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Orioles Acquire Jack Zoellner From Phillies For International Bonus Pool Space

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10:49pm: Zoellner cost the O’s a fairly hefty $750K in pool money, per Dan Connolly of The Athletic (Twitter link).

3:42pm: The Orioles have acquired minor league first baseman Jack Zoellner from the Phillies in exchange for international bonus pool space, according to an announcement from both clubs. Zoellner was the Phillies’ ninth-round selection in the 2017 draft.

It’s at least a somewhat surprising move for the Orioles, who have a long history of trading away international bonus allotments in exchange for marginal prospects but recently announced their intentions to invest more heavily in the international market. It’s not known how much they’re sending to the Phillies in this deal just yet, though the CBA stipulates that international allotments must be moved in at least $250K increments.

The Orioles entered the day with more international money to spend than any team in baseball, and there have been rumors that they’re planning to make a serious run at top Cuban outfielder Victor Victor Mesa once he’s formally declared a free agent. Today’s swap certainly doesn’t prevent them from doing so, though they’ll now have a bit less money to entice Mesa, who is also said to be a target of the Marlins (the team with the second-most international money remaining).

Zoellner, 24 next month, has yet to advance beyond Rookie ball in parts of two seasons with the Phillies organization. He was hitting .236/.364/.422 with seven homers, five doubles, two triples and nearly as many walks (32) as strikeouts (42) through 195 plate appearances this season. Those numbers have come in a league where the average player is more than three years younger than Zoellner, so presumably the Orioles will want to move him up the ladder sooner rather than later to begin to test him against more advanced competition.

Orioles general manager said in a statement to reporters that the organization believes Zoellner to be “a capable left-handed hitter with good on-base skills and power” (Twitter link via MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko).

AL West Notes: Tillman, Rodney, Ohtani, Diaz, Gonzales

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Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram runs through some potential September call-ups for the Rangers, listing outfielder Scott Heineman, left-hander Brady Feigl and veteran right-hander Chris Tillman as potential options who are not on the 40-man roster. Per Wilson, the Rangers are intrigued by Tillman as a potential piece for the 2019 rotation, and a September call-up would serve as an audition of sorts. Tillman hasn’t had any big league success since 2016 and has missed time with a groin injury since signing a minor league deal with the Rangers. However, he has a fairly lengthy MLB track record, and the Rangers are thin on upper-level pitching depth. At the very least, Tillman could be a candidate to head to Spring Training as a non-roster invitee in 2019, though perhaps with a strong September showing the team would consider a guaranteed deal.

Here’s more from the AL West…

  • Fernando Rodney doesn’t know what the Athletics’ plans for him are as pertains to the 2019 season, but the league’s leading arrow-shooter made clear to Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle last week that he has every intention of playing. Whether the A’s exercise a $4.25MM club option on Rodney remains to be seen, but the 41-year-old right-hander has certainly given his new team plenty of reason to consider retaining him. Rodney has fired off eight scoreless innings with a 7-to-2 K/BB ratio since being acquired in exchange for young righty Dakota Chalmers earlier this month. As Slusser notes, he’s four saves shy of Francisco Cordero’s all-time record for a Dominican-born player. Rodney is keenly aware of that fact, acknowledging that he’d hoped to set the record with the Twins and still has his sights set on doing so in the future.
  • Angels pitcher/DH Shohei Ohtani seems to be champing at the bit to make his next major-league start after a long layoff following the diagnosis of a UCL sprain. As Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group reports on Twitter, the prized 24-year-old feels he’s ready to go after throwing fifty pitches today in a simulated game. While skipper Mike Scioscia indicated that Ohtani’s stuff is crisp, the club is surely prioritizing the long-term in deciding how to proceed. This campaign won’t end in a postseason appearance, after all, and Ohtani’s right arm is of critical importance to the Halos’ hopes in 2019 and beyond.
  • Corey Brock of The Athletic takes a look at the rise of Edwin Diaz to one of the game’s elite closers (subscription required). Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto, manager Scott Servais, bullpen coach Brian DeLunas and first base coach Chris Prieto are among those to weigh in on Diaz’s ascension from a prospect who never appeared on a major Top 100 list to the second-fastest player ever to reach 100 big league saves. As Dipoto recalls, there was a fair bit of internal debate in his first offseason as GM with the team about whether to develop Diaz as a starter or a reliever. It was eventually decided to see how Diaz’s stuff would play in shorter stints and, if things didn’t go well, to then transition him back to the Majors. Diaz uncorked a 101 mph fastball on his first pitch out of the Double-A bullpen, per Dipoto, and the right-hander’s ensuing dominance made the organization’s decision fairly straightforward. Brock also chats with Astros manager A.J. Hinch and a few of Diaz’s teammates about his emergence as one of the game’s premier relievers.
  • In other Seattle pitching news, the Mariners have placed southpaw Marco Gonzales on the 10-day DL with a cervical neck muscle strain, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by outfielder Guillermo Heredia. As Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times writes, it’s still not clear how the M’s will address the newly opened rotation hole. While it’s possible southpaw James Paxton will be ready to go in time to take the ball on Wednesday, when Gonzales had been scheduled to start, that would mean moving up his schedule. It’s certainly not an optimal situation for a Seattle club that is trying to catch up to the division-leading Astros and Athletics. Gonzales entered the month of August with a strong 3.37 ERA, but has faded of late. He coughed up eight earned runs in just three innings in his most recent start and has seen his earned-run average climb all the way to 4.32. It has been a compelling season for the 26-year-old, regardless, but as Divish explains the southpaw may be wearing down now that he has reached 145 2/3 frames on the year — a significant workload for a pitcher who has been limited by injuries for most of the past three campaigns.

Orioles To Select Josh Rogers

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The Orioles announced today that they will select the contract of lefty Josh Rogers, as Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com tweeted earlier. Righty Cody Carroll was optioned to create space on the active roster.

Rogers, 24, will make his MLB debut tomorrow. It has been just over a month since he was acquired (along with Carroll and Dillon Tate) in the swap that sent Zach Britton to the Yankees.

While he was the least-hyped piece of that swap, Rogers has been stingy during his time at Triple-A Norfolk. He’s carrying a 2.08 ERA through 30 1/3 innings, though he has managed only 5.3 K/9 to go with 2.1 BB/9 and a 41.7% groundball rate. An 11th-round pick in the 2015 draft out of Louisville, Rogers has generally turned in good results while climbing the ladder.

Buster Posey Undergoes Season-Ending Hip Surgery

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AUGUST 27: The surgery has been completed as expected, the club announced.

AUGUST 25: Posey will wrap up his 2018 season in time to undergo hip surgery on Monday, as Henry Schulman of the San Francico Chronicle was among those to report on Twitter. He’ll have work done to his labrum and also have some bone spurs removed, as Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic adds on Twitter. Posey is said to be  hoping to be prepared for Opening Day 2019, though that seems to be on the optimistic side give that there’s a six-to-eight month timetable.

AUGUST 24: Sabean said in an appearance on KNBR-680 AM in San Francisco last night that after Posey received a second opinion on his hip in New York, surgery is “imminent.” The Giants are in the process of scheduling the procedure.

“Health-wise they say it’s a very common surgery, more so maybe in football,” Sabean explained. “Recovery time is what it is, it’s six-plus months, and if you hit the mark well enough you should be able to perform in spring training and hopefully start the season on time.”

Aug. 21, 9:05pm: Posey tells reporters that he’s known his hip will ultimately require surgical repair for awhile now (Twitter link via Pavlovic). He’s discussing the situation with the Giants’ medical staff on a daily basis and is confident he’ll be ready for Spring Training.

7:25pm: The Giants and Buster Posey are weighing the possibility of hip surgery that would end the catcher’s season, John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. No determination has been made just yet, but Posey has been plagued by hip issues for much of the season and it seems the organization is resigned to the fact that he will need to go under the knife.

Executive vice president of baseball ops Brian Sabean tells Shea that it’s a “safe assumption” that Posey will eventually require surgery, and the report cites skipper Bruce Bochy in adding that the surgery would “address” Posey’s labrum and also remove some bone spurs. The timeline remains unclear, however; Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area writes that he hears Posey will indeed require eventual surgery but is expected to play in tomorrow’s game.

Posey himself tells Shea that the hip has been bothering him for some time but says that there are some days that are better than others. With the Giants currently clinging to the fringes of the NL West picture (seven and a half games out) and the second NL Wild Card spot (seven games out), it’s understandable that Posey would want to continue playing to the extent that his injury allows.

The Giants, though, appear to be taking a fairly practical approach to their dwindling playoff aspirations. Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic reported last night that Andrew McCutchen has been placed on revocable trade waivers, tweeting that there’s a “very good chance” he’s moved later this week. If that’s the route the Giants plan to take, then it’d only be reasonable to eventually shut Posey down in order to give him the best chance possible to be ready for the 2019 season. He already elected to forgo this year’s All-Star festivities in order to receive treatment on his ailing hip, and there’d be little sense in delaying the inevitable if the organization ultimately raises the metaphorical white flag.

While Posey has still enjoyed a solid season at the plate, hitting .286/.350/.386, he’s managed just five homers and a total of 28 extra-base hits. For a player who has averaged 47 extra-base hits per year and never posted an ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average) south of last year’s .142, that lack of power production represents a precipitous decline in his power output.

Blue Jays Designate Luis Santos, Select Murphy Smith

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The Blue Jays have designated right-hander Luis Santos for assignment, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca tweets. That opens a 40-man spot for fellow righty Murphy Smith, whose contract was selected.

Those aren’t the only righty relievers changing places. Toronto also announced that Danny Barnes is heading up from Triple-A. Justin Shafer and Jake Petricka are being optioned down to create active roster space.

This isn’t the first time the Jays have designated Santos, who was knocked around in twenty MLB innings but had turned in 41 innings of 2.85 ERA ball at Triple-A. He’ll have the right to elect free agency if he clears waivers.

As for Smith, he’ll see the majors for the first time in his tenth professional season. The 31-year-old has worked to a 3.59 ERA in 62 2/3 innings at Triple-A, though he also carries an uninspiring 42:25 K/BB ratio.

Barnes, meanwhile, has spent most of the past two seasons working out of the major-league bullpen. He recorded an 11:1 K/BB ratio in 8 2/3 frames with Buffalo. He’ll come up in preference to Shafer and Petricka. The former threw five scoreless innings in his MLB debut this year, but managed only a pair of strikeouts.

Petricka, of course, is the player with the most experience on this transactions roll. He has worked 36 innings in the big leagues this year, compiling a 4.25 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9. Petricka carries a strong 51.8% groundball rate, though that’s nothing like the 60%+ rates he managed earlier in his career.

Yankees Sign Quintin Berry

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The Yankees announced today that they have signed outfielder Quintin Berry to a minor-league deal. Sam Dykstra of MiLB.com had reported the news on Twitter.

Berry had spent the season in the minors in the Brewers organization before his recent release. In 98 plate appearances on the year, the 33-year-old carries a .216/.296/.318 slash. He was also successful on ten of eleven stolen-base attempts, however. Likewise, through over two thousand career plate appearances at the highest level of the minors, Berry is just a .241/.337/.309 hitter but has swiped 159 bags.

It’s something of an annual tradition for Berry to pop up on the radar at this time of year. He has been utilized as a late-season and even postseason bench piece, owing to his sterling reputation as a baserunner. It’s possible, then, that he’ll show up on the Yankees roster at some point once rosters expand, though the organization would have to open a 40-man spot to utilize him in the majors.

Kelvin Herrera Diagnosed With Torn Ligament In Foot

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Nationals right-hander Kelvin Herrera has been placed on the 10-day disabled list with a torn Lisfranc ligament in his left foot, the club announced Monday. Right-hander Ryan Madson was reinstated from the 10-day DL in a corresponding move.

The timing of the injury could hardly be worse for either Herrera or the Nationals. The 28-year-old Herrera was fresh off the disabled list for an unrelated shoulder issue when he incurred his foot injury over the weekend and is just weeks away from his first crack at free agency.

It’s not yet clear how long Herrera will need to get back to full health or just what his outlook is. Of course, it’s all but certain he’ll miss the rest of the season, as Dan Kolko of MASNsports.com notes on Twitter. Herrera is headed for a second opinion before deciding on a course of treatment.

Generally, Lisfranc injuries aren’t all that quick to heal. Neither are they always straightforward. Issues with that particular ligament played a role in the downturn of the career of Chien-Ming Wang, for example, though there’s really no indication that the cases are analogous.

Hopefully, Herrera will be able to rest up over the winter and enter the spring ready for a full camp. Even in the best case, though, his free-agent outlook is not as promising as it was when the Nats dealt for him in mid-June. As the injuries woes have arisen, Herrera has struggled on the mound. He carries a 4.34 ERA with 7.7 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9 in his 18 2/3 frames with the D.C. organization.

As for the Nationals, they’ve already sold off veterans Daniel Murphy and Matt Adams this month, and Herrera stood out as a reasonable candidate to be dealt in exchange for some prospect help between now and Friday’s postseason eligibility deadline. Instead, it’s another negative turn in a bitterly disappointing season. Washington will owe Herrera the balance of his $7,937,500 salary.

Reds Outright Rookie Davis

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The Reds announced Monday that they’ve reinstated right-hander Rookie Davis from the 60-day disabled list and outrighted him to Triple-A Louisville after he cleared waivers. He’ll remain in the organization but won’t require a 40-man roster spot even though he’s now off the disabled list.

Davis, 25, underwent hip surgery last October and has been on the disabled list all season as he recovered from that procedure. The right-hander was one of the four players Cincinnati acquired for Aroldis Chapman in the 2015-16 offseason. None of the other three — Eric Jagielo (Marlins), Tony Renda (Red Sox) or Caleb Cotham (retired) — are with the organization any longer.

Cincinnati gave Davis a look in the Majors last season but saw him struggle to an 8.63 RA with a 20-to-14 K/BB ratio in 24 innings. He posted a 4.77 ERA with a much more solid 54-to-13 K/BB ratio in 60 1/3 Triple-A innings last year before undergoing surgery and has a 6.49 ERA in 26 1/3 rehab innings across three minor league levels this season as he’s worked his way back from that hip procedure.

Dodgers Sign Zach McAllister To Minor League Deal

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The Dodgers have signed veteran right-hander Zach McAllister to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Oklahoma City, as announced by the team’s Triple-A director of communications, Alex Freedman (Twitter link).

McAllister, 30, has struggled through a disastrous season split between the Indians and Tigers, working to a combined 6.20 ERA in 45 innings of work. However, he has a solid big league track record and has posted a quality 39-to-10 K/BB ratio so far in spite of the poor results. McAllister’s 95.3 mph average fastball velocity is as strong as ever, and he’s actually made some gains in swinging-strike rate and his opponents’ chase rate on out-of-zone pitches.

From 2015-17, McAllister served in a setup capacity for the Indians and pitched to a pristine 2.99 ERA with 10.0 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 through 183 1/3 innings of work. Given the Dodgers’ extreme bullpen struggles of late, it’s understandable that the organization is speculating on some depth additions in an effort to solidify the group in the season’s final month. With rosters set to expand on Sept. 1, McAllister could be in line for a quick return to the big leagues.

Phillies Claim Jose Bautista On Revocable Waivers; No Agreement Reached Yet

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1:57pm: SNY’s Andy Martino tweets that it’s “likely” the two sides will work something out, but there’s no agreement believed to be close just yet. Fancred’s Jon Heyman tweets that the Mets have told the Phillies they won’t simply let Bautista go on waivers, so it seems the two sides will have to match up on a minor leaguer or at least agree to a group of names from which the Mets can select a player to be named later.

1:47pm: The Phillies have claimed Mets outfielder Jose Bautista on revocable trade waivers, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). The two sides are discussing a deal and have until tomorrow to complete a swap, Rosenthal adds. Technically, the Mets could also just let Bautista go to the Phillies, though with the Mets only paying him the league-minimum rate, there wouldn’t be any real cost-savings associated with doing so; they’d have to replace him by calling up another player earning at that same rate.

Bautista, 37, started out hot after signing with the Mets, hitting at a .266/.438/.506 pace with three homers and 10 doubles through his first 105 plate appearances with his new club. However, his offensive production cratered over the next few months, and he’s posted a dismal .178/.306/.307 slash in 193 plate appearances since that time. As Rosenthal points out, he’s swung the bat a bit better as of late, getting on base at a .368 clip over the past two weeks, but the veteran slugger simply hasn’t produced much since the calendar flipped to July.

Then again, the Phillies may not be looking at Bautista as much more than a right-handed pinch-hitting option to carry throughout the month of September once rosters expand. He wouldn’t cost them anything more than the pro-rated minimum, and it’s likely that the cost of acquisition would be negligible.

The Phils don’t have much in the way of right-handed bench bats on the current roster, nor do they possess many intriguing right-handed-hitting options at the upper levels of their minor league ranks. Aaron Altherr figures to rejoin the club, and Trevor Plouffe is still in the organization, but neither has been demonstrably better than Bautista at the plate in 2018. Journeyman Matt McBride and 26-year-old Joey Meneses are other righty bats who’ve had some success in Triple-A this season, but the roster could be expanded to give manager Gabe Kapler multiple options. Ultimately, so long as the Phillies don’t need to give up anything of real substance, there’s little harm in adding Bautista and his overall .340 OBP to the bench — even if the addition doesn’t do much to move the move the needle as the Phillies try to make up ground in both the NL East (3 games back) and the NL Wild Card race (2 games back).

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