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Pitching Notes: Lincecum, Musgrove, Wheeler

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A few pitching notes from around the majors…

  • Rangers right-hander Tim Lincecum’s ongoing blister issues forced him to postpone a bullpen session Sunday, according to TR Sullivan of MLB.com. Given that he didn’t pitch at all last season and then went without a contract until March 7, Lincecum was already behind schedule before the blister on his right middle finger cropped up last month. It’s now unclear whether he’ll be ready by the beginning of May, the Rangers’ target for him entering the season.
  • Pirates righty Joe Musgrove is eligible to come off the 10-day disabled list Monday, but that’s not going to happen, manager Clint Hurdle told Jerry Dipaola of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and other reporters Sunday. Musgrove, who’s dealing with a muscle strain in his right shoulder, will first need to make multiple rehab starts, per Hurdle. Right now, though, he’s in a “no-throw” period, the skipper revealed. Musgrove, 25, was arguably the headliner in the Pirates’ return for righty Gerrit Cole, whom they traded to the Astros over the winter. Cole’s thriving in Houston, yet the 7-2 Pirates have held their own without him thus far.
  • The Mets will recall righty Zack Wheeler for a start in Miami this upcoming Wednesday, Mike Puma of the New York Post was among those to report on Twitter. It’ll be the first time the ballyhooed quintet of Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom Steven Matz, Matt Harvey and Wheeler have taken consecutive turns through New York’s rotation, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com notes. Wheeler, whose career fell off track after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2015, opened the year in the minors and tossed five innings of six-strikeout, one-run ball in his initial Triple-A start of 2018 on Friday. He’s likely to be a short-term fill-in for the Mets, who are awaiting the season debut of Jason Vargas. The southpaw underwent surgery on his right hand last month.

Rays Place Brad Miller On DL, Select Ryan Weber’s Contract

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The Rays have placed first baseman Brad Miller on the 10-day disabled list, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. The club selected the contract of right-hander Ryan Weber from Triple-A Durham in a corresponding move, thus giving it a full 40-man roster.

Miller suffered a groin injury while running the bases Sunday against the Red Sox, who overcame a 7-2 deficit in the eighth inning to post six runs and pull out an 8-7 win over the Rays. It was the most disappointing defeat yet in a slow start for Tampa Bay, which is a major league-worst 1-8 through the first week-plus of the season. Miller hasn’t exactly helped the Rays’ cause, having hit a so-so .222/.300/.370 (96 wRC+) through 30 plate appearances. However, that’s better production than Miller logged in 2017, a season in which he slashed .201/.327/.337 (83 wRC+) in 407 PAs. C.J. Cron stands out as the most logical replacement for Miller on the Rays’ 25-man roster.

Weber, a Tampa Bay native who signed a minor league pact with the Rays in the offseason, has thrown 68 1/3 innings (22 appearances, eight starts) since debuting with the Braves in 2015. The 27-year-old has registered a 5.00 ERA/4.47 FIP with 5.53 K/9, 1.45 BB/9 and a 55.7 percent groundball rate between Atlanta and Seattle. Weber has been far better at preventing runs at the Triple-A level (2.16 ERA, 5.1 K/9, 1.5 BB/9 in 167 innings), and he’ll hope for that type of success with the Rays, whose bullpen took a beating Sunday.

Eugenio Suarez Diagnosed With Fractured Thumb

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4:50pm: Suarez will go on the DL on Monday, per MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon, who expects the Reds to replace him with Pennington and Gosselin.

2:39pm: Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez has suffered a fractured right thumb, C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic was among those to report. The injury occurred when Suarez took a pitch off the hand from the Pirates’ Jameson Taillon on Sunday.

It’s unclear how much time Suarez will miss, though he’s likely to head to the disabled list, thus depriving the Reds of one of their top players. The 26-year-old has gotten off to an excellent start this season, having batted .296/.424/.630 with a pair of home runs in 33 plate appearances, after landing an extension last month. The Reds guaranteed Suarez $66MM over seven years on the heels of a breakout 2017 in which he posted 4.0 fWAR and slashed .260/.367/.461 with 26 HRs in 632 trips to the plate.

The Reds replaced Suarez with veteran infielder Cliff Pennington on Sunday. He could continue to man third while Suarez is out, then, while Phil Gosselin represents another potential replacement on the club’s 25-man roster. Forty-man options in the minors include Alex Blandino and Shed Long, both of whom are with Triple-A Louisville. Infielder Nick Senzel, one of the best prospects in baseball, is also at the highest level of the minors in the Reds’ system. Senzel, 22, could be a candidate for a promotion, though he’s not on Cincinnati’s 40-man roster.

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Bogaerts, Yankees, Didi

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Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts suffered a left ankle injury Sunday, causing him to leave their game against the Rays, the team announced (via Rob Bradford of WEEI, on Twitter). Boston’s further evaluating Bogaerts, who has been one of the driving forces behind its 8-1 start this season. The 25-year-old’s hitting a red-hot .368/.400/.711 with two home runs through 40 plate appearances. The Red Sox replaced Bogaerts on Sunday with utilityman Brock Holt.

More on Boston and its archrival:

  • Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius, who’s in his penultimate year of team control, would like to remain in the Bronx for the long haul. Asked this weekend if he’d be open to signing an extension, Gregorius told Randy Miller of NJ.com, “If they offer me something and I get a chance to stay here, I’ll stay here.” The Yankees and Gregorius haven’t discussed a new deal to this point, the 28-year-old informed Miller. Whether that will happen is unclear, especially with Orioles star shortstop Manny Machado slated to hit free agency next winter. Machado could be a target for the Yankees next offseason, which would put Gregorius’ future in question. Gregorius has held his own since joining the Yankees in 2015, though, meaning they could be content with him at short. He has hit a tremendous .367/.513/.900 with three homers in 39 trips to the plate this season.
  • Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia is making progress in his recovery from the left knee surgery he underwent in October, manager Alex Cora told Ian Browne of MLB.com and other reporters Sunday. Pedroia is slated to begin running the bases Tuesday, which would be the final hurdle in his recovery, Browne notes. Should that go well, Pedroia would remain on track to return in May. The Red Sox have been well-equipped to go without Pedroia early this year, thanks to the presence of Eduardo Nunez.
  • Yankees first baseman Greg Bird, out since undergoing right ankle surgery in late March, is on schedule to come back sometime within the original six- to eight-week timetable, Danny Knobler writes for MLB.com. “I don’t have a bad ankle,” Bird said Sunday. “That was told to me by the doctor. I just had a bone spur that had to be taken out.” Injuries have beset Bird since he debuted in 2015, having held him to a meager 94 regular-season games in his career. His latest issue has led New York to use Tyler Austin and Neil Walker at first base this year. Austin has been productive in Bird’s stead, though, with a .231/.310/.500 line and two HRs in 29 PAs.

Latest On Kevin Siegrist

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April 8: Siegrist doesn’t want to pitch in the minors for the Pirates or anyone else, general manager Neal Huntington told Liz Bloom of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and other reporters Sunday. Conversations between the Pirates and Siegrist’s side have been “very respectful,” per Huntington, but: “His agent was very clear: This is not about the Pirates. This is about minor league baseball. … This is about not wanting to pitch in the minor leagues, period, so I’m not sure how that solves itself without him pitching.”

Huntington added that Siegrist could be part of the solution for the Pirates sometime this year, though that’s probably not going to happen if he doesn’t work his way back via the minors. “He’s a good pitcher, and we wanted him to go to triple-A to build up arm strength, to get back to Kevin Siegrist because that guy can help us,” Huntington said. “We would love to keep that door open and hope that there will be a change of mind at some point in time.”

April 6: The Pirates have issued another statement clarifying Siegrist’s status (Twitter links via Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic). It seems that Siegrist is not a free agent and has instead been placed on the team’s suspended list for failing to report to Triple-A.

As Biertempfel explains, the left-hander’s minor league contract allowed him to opt out at the end of Spring Training if another club was willing to place him on its MLB roster. If not, he’d be assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis. No club offered Siegrist a 25-man roster spot, but the left-hander subsequently chose not to report to Indianapolis and has been suspended by the team. Biertempfel notes that Siegrist does have a full opt-out on June 1, at which point he can become a free agent. It’d be a surprise to see Siegrist ultimately sit out until that point, but it’s not clear at this time if he intends on reporting to Indianapolis at all.

April 5: Left-handed reliever Kevin Siegrist, who was in camp with the Pirates on a minor league contract, has refused an assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency, the team announced on Thursday (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Adam Berry). Siegrist’s deal came with a clause that allowed him to opt out if he did not make the Opening Day roster, and he’d reportedly been mulling over whether to take the assignment to Indianapolis or pursue other opportunities.

The 28-year-old Siegrist posted sub-3.00 ERAs with the Cardinals in 2015-16 before struggling to a 4.81 ERA last year in season during which he logged DL time for both a forearm issue and a spinal sprain. Siegrist averaged a career-worst 5.03 walks per nine innings pitched last season, and his 92 mph average fastball was down noticeably from his peak, when his heater averaged 93.7 mph.

That said, Siegrist has a fairly long track record of missing bats at the big league level. He’s averaged 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings since debuting with the 2013 Cardinals and has been largely effective against both left- and right-handed hitters — albeit with somewhat curious reverse splits. Lefties have batted .233/.344/.357 in 381 plate appearances against Siegrist, while righties have been stymied to the tune of a .192/.276/.349 slash. And while the five runs he allowed in 5 2/3 spring frames with the Pirates makes for an unappealing ERA, Siegrist also posted a substantially more encouraging 9-to-1 K/BB ratio in that tiny sample of appearances.

Siegrist finished out the 2017 season with four years, 116 days of big league service time, meaning that any club which signs him would have the option of controlling him through at least the 2019 season via arbitration. As we noted late last week, the free agent market is hardly flush with left-handed bullpen options — Antonio Bastardo and Eric O’Flaherty are currently the two most notable names available — so Siegrist should generate some interest elsewhere.

Injury Notes: Healy, Sheriff, Rizzo, J.C. Ramirez

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Mariners first baseman Ryon Healy showed up to the team’s clubhouse today in a walking boot; he twisted his ankle in a postgame workout, says Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. It’s been described as a “pretty bad sprain”, and Healy will have an MRI soon. The expectation seems to be that he will require a DL stint, though the severity of the injury is unclear at this time. Healy provided the heroics in last night’s win; it seems likely that Dan Vogelbach will receive everyday at-bats in his absence.

More injury items from around the league…

  • Cardinals left-hander Ryan Sheriff has been placed on the DL with a toe injury; the team has recalled right-hander John Brebbia from Triple-A Memphis in a related move. Sheriff was added to the roster with the news that Brett Cecil would be out for an extended period of time; he allowed one earned run in his 2 2/3 innings of work this season. Sheriff also managed a 3.14 ERA last season in 14 1/3 innings of work for the Cardinals.
  • Anthony Rizzo has missed a couple of games for the Cubs due to back tightness, says Carrie Muskat of MLB.com. The first baseman’s back has evidently been bothering him ever since the club’s trip to Cincinnati. Rizzo has just three hits (including one home run) in 32 plate appearances to begin the season.
  • J.C. Ramirez is officially headed to the DL with forearm issues, Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets. We noted earlier that the righty had been experiencing forearm tightness; he now joins fellow Angels starters Matt Shoemaker and Andrew Heaney on the disabled list, leaving the club incredibly thin in the rotation beyond Garrett Richards, Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Skaggs. Parker Bridwell and Nick Tropeano seem to be the likeliest candidates to get rotation attention, but for the time being the club has recalled relievers Felix Pena and Eduardo Paredes (righty reliever Akeel Morris was optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake).

Reactions To The Charlie Blackmon Extension

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Is the Charlie Blackmon deal the beginning of a new trend that other free agents could follow in the coming seasons? Mark Feinsand of MLB.com asks this question and examines the subject in depth. The extension takes Blackmon out of a very crowded free agent pool next offseason that’s set to feature Bryce Harper, Josh Donaldson, Manny Machado and Dallas Keuchel, all of whom are widely expected to be the subjects of massive bidding wars. “After the past few markets, there’s no question this is going to become a trend,” one agent said of the pact. “You will see clubs look to sign players very young.” However, another agent believes that Blackmon made a mistake by signing the extension so early, as he’d have been the second-most coveted outfielder beyond Bryce Harper. The trade-off in this case is simple… a soon-to-be free agent in his 30s perhaps gave up some earnings upside, and in exchange doesn’t have to worry about what might or might not happen in a volatile free agent market next season.

A pair of other reactions to the Blackmon-Rockies accord…

  • Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post views the extension through a different lens; he wonders how this pact will directly affect fellow Rockies star Nolan Arenado. Saunders believes that the Blackmon deal makes it significantly less likely that the Rockies can afford to keep Arenado in the fold for the long term. After all, the All-Star third baseman could command a deal in the $300MM range, which will certainly be difficult for the Rockies to manage in combination with the $94MM in new money they just guaranteed to Blackmon.
  • Blackmon is just the latest in a line of players to take themselves out of the 2018-2019 free agent class, writes Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The baseball world has been talking about the impending class for years, but Matt Harvey’s poor performance the past few seasons has largely taken the possibility of a nine-figure deal off the table, Jose Fernandez tragically passed away, and now Blackmon has extended his tenure with the Rockies. Others such as Anthony Rizzo, Corey Kluber and Anthony Rizzo could have been free agents this winter as well had they not signed long-term deals earlier in their careers. Though Greg Holland, Mike Moustakas and Jonathan Lucroy are among the unexpected additions to this class, it seems as though a class that once looked like an unprecedented convergence of free agent juggernauts has been watered down a bit.

Brewers Place Christian Yelich on 10-Day DL

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After letting him sit out a few games with a minor oblique injury, the Brewers have elected to place outfielder Christian Yelich on the 10-day DL. In a corresponding move, the team has recalled right-hander Taylor Williams from Triple-A Colorado Springs.

During Yelich’s absence, it seems likely that Domingo Santana will fill in for him in the outfield. Yelich was off to a hot start for the 2018 season; he’s hit .385/.407/.577 across 27 plate appearances for the Brew Crew with one long ball and five runs driven in.  The 26-year-old has played at least 155 games in consecutive seasons, a streak that will now officially come to an end with the news that he’ll miss at least the ten-day minimum.

Yelich, of course, was perhaps the Brewers’ biggest offseason addition. The club sent top prospects Lewis Brinson and Isan Diaz, along with two other minor-leaguers, to Miami in order to bring the young slugger to Milwaukee. He sports a career .291/.366/.433 batting line across his first 2,839 plate appearances, with 60 homers and a 121 wRC+.

Lonnie Chisenhall Out 4-6 Weeks With Calf Strain

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Days after getting outfielder Michael Brantley back from the disabled list, the Indians have learned that they’ll be without right fielder Lonnie Chisenhall for four to six weeks. Jordan Bastian of MLB.com first tweeted the timetable, which came from the mouth of Indians manager Terry Francona. Chisenhall left Saturday’s game against the Royals early, and was officially placed on the disabled list early this morning (the club recalled Tyler Naquin to take his place in right field for the time being).

It’s an upsetting development for the Tribe, who saw Chisenhall miss significant time last season with the same issue. The re-aggravation of the injury during a seemingly routine few innings in right field doesn’t bode well for Chisenhall’s 2018 season. The timing is also unfortunate for him financially, as he’s set to become a free agent this winter and would like to erase the injury concerns from the memories of potential suitors.

Chisenhall was a notable beneficiary of the fly ball revolution last season, as he decreased his ground ball rate from 23.9% in 2016 to just 15.8% in 2017, and correspondingly increased his line drive rate and fly ball rate by four percentage points apiece. That adjustment resulted in a career-best .288/.360/.520 batting line. The Indians will certainly be hoping they can get his bat back in the lineup on the shorter end of the injury timetable.

White Sox Select Bruce Rondon’s Contract

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The White Sox announced that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Bruce Rondon in advance of today’s game against the Tigers, Rondon’s former team.

One of few players capable of reaching 102 MPH on the radar gun, the Tigers had lofty expectations for Rondon from the outset. A 2013 debut in which he pitched to a 3.45 ERA with 9.42 K/9 was certainly encouraging as well. However, Tommy John surgery prevented him from taking the mound for the entire 2014 season, and though he racked up the strikeouts big time the following year, his 2015 campaign ended with him being sent home due to “effort level“.

The righty’s tumultuous tenure with Detroit came to a close this past December, when the club elected to non-tender him rather than pay him a projected $1.2MM arbitration salary. Rondon sat on the market until February 1st, when the South Siders elected to pick him up on a minors pact. All told, Rondon’s upside lies in his velocity and his strikeout ability, but he’ll have to harness his control in order to be effective with his new team.

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