Mets Designate Matt den Dekker
The Mets have designated outfielder Matt den Dekker for assignment, as Matt Ehalt of The Record was among those to tweet. His roster spot was needed for the just-signed Austin Jackson.
It turned out to be a brief return to the majors with the Mets for den Dekker, who’s nearing his 31st birthday. The former New York draftee (5th round, 2010) had spent the early portion of the season at Triple-A Las Vegas. In 249 plate appearances there, den Dekker posted a .286/.336/.524 slash with 11 homers and six steals.
Reds Designate Kyle Crockett
The Reds have designated southpaw Kyle Crockett, the club announced. That move, along with the optioning of righty Austin Brice, allowed the club to promote southpaw Wandy Peralta and right-hander Keury Mella.
Crockett, 26, had recorded 11 strikeouts while issuing only one walk in his 9 1/3 MLB innings this year. Of course, he was also touched for six earned runs on 16 base knocks. He has seen scattered action over each of the past five MLB campaigns, holding same-handed-hitters to a cumulative .640 OPS but surrendering a .862 mark to opposing righty bats.
Cardinals Designate Tyler Lyons For Assignment
The Cardinals announced that they’ve designated left-handed reliever Tyler Lyons for assignment. St. Louis also formally announced the previously-reported DFA of right-hander Greg Holland and placed Brett Cecil on the 10-day DL with right foot inflammation. Combined with an out-of-the-blue trade of Sam Tuivailala to the Mariners, the series of moves marks a dramatic shuffling of the St. Louis pitching staff.
In a series of corresponding moves, the Cardinals promoted top prospect Dakota Hudson (as had been previously reported) and recalled lefty Tyler Webb and righties Daniel Poncedeleon and Luke Weaver from Triple-A Memphis.
Just a few short months ago, a DFA of Lyons would’ve been unfathomable. The 30-year-old Lyons steadily elevated his status with the Cards from 2015-17, improving his ERA and strikeout rates each season along the way, culminating with a 2017 campaign that saw him pitch 54 innings of 2.83 ERA ball with 11.3 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 0.5 HR/9 and a 41.9 percent grounder rate. Lyons’ swinging-strike rate (10.3 percent) and chase rate (27.4 percent) weren’t as impressive as his K/9 mark might’ve led some to believe, but he nonetheless looked like a legitimate left-handed weapon out of the St. Louis ‘pen.
This season, though, he’s missed time on the disabled list with back and elbow injuries, pitching to a dismal 8.64 ERA through 16 2/3 innings when healthy enough to take the mound. That said, Lyons’ average fastball velocity has hardly plummeted (90 mph in 2017, 89.2 mph in 2018), and he’s still punched out 19 hitters in those 16 2/3 frames — all while maintaining similar swinging-strike and chase rates.
Today’s decision to designate Lyons for assignment, then, registers as a fairly notable surprise. Given that he’ll finish the season with four-plus years of MLB service time and can thus be controlled through the 2020 season before reaching free agency, it’d be even more stunning if Lyons weren’t ultimately traded to another club — or at the very least claimed off outright waivers. He’s earning just $1.2MM this season and, given his recent success in the Majors, should draw interest from both contending clubs and non-contending teams alike.
Mariners Acquire Sam Tuivailala From Cardinals
The Mariners have acquired right-handed reliever Sam Tuivailala from the Cardinals in exchange for minor league right-hander Seth Elledge, the teams announced Friday. Elledge has been assigned to Double-A Springfield.
“Sam is in the midst of his second consecutive solid big league season, and has pitched in parts of four Major League seasons but has barely two years of service time,” Mariners general manager Jerry Dipoto said in a press release announcing the move. “We view this as a move for our present and our future.”
It’s another somewhat creative and unexpected trade for a Mariners club that has made a habit of identifying atypical trade candidates in recent seasons in spite of a poor farm system. In Tuivailala, Seattle is adding a 25-year-old righty who is in the midst of a solid season and can be controlled through the 2022 campaign.
Tuivailala, who won’t be eligible for arbitration until after the 2019 season, has spent his entire career in the Cardials organization since being selected in the third round of the 2010 draft. Dating back to Opening Day 2017, he’s stepped up and established himself as a useful contributor at the MLB level, tossing 74 innings of 3.04 ERA ball with 7.3 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 0.85 HR/9 and a 48.4 percent ground-ball rate. He’s averaged 95.3 mph on his fastball over the past two seasons and made positive gains in both swinging-strike rate (from 9.5 percent to 10.1 percent) and chase rate (from 27.9 percent to 29.2 percent) so far in 2018.
While much has been made of the Mariners’ pursuit of rotation help, they’ve also been linked to bullpen upgrades, and Dipoto and his staff have previously prioritized acquiring longer-term assets when trading their own young talent away (e.g. Ryon Healy, James Pazos, Ben Gamel, Mitch Haniger). Tuivailala adds to that trend and gives recently extended manager Scott Servais another option late in games to help bridge the gap from the rotation to All-Star closer Edwin Diaz.
For the Cardinals, the trade of Tuivailala comes as a surprise component to an otherwise highly anticipated shuffling of the team’s pitching staff. President of baseball ops John Mozeliak recently indicated that changes were coming to his roster, specifically as pertains to the ‘pen, though given Tuivailala’s remaining club control and general success over the past two seasons, few could’ve reasonably expected him to be a part of the machinations.
That said, in prying Elledge away from the Mariners, the Cards will pick up an intriguing relief prospect who seemingly has more upside than Tuivailala carries. Seattle selected Elledge in the fourth round of last season’s draft, and he’s absolutely torn through Class-A Advanced with the Mariners, working to a 1.17 ERA with 12.7 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 0.23 HR/9 and a 50 percent ground-ball rate.
Elledge has been virtually untouchable to Class-A Advanced batters, yielding just 18 hits in 38 1/3 innings of work. Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com ranked Elledge 10th among Seattle farmhands on yesterday’s midseason update of each team’s Top 30 lists. The MLB.com duo writes that he sits 93-95 mph with a fastball that features “heavy sink” and is complemented by a slider and changeup — both of which have the potential to be average offerings.
Aaron Judge Out At Least Three Weeks With Chip Fracture In Wrist
July 27: The Yankees announced that Judge has been placed on the 10-day disabled list. Infielder Tyler Wade is up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take his spot on the roster for the time being. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal first reported (via Twitter) that Wade would be recalled.
July 26: The Yankees announced after tonight’s game that an MRI revealed a chip fracture in Aaron Judge‘s right wrist — specifically, in the ulnar styloid bone. He’ll head to the disabled list and won’t be able to swing a bat for an estimated three weeks, though he won’t require surgery. Judge sustained the injury when he was hit on the wrist by an errant fastball from Royals righty Jakob Junis.
Obviously, the significance of any absence for Judge can’t be undersold when the Yankees are just four and a half games back from the Red Sox for the division lead in the American League East, though surely the Yankees are breathing at least a mild sigh of relief. Given the proximity of the fracture to Judge’s hamate bone, the 2017 AL MVP runner up could’ve faced a considerably more significant stay on the disabled list and surgical repair if the pitch had caused a hamate fracture.
That said, Judge is in the midst of yet another brilliant season, hitting .285/.398/.548 with 26 home runs. He’s leading the team in that category as well as on-base percentage, slugging percentage and RBIs, among other offensive categories. With Judge on the shelf, the Yankees will presumably deploy Giancarlo Stanton as the primary right fielder, with Brett Gardner in left and Aaron Hicks in center field.
Were Judge in line for a lengthier absence, it’d be conceivable that Yankees GM Brian Cashman would be motivated to add a bat to replace the lost production. But with Judge apparently likely to return by mid-August, it’s unlikely that the injury will prompt a significant move; even after Judge had sustained his injury, for instance, Fancred’s Jon Heyman tweeted that while the Yankees have considered Mike Moustakas previously, they still believe his asking price to be too high. Furthermore, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that he suspects the Yankees will stick with internal options rather than pursuing even stopgap options on the trade market (e.g. Cameron Maybin, Jose Bautista).
White Sox Designate Chris Volstad For Assignment
The White Sox announced Friday that they’ve designated right-hander Chris Volstad for assignment. His spot on the 25- and 40-man rosters will go to right-hander Tyler Danish, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Charlotte. The ChiSox also called up right-handed reliever Thyago Vieira from Charlotte to join the big league bullpen.
Volstad, 31, has soaked up 47 1/3 innings for an ugly Chicago pitching staff so far in 2018, though he’s posted an ungainly 6.27 ERA with 5.5 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9 in that time. Those 47 1/3 frames are the most he’s totaled in a big league season since 2012; in fact, it’s a greater total than the combined number of MLB innings Volstad threw from 2013-17. The Sox have a week to trade him or run him through outright waivers, and it stands to reason that there’s a good chance he’ll clear and have the opportunity to remain in the organization at Triple-A.
Danish, 23, was one of Chicago’s better pitching prospects for a few years but cleared waivers and was removed from the 40-man roster last offseason. He’s had a nice run in Charlotte this season, though, notching a 3.06 ERA with 6.4 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a 51.1 percent ground-ball rate in 64 2/3 innings of work. All but two of Danish’s 29 appearances have come in relief, so it seems the organization will see how the former starter fares out of the bullpen moving forward.
As for Vieira, the 25-year-old flamethrower has had his struggles in Charlotte this year — his first in the organization. Chicago picked him up in a trade that sent international bonus considerations to the Mariners this past offseason, and while he’s averaged a heart 11 strikeouts per nine innings pitched in 2018, he’s also averaged 5.3 walks in that same span. Vieira averaged 98.7 mph on his fastball in last year’s brief MLB debut with the Mariners, and he’ll bring the ability to miss plenty of bats to the table on the South Side, even if control could prove to be an ongoing issue.
Latest On Asdrubal Cabrera, Zack Wheeler
12:03pm: Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets that the Mets and Brewers have discussed a package deal that would send both players to Milwaukee, though there’s no indication that anything is close to being completed. The D-backs are indeed in the mix for Cabrera, he adds.
9:05am: Teams who’ve spoken to the Mets about the availability of Asdrubal Cabrera have gotten the impression that he’ll be traded soon, reports Andy Martino of SNY.tv. While “soon” is a relative term, especially with the non-waiver trade deadline just four days away, Martino adds that the Mets then plan to shift their “full attention” to finding a trade partner for Zack Wheeler. Presumably, they’ll want to leave themselves ample room to discuss that swap, so it stands to reason that they’d hope to wrap up a Cabrera swap in short order.
ESPN’s Buster Olney tweeted yesterday that the Diamondbacks have “checked in” on Cabrera as they seek to bolster their own infield mix. Joel Sherman of the New York Post adds the Indians and the Phillies to the fray, though he notes that Philadelphia’s interest would be stronger were Cabrera still viewed as a capable shortstop. Fancred’s Jon Heyman tweets that the Braves and Brewers, too, may be in the market. While a number of teams have inquired to some extent, the Post’s Mike Puma surmised yesterday that there are three or four teams with legitimate interest in Cabrera (Twitter link). As for Wheeler, he’s generating interest from the Brewers and Reds, per Martino. The Cubs had shown interest, though yesterday’s agreement to acquire Cole Hamels would quite likely put an end to that pursuit.
While the Mets have had just about everything possible go wrong for them over the past couple of seasons, their signing of Cabrera in the 2015-16 offseason has proven to be an excellent one. He’s earning $8.5MM in the third year of what proved to be a $25MM contract (after his 2018 option was exercised) and is hitting .277/.329/.488 with 18 homers, 23 doubles and a triple. Cabrera, though, has received dreadful defensive ratings for his work at second base (-18 Defensive Runs Saved, -6 Ultimate Zone Rating), which won’t do his trade value any favors.
As for Wheeler, he’ll obviously have the greater value of the pair, given his affordable salary, the fact that he’s controlled through 2019, his recent success and the plethora of teams seeking to bolster their rotation in the coming days. Over his past 10 starts, Wheeler has worked to a 3.50 ERA (3.40 FIP, 4.17 xFIP) with 7.8 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and 0.56 HR/9 with a 40.2 percent ground-ball rate. His fastball has averaged 96.4 mph in that span, and he’s posted a strong 11.3 percent swinging-strike rate. Puma noted yesterday that as many as 10 teams have displayed some level of interest.
Cardinals To Designate Greg Holland For Assignment, Promote Dakota Hudson
11:28am: Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets that Holland will be designated for assignment — not released. That may well be a moot point, as the DFA will merely give the Cardinals a week (it had been 10 days prior to the new version of the CBA) to either trade Holland or place him on outright or release waivers. Holland would be able to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency anyhow, so if the Cards aren’t able to find a taker on the trade market — which would assuredly require them to eat the vast majority of Holland’s remaining $4.89MM salary — then it seems he’ll hit the open market regardless.
11:17am: The Cardinals are expected to release right-hander Greg Holland today, reports Jon Morosi of MLB.com (Twitter links). His roster spot will go to pitching prospect Dakota Hudson, who is set to have his contract selected from Triple-A Memphis, per Morosi.
That report certainly meshes with some recent comments made by president of baseball operations on the Bernie Miklasz Show on ESPN 101, in which Mozeliak said to “expect changes” to the club’s bullpen in the near future (Twitter link). The Athletic’s Mark Saxon recently speculated that Holland would be cut loose and that Hudson would be brought up to the big league roster (Twitter link).
The Cardinals’ decision to sign Holland to a last-minute, one-year contract with a $14MM guarantee on Opening Day proved to be a catastrophic misstep for the club. Not only did St. Louis surrender a valuable selection in the 2018 draft to do so, but the Cardinals received nothing in the way of on-field value from the 2017 National League saves leader.
Holland missed all of Spring Training while waiting to find a deal he and agent Scott Boras dubbed suitable, and the Cardinals made the eyebrow-raising decision to bring him to the Majors after just two minor league appearances. Holland struggled immediately, walking four batters in his Cardinals debut on April 9. Those struggles were the first of many in 2018 for Holland, whose Cardinals tenure will come to a close with a 7.92 ERA, 22 strikeouts and 22 walks over the life of 25 innings.
As for his replacement on the roster, Hudson will come to the Cardinals having drawn considerable fanfare since being selected with the 34th overall pick in the 2016 draft. He ranked as the Cardinals’ No. 4 prospect on this week’s updated Top 30 rankings from Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com, and while he falls outside that duo’s Top 100 overall prospects, Hudson is still viewed as a potential mid-rotation arm. The 23-year-old has pitched to a 2.50 ERA with 7.0 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a hefty 57.7 percent ground-ball rate through 111 2/3 innings in Triple-A Memphis this season.
Though Hudson is being promoted to replace a reliever, it seems quite likely that the organization will deploy him as a starter. Saxon speculated before that John Gant and/or Austin Gomber could be moved to the bullpen, with Hudson stepping into a starting spot and giving the Cards a couple of months to evaluate his future. Callis and Mayo note that while Hudson has four average or better offerings, led by his fastball and his slider, he still doesn’t miss many bats. His fastball/slider combo is strong enough, though, that he could work in relief even if he doesn’t pan out as a starter, per their report.
Cubs Acquire Cole Hamels
Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish are teammates once again, as the Cubs and Rangers announced a Friday morning trade sending Hamels from Texas to Chicago. The Rangers will send cash to Chicago as part of the deal and will receive right-hander Eddie Butler, right-handed pitching prospect Rollie Lacy and a player to be named later in return. The Cubs will reportedly take on $5MM of the $13.86MM still owed to Hamels ($7.86MM of his $22.5MM salary plus at least a $6MM buyout on next season’s $20MM club option).
The 34-year-old Hamels isn’t the ace that he once was, and he’s had his share of struggles in 2018 — albeit nearly all of them coming at his homer-happy home stadium in Arlington. Hamels is surrendering home runs at a career-worst rate, but it’s somewhat telling that 16 of the 23 round-trippers he’s yielded have come at Globe Life Park. Hamels has a 6.41 ERA, a 6.16 FIP and a 4.49 xFIP when pitching at home this season but a 2.93 ERA, 4.17 FIP and 3.83 xFIP on the road.
Early in the season, there was some concern over a decline in Hamels’ velocity, but he’s regained nearly all of the lost zip on his heater — an encouraging sign for he Cubs, who’ll hope that a move to the National League and a more pitcher-friendly stadium will improve Hamels’ results. Starting pitching wasn’t supposed to be a significant concern for Chicago after spending a combined $164MM to sign right-handers Yu Darvish and Tyler Chatwood this offseason. Unfortunately for Theo Epstein & Co., Darvish has been hampered by triceps injuries throughout the season, while Chatwood has alarmingly walked more hitters than any pitcher in baseball.
It’s not clear exactly how Hamels will fit into the Chicago rotation, but he’ll surely be guaranteed a starting job. Mike Montgomery has stepped up beautifully with Darvish on the disabled list and may very well have forced Chicago’s hand in keeping him in the rotation. Then again, Montgomery has also been effective as a reliever and could help to strengthen the bullpen if it’s him, not Chatwood, who is dropped to a relief role. Alternatively, the Cubs could simply look to deploy a six-man rotation consisting of Jon Lester, Jose Quintana, Kyle Hendricks, Hamels, Montgomery and Chatwood — though they’d certainly need to shuffle that arrangement when Darvish returns from the disabled list.
The Cubs currently sit about $14MM south of the $197MM luxury tax threshold, so there’s still room for the team to add even after acquiring Hamels — especially if it proves accurate that Chicago is only taking on about $4MM of salary in the deal. Chicago already added right-hander Jesse Chavez to its bullpen in a separate swap with the Rangers, but they were also linked to bigger-name relief targets in recent days, including Zach Britton and Jeurys Familia. Each, of course, has since been traded elsewhere, though it stands to reason that the Cubs will continue to monitor the market for bullpen help now that they’ve fortified their rotation a bit.
It’s not yet clear how the Rangers will utilize Butler, who has worked as both a starter and reliever in recent seasons. Texas will need to replace Hamels in the rotation, of course, though Butler’s ability to pitch multiple innings could also make him a natural candidate to step into the long relief role that was vacated when Chavez was traded to Chicago last week.
The 27-year-old Butler once rated as one of the game’s best pitching prospects during his days as a minor leaguer with the Rockies, but he never fully realized that potential. He’s shown potential at times in the Majors but owns a lifetime 5.71 ERA with 5.2 K/9, 4.1 BB/9, 1.28 HR/9 and a 48.4 percent ground-ball rate. Butler is not yet arbitration-eligible and can be controlled through the 2022 season if the Rangers wish, though he’ll likely be arb-eligible as a Super Two player for the first time this offseason. Of course, considering his minimal track record and the fact that he’s spent the vast majority of the 2018 season on the disabled list due to a groin strain, Butler won’t command much of a salary in arbitration just yet.
Lacy, meanwhile, didn’t rank among the top 30 prospects in a thin Chicago farm system on today’s updated Top 30 rankings from Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com. That said, he’s in the midst of a terrific season in the minors so far and has performed similarly well since being selected in the 11th round of the 2017 draft.
Lacy has pitched to identical 2.45 ERAs in both 2017 and so far in 2018, and he was recently moved from the Class-A Midwest League to the Class-A Advanced Florida State League. In a total of 80 2/3 innings this year, he’s averaged 10.5 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 with a ground-ball rate north of 60 percent. The 23-year-old Creighton product is only just now starting to face older competition, but his results to date are certainly encouraging.
Ultimately, the trade for the Rangers looks to have been more about cost savings than anything else. Lacy has shown some promise in the minors, and Butler gives them a lottery ticket who the Rangers hope can emerge as a viable big league arm, while the PTBNL could yet prove to be interesting as well. But at present, the likeliest outcome is that the money saved in this trade will represent the most valuable component of the swap for Texas.
Joel Sherman of the New York Post first made a strong connection between the Cubs and Hamels. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reported (via Twitter) that an agreement had been reached. The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney first noted that Lacy had been scratched from his start, and Yahoo’s Jeff Passan reported more definitively that Lacy and a PTBNL were in the deal (Twitter link). Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweeted that the Rangers would receive a second pitcher who is “not a prospect” (which proved to be Butler). Fancred’s Jon Heyman reported (on Twitter) that the Cubs would take on $5MM of the remaining money owed to Hamels.
Twins’ Ryan Pressly Drawing Significant Trade Interest
“Virtually every contender” has reached out to the Twins to inquire about the availability of reliever Ryan Pressly, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). The strong levels of interest have compelled the Twins to “at least listen” to offers on Pressly, who is controlled through the 2019 season.
Pressly, 29, is in the midst of his best season in the Majors to date. The former Rule 5 pick (out of the Red Sox organization in 2012) has seen his velocity trend upward in recent years, and he’s averaging 95.8 mph on his heater with a ridiculous 13.0 K/9 mark against 3.6 BB/9 through 47 2/3 innings this season. His 18 percent swinging-strike rate ranks fifth among qualified relievers. Pressly also has an above-average 47.9 percent ground-ball rate, and though his 3.40 ERA is plenty solid, fielding-independent metrics are even more bullish; FIP pegs Pressly at 2.95, while xFIP has him at 2.86 and his SIERA sits at 2.72.
Rosenthal notes that Pressly has the second-highest spin rate in the Majors — a nod to Pressly’s curveball, which does indeed check in second behind only Garrett Richards in terms of its spin, per Statcast (min. 100 curves thrown). It’s also worth noting that Pressly’s four-seamer has the seventh-highest spin rate, and his slider ranks 16th in that regard (again, min. 100 of each pitch type thrown).
Pressly is earning just $1.6MM in 2018 and would be controlled for one more season via the arbitration process. As Jake Kaplan of The Athletic points out (also on Twitter), Pressly fits the Astros’ preferred template of a high-spin four-seamer and curveball, though surely that skill set holds a fairly broad level of appeal throughout the Majors.
Robust as the interest in Pressly may be, it’s not yet clear whether the Twins have any intent to move pieces that are controlled beyond the 2018 season. The American League Central is still generally looks weak, and while the current season hasn’t played out as Minnesota had hoped, the team has a number of quality young pieces locked up into 2019 and beyond. The New York Post’s Joel Sherman recently reported with regard to Kyle Gibson, who is also controlled through ’19, that the Twins have “fielded inquiries” but are more open to moving impending free agents.
At present, the Twins are seven games back in the American League Central, though they’ve won four in a row. Their final four games before Tuesday’s deadline come against some of the best competition in the AL, with three games remaining in their current series in Boston plus a Monday tilt against the division-leading Indians. If Minnesota can pull within another game or two before Tuesday afternoon, perhaps it’ll hang onto most of its trade assets, though the team could choose to operate in a variety of ways. GM Thad Levine told 1500 ESPN’s Darren Wolfson earlier this month that his team could also look to add some pieces that are controlled into 2019 as a means of doing some offseason shopping in advance.