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Keynan Middleton Headed To DL With UCL Damage

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Angels reliever Keynan Middleton is going on the 10-day DL after being diagnosed with damage to his ulnar collateral ligament, as MLB.com’s Maria Guardado was among those to report (Twitter links). He is headed for a second opinion.

Clearly, that’s unwelcome news for the 24-year-old righty. It’s not known at this point just how severe the damage is; it seems team and player are looking to gather information before deciding upon a course of treatment. In the most serious cases, of course, UCL injuries require extensive surgery (most famously, the Tommy John procedure) that comes with upwards of a year of rehab.

As things stand, then, we simply don’t know how long Middleton will be sidelined. Given that there’s a problem with the ligament, though, even the most optimistic scenario will involve a fairly lengthy DL stint. And the risk of the rest-and-rehab — which is sometimes accompanied by stem cell and/or platelet-rich plasma treatment — is that the player may end up delaying his procedure and thus also his ultimate point of return.

Given the stakes, the Angels and Middleton will understandably weigh the decision carefully. He had become firmly ensconced in the team’s bullpen hierarchy, even locking up six saves this year for the Halos. Even losing a few months of work from Middleton will increase the pressure on other arms in the Los Angeles pen.

Today’s news comes after Middleton had turned in 17 2/3 innings of 2.04 ERA pitching to open the season. Of course, there were already some signs of concern. Middleton was doling out a few too many free passes (4.6 per nine) and had seen his swinging-strike rate plummet from an eye-opening 16.6% in 2017 down to 9.5% to begin the current year.

While the Angels are no doubt aware that the young hurler still has a ways to go to prove he’s a reliable late-inning force, the team surely would have preferred to continue giving him that opportunity. Now, the Halos’ roster’s already-unimposing high-leverage mix appears all the more in need of buttressing at the trade deadline. With the club off to a strong start but facing a tough year-long fight for the postseason, it would not be surprising at all to see GM Billy Eppler focus on adding arms this summer.

 

Padres Promote Franmil Reyes

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TODAY: The move is now official. Asuaje will be the player who’s sent out. The 26-year-old has struggled to a .198/.263/.292 slash in 118 plate appearances.

YESTERDAY: The Padres will promote outfielder Franmil Reyes prior to Monday’s game against the Rockies, James E. Clark of the East Village Times reports.  The corresponding move isn’t yet known, though San Diego has an open 40-man spot after Chase Headley was designated for assignment on Saturday.

Originally signed out of the Dominican Republic in 2011, the 22-year-old Reyes was something of an unheralded prospect entering the season, as he wasn’t ranked by either Baseball America or MLB.com as one of the top 30 minor leaguers in the Padres’ system despite solid numbers at the high-A and Double-A levels in 2016-17.  (Granted, the Padres’ farm system is particularly deep in quality prospects.)  In his first exposure to Triple-A pitching, however, Reyes has taken the Pacific Coast League by storm, entering today’s action with an astounding .346/.440/.748 slash line and 14 home runs over 150 plate appearances.

Reyes hit 16 homers at high-A ball in 2016 and 25 homers at Double-A last season, though his latest power surge is as eye-popping as it gets, even with the caveat that the PCL is a very hitter-friendly league.  Given that the Padres are lacking both home run pop and hitting in general, it makes that the team would ride the hot hand and see what Reyes can provide at the big league level.

It remains to be seen who will leave the roster to make room for Reyes, though the obvious candidate seems to be Matt Szczur, who has only 47 PA this season and is also a right-handed hitting outfielder.  Szczur is out of options, however, so if the Padres don’t want to expose him to waivers, Carlos Asuaje or perhaps a reliever could be candidates.  San Diego’s outfield situation could be further crowded by the return of Hunter Renfroe, who is working his way back from an elbow injury, though Renfroe has yet to begin a rehab assignment and could receive some extended time the minors anyway to get his own hitting on track.

Jason Castro Out Four To Six Weeks Following Knee Surgery

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Twins catcher Jason Castro, already on the disabled list due to a tear in his right meniscus, will undergo surgery and miss another four to six weeks of action, manager Paul Molitor tells reporters (Twitter links via Brandon Warne of ZoneCoverage.com). He’ll undergo surgery tomorrow to have part of his meniscus removed.

The 30-year-old Castro hasn’t looked right at the plate this season, hitting just .143/.257/.238 leading up to last week’s placement on the disabled list. While he was hardly an offensive force for Minnesota last season, he still slashed .242/.333/.388 with 10 homers — production that was slightly above-average relative to other catchers throughout the league and a bit below the overall league average for big league hitters (by measure of wRC+). He’s earning $8MM in 2018 — the second season of a three-year, $24.5MM deal that’ll pay him $8MM once again in 2019.

With Castro on the shelf for the foreseeable future, rookie Mitch Garver should continue on as the Twins’ primary receiver behind the dish. Minnesota selected the contract of veteran Bobby Wilson last week at the time of Castro’s initial injury, but he’s likely to remain in a backup role. Garver, 27, ranked among the Twins’ top 20 prospects in 2017 before debuting late in the year. He’s hitting .250/.311/.411 with a pair of homers through 61 plate appearances so far in 2018.

Tigers Place Jeimer Candelario On DL, Recall Dawel Lugo

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The Tigers have placed third baseman Jeimer Candelario on the 10-day disabled list, reports Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter links). Candelario had previously undergone an MRI on his left wrist, though that exam reportedly came back clear of any structural damage. Rather, he’s been placed on the DL due to tendinitis in that ailing left wrist, per Jason Beck of MLB.com (on Twitter).

It would appear that prospect Dawel Lugo, the centerpiece of last July’s J.D. Martinez trade, has been recalled from Triple-A Toledo to take his spot on the active roster, as Fenech adds that Lugo’s name is on the lineup card.

[Related: Detroit Tigers depth chart]

Candelario, 24, has been one of the bright spots for the rebuilding Tigers in 2018. Acquired in last summer’s trade that sent Justin Wilson and Alex Avila to the Cubs, the switch-hitting third baseman is hitting .272/.359/.497 with five homers, 12 doubles and three triples through 167 plate appearances as Detroit’s everyday third baseman.

Lugo, 23, was acquired alongside Sergio Alcantara and Jose King from the Diamondbacks in exchange for the final couple months of control over Martinez. It was viewed as a largely underwhelming return for one of the game’s top sluggers, even if he was a rental, and Lugo’s play in Toledo thus far hasn’t exactly dispelled that notion. While he’s hitting .284 on the season, that solid average comes with just a .287 on-base percentage and a .369 slugging percentage. Lugo has walked just once in 143 plate appearances against 20 strikeouts, and he’s collected just nine extra-base hits — one homer, one triple and seven doubles.

Entering the season, MLB.com ranked Lugo 12th among Tigers farmhands, noting that the organization’s hope is that Lugo could be an everyday second baseman but adding that he may settle in as a bat-first utility option. Lugo has played lined up primarily at second base this season, but he has more than 1700 innings of action at the hot corner in his minor league career, so he could certainly step in at the hot corner in place of Candelario while he is sidelined.

Minor MLB Transactions: 5/14/18

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Here are Monday’s minor moves from around the league…

  • The Padres announced over the weekend that righty Michael Mariot was released from their Triple-A club. The former Royals and Phillies reliever has 49 2/3 innings of work under his belt in the Majors, all coming from 2014-16, though he’s struggled to an ERA just south of 6.00 in that time. The 29-year-old has never had much trouble missing bats in the minors since moving from a starting role to the ’pen, but he’s off to a dismal start in 2018 with a 12.15 ERA in 13 1/3 innings of work. Mariot did punch out 14 hitters with Triple-A El Paso, but he also walked seven, hit a batter and surrendered a whopping five homers in his 13 1/3 innings. Overall, he owns a 3.80 ERA with 9.5 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 in 253 1/3 Triple-A innings.
  • Right-handed reliever Ben Rowen was released from the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate, per Baseball America’s Matt Eddy.The 29-year-old Rowen has just 11 2/3 MLB innings under his belt (none since 2016), but the sidearmer has a lengthy track record of success in Triple-A. He allowed 11 runs in 10 2/3 innings to open the 2018 season, however, and his ground-ball rate, which has previously been well north of 60 percent, was just 41.9 percent so far this season. Rowen entered 2018 with a career 2.81 ERA with 6.9 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 in parts of five Triple-A campaigns, so perhaps he’ll garner interest elsewhere.
  • The Athletics signed left-handed reliever Dean Kiekhefer, per Eddy. He’d recently been released by Cincinnati. The 28-year-old tossed 22 innings at the big league level with the Cardinals in 2016, working to a 5.32 ERA with 14 strikeouts against seven walks (four intentional) and two hit batters in that brief time. Kiekhefer landed with the Mariners via waivers in the 2016-17 offseason but was outrighted off their 40-man roster shortly thereafter. Last year, he logged a 4.47 ERA with 8.5 K/9, 3.9 BB/9, 0.61 HR/9 and a 46 percent grounder rate in Triple-A. He opened the season with eight innings of one-run ball in the Cincinnati organization, albeit at the Double-A level.
  • Southpaw James Russell was released by the Tigers, Eddy reports. The 32-year-old Russell, a fixture in the Cubs’ bullpen for six seasons, hasn’t appeared in the Majors since an unsuccessful 2016 stint with the Phillies. He spent the 2017 season pitching in the Mexican League, where he performed quite well, but tossed just three innings and allowed five runs with the Tigers’ top affiliate in 2018 before his release.

Yankees Activate Brandon Drury From DL, Option Him To Triple-A

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The Yankees announced on Monday that they’ve reinstated infielder Brandon Drury from the 10-day disabled list and optioned him to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. The move means that for the time being, New York will continue to rely upon Miguel Andujar, Gleyber Torres, Tyler Austin, Neil Walker and Ronald Torreyes around the infield, with Drury somewhat surprisingly waiting in the wings at Triple-A on the heels of a very productive minor league rehab assignment.

Drury hit the disabled list last month due to ongoing migraine issues and blurred vision. He’s reportedly tried out wearing some yellow-tinted glasses during rehab games in an effort to aid his vision, and while it may have been mere coincidence, the results from his recent stretch of 11 games with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre were impressive; in 42 plate appearances, he hit .343/.452/.514 with a homer and three doubles.

[Related: Updated New York Yankees depth chart]

However, Drury’s placement on the DL opened the door for some younger prospects to make their debuts, and during his absence, Walker’s bat began to show signs of life. The veteran Walker is hitting .346/.514/.462 in 35 plate appearances this month and has provided the Yankees with some key hits, while Andujar and Torres have shown varying degrees of promise. In the case of Torres, he’s hitting .319/.360/.493 with three homers through his first 76 big league plate appearances and hasn’t done much of anything to give the Yankees cause to send him back down to the minors.

It’s more arguable that Andujar has shown some cracks at the big league level and could yet be in need of refinement. While he’s hitting .282 with a .458 slugging percentage, Andujar has drawn just three walks in 135 plate appearances, resulting in a paltry .296 on-base percentage. While he’s not striking out much, his .337 average on balls in play is considerably higher than the league norm of .295. If that BABIP regresses at all, then he could very well see his OBP fall into the .280 range. For the time being, he’s hit in six straight games (8-for-25), though all of his hits in that time have been singles.

The Yankees could’ve created a temporary solution by sending Austin to Triple-A, but the 26-year-old has slugged five homers in 89 plate appearances despite hitting just .222 with a .292 on-base percentage. Austin seems likely to be a roster casualty when Greg Bird is ready to be activated from the disabled list anyhow.

Whether due to an injury somewhere around the big league infield or a slump from Andujar, it still seems reasonable to expect that Drury will be back with the Yankees at some point in the relatively near future.

Mariners Select Contract Of Gordon Beckham, Place Robinson Cano On DL

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The Mariners announced that they’ve placed second baseman Robinson Cano on the 10-day disabled list due to a fractured fifth metacarpal in his right hand and selected the contract of infielder Gordon Beckham from Triple-A Tacoma.

There’s still no word on precisely how long the Mariners expect Cano to miss, as he’s slated to meet with a hand specialist in Philadelphia tomorrow. Once that evaluation takes place, the Mariners will likely have another update, though it seems reasonable to expect that Cano will miss at least several weeks as his throwing hand mends after he was hit by a pitch in yesterday’s game against the Tigers.

[Related: Updated Seattle Mariners depth chart]

The loss of Cano, obviously, is a significant blow for a Mariners club that is right in the thick of both the AL West race (2.5 games behind the Astros) and the American League Wild Card picture (1.5 games back of a Wild Card spot). While Cano’s performance in Seattle hasn’t drawn the national fanfare that it did during his New York days, he’s been every bit as productive a player as he was with the Yankees. In nine seasons with the Yanks, Cano hit .309/.355/.504 (126 OPS+), and he’s roughly matched that with a .294/.353/.471 slash (128 OPS+) in a considerably more pitcher-friendly setting at Safeco Field.

Certainly, the veteran Beckham won’t be expected to replicate that level of production or anything close to it. But he’s off to a .300/.412/.500 start to the season through 114 plate appearances with Triple-A Tacoma and will be asked to assume some of the playing time for Cano along with utilitymen Andrew Romine and Taylor Motter. Manager Scott Servais told reporters yesterday that it wasn’t likely that Dee Gordon would be moved out of center field back to second base (Twitter link via Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times).

West Notes: Ohtani, Mariners, Desmond, Reynolds, Dodgers

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Though the Angels elected not to use Shohei Ohtani as a pinch-hitter late in Saturday night’s game due to the fact that he was slated to start on Sunday, manager Mike Scioscia suggested yesterday that the team could eventually work to get Ohtani’s bat into the game more often (via Jeff Miller of the L.A. Times). Scioscia called the team’s template for using Ohtani “conservative” but added that the Angels could eventually loosen some constraints on the two-way star’s usage. Scioscia also acknowledged that the team has even considered forgoing the designated hitter on days when Ohtani pitches in American League stadiums, though as Miller notes, that could present problems for a team with a thin bench. “It would take an extreme, you know, something you might consider in September, if it was something that was really critical and you needed his bat in the lineup,” said the manager.

More from the game’s Western divisions…

  • While the loss of Robinson Cano due to a broken hand is a significant blow, the bullpen may be the Mariners’ primary focus when searching for upgrades, writes Bob Dutton for KLAY 1180 AM. Cano figures to be back this summer, and while the rotation has hardly been effective, it’s more difficult to add high-end starting pitching upgrades around the deadline than it is to add relief arms, Dutton notes. Seattle would be hard-pressed to outbid other teams for a top-of-the-rotation arm, and club officials have acknowledged to Dutton that targeting relief help is a likelier course of action. Juan Nicasio has completely melted down over his past couple appearances after a dominant start to the season, while Nick Vincent hasn’t been as effective as he has in recent seasons, either.
  • Ian Desmond’s struggles have become a glaring problem for the Rockies, writes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. However, manager Bud Black and the Colorado front office still believe the veteran will turn things around despite his .170/.213/.355 slash this season and his unsightly .244/.294/.369 line since coming to the Rockies in the 2016-17 offseason. Desmond’s problems are all the more concerning given the struggles of Ryan McMahon earlier this season, leaving the Rox with little in the way of in-house options. Saunders notes that talks between the Rockies and Mark Reynolds never really took off, though he suggests that if Reynolds loses his roster spot in Washington once Ryan Zimmerman returns, the two sides could again explore a fit. However, Saunders also hears from those within the organization that the team wouldn’t relegate Desmond to the bench in favor of Reynolds, which could make a return to Denver a tough sell.
  • Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic spoke to Dave Roberts, Kenley Jansen, Chris Taylor and others about the Dodgers’ early struggles (subscription link). While the losses of Corey Seager, Justin Turner, Clayton Kershaw and Hyun-Jun Ryu have hurt the club immensely, Rosenthal also contends that the Dodgers’ approach this offseason didn’t do the team any favors. The Dodgers were known to be avoiding the luxury tax threshold — an important factor as they prepare for next offseason’s impressive free-agent class — and thus sought bargain options to replace quality contributors such as Brandon Morrow and Tony Watson (namely, signing Tom Koehler and acquiring Scott Alexander). Of course, it’s worth pointing out that Morrow and Watson were low-cost acquisitions themselves, and Rosenthal notes that the current front office has had success in building bullpens on the fly in the past. With Turner nearing a return and Kershaw expected to be out for weeks, rather than months (per Rosenthal), there’s help on the horizon, however, at a time when the division-leading D-backs are struggling with some of their own injury losses.

U.S. Supreme Court Reverses Federal Ban On Sports Betting

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The United States Supreme Court on Monday voted 7-2 in favor of reversing the federal ban on sports betting (link via Robert Barnes of the Washington Post). States legislatures will now be free to set their own laws as pertaining to betting on professional and college sporting events. Full details of the ruling are available at the Supreme Court’s web site. From the ruling, as set forth by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.:

The legalization of sports gambling is a controversial subject. Supporters argue that legalization will produce revenue for the States and critically weaken illegal sports betting operations, which are often run by organized crime. Opponents contend that legalizing sports gambling will hook the young on gambling, encourage people of modest means to squander their savings and earnings, and corrupt professional and college sports.

The legalization of sports gambling requires an important policy choice, but the choice is not ours to make. Congress can regulate sports gambling directly, but if it elects not to do so, each State is free to act on its own. Our job is to interpret the law Congress has enacted and decide whether it is consistent with the Constitution. [The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act] is not. PASPA “regulate[s] state governments’ regulation” of their citizens, New York, 505 U. S., at 166. The Constitution gives Congress no such power.

Major League Baseball has issued the following statement on the matter:

“Today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court will have profound effects on Major League Baseball. As each state considers whether to allow sports betting, we will continue to seek the proper protections for our sport, in partnership with other professional sports. Our most important priority is protecting the integrity of our games. We will continue to support legislation that creates airtight coordination and partnerships between the state, the casino operators and the governing bodies in sports toward that goal.”

MLBPA executive director Tony Clark has also weighed in on the subject:

“The court’s decision is monumental, with far-reaching implications for baseball players and the game we love. From complex intellectual property questions to the most basic issues of player safety, the realities of widespread sports betting must be addressed urgently and thoughtfully to avoid putting our sport’s integrity at risk as states proceed with legalization.”

[Related: Hoops Rumors on impact of Supreme Court ruling on NBA]

Of course, sports betting already exists in prominent fashion throughout the United States. Barnes’ piece above cites an estimated $150 billion annual valuation of the underground sports betting market in the U.S., which doesn’t include already legalized betting at sportsbooks in Nevada casinos. Certainly, though, widespread legalization of the matter creates many potential causes for concern and also for revenue; NBA commissioner Adam Silver, for instance, has openly expressed a desire to be compensated for the compensated for his league’s “additional costs involving integrity,” (via Michael Scotto of The Athletic). ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported earlier this year that the NBA could seek one percent of every bet legally placed on its outcomes.

The state of New Jersey had the support of 18 other states, per Barnes, in seeking to legalize betting in their state. Justine McDaniel of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets that the state of Pennsylvania, for instance, legalized sports betting last year in anticipation of federal legalization.

Braves Release Christian Colon

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The Braves released infielder Christian Colon from their Triple-A affiliate in Gwinnett recently, per Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. The former Royals and Marlins infielder will return to the open market in search of a new opportunity with another organization.

Colon, 29, was the fourth overall pick in the 2010 draft and has spent parts of the past four seasons in the Majors — most recently logging 57 plate appearances with the Marlins in 2017. Despite being selected out of college (Cal State Fullerton, to be specific), Colon took awhile to reach the Majors but turned in solid numbers in his first couple of seasons upon arriving. In 168 plate appearances from 2014-15, he slashed .303/.361/.382.

However, Colon’s lack of power became more glaring a year later when his fortune on balls in play took a turn for the worst and his strikeout rate escalated from just 12.5 percent to 19.3 percent. From 2016-17, he posted an ugly .213/.279/.264 batting line in 218 PAs between the Royals and Marlins.

Colon got off to a disappointing .204/.278/.204 start with Gwinnett, though that came in a tiny sample of just 55 plate appearances. His overall body of work in parts of seven seasons at the Triple-A level is considerably more encouraging, as he’s batted .287/.350/.384 in 1520 plate appearances. That track record, in addition to his experience at second base, shortstop and third base, should allow him to land with another club in need of some infield depth in the upper minors.

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