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Nationals Designate Miguel Montero

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The Nationals have designated catcher Miguel Montero for assignment, per a club announcement. That’ll open an active roster spot for the activation of backstop Matt Wieters and clear a 40-man place for Moises Sierra, whose contract was selected with fellow outfielder Adam Eaton hitting the DL.

[RELATED: Updated Nationals Depth Chart]

Montero, 34, received the nod as the reserve catcher to open the season after signing a minors deal over the winter. His contract included a $1.3MM salary in the majors, though according to Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com (Twitter link) it was not fully guaranteed.

While he was once a solid regular behind the dish, Montero has trailed off in recent seasons. He still knows how to draw a walk, but is just a .211/.316/.343 hitter since the start of the 2016 season and didn’t quite reach that standard in his Grapefruit League action this spring. On the defensive side, Montero’s once-sparkling framing numbers dropped in 2017 and he had marked difficulty controlling opposing runners on the bases.

Of course, some of those same sorts of questions are still also facing Wieters, who is coming off of a forgettable 2017 season in D.C. He’ll look to get back on track now that he has recovered from a minor oblique injury, though it’s possible he will increasingly need to share time with the younger Pedro Severino, who bypassed Montero after Wieters went down. It’s questionable at best whether Severino will hit consistently in the majors, but at this point the Nats have good cause to give him an opportunity to show he can. On the whole, the catching situation remains a major source of uncertainty for the D.C. organization.

Brewers Designate J.J. Hoover

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The Brewers have designated righty J.J. Hoover for assignment, per a club announcement. Milwaukee cleared another roster spot by optioning outfielder Brett Phillips.

These departures will make way for the addition of two new righties to the active roster. Junior Guerra and Jorge Lopez are both coming up to supplement the pitching staff.

[RELATED: Updated Brewers Depth Chart]

Hoover did not make the Milwaukee Opening Day roster out of camp, but was brought up just a week into the season. He ended up coughing up a game-ending home run last night. Even if the Brewers were willing to look past that performance, the club needed fresh arms and evidently decided that Hoover was the most expendable player on the roster.

The move could cost the Brewers the chance to hang onto Hoover, who turned in a solid performance this spring. In his 10 1/3 frames, he allowed just one run on six hits, though he also recorded only five strikeouts. He also filled some useful innings last year for the Diamondbacks, posting a 3.92 ERA with 11.8 K/9 (on a career-high 12.0% swinging-strike rate) and 5.7 BB/9 in 41 1/3 innings.

Instead, the team will give Lopez a shot at helping to bolster a relief unit that has worked more innings than those of all but three other teams. He spent most of 2017 as a swingman at the Double-A level, working to a 4.25 ERA with 9.1 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9. With a background as a starter, Lopez can perhaps offer some length to the Milwaukee pen.

Guerra, meanwhile, is scheduled to start tonight’s game. The 33-year-old struggled last year after his astounding, late-career breakout in 2016. But he turned in a strong showing in camp and a nice first outing at Triple-A. The Brewers would obviously love to see Guerra return to something like the form he showed in ’16, when he ran up a 2.81 ERA in 121 2/3 innings, after watching their rotation limp to a 4.92 ERA through its first dozen collective starts on the season.

Nationals Place Adam Eaton On 10-Day DL

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The Nationals have placed outfielder Adam Eaton on the 10-day DL, as Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post reported was likely to occur. Eaton will be replaced by outfielder Moises Sierra, whose promotion required some other roster machinations.

Eaton is not dealing with any new problems in his surgically-repaired left knee, but rather has been diagnosed with a bone bruise in his left ankle. That joint was also damaged last year, though it seems the new problem is not expected to pose any major new obstacles. Just how long he’ll be out remains to be seen and will likely be dictated both by how he responds to treatment and by how the roster shakes out in the meantime.

While it unquestionably hurts the Nats to see Eaton go back on the shelf, the veteran noted there are some silver linings here. “[W]e’re really going to concentrate on strength and the process of getting it better,” he said of his left leg. “And get my quad correct and everything. And work on things we kind of ran out of time in spring training so this might be a little blessing in disguise.”

As for Sierra, the 29-year-old hasn’t tasted the majors since back in 2014. But he has performed well since joining the Nationals on a minors deal, turning in a strong spring performance and opening the season well at Triple-A. In all likelihood, Brian Goodwin will take the bulk of the time in left, with Sierra supplementing him as needed. The club could have turned to Andrew Stevenson, who is already on the 40-man, but he has scuffled early at Syracuse after a reasonably promising spring.

Of course, the open spot might have gone to top prospect Victor Robles, who could well have commanded a MLB job to open the season had it not been for the full mix of outfielders already ahead of him. But Robles left a recent game after a cringe-inducing effort at a diving catch.

Fortunately, x-rays on Robles’s arm were negative, as Castillo reports (Twitter links). He has only been diagnosed to this point with a hyperextended elbow, though ligament or other damage has yet to be ruled out since a complete examination will not be possible until the swelling in the joint has subsided. The Nats organization, which no doubt views the much-hyped Robles as an excellent insurance policy and potential mid-season roster addition, is undoubtedly hoping that he has escaped a significant injury.

MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Cueto, Morales, Odor, Rizzo

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ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(April 10th)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

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FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

AL West Notes: Rangers, Miranda, Sipp, Bedrosian

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The Rangers announced tonight that second baseman Rougned Odor (left hamstring strain) and right-hander Doug Fister (right hip strain) have both been placed on the 10-day disabled list. In their place, the team has activated reliever Tony Barnette from the DL and recalled catcher/infielder Isiah Kiner-Falefa from Triple-A Round Rock. There’s no indication that either injury is considered to be long-term, with both Odor and Fister eligible to return from the DL on April 20. Kiner-Falefa will be making his big league debut the first time he gets into a game; the former fourth-round pick hit .288/.350/.390 through 569 trips to the plate in Double-A last season.

Some more AL West news…

  • Lefty Ariel Miranda will remain the Mariners’ fifth starter for the time being, tweets Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. He’ll take the ball on April 17 when the fifth spot in the rotation next comes up, Divish notes, rather than right-hander Erasmo Ramirez, who is working his way back from a lat strain. However, the team doesn’t want to rush Ramirez back and will keep him on a slower progression while entrusting Miranda with a larger role. The 29-year-old Miranda is no stranger to the Seattle rotation, having made 39 starts for the M’s over the past two seasons after being acquired in a one-for-one swap that sent Wade Miley to Baltimore.
  • The Astros announced today that they placed left-hander Tony Sipp on the 10-day DL and recalled righty James Hoyt from Triple-A in his place. (MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart first reported that Sipp would hit the DL.) With Sipp on the shelf, the Astros are going with an all-right-handed bullpen for the foreseeable future, though the ’Stros do have options in that regard if they decide to change course. Lefties Buddy Boshers and Reymin Guadan are both on the 40-man roster and both pitching for Triple-A Fresno.
  • The Angels are keeping an eye on Cam Bedrosian’s velocity, writes Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. The struggling setup man, however, insists that he’s not injured, though he acknowledges that the drop from an average of 96 mph to 93 mph on his fastball is an issue. Bedrosian feels that he developed some bad mechanical tendencies upon returning from a groin strain last season and is trying to get back to his old delivery. Pitching coach Charles Nagy noted that the dip in velocity is a “concern,” though Bedrosian also attributes his early results to simply not locating his pitches effectively.

Giants Place Johnny Cueto On 10-Day DL

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The Giants have placed right-hander Johnny Cueto on the 10-day disabled list due to a sprained ankle he sustained in a workout over the weekend, as Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. The move is retroactive to April 7. Left-hander Steven Okert is up from Triple-A to give the team an extra arm for tonight’s game against the D-backs, and southpaw Andrew Suarez will be promoted tomorrow to make his Major League debut in what would’ve been Cueto’s spot in the rotation.

While Cueto’s injury doesn’t sound serious, it’s nonetheless the latest blow in a series of rotation injuries that have hindered the Giants early on in the season. Madison Bumgarner has yet to pitch this season due to a fractured finger that he sustained in Spring Training, while Jeff Samardzija has also yet to make his season debut owing to a pectoral injury. Pavlovic does relay some good news for Giants fans, as Samardzija is slated to make a rehab appearance on Saturday and should be activated for his next turn in the rotation after that.

In many respects, Cueto is off to a solid start to the 2018 season, having yielded just one run on nine hits and two walks through his first 13 innings. However, Cueto’s velocity has dipped from an average of 91.3 mph last season to just 90 mph thus far, and he’s managed to strike out just five batters while posting an uncharacteristically low seven percent swinging-strike rate.

Suarez, meanwhile, was the Giants’ second-round pick back in the 2015 draft. The University of Miami product has made just one Triple-A start this season but impressed there in 2017, tossing 88 2/3 frames with 8.1 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and a 49.2 percent ground-ball rate following a promotion from Double-A, where he’d also impressed. San Francisco is already turning to its top pitching prospect, Tyler Beede, to make his MLB debut tonight, and they’ll follow him with another of the farm’s most promising young hurlers in Suarez — giving fans a potential glimpse of the future. MLB.com ranks Suarez as the Giants’ No. 10 prospect, calling him a high-floor prospect who should at the very least settle in as a back-of-the-rotation starter.

Rays Acquire Jeremy Hazelbaker From Diamondbacks

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The Rays have acquired outfielder Jeremy Hazelbaker from the Diamondbacks in exchange for cash, the teams announced. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster, Tampa Bay has transferred right-hander Jose De Leon to the 60-day disabled list.

Hazelbaker, whom the D-backs designated for assignment late last week, will head to Triple-A Durham. De Leon underwent Tommy John surgery during Spring Training, so he’ll be out for the entirety of the 2018 season.

The 30-year-old Hazelbaker will give the Rays some depth across the board in the outfield, as he’s plenty experienced in center and in both outfield corners. The left-handed-hitting Hazelbaker was the talk of MLB two years ago when he broke camp with the Cardinals and posted an absurd .317/.357/.683 slash in the month of April. However, he cooled off considerably over the remainder of the season and was ultimately waived by St. Louis and claimed by Arizona.

Last year with the D-backs, Hazelbaker logged 61 plate appearances and again posted some eye-popping numbers, hitting .346/.443/.577 with two doubles, two homers and two triples. In all, Hazelbaker is a .258/.327/.500 hitter in in 285 MLB plate appearances, and he owns a .277/.336/.452 slash in parts of seven Triple-A seasons.

Rangers Grant Trevor Plouffe His Release

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Veteran infielder Trevor Plouffe, who’d been with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate, asked for and was granted his release by the organization, the team told reporters (Twitter link via MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan).

Plouffe, 31, opened the Triple-A season by going 3-for-11 with a homer, a double and six walks in 17 plate appearances — good for a .273/.529/.636 slash in that tiny four-game sample. The longtime Twins third baseman struggled in Spring Training with the Rangers and agreed to head to their Triple-A affiliate in Round Rock to open the season, though clearly his stay there will be short-lived.

A former first-round pick of the Twins (20th overall, 2004), Plouffe was a bit of a late bloomer but eventually rose to the Majors and claimed Minnesota’s starting third base job as a 26-year-old back in 2012. From 2012-16, Plouffe hit .250/.311/.423 and averaged 17 homers and 124 games played per season with the Twins. While his glovework at the hot corner was initially questionable, he eventually posted solid UZR and DRS marks with the Twins in 2014-15. His 2016 season — Plouffe’s last as a Twin — was marred by a series of intercostal and oblique injuries that limited him to 84 games.

Plouffe split the 2017 season between the A’s and Rays, struggling at each stop and hitting just .198/.272/.318 in a combined 313 plate appearances. Given that showing and his injury-plagued 2016 season, it seems likely that Plouffe will need to find another minor league opportunity elsewhere — perhaps one with a clearer path to the Majors than he had in Texas, where Adrian Beltre and Joey Gallo are locked in at the infield corners. At his best, Plouffe has been a thorn in the side of left-handed pitching (.263/.346/.469 during that ’12-’16 stretch) who is capable of handing either corner infield slot.

Mat Latos Signs With CanAm League’s New Jersey Jackals

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Veteran right-hander Mat Latos has signed a deal with the New Jersey Jackals of the independent Canadian-American Association, the Jackals announced today.

Latos, 30, tossed just 15 innings in the Majors last season, all with the Blue Jays, and notched a 3.81 ERA in an additional 28 innings with Toronto’s Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo. The former Padres/Reds hurler was a rising star early in his career, pitching to a 3.27 ERA in 799 innings between San Diego and Cincinnati from 2010-13 before injuries began to derail him.

Latos underwent knee surgery in February 2014, and while he returned that summer to toss 102 1/3 innings of 3.25 ERA ball for the Reds, he experienced a rapid decline in the subsequent seasons. An offseason trade to the Marlins was followed by a half season of pedestrian work with the Marlins and a pair of uninspiring stints with both L.A. clubs following the 2015 non-waiver deadline. Latos has had brief stints with the White Sox, Nationals and Jays since that time, but his overall body of work dating back to 2015 is unsightly: a 5.05 ERA, 6.8 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 201 1/3 innings at the big league level.

Alex Gordon Placed On DL With Labral Tear In Left Hip

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The Royals announced that they’ve placed left fielder Alex Gordon on the 10-day disabled list with a labral tear in his left hip. Recently claimed outfielder Abraham Almonte has been recalled from Triple-A Omaha to take his place. Kansas City didn’t provide an immediate timeline within its announcement, though manager Ned Yost suggests that the injury may not be as bad as it sounds (Twitter link via Rustin Dodd of The Athletic). Yost said that Gordon will be re-evaluated in five days and could return as soon as two weeks down the road in a best-case scenario.

Gordon, 34, inked a franchise record four-year, $72MM contract with the Royals in the 2015-16 offseason. At the time, the left fielder had made three consecutive All-Star teams and been one of the key factors in the Royals’ return to prominence in the American League Central. From 2011-15, Gordon slashed .281/.359/.450 (121 OPS+) and took home four Gold Glove Awards. Baseball-Reference pegged his efforts at 27.2 wins above replacement in that five-year peak, while Fangraphs credited him with 24 WAR.

However, Gordon’s production immediately went south in the first season of a four-year contract that has transformed from a cause for celebration among Royals fans to an albatross deal for the franchise. Since Opening Day 2016, Gordon has posted a woeful .213/.300/.343 slash in 1071 plate appearances, missing time along the way with a fractured right wrist (in May 2016). He’s still owed $20MM in 2018 and 2019, plus a $4MM buyout of a mutual option for the 2020 season.

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