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Cole Hamels Uncertain For Braves’ Opening Day Roster?

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Triceps tendinitis prevented Cole Hamels from throwing a side session today, Braves manager Brian Snitker told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Gabriel Burns and other reporters.  While Snitker gave no indication that Hamels wouldn’t be ready for the start of the season, the timeline cited by the skipper would seem to leave things cut very close for Hamels to make the initial 30-man roster.

“I think we’re probably a week away from seeing where things are [with Hamels].  He’s day to day now as far as when he gets back on the mound,” Snitker said.  “His shoulder feels great.  He said he’s going through normal things he has before in spring training.  We’re probably a week away from seeing where he’s actually going to be when this thing starts.”

Since Hamels has yet to throw a simulated game or throw to live hitters, he’ll have less than a week before the Braves’ July 24th opener to get properly ramped up, going by Snitker’s “probably a week away” assessment.  Hamels could be pushed back to the fifth starter’s role to give him more time to prepare, and he wouldn’t have to pitch for very long, as the club is planning to use a piggyback strategy with all of its rotation — the starter would throw around three innings before being replaced by a reliever — in the season’s early days.  However, even if Hamels’ workload was limited, the team might also decide that it isn’t worth having him on the mound at all until he is is completely ready, so as to avoid further injury.

Ironically, Hamels was on pace to miss the original Opening Day, as shoulder issues kept him out of Spring Training prior to the league shutdown.  He had recovered from those problems and was expected to be ready to go for the second opener prior to this latest setback.  Hamels signed a one-year, $18MM deal with the Braves over the offseason to add some veteran experience and potential upside to a young Atlanta rotation.  With Sean Newcomb looking like the favorite to win the normal fifth starter spot, Josh Tomlin or Kyle Wright look like the top choices to fill in for Hamels if he does miss time at the start of the season.

Luis Urias, Angel Perdomo Test Positive For COVID-19

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TODAY: Urias and Perdomo were placed on the Brewers’ injured list, the team announced.

JULY 6: Brewers infielder Luis Urias and left-hander Angel Perdomo both tested positive for COVID-19 prior to intake, manager Craig Counsell told reporters this morning (Twitter links via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). Both consented to their diagnoses becoming public. Urias and Perdomo are thankfully asymptomatic at this point and are going through the league’s COVID-19 protocols. They’ll need a pair of negative tests, separated by at least 24 hours, before they’re able to join Brewers Summer Camp.

There’s no firm timetable on Urias or Perdomo returning to the team, though Counsell estimated at least 10 days would be necessary. That’s of particular note for Urias, who was contending for a starting job in the infield and already had his initial Spring Training wiped out by a fractured hamate bone that required surgical repair.

The overall well-being of the 23-year-old Urias and the 26-year-old Perdomo is certainly the greater focus, but it’s now possible that they’ll only have a week or so to ramp up to the season. The potential impact that would have on Urias’ role, at least early on, is readily apparent. It’s likely that former top prospect Orlando Arcia would shoulder the lion’s share of the workload at shortstop should Urias be unavailable or limited out of the gate. As for Perdomo, he wasn’t in the club’s initial player pool but seems likely to be viewed as a left-handed depth piece who could make his MLB debut in 2020, assuming a full recovery.

Reds Sign Draft Pick Jackson Miller

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8:12PM: Miller will receive a $1.29MM bonus, as per Jim Callis of MLB Pipeline (Twitter link).  This puts the Reds just under their bonus pool limit with $6,100 to spare.

6:02PM: The Reds have completed their draft signings by reaching an agreement with 65th overall pick Jackson Miller.  The 18-year-old catcher announced the news himself on his Twitter feed.

Terms of the deal aren’t yet known, though the 65th overall pick comes with a slot value of $1,025,100.  Since the Reds have already signed five of the other six members of their draft class, they have plenty of room remaining ($1,296,100) in their $8,552,100 draft pool to give Miller an above-slot bonus.  Cincinnati could even offer more than that $1,296,100 figure if the team doesn’t mind paying a 75 percent tax on the overage for exceeding the draft pool limit, though topping the pool by more than five percent would be penalized with the loss of a future first-round pick.

The Athletic’s Keith Law described Miller as having “an advanced feel to hit,” albeit without yet much power in his left-handed swing.  Law ranked Miller 62nd on his list of 2020 draft prospects, with other pundits like Baseball America (99th), MLB Pipline (104th), and Fangraphs (123rd) not being quite as high on the 18-year-old.  As a catcher, the scouting reports noted some room for improvement, but plenty of promise for Miller to become at least an average defensive backstop.  Miller had committed to Wake Forest, but he’ll now begin his pro career as the Reds’ potential catcher of the future.

Padres Release Brian Dozier

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The Padres have released second baseman Brian Dozier, as per the team’s official Twitter feed.  Dozier signed a minor league deal with the organization back in February, and wasn’t included on San Diego’s initial 60-man player pool at the start of Summer Camp.  As per MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell, Dozier could opt out of his deal on July 18 if he hadn’t been added to the roster.

It seemed like the Padres had simply decided to move on from Dozier, particularly after acquiring Jorge Mateo from the A’s to further bolster the second base position (though Mateo is currently in isolation after a positive coronavirus test).  Even with Mateo recovering, San Diego still has a fair amount of second base depth, with Jurickson Profar slated to start, and Ty France and Greg Garcia coming off the bench.

Parting ways with Dozier now saves the Padres the prorated $2.2MM in salary that would have been owed to Dozier had he made the active roster.  Instead, the 33-year-old will try to catch on with another team as he looks to embark on his ninth Major League season.

Dozier isn’t too far removed from his days as one of baseball’s best all-around second basemen, hitting .254/.338/.476 with 127 home runs with Minnesota from 2014-17.  The last two seasons haven’t been as kind to Dozier, as while he has still clubbed 41 homers, he slashed only .225/.320/.408 over 1114 combined PA with the Twins, Dodgers, and Nationals.  He did generate 1.7 fWAR over 135 games for Washington as the Nats’ regular second baseman last season, helping the team make a postseason appearance that resulted in the Nationals’ first World Series title (Dozier saw only sporadic postseason action, with seven PA over eight games).

Yoenis Cespedes “Certain” He’ll Be Ready For Opening Day

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Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes is sure that he will be ready to play when the Mets open the season on July 24, Bob Nightengale was among those to report.

Cespedes, 34, has become something of a forgotten figure in the Mets’ plans over the previous two years, and it’s easy to see why. He hasn’t appeared in a Major League game since July of 2018 thanks to ongoing injury issues. Assuming he is indeed able to take the field on Opening Day, it’s up for debate just how big a role he will play with the 2020 Mets, but one has to think he’ll be given ample opportunity to prove his worth to the club.

While the team has constructed a solid lineup and a good outfield despite Cespedes’s long-term absence, his return would nevertheless be a promising development for the club. Especially given the unique circumstances under which the 2020 season will be played, it can’t hurt to have a former MVP candidate at your disposal. And with just 60 games on the slate, the added depth will be as important as ever.

With the National League set to play with 2020 season with a Designated Hitter in the lineup, Cespedes should have plenty of opportunities to get at-bats, whether in left field or at DH. That said, it figures that manager Luis Rojas will want to deploy him in a timeshare at either spot, with J.D. Davis and Dominic Smith having earned their share of playing time too; neither has the lengthy resume that Cespedes boasts, but both have proven reliable more recently.

We’ll have to wait and see how quickly Cespedes can re-adjust to the challenges of facing Major League pitching in a game setting, and it’s certainly reasonable to temper expectations for his return to action. He’ll almost surely have trouble replicating the results that earned him a four-year, $110MM contract in 2017, but his experience might quicken the acclimation period. To be sure, welcoming Cespedes back to the team could yield considerable benefits for the Mets; reintroducing a slugger of Cespedes’s ilk to one of the stronger lineups in the National League could be the boost the Mets need to enter the NL’s upper echelon.

Either way, the Mets will think of Cespedes less as a franchise cornerstone and more as a wild card, especially since an amended contract lessened the team’s obligations to him and shifted his 2020 earnings to an incentive-heavy arrangement. The ceiling is still high if he hits the ground running, but there won’t be as much of a sunk cost if he fails to return to his previous form.

Aroldis Chapman Tests Positive For COVID-19

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The Yankees announced today that left-handed pitcher Aroldis Chapman has tested positive for COVID-19, showing mild symptoms (H/t Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). Needless to say, Chapman will be away from the team and won’t be allowed to participate in team workouts for the foreseeable future. He’ll need to test negative twice before he’s allowed to rejoin the Yankees.

Chapman’s positive test occurred after he passed the Yankees’ initial intake process and began team workouts, meaning that he had trained with the team at Yankee Stadium prior to testing positive. The Yankees conducted contract tracing after learning of Chapman’s results on Thursday, with James Wagner of The New York Times reporting that the process revealed no further positive tests.

The Yankees have also had Luis Cessa and DJ LeMahieu test positive for the virus, making Chapman the third Yankee to receive a diagnosis since the season reboot.

Should Chapman’s illness prevent him from playing in regular season games for the Yankees, veteran Zack Britton is the standout choice to take on the bulk of the closing duties in New York. That said, the unusual nature of this season will likely alter bullpen usage as we know it, so teams might be hesitant to rely on a single closer day in and day out. Nonetheless, look for Britton to pick up some slack in high-leverage innings.

Orioles Have Reportedly Made Offer To Yasiel Puig

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The Orioles are interested in signing free agent outfielder Yasiel Puig and have made “at least one offer,” according to a report from Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. We don’t yet know an estimate of the value of that contract offer, but one can only assume it would be a one-year pact for Puig, who evidently didn’t garner the interest he had hoped to in free agency.

Puig, 29, is certainly the most intriguing player left on the open market, with teams expressing a relative lack of interest in the former Dodger compared to other outfielders. That, combined with an extended stay in free agency due to the roster freeze enforced during MLB’s shutdown, means that Puig has largely been forgotten as the regular season approaches.

But he may have found a match in Baltimore. With just about two weeks until the season is set to get underway, there’s a clear need in the outfield. Whereas one might have projected the O’s Opening Day outfield to consist of Dwight Smith Jr., Anthony Santander, and Trey Mancini, none of those three are currently in camp. Mancini, of course, is recovering from surgery to remove a malignant tumor. But the unforeseen absences of Santander and Smith Jr., who have yet to report for camp, have made the Baltimore outfield mix especially thin.

Assuming that Santander and Smith Jr. will return to full health in the near future, that need will be mitigated some, but signing Puig might be preferable to relying on some combination of Stevie Wilkerson, D.J. Stewart, and Austin Hays. Puig could slide right into Mancini’s spot in right field, forming a respectable outfield trio alongside (hopefully) Smith Jr. and Santander.

If Puig were to sign with Baltimore, he would instantly become the most recognizable—and perhaps the best—player on an otherwise destitute roster, especially one that will likely be without Trey Mancini for 2020. And while Puig is no longer the electrifying young star that quickly rose to fame when he entered the league, that doesn’t mean he can’t be a productive Major Leaguer.

Last year, between Cincinnati and Cleveland, Puig batted .267/.327/.458 and slugged 24 home runs. He also managed to steal 19 bases—albeit without great efficiency—and has a track record of solid defense in right field. Needless to say, this wouldn’t be a slam dunk signing for the Orioles, and it likely doesn’t significantly improve the 2020 outlook, but it’s the type of signing that makes sense for a club in their position.

Giants Notes: Ruf, Pence, Dubon

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Darin Ruf’s loud bat is making a play for a roster spot in San Francisco, per John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle. Ruff, 33, made major-league appearances for five consecutive seasons for the Philadelphia Phillies from 2012 to 2016, totaling 833 plate appearances. He was mostly used as a pinch-hitting option off the bench while seeing time at first base and in both outfield corners. The Giants are pretty settled at first base with veteran Brandon Belt, but there’s room for Ruf to make a play for an outfield spot where Michael Yastrzemski, Alex Dickerson, Austin Slater, Joey Rickard, Joe McCarthy, and Hunter Pence are his top competition.

  • Pence, of course, will line up as the regular designated hitter, assuming he can stay healthy. After missing some workouts due to pain in his right foot, Pence underwent an MRI but results returned nothing more serious than inflammation, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s not expected to miss a significant amount of time. The fan favorite returned to the Giants this year just in time to resume his role as a designated hitter, a role in which he thrived last season for the Texas Rangers. Pence enjoyed a real resurgence in 2019, making the All-Star team and hitting .297/.358/.552. the 36-year-old outfielder was limited to 83 games, however, and it’s safe to assume he’ll be a part-time player moving forward. That should leave plenty of at-bats for a crowded veteran infield or any of the names above to snag some extra ABs from the DH slot.
  • In preparation for a hectic season, Giants manager Gabe Kapler is encouraging players to cultivate as much flexibility as possible, per Kerry Crowley of the Mercury News. Joe McCarthy is spending more time at first, Yastrzemski, Austin Slater and others are seeing time in centerfield, and former Brewer Mauricio Dubon has moved all over the diamond, from second to center to right to first. When Dubon was acquired from the Brewers, there was some question as to exactly where he’d fit in, given the veterans stocked in the Giants’ infield. Well, the answer is anywhere and everywhere.

Royals’ Cam Gallagher Tests Positive For COVID-19

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The Kansas City Royals announced that catcher Cam Gallagher has tested positive for COVID-19, per Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star.

Gallagher released his own statement, per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Said Gallagher, “To say this caught me by surprise would be an understatement. I played in last night’s intrasquad game and felt great, then received the news this morning that my most recent test had come back positive…” Though Gallagher is asymptomatic, his statement puts the process at the forefront, as it’s unclear if the entire Royals squad will now have to quarantine because they’ve been in contact with Gallagher. The delayed test results would seem to present a huge problem for this very reason.

The Royals have a number of players who have tested positive for coronavirus so far, with Brad Keller, Ryan O’Hearn, and Salvador Perez previously testing positive. Manager Mike Matheny also tested positive, but he was recovered by the time camp began.

This also highlights the precarious nature of the catching position during the pandemic. The Royals came to camp with 6 catchers in their player pool, but with Perez and Gallagher both out having tested positive, they’re down to Nick Dini, MJ Melendez, Sebastian Rivero, and Meibrys Viloria. Only Dini and Viloria have any experience at the major league level. The Royals will now have to continue to get ready for the season without arguably their top two options behind the plate.

Viloria steps in as the primary backstop for now. Last season, the 23-year-old appeared in 42 games, amassing 148 plate appearances. He hit .211/.259/.286 while starting 39 of those games behind the plate.

The Giants’ Options For Replacing Buster Posey

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The Giants are in true limbo behind the plate. Organizationally, they have one of the better catching situations in all of baseball. On the one hand, they have a tried-and-true franchise legend still under contract in Buster Posey. Not only was he the backbone of three, count ’em, three World Series titles, but he’s a class act and a fan favorite. In his prime, he was the platonic ideal of a franchise catcher. Admittedly, he is on the decline. Last season was the first since 2011 that the then-32-year-old didn’t make the All-Star team. He’s gone from a 130-start powerhouse behind the plate to more of a true timeshare 100-start guy. He also fell below 100 wRC+ for the first time in his career (save for his 7-game stint as a 22-year-old in 2009). And more to the point, he opted out of the 2020 season to care for his newly adopted twin baby girls. Again: class act.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Giants are blessed with two of the top catching prospects in all of baseball. Joey Bart, the #2 overall pick from the 2018 draft is ranked by Baseball America as the second best catching prospect in all of baseball. Then, with the 13th pick in this year’s draft, they snagged the top NCAA catcher available in Patrick Bailey.

So, yes, big picture, the Giants have an enviable catching corps. But they need to field the position for 2020, and that’s where things get a little sticky. Bailey, 21, has zero chance of jumping straight to the majors from college. He needs time in pro ball to develop. Bart is closer, but all indications are that the Giants want to give him more time, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s close, appearing in 22 games at Double-A last year and raking to the tune of .316/.368/.544. But a talent like Bart is worth the wait, and though he might be ready at some point this season, the Giants aren’t likely to contend. They don’t want to punt the first part of his career in sub-optimal conditions.

Enter Russell Martin? Schulman put forth Martin’s name as a possibility, noting that Justin Turner lobbied for the veteran to return to the Dodgers recently. Even in a part-time capacity, the well-respected Martin would certainly make some sense. The 37-year-old backstop proved he still had a role on a ML club last season with the league-leading Dodgers. President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said that the Giants will have to evaluate their internal and external options, and if nothing else, they’re likely going to need someone else in camp just to catch the pitchers on hand.

Without him, the Giants are looking at Chadwick Tromp, Tyler Heineman, and Rob Brantly as the top options from their player pool. Combined, they have 464 big-league plate appearances (429 from Brantly, 11 from Heineman). Brantly, 30, is by far the most experienced of the three, but he hasn’t seen substantive time in the majors since 2017. For the rebuilding Giants, they’re probably most concerned with their ability to handle pitchers and less concerned with contributions at the plate – which is the best argument in favor of pursuing a vet like Martin.

There are catchers out there they could acquire via trade, but with 60-man player pools, catchers fill a very particular need, and player movement has never been more complicated than it is now. Still, they could engage the Rockies’ for Elias Diaz or the Rangers for Blake Swihart, Tim Federowicz, or Nick Ciuffo. Those are just options from teams in their regional pool because, again: player movement is not simple anymore. For those reasons, Martin probable represents the best outside option.

The Giants support Posey in his decision, and they’re going to continue to work with Bart and Bailey to get them ready for their big-league debuts. Maybe Bart will find a way in intrasquad play to prove himself ready. Or maybe one of Tromp, Heineman, or Brantly will seize the opportunity. What we know for sure, the Giants have 60 games ahead in the 2020 season, and they’re going to need a catcher for every one of them.

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