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Rangers Select Matt Duffy, Promote Dustin Harris

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The Rangers made a handful of moves before tonight’s series opener in Oakland. Texas selected veteran infielder Matt Duffy onto the roster and recalled outfielder/infielder Dustin Harris for what’ll be his big league debut. The Rangers also activated reliever Josh Sborz from the 15-day injured list.

Texas placed third baseman Josh Jung on the 10-day IL, optioned lefty reliever Walter Pennington and put utilityman Ezequiel Duran on the paternity list. Tyler Mahle moved from the 15-day to the 60-day IL in a procedural move to open a 40-man roster spot for Duffy. Texas had already shut Mahle down on account of shoulder soreness.

The 33-year-old Duffy gets a brief opportunity to return to the majors. Duffy has been in Triple-A since signing a minor league deal in Spring Training. The veteran infielder hasn’t produced much offensively, turning in a .218/.296/.280 slash across 216 plate appearances in the Pacific Coast League. Texas was out of healthy infielders on the 40-man roster, though, so they’ll give Duffy a shot to play in the big leagues for a ninth season. He’ll back up Marcus Semien, Josh Smith and Jonathan Ornelas for the final six games of the year. Duffy will be a free agent at the start of the offseason and will be in line for another minor league contract somewhere.

Harris, 25, has a bit of third base experience himself. He has started 12 games there with Triple-A Round Rock this season. He’s primarily an outfielder, logging more than 900 frames between left and center field. The left-handed hitter carries a .272/.358/.391 slash with 10 longballs across 564 trips to the plate. That’s minimal power production for the hitter-friendly PCL, but Harris has stolen 35 bases and has strong plate discipline numbers over his minor league career.

Texas added Harris to their 40-man roster over the 2022-23 offseason. They’ve remained intrigued enough by his physical tools to keep him on the roster even while he was on optional assignment in the minors. Baseball America ranked Harris as the #11 prospect in the system on its midseason update. He could make his MLB debut against the organization that drafted him. Harris was an 11th-round pick by the A’s in 2019. Oakland traded him to the Rangers the following summer in a deadline deal for lefty Mike Minor.

Jung’s season comes to a close because of right wrist discomfort. The All-Star third baseman broke his wrist on a hit-by-pitch in the first week of the season. He underwent surgery that sidelined him until the end of July. Jung hasn’t played up to his 2023 level since returning and he’ll finish the year with a .264/.298/.421 slash in 46 games. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News wrote this week that Jung will visit a specialist on Thursday to determine the source of his ongoing discomfort. He’ll hope for a mostly healthy offseason.

Dodgers Select Edgardo Henriquez

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6:37pm: Los Angeles officially selected Henriquez’s contract while optioning Ben Casparius to clear a bullpen spot. The Dodgers transferred Gavin Stone to the 60-day IL to open the 40-man roster spot. Manager Dave Roberts announced last week that Stone’s season was likely over because of soreness in his throwing shoulder. That’s now official.

5:15pm: The Dodgers are going to promote right-hander Edgardo Henriquez, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic on X. The righty isn’t on the club’s 40-man roster, so a corresponding move will be necessary to add him.

Henriquez, now 22, was an international signing of the Dodgers out of Venezuela a few years ago. He made his professional debut with 30 Rookie ball innings in 2019. The minor leagues were then wiped out by the pandemic in 2020.

In 2021, he tossed 34 2/3 innings, mostly at the Arizona Complex League. He allowed 4.93 earned runs per nine and walked 15.9% of batters faced, but struck out 33.1% of opponents. In 2022, he made 14 appearances at Single-A, 13 starts. He had a 4.54 ERA and 11% walk rate but a strong 27% strikeout rate. Going into 2023, FanGraphs ranked Henriquez the 20th best prospect in the Dodgers’ system, noting that his fastball sat in the high 90s and he also possessed an elite slider.

Tommy John surgery wiped out the 2023 season for Henriquez but he’s been back with a vengeance in 2024. He has gone through four levels this year, mostly pitching in relief, going from Single-A to High-A, Double-A and Triple-A. Between those four stops, he has 53 innings pitched with a 2.72 ERA. Control is still an issue, as he has walked 12.8% of batters faced on the year, but he’s also punched out 38.9% of them. As noted by Ardaya in the tweet above, Henriquez has hit 104 miles per hour with his fastball this year.

The Dodgers are currently 93-63. They have already clinched a playoff spot and have a good shot at both winning the National West division and securing a first-round bye. They are three games up on the Padres, though the two sides are kicking off a three-game series in Los Angeles tonight. Assuming the Dodgers don’t get swept and find themselves in a tight divisional battle, they should be in line for that bye since they are currently four games clear of the Central-leading Brewers.

As they play out the final games of the season, they can likely find a few moments to experiment a bit with Henriquez to see if his stuff can play against major league hitters. He may be a work in progress with his youth and wildness, but there’s clearly some talent and bat-missing ability here. If Henriquez can impress the club’s decision makers, perhaps he can pitch his way into a postseason role. He wasn’t on the 40-man prior to September but he was in the organization. Such players are allowed to be placed on postseason rosters via petition to the commissioner’s office, something that essentially a formality as it happens with regularity around the league.

Spencer Schwellenbach’s Emergence Is Huge For Atlanta

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A lot has gone wrong for Atlanta this year. They came into the year as one of the best on-paper clubs. Prior to any regular season games being played, the Playoff Odds at FanGraphs gave them a 25.3% chance of winning the World Series and a 98.5% chance of making the postseason, both of those figures being the highest in the league.

It appears we may be living in one of the 1.5% of alternate universes where they don’t make the playoffs, as their season is currently on the brink. They are two games behind the Mets and 1.5 behind the Diamondbacks for the final two National League Wild Card spots with less than a week to play. They could still squeak in, especially as they’re hosting the Mets for three this week, but it’s going to be tight. That’s thanks to a combination of factors, as several players on the roster have either underperformed or missed significant time due to injury.

Things may have been even worse if not for a handful of positive developments. The Chris Sale pickup has worked out beautifully, something that MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently explored in a piece for Front Office subscribers. Signing Reynaldo López and moving him back to a starting role has also worked out well. Marcell Ozuna is having his best season in years. But they’ve also gotten a huge performance from rookie Spencer Schwellenbach, which is a big development for the club both this year and in the future.

Schwellenbach came into the year with fairly limited experience. The righty was drafted in 2021 but had Tommy John surgery afterwards, which kept him from making his professional debut until 2023. Once he was able to retake the mound, the results were strong. He pitched 65 innings on the farm last year, split between Single-A and High-A, allowing 2.49 earned runs per nine. He struck out 21.6% of opponents and kept his walks down to a 6.3% rate.

Another eight starts in the minors to start 2024, between High-A and Double-A, led to him getting a quick push to the majors. Atlanta had already lost Spencer Strider to season-ending UCL surgery and needed help in the rotation.

Schwellenbach was added to the roster and made his major league debut on May 29, just two days before his 24th birthday. He now has 19 starts under his belt and looks the part of a legit big league starter. In 109 2/3 innings, he has a 3.61 ERA. He has struck out 26.3% of batters faced and limited walks to a 4.9% clip.

Despite his fairly short track record as a professional, he seems to have a diverse and polished arsenal. Per Statcast, he has thrown six different pitches this year: a four-seamer, a sinker, cutter, slider, curveball and splitter. He has thrown all six of those offerings at least 7.4% of the time, and all but the sinker have been thrown at a 13.6% clip or higher. He hasn’t leaned on any individual pitch more than the 28.4% rate of four-seamers, making him difficult to predict.

Perhaps there’s an argument for him using the splitter a bit more, as he has some noticeable platoon splits at the moment. He’s held righties to a dismal line of .203/.242/.355 but lefties have a potent .267/.321/.462 performance against him so far. He has thrown that splitter 23.3% of the time against lefty hitters and allowed only a .161 batting average. However, his four-seamer, curveball and and cutter have each allowed a .308 average or higher while being thrown at least 13.8% of the time.

His slider and sinker are being thrown less than 10% of the time against lefties with solid results. Opponents are hitting .222 against the slider and .214 against the sinker. Schwellenbach has a 33.9% whiff rate when throwing sliders to lefties. Perhaps he could find better results by altering his pitch mix or maybe things will even out with the curveball. Opposing lefties are hitting .308 against it but his xBA is just .239 and his whiff rate is 41.9%.

Given the diversity of his pitch mix and the fact that he’s only getting his feet wet at the big league level, it seems fair to expect that he’ll figure out a way to tamp down on the big splits going forward.

Regardless of how that plays out in the future, he’s already a useful pitcher in the present. Though Atlanta is currently on the outside of the playoff picture, they would undoubtedly be even further back if Schwellenbach hadn’t hit the ground running in the big leagues. Some missteps would have been understandable given that he had limited experience and skipped over Triple-A entirely, but he has more than held his own and helped keep the club in the race this year. Guys like Bryce Elder, Hurston Waldrep, Darius Vines and Allan Winans all struggled in their major league looks this year, so the staff likely would have been in much worse shape if Schwellenbach didn’t take the ball those 19 times.

It’s also a key development for the club in the long term. Max Fried and Charlie Morton are both set for free agency, leaving two holes in next year’s rotation. Fried seems likely to command a nine-figure deal that Atlanta hasn’t given to a free agent before. Morton is about to turn 41 years old and has hinted at thoughts of retirement in recent years.

Without Fried or Morton and with Strider set to miss the start of next year, Atlanta was slated to start 2025 with a rotation core of Sale and López. As mentioned, Sale is having a great year but he’s about to turn 36 and didn’t pitch much from 2020 to 2023. López is also having a strong season but is converting from the bullpen to the rotation and has perhaps hit a bit of a wall, as he’s gone on the IL twice in the second half, with the second stint currently ongoing.

Having Schwellenbach in that rotation picture makes it look much better and he’ll be a huge help from a financial perspective as well. Atlanta has a bunch of significant contracts on the books due to signing a number of extensions in recent years. That gives them a lot of continuity but also less financial wiggle room in the offseasons.

Since Schwellenbach was called up at the end of May, he won’t be able to get a full year of service time in 2024. Per Matt Eddy of Baseball America, Schwellenbach isn’t eligible for the prospect promotion incentive, which means he can’t get a full year of service via Rookie of the Year voting. That means he won’t be arbitration eligible until after 2026 at the earliest, if he earns Super Two status, and can be controlled for six more seasons after this one.

Per RosterResource, the club has a competitive balance tax number of $197MM for next year. They will likely trigger club options on Ozuna ($16MM), Travis d’Arnaud ($8MM) and Aaron Bummer ($7.25MM). Bummer’s option has a $1.25MM buyout and Ozuna’s buyout is $1MM, though d’Arnaud’s has none. That means those three would add $29MM. Arbitration raises will be needed if they want to keep Jarred Kelenic and Ramón Laureano.

The club will be near next year’s $241MM base CBT threshold at the beginning of the offseason. Trading one of Ozuna or Soler could give them some extra wiggle room but they will have some things on the offseason to-do list. Upgrading on Orlando Arcia at shortstop could be part of their plans, and same for Kelenic/Laureano in the outfield. The starting rotation will definitely be a target area this winter but Schwellenbach should give them one fewer slot to fill, which could allow them to be more aggressive in addressing their remaining needs.

Fantasy Baseball: Well, You Lost – Now What?

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Hello, friends.

This is the best and most exciting week of the fantasy season. It's a time for taking the final steps towards a championship, staying laser-focused on every minute decision within your control; whether to eke out one or two more points to pass your final rival in roto (or keep from being passed) or trying to win one final head-to-head matchup.

Or, perhaps it's a time to coast because your in-season dominance has been such that the chances of being caught have approached a literal zero. Ahh, now that's nice -- getting to enjoy the fruits of your labors a week early, taking deep inhales from championship flowers while exhaling some cutting and clever burns on your vanquished league-mates, perhaps referencing their past trash talk that now seems very foolish, in hindsight. "Ha-ha!", you might say. "You said that my fantasy baseball team was going to be very bad but it is, in fact, the best fantasy baseball team. In your face -- ha-ha, HA!".*

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Austin Riley Won’t Return In 2024

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The Braves announced that third baseman Austin Riley won’t return this year, neither in the regular season nor the postseason. A recent CT scan of his fractured hand showed that it hasn’t healed enough to take off his cast. At this point, there’s not enough time for him to heal and return to the club. David O’Brien of The Athletic was among those to relay word from manager Brian Snitker on X.

Riley suffered the injury August 18 when he was hit by a pitch on his hand. The following day, the club announced the fracture and that his timeline to return would be about six to eight weeks. There were only about six weeks left in the regular season at that moment, but there was still some hope of Riley being able to return for the postseason if the club played deep into October.

Unfortunately, his hand and the calendar have conspired against him and he won’t be able to help the club out this year, regardless of how long they stay alive without him. It’s an unfortunate development for Atlanta, as Riley has been one of their best players in recent years. From 2021 to the present, he’s hit 127 home runs and slashed .280/.348/.513 for a wRC+ 132. He scuffled at times in 2024 but still managed to hit 19 homers and slash .256/.322/.461 for a 116 wRC+ before suffering his injury.

This is just the latest in a string of injuries that have hamstrung the club all year. Spencer Strider required UCL surgery in April. Ronald Acuña Jr. suffered a torn ACL in June. Ozzie Albies and Michael Harris II missed significant time due to injuries as well, though both are back now.

Those injuries have played a key role in the club having a disappointing year. Coming into 2024, they were considered one of the top teams in the majors but they are currently fighting for their lives. At 85-71, they are 1.5 games back of the Diamondbacks for the final Wild Card spot in the National League, with the Mets also half a game ahead of the Snakes. Atlanta could still nab a spot, especially since they kick off a three-game set against the Mets tonight, but it’s not where they planned to be.

They will have to try to squeeze in to the playoffs without Riley and then proceed through the postseason without him as well. Gio Urshela was signed to cover for Riley at third and will presumably continue to do so. He has hit .270/.289/.423 for a wRC+ of 95 since joining the squad. Perhaps Whit Merrifield will factor in now that Albies is back at second, though Merrifield is playing through a left foot fracture.

Riley will still be a huge part of the club’s future, as he signed a ten-year, $212MM extension in August of 2022. That deal runs through 2032 and there’s a club option for 2033. Once his hand heals, he will presumably be in line for a fairly normal offseason in preparation for 2025.

Marlins Designate Cristian Pache For Assignment

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3:10pm: The Marlins have now officially announced these moves.

12:14pm: The Marlins are set to reinstate outfielder Dane Myers from the injured list and will designate fellow outfielder Cristian Pache for assignment in order to create roster space, reports Christina De Nicola of MLB.com.

Pache, 25, spent about seven weeks with the Fish after being claimed off waivers out of the Orioles organization in early August. He appeared in 35 games but totaled only 64 plate appearances with a bleak .183/.234/.283 batting line and 32.8% strikeout rate. The former top prospect played his typical brand of premium defense, but his continued offensive struggles and lack of minor league options have made it hard for him to stick on a roster this year. He’s also seen big league action with the Phillies and O’s in 2024, to say nothing of prior looks in Atlanta and Oakland.

Pache has appeared in parts of five big league seasons and tallied 610 trips to the plate over that half-decade run. His career .181/.243/.275 slash is right in line with the numbers he posted in both Philadelphia and Miami this year. Even in his top prospect days, Pache was viewed as a slam-dunk defender in center field but a work in progress at the plate. His offensive development has largely stalled out, but he’s been worth 11 Defensive Runs Saved and 17 Outs Above Average in just over 1500 career innings of defense in the majors. He’ll now head to waivers and potentially land with what would be his sixth organization in the past two calendar years.

The 28-year-old Myers has been sidelined since mid-July with a fractured ankle. He recently wrapped up a minor league rehab assignment during which he went 4-for-12 with a pair of homers in the final few games of the Triple-A season. Myers appeared in 40 games with Miami earlier this season and in 95 plate appearances turned in a sound .265/.337/.422 slash with a pair of homers, five doubles, a triple and four steals (in five attempts). Like Pache, he’s a right-handed hitter who can handle all three outfield positions. Myers doesn’t have the same defensive ability, but he’s a far better hitter than Pache and still has a minor league option remaining beyond the current season.

White Sox Release Chad Kuhl

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September 24: Kuhl has cleared waivers and been released, per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times on X.

September 21: The White Sox announced a series of roster moves this afternoon headlined by the club designating right-hander Chad Kuhl for assignment. Kuhl’s departure from the roster makes room for the return of right-hander Michael Soroka, who Chicago activated from the 15-day injured list and reinstated to the active roster. Right-hander Jordan Leasure was also activated from the IL, but was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte and will not be rejoining the club’s active roster.

Kuhl, 32, signed a minor league deal with the White Sox back in January but did not get the call to the majors until mid-June. He joined the club’s bullpen as a multi-inning relief option and performed fairly well in the role early on, with a 3.69 ERA and 4.08 FIP in 31 2/3 innings of work through the end of July. He moved to a short relief role following the trade deadline, however, and hasn’t acclimated to the new role well with a 7.06 ERA in 21 2/3 innings of work despite fairly solid peripheral numbers during that time, including a 4.14 FIP that was only a few points higher than his successful first half of the year and a strong 26.7% strikeout rate.

Overall, the right-hander has pitched to a lackluster 5.06 ERA that’s 18% worse than league average by measure of ERA+ despite a solid 4.11 FIP. Those lackluster results are more or less par for the course relative to Kuhl’s career, as his career 4.98 ERA and 86 ERA+ aren’t too dissimilar from his production in 2024. Where there’s room for optimism, however, is in his peripherals. That aforementioned 4.11 FIP is actually the best Kuhl has posted in a season since his rookie campaign back in 2016 with the Pirates, while this year’s 22.5% strikeout rate and 44.4% groundball rate are both career-bests for the veteran of 8 big league seasons.

It seems as though the biggest culprit for Kuhl’s struggles this year is his inflated .340 BABIP allowed, a stat that perhaps isn’t surprising given that the White Sox are the worst team in the majors by Defensive Runs Saved and second from the bottom by measure of Outs Above Average. Given those solid peripherals and his experience both starting and pitching in relief, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Kuhl enter free agency this offseason as somewhat attractive depth option for pitching-needy clubs, particularly if he’s once again willing to accept a minor league deal. In the meantime, Chicago will have one week to try and pass Kuhl through waivers, though the right-hander would have the opportunity to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency and he’d still be slated to reach free agency this November even if he accepted the outright.

Replacing Kuhl on the roster is Soroka, who was acquired from the Braves last offseason. Soroka’s 72 1/3 innings of work this year are the most he’s pitched in a season since 2019, when he finished second in NL Rookie of the Year voting and sixth in NL Cy Young award voting with an excellent 2.68 ERA and 3.45 FIP in 29 starts for Atlanta. Unfortunately, injuries have derailed the right-hander ever since, and his return to action this year left much to be desired as he posted a lackluster 5.23 ERA with a 5.41 FIP across 22 appearances, including nine starts. Soroka’s numbers improved after he was moved out of the rotation, however, as he pitched to a 3.45 ERA with a 3.34 FIP in 28 2/3 relief innings thanks to an excellent 36.7% strikeout rate out of the bullpen. Those solid numbers in a relief role were cut short by a shoulder strain just before the All-Star break, but nonetheless offer reason for optimism as the righty heads to free agency for the first time in his career this winter.

Orioles Option Eloy Jiménez, Release Craig Kimbrel

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The Orioles announced that first baseman Ryan Mountcastle has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Designated hitter/outfielder Eloy Jiménez was optioned to Triple-A Norfolk as a corresponding move. Jiménez has more than five years of major league service time and therefore can’t be optioned without his consent, so he presumably has agreed to this move. The club also announced that right-hander Craig Kimbrel, who was designated for assignment last week, has been released.

Jiménez was acquired from the White Sox at the deadline in a buy-low move. From 2019 through 2023, he had hit .275/.324/.487 for the White Sox, with that production translating to a 118 wRC+. Mounting injuries were becoming a growing concern but he had generally hit when on the field.

Here in 2024, the injury-prone label got branded a little deeper. He twice went on the IL in the first couple of months of the season, once due to a left adductor strain and another for a left hamstring strain. His production had also slipped, as he was hitting .240/.297/.345 for an 82 wRC+ when the Orioles traded for him, sending minor league reliever Trey McGough the other way.

The change of scenery hasn’t helped, as Jiménez has hit .232/.270/.316 for a 68 wRC+ since coming to Baltimore. The club had been battling a number of position player injuries in recent weeks but each of Jordan Westburg, Ramón Urías and now Mountcastle have returned to the active roster in the past few days, which has squeezed Jiménez from the roster.

Though he has the right to reject an optional assignment, it’s understandable why he would accept. There’s only a handful of days left in the season and he wouldn’t be postseason eligible with any other club at this point. Rather than look for other opportunities, he will hold his 40-man roster spot with the O’s and hope to be able to contribute in the club’s postseason run at some point. He came into the campaign with exactly five years of service time and already has enough in 2024 to add another full season to that.

His contract has a $16.5MM option for 2025 with a $3MM buyout that the O’s are sure to decline after a rough season from Jiménez. As part of the trade, the White Sox are covering half of that buyout. That will send him to free agency where he will be looking to market himself as a bounceback candidate. It’s obviously been a rough season but he’s still fairly young, turning 28 in November, and has a strong pre-2024 track record.

As for Kimbrel, a release was the expected outcome after he was designated for assignment last week. He wouldn’t have been postseason eligible with any club claiming him off waivers. Even grabbing him for a few regular season games would be costly as his contract has a $1MM buyout on a 2025 club option. That would be on top of the roughly $400K of his $12MM salary that is still to be paid out in the final week of this season.

Given his 5.33 earned run average on the year, no club was going to pay that price. As a veteran with years of service time, he has the right to reject an outright assignment, so the O’s have simply skipped the formalities and let him go.

It will be an interesting offseason for Kimbrel, who is now 36 years old and coming off a rough showing. Some may expect him to call it a career but he has come back from down years before. In both 2019 and 2020, he posted an ERA north of 5.00, but bounced back with a 2.21 ERA in 2021. He then had two more solid seasons before his 2024 struggles. Some clubs may be interested in taking a flier and hoping for another comeback, though he likely won’t be the first choice of club’s with championship aspirations.

Reds Activate Ian Gibaut From Injured List

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The Reds announced that right-hander Ian Gibaut has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Their 40-man roster had a vacancy due to righty Alan Busenitz being designated for assignment in recent days, but it is now full with this move. Right-hander Julian Aguiar has been placed on the 15-day IL, retroactive to September 21, with a right elbow sprain as the corresponding active roster move.

Gibaut, now 30, has missed the entire 2024 major league season thus far. He landed on the 15-day IL to start the year due to a right forearm strain. He was rehabbing in April but was shut down due to renewed discomfort. He was transferred to the 60-day IL in May and it was announced that he had undergone an anterior interosseous nerve (AIN) release procedure. He was able to begin another rehab assignment a few weeks back and has made four minor league appearances this month as part of that assignment.

The righty was a notable part of the club’s pitching staff last year. He made 74 appearances for the Reds in 2024, logging 75 2/3 innings. He allowed 3.33 earned runs in that time, striking out 21.7% of batters faced while issuing walks at an 8.8% clip. He earned 22 holds on the year as well as three saves.

He hasn’t been able to build off that showing here in 2024 but will perhaps be able to make a couple of appearances before the winter comes. He will qualify for arbitration for the first time this winter. His mostly lost season here in 2024 will dampen his ability to raise his salary but he is out of options, so the Reds will have to decide if they are willing to commit to the righty for next year’s club on the heels of this lengthy absence.

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