Astros Release Fernando Rodney
The Astros have released veteran hurler Fernando Rodney, per Jake Kaplan of The Athletic (via Twitter). He had been in the team’s 60-man player pool on a minor-league deal.
Rodney opened the year throwing with the indy ball Sugar Land Skeeters, giving the ‘Stros a chance to determine he was worthy of a closer look. But the 43-year-old hurler evidently didn’t impress at the team’s alternate training site.
When last we saw Rodney in action, he had enough in the tank to be a significant contributor to the 2019 World Series-winning Nats. He worked to a 4.05 ERA in 33 1/3 regular-season innings and was handed the ball six times in the postseason.
It remains to be seen whether this is the end of the line for the ageless reliever. He was still averaging better than 94 ticks on his heater last year. In his 17 total MLB campaigns, Rodney carries a 3.80 ERA over 933 innings.
Angels Acquire Jose Salvador From Reds To Complete Goodwin Trade
The Angels have acquired lefty Jose Salvador from the Reds, per club announcements. That completes the recent swap in which the Halos sent outfielder Brian Goodwin to Cincinnati.
With the news, the Los Angeles organization has now added two southpaw pitching prospects in exchange for Goodwin. The other player headed west is Packy Naughton.
Salvador had not been a member of the Reds’ 60-man player pool. He was added in advance of this announcement and will now take a slot in the L.A. pool.
Soon to turn 21, Salvador has yet to move past the rookie ball level as a professional. Through two campaigns, he carries a cumulative 3.07 ERA with a healthy combination of 11.6 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9.
Tom Seaver Dies At 75 Years Of Age
Legendary hurler Tom Seaver has passed away, Bill Madden of the New York Daily News reports. He was 75 years of age.
Seaver had recently suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. The Hall of Famer spent time as a broadcaster after wrapping up his playing career and ultimately founded Seaver Family Vineyards.
Over two full decades of excellence at the game’s highest level, Seaver compiled 4,783 innings of 2.86 ERA pitching. He claimed three Cy Young awards and still stands as one of the best pitchers of all time.
Seaver will always be remembered most for his dozen-year run with the Mets, which covered all of his very best seasons. His greatest campaign, perhaps, was a monumental 1971 effort in which he ran up a 1.76 ERA with 9.1 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 over 286 1/3 frames.
In full, Seaver worked to a 2.57 ERA in over three thousand frames in a Mets uniform. The quality continued over a half-dozen campaigns in Cincinnati. Seaver contributed over a thousand innings of 3.18 ERA ball to the Reds before spending one more season with the Mets and then moving on to the White Sox.
Impressive as he was at his peak, the full measure of Seaver’s excellence is revealed in his ongoing effectiveness even at the tail end of his career. Seaver was one of the twenty or so best pitchers in baseball in his age-40 season with the White Sox, when he worked to a 3.17 ERA in 238 2/3 innings. The legend was dealt to the Red Sox in the middle of the ensuing season, which turned out to be his last.
Padres Place Wil Myers, Emilio Pagan On Injured List
The Padres have announced a series of roster moves, including IL placements for outfielder Wil Myers and reliever Emilio Pagan. They also optioned David Bednar and Taylor Williams to their alternate site, and added new acquisitions Mike Clevinger, Greg Allen and Dan Altavilla to their 28-man roster.
The Padres didn’t provide a reason for placing Myers on the IL. Regardless, the 22-15 club can only hope he’ll return as quickly as possible. Myers performed poorly for the Padres over the previous three seasons, but he has rebounded this year to become an integral part of the franchise’s resurgence. The 29-year-old has slashed a marvelous .293/.365/.602 with nine home runs and 1.4 fWAR in 137 plate appearances, making him one of the NL’s best players in 2020. Myers has also played almost every one of the Padres’ games in right field. The only other players who have seen action there, Edward Olivares and Josh Naylor, departed during the team’s pre-deadline flurry of trades. The Padres are now left with Allen, Jurickson Profar, Jorge Mateo and Abraham Almonte as the healthy outfield options in their 60-man player pool alongside budding star center fielder Trent Grisham.
Pagan, meanwhile, is dealing with right biceps inflammation. There’s no word on how much time he’ll miss, but the issue continues what has been a rough season for a reliever who was a lights-out option for Rays last season. In his first season with the Padres, who swung a trade for him last winter, Pagan has managed a 5.40 ERA/5.81 FIP with 7.8 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9 in 15 innings. Owing in part to the Pagan acquisition, the team had designs on a dominant bullpen in 2020, but the unit has put up a disappointing 5.01 ERA thus far. The Padres did acquire Altavilla and Trevor Rosenthal before the deadline, though, and they reinstated Drew Pomeranz from the IL shortly before then. The hope is their relief corps will turn things around down the stretch, though they’ll have to do it without Pagan for the time being.
Latest On Future Of Jackie Bradley Jr.
Pending free-agent center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. was a trade candidate for the Red Sox leading up to the deadline, but he didn’t move and will stay with the out-of contention club until at least the end of the season. It turns out that the Red Sox were willing to entertain proposals for Bradley, but they didn’t receive any offers that convinced them to deal him, Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald reports.
With the Red Sox sure to miss the playoffs, Bradley could be in his final month as a member of the franchise, which drafted him 40th overall back in 2011. The Red Sox do have interest in keeping the 30-year-old Bradley in the fold past 2020, though, according to chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom.
“We’d love to have him here for a long time,” Bloom said.
For his part, however, Bradley said Wednesday that the Red Sox haven’t expressed interest in a new deal to him, and he expects to reach the open market in a couple months, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe relays.
“I made it this far. Might as well become a free agent,” Bradley stated.
Unfortunately for Bradley, if he does reach the open market, it appears he’ll enter it on the heels of a lackluster platform year. High-end offense hasn’t often been a calling card for Bradley since he debuted in 2013, but the 80 wRC+ he has posted across 117 plate appearances this season ranks among the worst of his career. In all, Bradley has batted .248/.316/.352 with two home runs.
To Bradley’s credit, he has typically combined passable offense and above-average defense, so he should be in line for a guaranteed contract prior to 2021. It’s anyone’s guess whether that payday will come from the Red Sox, however.
Jose Urquidy Nearing Return
At 19-15 and firmly in the American League playoff race, the Astros have hung tough this season despite an array of health problems. Right-hander Jose Urquidy‘s among the many players they have missed for an extended stretch, but it appears he could make his 2020 debut with a start Saturday, per manager Dusty Baker (via Brian McTaggart of MLB.com). Urquidy will throw a bullpen session in the meantime.
It’s hasn’t been disclosed why Urquidy has been unable to pitch this season, but regardless, he could be a welcome down-the-stretch pickup for Houston. The 25-year-old entered the majors a season ago and acquitted himself well over 41 innings, logging a 3.95 ERA/3.68 FIP with 8.78 K/9 and 1.54 BB/9. Urquidy averaged 93 mph-plus on his fastball and yielded a solid .285 weighted on-base average/.299 expected wOBA to opposing hitters in the process.
Should he slide back into Houston’s starting staff in the coming weeks, Urquidy would join a group that has received tremendous production from Zack Greinke and Framber Valdez. Those two have kept the Astros’ rotation afloat during a season in which they’ve largely gone without reigning AL Cy Young winner Justin Verlander, who has totaled just one start (back on July 24) because of forearm problems. The Astros have also turned to Lance McCullers Jr., Cristian Javier and Brandon Bielak for starts, but they’ve been a mixed bag in terms of run prevention and peripherals.
Twins Designate Ildemaro Vargas For Assignment
The Twins have designated infielder Ildemaro Vargas for assignment, Dan Hayes of The Athletic tweets. That will make room for third baseman Josh Donaldson‘s activation from the injured list.
Vargas is just a few weeks into his tenure with the Twins, who acquired him from the Diamondbacks for cash considerations on Aug. 11. While the 29-year-old Vargas brings a great deal of defensive versatility to the table, having played all over the diamond since he debuted in 2017, his bat his held him back.
The switch-hitting Vargas has only mustered a .255/.284/.385 line with seven home runs in 289 plate appearances at the game’s highest level, including 24 PA as a member of the Twins. He has, however, recorded a much more encouraging .326/.371/.464 line with 126 extra-base hits (88 doubles, 21 homers, 17 triples) over 1,468 plate appearances in Triple-A ball.
Cubs Place Jose Quintana On 10-Day Injured List
The Cubs are placing southpaw Jose Quintana on the 10-day injured with left lat inflammation, Jesse Rogers of ESPN.com reports. They recalled righty Jason Adam to take Quintana’s place on their roster, per Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic.
This continues a year to forget for Quintana, who had to undergo left thumb surgery at the beginning of July and was unable to debut until Aug. 25. Quintana has since thrown six innings of four-run ball with nine strikeouts and two walks over a pair of relief appearances. He’ll now rejoin righty Tyler Chatwood as Cubs starting options on the injured list. The NL Central leaders still have Cy Young contender Yu Darvish, Kyle Hendricks, Jon Lester and Alec Mills around to fill rotation spots, but there’s nobody with a track record rivaling Quintana’s to take his position, and the Cubs can’t look for established outside help now that the trade deadline has passed. For now, it seems the Cubs will turn to righty Adbert Alzolay, who has three MLB starts on his resume.
Quintana is only several weeks from reaching the free-agent market, so it’s far from ideal that he’ll shop his services around the majors off an injury-ruined season. The 31-year-old, previously with the White Sox, has typically been quite durable since his career began in 2012. In fact, from 2013-19, he made 30-plus starts every season and logged 171-plus innings in each of those campaigns.
Cardinals Place Dexter Fowler On Injured List
The Cardinals have placed outfielder Dexter Fowler on the injured list, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. Fowler’s dealing with a stomach illness, so the club put him on the shelf as a precautionary measure because he’s taking medicine that could lower his immune system. He’ll miss a couple weeks, writes Goold, who adds that the Cardinals replaced Fowler with infielder Rangel Ravelo on their roster.
Fowler, who’s in his fourth season as a Cardinal, has been a a valuable part of their offense so far in 2020. The switch-hitting 34-year-old has taken 75 trips to the plate and slashed .279/.347/.485 with four home runs, all while getting the lion’s share of work in right field for a St. Louis team that’s 14-13 and in possession of the second wild-card spot in the National League.
Fowler aside, Tyler O’Neill and Harrison Bader are the only Cardinals outfielders who have appeared in double-digit games in the grass thus far. Fowler has been the most effective hitter of any of their outfielders, though, and fellow right field option Dylan Carlson has posted brutal production across the first 73 plate appearances of his career.
Pirates Designate Carson Fulmer For Assignment
The Pirates announced that they have designated right-hander Carson Fulmer for assignment. The club also reinstated righty Joe Musgrove from the injured list, reinstated outfielder Bryan Reynolds from the paternity list and optioned infielder/outfielder Jose Osuna.
The Pirates are already the third team since July for Fulmer, who has gone from Chicago to Detroit to Pittsburgh in the past month-plus. Fulmer was once a highly regarded prospect, but it hasn’t translated to success in the majors for the 26-year-old, who owns a 6.57 ERA/6.33 FIP across 101 1/3 innings with the White Sox and Tigers. He hasn’t appeared in a big league game with the Pirates, who claimed him from the Tigers on Aug. 24, and could soon leave the organization. Fulmer’s out of options, though, so it’s possible no other team will take a chance on him.
Musgrove, out since Aug. 11 with right triceps inflammation, is scheduled to start for the Pirates against the Cubs on Wednesday. Musgrove started 2020 poorly before his IL placement (6.75 ERA/6.83 FIP in 14 2/3 innings), but he was a capable starter for the Pirates from 2018-19 and could boost his trade value heading into the offseason with a strong finish. Musgrove nearly went from Pittsburgh to Toronto before Monday’s trade deadline, but the two sides couldn’t come together on a deal.