Jose Castillo Out For Season With Torn Hand Ligament
Per MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell, promising Padres reliever Jose Castillo will miss the remainder of the 2019 season with a torn hand ligament (Twitter link). No surgery will be required, although this is certainly bitter news for a San Diego organization in sore need of bullpen aid.
After a solid 2018 debut in which the lefthanded Venezuelan logged a 3.29 ERA (2.64 FIP) in 38.1 innings, San Diego was likely looking for Castillo to develop into a viable bridge to vaunted closer Kirby Yates. Unfortunately, Castillo was sidelined for the entirety of 2019 with a left forearm flexor strain, until his activation this week. It was in his very first appearance back with the club on Thursday that Castillo exited a game with what at the time was believed to be a finger blister. As it turns out, the problem may end up being much more severe than the primary diagnosis indicated.
In a conference with The Athletic’s Dennis Lin, Padres manager Andy Green explained that the “pulley system” that straps a tendon in the middle finger to the bone was torn in Castillo’s hand (Twitter link). It is fair to speculate that Castillo’s return to the 60-day list will follow in due course.
Francisco Cervelli To Begin Rehab Assignment As Catcher
The Pirates’ Francisco Cervelli, who’d reportedly given up catching after the latest in a series of debilitating concussions in late May, will begin a rehab assignment tomorrow with Double-A Altoona behind the plate, per mlb.com’s Adam Berry.
Cervelli, 33, walked back on his initial declaration a few days later, and has since expressed a fervid desire to return to his natural habitat. Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk noted Thursday that the longtime backstop would need final clearance from both the commissioner’s office and MLBPA, in addition to the Pirates’ own set of team doctors, to resume play behind the dish, though it appears such approval is mere formality at this point.
After a seven-year start to his career as backup for the Yankees, Cervelli came into his own in 2015 with the Pirates, slashing .295/.370/.401, good for 5.9 fWAR (a recently-inflated number buoyed by controversial pitch-framing statistics) in near-full-time play for the 98-win Buccos. An assortment of injuries has limited the Venezuelan to mostly part-time duty over the last four seasons, though he’s been wonderfully productive when healthy. An always-discerning eye (his walk percentage peaked at an exceptional 14.2% in 2016) has slipped a bit this year – strikeouts up, walks way down – and, coupled with bad luck on balls in play, has resulted in the 12-year-vet’s least productive major league season.
Still, Cervelli’s just a year removed from a 125 wRC+, 2.6 fWAR line in just 104 games, so it would greatly behoove the slumping Pirates to see what juice can still be squeezed from his once-ripe profile behind the dish. There’s been no word on the duration of the free-agent-to-be’s prospective rehab, or when Cervelli himself would like to return to the field, but it’s certainly a positive development regardless for a club who’s been hot on a silver linings trail after falling out of the race mid-July.
Trevor Rosenthal Clears Waivers, Elects Free Agency
Reliever Trevor Rosenthal, designated for assignment Wednesday by the Tigers, has cleared waivers and elected free agency, the club reports.
Rosenthal began his disastrous 2019 campaign in Washington after signing a one-year deal that guaranteed him $7MM. The longtime St. Louis relief ace, who’d seen his command yo-yo between shaky and adequate in his six-year Cardinal tenure, suddenly couldn’t find the plate at all in his first appearances after a return from Tommy John. The 29-year-old walked a frightening 15 men in just 12 appearances (6 1/3 IP) for the club, many of which were cut short before even an out was recorded.
Another free-market go-round ended swiftly in late June when the righty agreed to a minor league pact with Detroit. Despite six hardly propitious outings at Triple-A Toledo, the Tigers added Rosenthal to their post all-star bullpen in hopes of a rebound. His first few outings were promising – Rosenthal walked just three and set down five in four one-inning appearances – but the wild hairs regrew as the weeks passed: the 2015 All-Star walked multiple batters in four different outings for the Tigers before his dismissal on Wednesday.
Rosenthal’s 98.0 MPH average fastball velocity is actually the second-highest of his career, though his bat-missing ways have mostly been teased out, at least compared to the sky-high rates of years bygone. There may still be a team or two out there who believes it can fix the righty this season, though perhaps it’s in the best interest of all involved to delay such a project ’til the outset of the 2020 campaign.
Rays Sign Dylan Cozens To Two-Year Minor League Deal
The Rays have signed former Phillies OF Dylan Cozens to a two-year minor-league deal, Josh Tolentino of The Athletic reports.
The hulking Cozens, 25, has missed much of the ’19 season with a toe injury that ultimately required surgery in mid-May. Prior to hitting the shelf, the former second-round pick had slashed .167/.333/.462 for Triple-A Lehigh-Valley, with an extreme 20.2% BB/ 42.4% K plate-discipline profile.
Cozens, who’s had trouble finding a position throughout his minor-league tenure with the Phils, famously smashed 40 homers in 134 2016 games in AA-Reading’s bandbox of a park. After a too-aggressive approach early in his minor league career, the lefty’s tightened things up, posting walk rates above 10% in each of the last four seasons. In a 44 plate-appearance cameo for last season’s Phils, Cozens posted just a 58 wRC+ while punching out nearly 55% of the time.
Twins Acquire Ian Miller From Mariners
Today, 12:38 PM: The Mariners will receive cash considerations in return, per the team.
FRIDAY, 11:56 PM: The Twins are set to acquire outfielder Ian Miller from the Mariners, per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (via Twitter). The precise return isn’t known, but Divish indicates it’s not expected to be significant.
Because he isn’t playing on a MLB deal, Miller can still be dealt. The 27-year-old, a former 14th-round pick, is still looking for his first taste of the majors. Miller has been plying his trade in the upper minors in the Seattle system since 2015.
Divish indicates that the chief interest for the Twins lies in Miller’s baserunning abilities, and that makes sense. He is an accomplished base thief, with 237 bags snatched over seven professional seasons.
Miller is less accomplished with the bat, with a .699 career OPS through just under three thousand total plate appearances. He’s sporting a bit of a power surge this year, with a .272/.354/.453 slash and 11 long balls (easily a career high) over 441 plate appearances. But that’s still slightly below the mean for Pacific Coast League hitters.
Astros Release Akeem Bostick
The Astros released right-hander Akeem Bostick from their Triple-A affiliate in Round Rock, per Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter).
Bostick is a former 2nd round pick of the Texas Rangers from the 2013 draft. He came to the Astros in a 2015 offseason trade for catcher Carlos Corporan. Corporan hit only .176/.244/.299 in his lone season with the Rangers, who released him following the 2015 campaign.
Yet to make his major league debut, Bostick spent all of this season to date with Round Rock in the PCL. Of course, the PCL has seen a record number of home runs this season, so Bostick is hardly the only pitcher suffering from a few too many long balls.
Across 80 1/3 innings, Bostick went 4-5 with a 7.28 ERA while giving up 11 hits and 2.1 home runs per nine innings. He also saw a rise in his walk rate this season. The 24-year-old has mostly been a starter throughout his minor league career.
Scott Boras’ Relationship With Ted Lerner Adds Wrinkle To Rendon Negotiations
Anthony Rendon has long been one of baseball’s more avuncular superstars. As easygoing in temperament as he is fluid in his athleticism, when Rendon takes the field for the Nationals, he looks like he’s playing, well, a game. He’s quick to dispel incorrect assumptions about the game that stem from platitudes, he doesn’t put on airs (or shoes) for the press, and if he doesn’t feel like talking, he doesn’t. He said quite a bit last week on 106.7’s The Fan, however, and those listening walked away with the distinct impression that Rendon would be testing free agency at the end of the season.
Of course, pending free agents rarely extend this close to the bell, and Rendon is not one to surrender his autonomy unnecessarily. That doesn’t mean, however, that his departure from Washington is a foregone conclusion. Rendon met with his agent Scott Boras last week in Phoenix, after which Boras met with Nats ownership to continue an ongoing dialogue about Rendon’s future with the team, per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post.
Every team has agents or other front offices they are comfortable dealing with, and for the Nationals, funny as it sounds, a Scott Boras negotiation is a world in which they are at ease. Boras and Ted Lerner – the Nats’ principal owner – have built up a fair amount of trust over the years through pulling together nearly every type of superstar negotiation, from an early extension for Stephen Strasburg, to the free agent signing of Max Scherzer, to the departure of Bryce Harper last offseason.
While it may sound overly optimistic to point to Harper’s free agency departure as a touchstone of a positive working relationship, it very well may be. Lerner and Boras know the game between them at this point, and while the ultimate price for Rendon may exceed what the Lerner’s are willing to pay, there aren’t a lot of unknowns between the parties.
Still, both Boras and Rendon have made a point to isolate Rendon as the decision-maker in the relationship, and given Rendon’s independent streak they probably mean it. Rendon sounded almost bitter over not having had an extension hammered out at any point previous during his 6-year relationship with the Nationals, but he also made clear that there is a price at which he’d happily re-up with the Nats. That price is bound to be exorbitant, perhaps even exceeding Nolan Arenado‘s extension, but the premium would be to forego the opportunity to explore the market. Given Lerner’s relationship with Boras, that would seem to be an unnecessary expense on Lerner’s part.
Given the way Rendon has played this season, he has no reason to settle for anything less than top dollar. The underrated superstar has put together an MVP-type year, .315/.400/.608 while tying a career-high with 25 home runs (it’s August). His 153 wRC+ places him sixth among all qualified batters in the MLB, first overall in the majors among infielders. He is a singular superstar – in play and personality – and Boras’ relationship with Lerner only factors if Rendon, 29, really wants to stay in Washington. Positionally, third base is – after catcher – perhaps the most siloed in baseball, eliminating a couple contenders for his services (including his hometown team in Houston). Regardless, he no doubt will have alternatives if he does’t get what he wants from Washington once the season is over.
Speculatively speaking, Rendon would be an appropriate spiritual successor to Adrian Beltre in Texas – his home state. The Braves or Phillies could make a play to steal Rendon from a rival, though both teams have long-term answers nearby in Austin Riley and Alec Bohm. Looking elsewhere in the National League, the Cubs, Giants, Padres, Rockies, Diamondbacks, Cardinals, Dodgers, and Reds already have money committed to third base, while the Pirates, Mets and Marlins have cheap options on hand. The American League has more third base slots available, but few offer the competitive environment available to Rendon in Washington.
The Nationals worked hard to stay under the tax this year, but they haven’t been shy about going over in the past, and they actually have a fair amount of payroll space to work with next year with Ryan Zimmerman‘s $18MM coming off the books. Giving the keys to what-has-been Zimmerman’s house over to Rendon makes a lot of sense from a narrative standpoint. Rendon already supplanted Zimmerman at third base. No matter the outcome, the contract negotiations should linger into the offseason, and all parties involved seem comfortable with that.
East Notes: Scherzer, Voit, Gurriel Jr.
The Nationals shouldered another late-inning loss at Citi Field last night as Sean Doolittle folded in the ninth for four runs and the loss. Max Scherzer‘s return is more vital now than ever for the Nats, but there’s still not a clear timetable for his activation from the injured list. He threw off flat ground yesterday and may follow it up with a bullpen session today, but the Nationals are content being cautious with their ace, per MASN’s Byron Kerr (via Twitter). Joe Ross has stepped up in Scherzer’s absence with back-to-back scoreless outings on the road. Lowering a 9.85 ERA to 6.75 over the course of two starts must feel pretty good for Ross, but Scherzer’s health remains Washington’s focus. When he does return, Washington will decide between Ross and Erick Fedde for the fifth starter spot. Let’s head to the American League for a couple of health updates…
- Yankees first baseman Luke Voit is doing his best to return to the team, but there won’t be a clear timeline until he resumes baseball activities, per George A. King III of the New York Post. He is running now, but hernia surgery remains a possibility for the 28-year-old Missouri native. Voit built upon his surprising 2018 breakout with more of the same this season. In roughly one season’s worth of playing time between this year and last, Voit appeared in 141 games for 577 plate appearances with a .291/.393/.545 line, 34 home runs and 90 RBIs. With a batting champion taking over for Voit at first (DJ LeMahieu) and another unearthed offensive marvel covering for him at third (Gio Urshela), the Yankees aren’t exactly suffering in Voit’s absence. With a 9 1/2 game lead in the division, they are willing to wait out Voit’s injury in the hopes that he can avoid season-ending surgery.
- The Blue Jays are placing outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on the 10-day injured list, as Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca tweets. He has been diagnosed with a quadriceps strain. Gurriel is one of the many MLB legacies making waves in Toronto this season with an overall batting line of .279/.331/.548 with 19 home runs. Gurriel Jr. struggled early in the season to the point of being sent back to Triple-A, but since returning from a six-week exile in Buffalo, Yuli’s little brother has looked like an All-Star, hitting .295/.344/.591 with all 19 of his home runs coming since his return. The Blue Jays are rapidly putting together a lineup worth talking about, and Gurriel Jr. is no small part of their future.
Yankees Activate Gary Sanchez, Recall Stephen Tarpley, Place Jonathan Holder On IL
Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez will be activated from the injured list today in Toronto, per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (via Twitter). The club’s PR department has announced the move as well.
Sanchez is in the midst of another strong season when healthy behind the plate. The nuances of Sanchez’s contributions are self-evident in his power-heavy .229/.299/508 batting line. On-base struggles notwithstanding, Sanchez remains one of the more potent catchers in the game, and his position means his power contributions are of slightly more unique to New York than those of other Yankees’ mashers. Backup Austin Romine has been a surprisingly fair facsimile while hitting .265/.290/.426, but it’s still a position without a ton of reliable depth. This was Sanchez’s second stint on the injured list this season.
Kyle Higashioka was optioned to Scranton Wilkes-Barre to make room. Higashioka, 29, hasn’t seen a ton of playing time, but he has stood in ably when given the opportunity: .256/.250/.590 across just 40 plate appearances.
Left-hander Stephen Tarpley will also be joining the big league club from Triple-A. Tarpley has made 15 appearances with the big league club with an 8.31 ERA/6.56 FIP across 17 1/3 innings. Big league hitters have launched against the 26-year-old Arizona native for 13.5 hits and 2.6 home runs per nine innings. It’s a small sample so far this season for Tarpley, who made the ALDS roster last year after 10 strong outings in September.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Holder was placed on the 1o-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation. Despite strong peripherals (10 K/9 to 2.4 BB/9, 4.18 K/BB), Holder has struggled to keep the ball in the yard at times, blowing his ERA up to 6.31 (4.45 FIP) across 34 appearances. The 26-year-old has been a steady contributor the last two season for the Yankees – 3.42 ERA over 97 games in 2017 and 2018 – so there’s a fair amount of flukiness in the unusually high number of runs allowed.
Braves To Install Mark Melancon As Closer
The Braves will install veteran righty Mark Melancon as their closer, manager Brian Snitker told reporters including Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). He finished out tonight’s game, though it did not come in a save situation.
Melancon was one of three veteran relievers acquired by the Atlanta organization at the trade deadline. At the time, it did not seem terribly likely he’d receive a shot at ninth-inning work. Shane Greene took the inside track to the gig, with fellow newcomer Chris Martin and incumbent Luke Jackson also potentially in the mix.
Things have changed rather quickly. Greene and Martin have been shaky. The Braves don’t want to turn things back over to Jackson. And Melancon has been steady. It’s only a handful of outings, but the Atlanta org is obviously looking for a steadying presence. Perhaps it shouldn’t be seen as a surprise that the experienced late-inning hand has already grasped the reins.
Melancon hasn’t functioned as a steady closer since early in the 2017 season, but he has racked up 183 career saves. Though he has been more steady than dominant of late, carrying a 3.29 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 since the start of the 2018 season, the 34-year-old surely won’t be cowed by the prospect of handling the high-leverage spots.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Braves’ late-inning relief situation shakes out down the stretch. Snitker did not commit to permanently utilizing Melancon in the closer’s role, though he did indicate that the veteran will be trusted with the job for some time to come. The club is obviously willing to switch things up on the fly, but will presumably hope to settle into some kind of established approach before the postseason arrives.