globe notes, McHugh already received the entirety of his guaranteed salary for the season through the preseason advance; by opting out the season, he is forfeiting only pay from those incentives, which were far-fetched given the injury.

With McHugh choosing to sit this season out, he’ll once again enter free agency in the coming winter, hopefully at full health and ready to contribute to a Major League club. Interested teams won’t have data and footage from 2020 to rely on, and they’ll have to weigh whether to deploy McHugh as a starter or reliever. Speculatively, a contract similar to the one he signed last winter sounds feasible.

McHugh has spent the last six years of his career with the Astros, toggling between a role in the bullpen and in the starting rotation. He has succeeded in both roles in the past, though last year he faltered as a starter, shifting to relief before injury prevented him from playing in the last third of the season. He posted a mediocre 4.70 ERA in 35 games—8 starts. 2018, on the other hand, was McHugh’s best as a pro, as he excelled in a full-time relief role, notching a 1.99 ERA while striking out 94 batters in 72 1/3 innings of work.

From a baseball perspective, the loss of McHugh will no doubt make a dent in the depth of the Boston pitching staff, which was already looking thin. Nathan Eovaldi will start on Opening Day, but beyond him, there are a bunch of question marks. Free agent signing Martin Perez is probably next in line, with Ryan Weber, Brian Johnson, and Matt Hall all in the mix. Eduardo Rodriguez, back in Red Sox camp after contracting the coronavirus, will hopefully join the rotation in short order, and Zack Godley might find himself thrust into a bigger role.

McHugh is one of many players who have chosen to spend this season on the sidelines amidst the pandemic, joining the likes of David Price, Buster Posey, Ryan Zimmerman, among others. An ongoing list of players opting out can be found here.

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