NL Injury Notes: Zimmerman, Gennett, Fernandez
Back on April 21st, Nationals first baseman Ryan Zimmerman launched a pair of solo home runs in a 5-0 win over the Miami Marlins, putting him one RBI away from a cool one thousand in his career. Nearly seven weeks later, Zimmerman still sits on the precipice of that milestone as plantar fasciitis has put his season on hold. “It’s been probably one of the more frustrating things I’ve gone through,” Zimmerman says of the heel injury, per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. Though Zimmerman has resumed baseball activities – namely, batting practice and fielding drills – the next step is being able to run comfortably. Howie Kendrick‘s preternatural .325/.359/.583 mark through 151 at-bats helps mitigate Zimmerman’s long-term absence, as does the presence of his planned platoon partner Matt Adams (.245/.277/.481). Still, the man dubbed “Mr. Walkoff” in DC has appeared in every season the Nationals have been in existence, and he has the potential to buoy an offense that has generally floated near the middle of the pack. Years of injuries and a rock-bottom 2016 dimmed Zimmerman’s star, but in stretches he still resembles the ballplayer of his youth. For those of you who don’t remember, Zimmerman was a force, a .279/.343/.475 career hitter with 1,756 hits, 267 home runs, and of course, 999 career RBIs. For reference, Zimmerman, now 34, is listed as Manny Machado‘s fifth-most similar batting comp through age-25 per Baseball-Reference.
- Scooter Gennett‘s long-awaited 2019 debut may be right around the corner for the Reds, per MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon. He’s been taking grounders and batting practice, but now he’s running the bases as well, meaning activation from the IL could happen sometime in the next couple of weeks. The current plan has him heading to the team’s complex in Goodyear, Arizona next Wednesday, aiming to start a rehab assignment shortly thereafter. With his first foray into free agency on the horizon, Gennett’s pocketbook may face the harshest affects of the injury, as the team itself has benefited from the surprising play of Derek Dietrich as a fill-in. Gennett, 29, owns a career .289/.331/.456 line with back-to-back 20-homer seasons coming into 2019. Jose Peraza may be facing a cut in playing time upon Gennett’s return, as their intended-starting-shortstop has hit only .211/.272/.331, marks that should land him behind Dietrich, Gennett, and Jose Iglesias on the eventual depth chart.
- Marlins right-hander Julian Fernandez has been shut down indefinitely with elbow discomfort, per Wells Dusenbury of the Sun Sentinel (via Twitter). The 6’6″ 23-year-old Dominican has not pitched above Single-A, and he hasn’t pitched at all since the 2017 season after missing all of last year with a UCL tear that led to Tommy John. When he does pitch, he possesses a 100mph fastball that has teams drooling over the potential upside, despite his recent inability to stay on the field. The Marlins claimed him off waivers from the Giants, who filched him from the Rockies with the 2nd selection of 2017’s Rule 5 draft. Given that he seems unlikely once again to reach the requirement of 90 days on the active roster, Fernandez could eventually be offered back to the Rockies.
Red Sox Return Mitch Moreland To The IL, Marco Hernandez Recalled
The Red Sox placed Mitch Moreland back onto the injured list just a day after he was activated. Moreland hits the 10-day IL this time with a right quad strain, per a team announcement. Though they don’t yet know the extent of the injury, there is a suspicion that Moreland may miss significant time, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (via Twitter).
Moreland was removed from the sixth inning of yesterdays’ game, his first since returning from a lower back strain. For the season, Moreland, 34, has been worth 0.8 rWAR with a .225/.316/.543 line, the final number of which paces the Red Sox for the season. Not unrelated, he also leads the club with 13 home runs, though J.D Martinez and Xander Bogaerts are hot on his heels with 12 apiece. Rookie slugger Michael Chavis has been seeing time at first base in Moreland’s absence.
Josh Smith, meanwhile, has joined the team as the 26th man for today’s day-night doubleheader versus the Rays. The 31-year-old righty has appeared in four games thus far for the BoSox in 2019 while starting six games for Pawtucket. He owns a career 5.28 ERA across 134 2/3 innings for the Red Sox, A’s, and Reds. He signed with the Red Sox this past winter as a minor league free agent after being released by the Mariners. Smith will get the start in the first game of today’s doubleheader, after which he is likely ticketed for a return to Pawtucket.
Infielder Marco Hernandez, 26, was recalled from Triple-A to fill Moreland’s roster spot. The versatile infielder makes his first appearance with the Red Sox since 2017. He missed most of that season and all of 2018 with a shoulder injury, but since his return, he holds a .303 batting average in Pawtucket while playing mostly up the middle. There’s some opportunity for Hernandez at second, where Brock Holt and Eduardo Nunez will compete for at-bats while Chavis slides over to first. Holt has been injured for much of the season, whereas Nunez struggled to the tune of .238/.257/.324 in 105 at-bats.
Diamondbacks Notes: Rotation, Lamb
At 32-32 and just 2 1/2 games out of wild-card position in the National League, the Diamondbacks are approaching the July 31 trade deadline with a buyers’ mindset, according to general manager Mike Hazen (via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic).
Hazen suggested Arizona’s main priority is upgrading its starting staff, saying, “We’re looking at any way we can to continue to improve and help both our depth and our rotation in general.”
Injuries to Luke Weaver and Taijuan Walker, not to mention Zack Godley‘s demotion to the bullpen, have left Arizona’s rotation without any clear answers after Zack Greinke, Robbie Ray and Merrill Kelly. The club’s on the lookout for help as a result, and it tried to swing a deal with the Mariners for right-hander Mike Leake earlier this week. Now, though, those talks “appear to have gone dormant,” Piecoro writes.
Assuming a trade for Leake or another starter doesn’t come together imminently, the D-backs seem inclined to continue with Jon Duplantier and Taylor Clarke at the back of their rotation. Duplantier, MLB.com’s 62nd-ranked prospect, has turned in 10 innings of nine-hit, five-earned run ball and notched 11 strikeouts against three walks in two starts since the Diamondbacks recalled him from Triple-A Reno. Clarke hasn’t been that successful as a starter this year, having compiled a 5.12 ERA/4.55 FIP with 6.05 K/9 against 3.26 BB/9 in 19 1/3 frames.
On the position player side, Arizona has been without corner infielder Jake Lamb for almost the entire season. The 28-year-old went to the injured list with a quad strain April 5, but he’ll begin a rehab assignment Saturday at the Triple-A level, Piecoro reports. A third baseman from 2014-17, Lamb entered this season as the D-backs’ primary first baseman in the wake of Paul Goldschmidt‘s exit via trade. The lefty-swinging Lamb’s injury opened the door for the righty-hitting Christian Walker, who excelled in April but has come back to Earth since. Those two seem likely to form a platoon upon Lamb’s return.
Mariners Notes: Healy, Gordon, Crawford, Sadzeck
Seattle sent outfielder Mitch Haniger to the 10-day IL on Friday with a rather unfortunate injury, making him the latest notable Mariner to land on the shelf. Here are updates on a few others, courtesy of Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (Twitter links: 1, 2, 3)…
- Infielder Ryon Healy had been nearing a rehab assignment, but that’s now on hold after he suffered a setback in his recovery from lower back inflammation. He’ll undergo further tests to determine the severity. Healy, who headed to the IL on May 21, has come up in trade rumors during his absence. Although, neither this setback nor the numbers he has posted over the past couple seasons will do his value any favors. Since a strong rookie showing with the Athletics in 2016, Healy has slashed an unspectacular .252/.290/.436 (96 wRC+) with 56 home runs in 1,316 plate appearances between Oakland and Seattle.
- Second baseman Dee Gordon, another trade candidate, went to the IL the same day as Healy with a right wrist contusion. But unlike Healy, Gordon actually is progressing toward a return. The 31-year-old speedster started a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma on Friday. He could return to the majors as early as Tuesday, per Divish. Gordon continued his light-hitting ways before his IL stint, as he batted .281/.310/.369 (85 wRC+) in 173 PA, though he did swat three homers (one fewer than he put up 2018) and steal 12 bases on 14 attempts.
- Fellow banged-up middle infielder J.P. Crawford will begin his own own rehab assignment at the Single-A level on Tuesday. Crawford, down since May 29 with a sprained left ankle, may be back in the bigs by June 14. The offseason trade acquisition showed well in Tacoma at the beginning of the year, leading the Mariners to promote him May 10 and demote then-starting shortstop Tim Beckham to the bench. It looked as if Beckham would temporarily get his old job back when Crawford suffered his injury, but the lion’s share of playing time has gone to Dylan Moore instead. As someone who started 2019 in excellent fashion before seeing his production fall off a cliff, Beckham’s a microcosm of his team. He could also wind up on the move by the July 31 trade deadline.
- The Mariners put reliever Connor Sadzeck on the IL on Tuesday with a right flexor mass, which doesn’t seem to be healing properly. Sadzeck “felt discomfort in his elbow” while playing catch, according to Divish, who adds the 27-year-old will undergo an MRI.
Matt den Dekker Retires
Veteran outfielder Matt den Dekker has retired, according to the independent Atlantic League’s transactions page. He had been playing for the Long Island Ducks.
Now 31 years old, den Dekker entered professional baseball as a fifth-round pick of the Mets in 2010. He then ranked as one of the Mets’ top 25 prospects at Baseball America in four straight seasons. Den Dekker made his New York debut in 2013, the first of two consecutive campaigns in which he saw action with the Mets, but only mustered a .238/.325/.310 line with one home run during that 237-plate appearance span.
On March 31, 2015, one week before the season began, the Mets traded den Dekker to the Nationals for left-handed reliever Jerry Blevins. That move largely worked out for the Mets, though den Dekker did hit a solid .253/.315/.485 with five home runs across 110 PA in 2015. Den Dekker then struggled in the minors and during a limited major league sample size in 2016, leading the Nationals to designate him for assignment.
The lefty-swinging den Dekker went on to total another 29 major league PA – eight with the Tigers in 2017 and 21 in a reunion with the Mets last year – before joining the independent circuit this season. He batted .223/.305/.337 with seven homers in 415 tries at the game’s top level and .260/.325/.427 with 61 HRs in 2,248 Triple-A attempts.
MLB Draft Signings: 6/7/19
Keeping up with the latest MLB draft signings…
- The Marlins have agreed to an over-slot bonus with second-rounder Nasim Nunez (pick 46), Craig Mish of FNTSY Sports Radio tweets. The high school infielder from Georgia will receive $2.2MM, a fair amount more than the recommended value of his pick ($1,617,400). Nunez had previously committed to Clemson. Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com ranked the 19-year-old Nunez as the 51st-best player entering the draft, writing he may be the top defensive shortstop in his class. But whether the 5-foot-9, 155-pound switch hitter will complement his irreproachable glove work with big league-caliber offense is in question.
- Thirty-eighth overall pick T.J. Sikkema has agreed to a deal with the Yankees worth full slot value ($1.95MM), per Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Sikkema, a left-hander from Missouri, checked in at No. 57 on MLB.com’s pre-draft list. While Sikkema doesn’t seem to come with a ton of upside, he has a high enough floor to potentially make it as a major league reliever or a back-end starter, Callis and Mayo suggest.
- Brewers second-rounder Antoine Kelly, the 65th pick, has signed for full slot value ($1,025,100), Callis reports. The development of the 19-year-old Kelly – a lefty from Wabash Valley College in Illinois – “will require a ton of patience and he ultimately may be more of a reliever than a starter, but he has a rare arm,” Callis and Mayo write. They ranked Kelly 90th overall going into the draft.
Poll: Shopping Matthew Boyd
The Tigers may have helped develop a front-line starter in left-hander Matthew Boyd, whom they acquired from the Blue Jays in a deal for David Price in July 2015. At the time, fellow southpaw prospect Daniel Norris was seen as the best part of the Tigers’ three-player return, but it’s Boyd who has since emerged as the superior major leaguer. Now, with the noncompetitive Tigers amid a rebuild and not likely to return to contention in the near future, they may have to consider trading Boyd this summer.
Boyd debuted with the Blue Jays the same season as the trade and wound up turning in 57 1/3 innings of 7.53 ERA/6.59 FIP ball between Toronto and Detroit. He was much better over the next three seasons, including when he totaled 4.3 fWAR in 305 1/3 frames from 2017-18, yet still didn’t look like much more than an average starter. But Boyd has found another gear in 2019 – his age-28 season.
Across 83 2/3 innings this year, Boyd has already put up a career-best fWAR (2.8) that trails only Max Scherzer among starters. Thanks in part to a lethal fastball-slider combo, Boyd’s also third in the league in K/BB ratio (6.93), sixth in K/9 (11.16) and BB/9 (1.61), eighth in FIP (2.93), 15th in ERA (3.12) and swinging-strike percentage (13.4), and 25th in contact rate (73.2). Furthermore, there’s almost zero difference between Boyd’s weighted on-base average/expected wOBA against (.272 versus .271).
Based on his production to date, the 2019 version of Boyd has been an ace – and a cheap one at that. Relative to his performance, Boyd is earning a pittance ($2.6MM) in his first of four potential arbitration-eligible years. Considering Boyd is breaking through as a top-flight starter who’s under control through 2022, it wouldn’t be remotely surprising to see the Tigers go forward with him. That said, there’s a case for Detroit to cash in its best trade chip this summer, when Boyd would outrank Marcus Stroman, Madison Bumgarner and others as the most desirable starter on the block.
Even with Boyd in the fold, it doesn’t look as if the Tigers have nearly enough quality building blocks in the majors or minors to work their way back into contention over the next couple years. There’s hope in the Tigers’ starting staff in the form of Boyd, Norris and Spencer Turnbull. But the team’s premier reliever, Shane Greene, isn’t signed past this season and may find himself on another roster in the coming weeks. Switching to the offensive side, Brandon Dixon and Nicholas Castellanos have been the Tigers’ only league-average batters this season. The 27-year-old Dixon has struck out 37 times and drawn three walks in 98 plate appearances, indicating his bubble’s going to burst. We know Castellanos can hit, but he’s a free agent-to-be whose overall value is limited by his defensive shortcomings. Down on the farm, the Tigers do have prized righty Casey Mize – the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft – but Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs still don’t see a special system in place.
While the Tigers don’t boast an elite collection of farmhands, trading Boyd would change that to a certain extent. He’d command a massive return right now, though it would be an agonizing call on the Tigers’ part to let him go. However, with Boyd’s value perhaps at its zenith and Detroit seemingly not nearing a return to relevance, general manager Al Avila may have to think about putting his club’s ace on the block. What would you do in Avila’s position?
(Poll link for app users)
Should the Tigers put Matthew Boyd on the block this summer?
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Yes 78% (5,170)
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No 22% (1,498)
Total votes: 6,668
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Marlins Place Caleb Smith On Injured List
The Marlins have placed southpaw Caleb Smith on the 10-day injured list with inflammation in his left hip, according to Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. The injury bothered Smith even before his start against the Brewers on Thursday, per McPherson, but manager Don Mattingly indicated it isn’t serious.
Smith has seen his ERA climb by almost a run and a half since the beginning of May, yet he has still been one of the few bright spots for this season’s Marlins. The 27-year-old has given Miami 66 innings of 3.41 ERA/4.18 FIP ball with 11.18 K/9 and 2.73 BB/9. Although Smith owns the majors’ third-lowest groundball percentage among starters (29.1), he has helped offset that with the league’s sixth-highest K rate.
The absence of Smith means the Marlins will have to go outside their rotation for a starter for the first time this season. Health-wise, the club has been fortunate enough to deploy Smith, Pablo Lopez, Jose Urena, Sandy Alcantara and Trevor Richards for all of its starts this year. With Smith going to the shelf, Triple-A righty Elieser Hernandez is a candidate to move into the Marlins’ rotation, McPherson suggests, though he notes they could rely on relievers in lieu of a traditional starter.
Marlins Sign Yangervis Solarte
The Marlins have signed infielder/outfielder Yangervis Solarte to a minor league contract, Roster Roundup reports.
Miami’s the second team of 2019 for Solarte, who cracked the Giants’ season-opening roster after signing a minors pact with them over the winter. However, the switch-hitting Solarte didn’t prove to be part of the solution for San Francisco’s dreadful offense, slashing .205/.247/.315 (48 wRC+) with one home run in 78 plate appearances. As a result, the Giants released him in early May.
While the 31-year-old Solarte was a solid contributor with the Yankees and Padres from 2014-17, those days appear long gone. His struggles in San Francisco came on the heels of a difficult 2018 campaign spent in Toronto, with which he batted .226/.277/.378 (77 wRC+) with 17 homers in 506 trips to the plate. Solarte has continued to show defensive versatility even as his offense has tanked, though. Dating back to last season, he has logged double-digit appearances at second base, third and shortstop. He also picked up nine appearances in left field with the Giants.
Pirates To Activate Corey Dickerson, Jung Ho Kang
The Pirates will activate outfielder Corey Dickerson and infielder Jung Ho Kang for tomorrow’s game, skipper Clint Hurdle told reporters including MLB.com’s Adam Berry (via Twitter). Corresponding roster moves aren’t yet known.
Dickerson’s shoulder injury ended up costing him about two months of action. He’ll need a 40-man roster spot, since he had been moved to the 60-day IL. Kang was out for three weeks with a left side strain.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Bucs handle their roster now that they’re approaching full health. There’ll really be an abundance of corner outfielders once Lonnie Chisenhall is ready, but even Dickerson creates a bit of a crowd.
Jose Osuna could be the odd man out, though he has hit well in brief action. That would leave the club with two switch-hitting options (Melky Cabrera, Bryan Reynolds) and a pair of lefty bats (Dickerson, Gregory Polanco) in the corner mix. That’s arguably a somewhat suboptimal mix, particularly since it means carrying five players limited to outfield or pinch-hitting duties.
Hurdle will also face some tough playing time decisions. The resurgent Cabrera and newcomer Reynolds are both hitting quite well. Dickerson and Polanco are both well-established and well-compensated players. There has already been some chatter among Pirates scribes that the club could ponder trading from its outfield stock to boost a sagging pitching staff, though it remains unclear whether and when that strategy will be pursued.
It’s a bit easier to guess at the decision in the infield. Youngster Cole Tucker has not yet found sustained success at the plate and seems likely to be dispatched back to Triple-A, though that’ll leave the club with only two true middle infielders (Kevin Newman and Adam Frazier). Perhaps the Pirates will send down a pitcher and run with a seven-man bullpen for at least a stretch, but that seems unlikely to be a long-term strategy for a team that needs innings.
Whatever the move, Kang is hardly assured of a lengthy stint back on the MLB roster. He’ll need to improve upon a terrible start to the season or be sent packing.
It’ll be interesting to see how it all shakes out, both now and in the near future. We know that GM Neal Huntington is looking for ways to shore up the pitching staff. The Bucs could be a fun team to watch with seven weeks to go before the trade deadline and a four-game deficit in the division.