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Giants’ Leadership Addresses Organization’s Plans

By | at August 25, 2018 1:37am CDT

With it becoming increasingly apparent that the Giants won’t be mounting a late run at the postseason, the team’s top organizational figures have spent some time giving their impressions of the current season and the future outlook. CEO Larry Baer chatted with Tim Kawakami of The Athletic (audio/subscription link), while president of baseball operations Brian Sabean spoke with John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Both men made clear that they don’t see the ballclub as being in the midst of a massive transition. “I don’t characterize it as a rebuild,” said Baer. Sabean, the club’s top baseball decisionmaker, said much the same: “We’re used to winning. We don’t feel we’re in a position, as a result of that, to have, quote, a complete face-lift.”

At the same time, there was certainly an acknowledgement that change will be needed. Sabean noted that the front office will “have to probably be ready to make some tough decisions.” And Baer acknowledged that, in applying what he described as Sabean’s “win and develop” approach to staying competitive while building for the future, it may be necessary to “”lean more toward the development” side of the fence.

If there’s a clear plan, it’s not clear from these interviews just what it is and how it’ll be implemented. When asked whether he expects to acquire a big-money player — which Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle argued today could be pursued even if the club otherwise doesn’t really expect to contend — Baer said it’s just too soon to know. His top baseball ops mean, though, said the club “still want[s] to put the most productive product on the field that we can,” which seems to keep the door open.

Certainly, it’s tough to see how the Giants would manage to embark upon anything like a true rebuilding effort with so many hard-to-move obligations on the books. That wasn’t necessarily the case last winter, when several veterans on long-term deals held greater trade value than they do now.

While the decision to push for a return to contention in 2018 hasn’t resulted in a postseason trajectory, that doesn’t mean the organization regrets it. Sabean says there was value in having “distanced ourselves from how last year went.” Both men suggested that the organization is pleased with having unearthed some young talent, too.

Of course, expectations were that this roster would struggle to keep pace in the division, just as has occurred. Some might have been higher on the Giants heading into 2018 had the team landed Giancarlo Stanton. In Baer’s estimation, the organization failed to convince the slugger to waive his no-trade protection to come to San Francisco mostly because Stanton was already frustrated with “the process” the Marlins undertook to try to deal him. Anyway, Baer says, the near-term payroll space that would have been locked up by Stanton was “re-expressed” in veterans Andrew McCutchen, Evan Longoria, and Tony Watson — a fact that actually left the club “very content” this spring, Baer says.

Longoria’s contract now looks to be another underperforming asset, further clogging the future balance sheets after the club so diligently stayed below the luxury tax line this year. But those are the risks it takes to acquire or keep established veterans. And the Giants obviously believe in their approach, having seen it result in three recent World Series titles.

It seems that, most broadly, the organization will back off the throttle in some respects — McCutchen could certainly be traded in the coming days, for example — but will otherwise push forward with its tried and true methods of roster building. Certainly, there’s every indication that Sabean and skipper Bruce Bochy will remain in their posts, with Baer telling Kawakami that the pair has an unmatched pedigree and expressing confidence in them with one more season left on their most recent extensions.

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MLB Daily Roster Roundup: Bruce, Colon, Gurriel, Sabathia, Trout

By | at August 24, 2018 11:18pm CDT

ROSTER MOVES BY TEAM
(August 24th)

NATIONAL LEAGUE

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AMERICAN LEAGUE

  • HOUSTON ASTROS | Depth Chart
    • Role change: P Framber Valdez will start on Sunday. He came out of the bullpen in his MLB debut on August 21st (4.1 IP, 0 ER).

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FUTURE EXPECTED MOVES

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Injury Notes: Chapman, Judge, Sale, Santana, Goody, Iwakuma

By | at August 24, 2018 10:24pm CDT

Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman went in for a platelet-rich plasma treatment on his ailing left knee, David Lennon of Newsday tweets. Skipper Aaron Boone indicated that the plan is to reevaluate the high-powered lefty in two weeks’ time. That’s a bit less promising than the initial suggestion that Chapman could be back after the minimum ten-day DL stint, though there’s no indication as of yet that there’s any real concern that the injury could carry over into the postseason. For a Yankees team that is all but locked into a Wild Card play-in game, getting Chapman up to full speed by the end of September is of much greater importance than having him available for the final month of the regular season.

  • Meanwhile, the Yankees are still waiting for a breakthrough from star outfielder Aaron Judge. As Boone stated, and MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch tweeted, the team has “stopped guessing” as to when Judge’s fractured wrist will be in good enough shape to allow him to resume swinging. In this case, perhaps, there’s a bit more reason to be anxious. It has been a long layoff for Judge, after all, and he’ll want to get as many plate appearances as possible before October arrives. Clearly, though, there’s not much the team can do but wait and hope the wrist improves.
  • The news is slightly more promising — though no less clear — on Red Sox southpaw Chris Sale. He’s “doing better” and “getting close,” per Boston manger Alex Cora, as Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald reports on Twitter. With a healthy division lead, the Boston organization is in no need of Sale’s services for the next five weeks. But he’s essential to the team’s World Series hopes, so getting his balky shoulder sorted out is a top priority.
  • The injured finger of Twins hurler Ervin Santana won’t require surgery, skipper Paul Molitor said and Phil Miller of the Star-Tribune tweeted. That said, the veteran is going to remain shut down until “doctors come up with a plan.” With the Twins’ season sunk and Santana not looking himself since making a brief return to the majors, the objective here is to set him up as well as possible for the future rather than rushing him back in 2018. While no decision has been made as to whether Santana will pitch again for the Twins this year, it could well be that he has already taken the mound for the club for the last time. Minnesota is unlikely to pick up its $14MM option over the right-hander, who will presumably be a popular bounceback target in the offseason to come.
  • Indians righty Nick Goody isn’t in need of a new ulnar collateral ligament, Jordan Bastian of MLB.com tweets, but he is headed in for some kind of procedure. That’s rather promising news, given that the 27-year-old was making the rounds to several noted surgeons recently. Goody has missed much of the 2018 season with arm woes, making for a disappointing follow-up to his strong 2017 performance. Last year, Goody worked to a 2.80 ERA with 11.9 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 over 54 2/3 frames. He had been on track to reach arbitration via Super Two status this fall. While he’ll have enough MLB service time to reach it, he won’t be eligible since he has not spent 86 days on the active roster this season.
  • It seems the Mariners and Hisashi Iwakuma haven’t given up entirely on the veteran hurler this year. Seattle GM Jerry Dipoto said in a regular appearance on 710 ESPN (write-up via Brent Stecker) that the 37-year-old is nearing a rehab stint, in fact, though it doesn’t sound as if there’s particular cause for optimism that he’ll be a real factor this year. Iwakuma only made six starts in 2017 and hasn’t made it back to competitive action this season. Still, Dipoto suggested he’d do everything possible to get him up to the majors as a reliever down the stretch.
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Mets Activate Jay Bruce, Option Dominic Smith

By | at August 24, 2018 8:06pm CDT

The Mets are planning to give veteran Jay Bruce a long look at first base over the final five weeks of the season, as Tim Healey of Newsday reports. Bruce was activated today from a long stay on the disabled list, with the club optioning former top first base prospect Dominic Smith as part of the day’s roster maneuvering.

It seems the idea is to assess what skipper Mickey Callaway called the “possibility” that Bruce could enter the 2019 campaign as a regular at first base. As the organization looks ahead to an offseason that will likely be overseen by a new general manager, no decisions have been made. Rather, Bruce will have an opportunity to show whether he looks to be a viable option at first and/or his customary corner outfield. Callaway says the veteran will appear in the infield “quite a bit moving forward.”

Of course, the Mets largely know what they have in Bruce, who was signed over the winter to a three-year, $39MM contract that includes consecutive $13MM salaries for the coming two campaigns. The 31-year-old has struggled to a .212/.292/.321 slash this year, though it’s probably reasonable to anticipate he’ll bounce back toward his typically above-average offensive levels. This is his 11th season in the majors, so there isn’t much mystery about his skillset with the bat (generally: good power and limited on-base ability).

Smith, though, is a former first-round pick who only just turned 23 years of age this summer. He carries only a .197/.251/.389 batting line in 263 MLB plate appearances over the past two seasons and also hasn’t hit much this year at Triple-A. But it wasn’t long ago that he was seen as a high-quality prospect; indeed, Smith earned his way into the majors in 2017 with a .330/.386/.519 performance in 500 plate appearances for Las Vegas last year.

Nevertheless, Smith is on his way back to Triple-A. While he’ll presumably re-join the MLB roster at some point in September, it seems he won’t receive a particularly close look in the final month of the season. Indeed, Callaway had some eye-opening comments on the youngster. “The deal here is you might not ever get a look,” he said. “That’s how it goes in the major leagues. Nothing is fair. It is what it is. But he has to keep on grinding and putting himself in a position where he can come up here and get at-bats.”

While it’s understandable that the organization may want Smith to force the issue somewhat, the decisionmaking process seems a mite curious, as David Lennon of Newsday suggested recently. True, another prospect — Peter Alonso — has likely now eclipsed Smith in the organization’s eyes. But Alonso is actually 190 days older than Smith. And as impressive as the 2016 second-rounder has been, the Mets surely would at a minimum prefer to boost Smith’s trade value if he’s going to end up making way for Bruce and/or Alonso in the near future.

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Jesse Hahn Undergoes UCL Surgery

By | at August 24, 2018 5:18pm CDT

Royals righty Jesse Hahn underwent surgery on the ulnar collateral ligament in his pitching elbow, as Rustin Dodd of The Athletic was among those to report on Twitter. Hahn is expected to require approximately six months of rehabilitation, indicating that he may or may not be ready to return for the start of camp next spring.

Fortunately, Hahn did not require the famed Tommy John surgery that is often necessary to fix UCL damage. Instead, he will become the latest pitcher to undergo a “primary repair” procedure. The alternative approach comes with the promise of a much shorter rehab timeline, though it is also not nearly as established as the standby TJS.

About a year and a half ago, Seth Maness became the first known MLB hurler to be treated with the primary repair approach. He ended up signing with the Royals for his comeback attempt, so the team has some direct experience in this area. Unfortunately, Maness has not been able to regain his prior form to this point, though he did make it back to the majors briefly in 2017.

Hahn, 29, landed with the K.C. organization in an early-2018 swap in which the Athletics acquired lefty Ryan Buchter and took on more than half of Brandon Moss‘s $7.25MM salary. While Hahn opened his MLB career with 170 innings of 3.23 ERA pitching, he was coming off of consecutive rough seasons at the time of the move.

Though the hope surely was that he would contribute to the MLB staff this year, and perhaps even regain some of his prior form, Hahn has only thrown six minor-league innings this season. That’s particularly disappointing given that he entered camp feeling healthy. Hahn was knocked around in two Cactus League innings before experiencing elbow issues and going on the 60-day disabled list in early March.

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Yankees Outright Chris Rabago

By | at August 24, 2018 1:56pm CDT

The Yankees announced that they’ve outrighted catcher Chris Rabago off the 40-man roster. Rabago, who was claimed off waivers out of the Rockies organization just two days ago, will remain in Double-A Trenton for now. It seems that the Yankees claimed him solely with the intent to immediately try to pass Rabago through waivers themselves — a move that’ll now pay some dividends, as they can retain his rights without dedicating a 40-man roster spot.

Rabago was a 13th-round selection by the Rockies back in 2014 and found himself added to the 40-man roster last November on the heels of a .272/.350/.393 batting line in 358 plate appearances in Class-A Advanced. This season has proven more of a challenge, as he’s managed just a .213/.292/.361 slash through 229 plate appearances with Colorado’s Double-A affiliate. (Rabago has yet to even suit up for the Yankees’ Trenton club.) He’s delivered sub-par framing marks in 2018, per Baseball-Prospectus, but does have a 34 percent caught-stealing rate. Rabago wasn’t considered to be among the Rockies’ top prospects and won’t feature prominently on the Yankees’ rankings, either, though he’ll add some depth to the upper levels of their system.

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Minor MLB Transactions: 8/23/18

By | at August 24, 2018 1:39pm CDT

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

  • The Mariners announced Friday that left-hander Ross Detwiler and infielder Zach Vincej, each of whom was designated for assignment earlier this week, have cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma. Detwiler was selected to the big league roster when Mike Leake had to be scratched due to injury. He gave the Mariners six innings of three-run ball against the Astros on short notice in what ultimately wound up to be a losing effort. The veteran southpaws has spent the summer with Seattle’s top affiliate in Tacoma and could emerge as an option with expanded rosters in September, if Seattle wants to add some additional lefties to its bullpen. As for Vincej, he’ll remain in the organization and hope to receive another look as well. He went 2-for-4 in his lone MLB appearance earlier this season and is a career .268/.336/.359 batting line in the minors while playing shortstop, second base and third base.
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Reds Pull Matt Harvey Off Revocable Waivers

By | at August 24, 2018 1:14pm CDT

1:14pm: ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets that Reds owner Bob Castellini “loves” Harvey, which could’ve played a role in the decision to retain him. Heyman agrees, tweeting that Castellini ultimately did not want to trade the right-hander, which could indicate that the Reds will push to re-sign him this winter.

12:20pm: Even more definitively, Reds GM Nick Krall tells C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic that Harvey will remain with the team (Twitter link).

12:15pm: Bob Nightengale Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Harvey will not be traded to the Brewers before the deadline expires (Twitter link). He’ll start today’s game in a Reds uniform and, presumably, remain with the Reds through season’s end.

7:23am: The Brewers are the team that placed the winning claim on Reds right-hander Matt Harvey on Wednesday, reports Jon Heyman of Fancred (via Twitter). They’ve yet to agree to a trade with the Reds, it seems, though there’s still time to do so before waivers on Harvey expire this afternoon at 1:30pm ET. Harvey recently landed 12th on MLBTR’s latest ranking of the Top 20 August trade candidates in baseball.

Much has been mad about the Brewers perceived need for rotation help, though in truth, all five members of their current rotation have generally outperformed Harvey even since his trade to the Reds. Jhoulys Chacin, Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra, Freddy Peralta and Wade Miley all have ERAs of 4.02 or better, and of that bunch, only Anderson lags behind Harvey’s 4.50 FIP.

[Related: Milwaukee Brewers depth chart]

Having said that, there’s certainly plenty of reason to maintain interest in Harvey all the same; Miley has been injured for much of the season and has totaled just 45 1/3 innings after a pair of dismal seasons in the American League in 2016-17. Peralta, meanwhile, is a rookie who has already thrown a combined 130 1/3 innings between the Majors and minors after totaling 120 frames in 2017. Anderson is among the game’s most homer-prone starters. Guerra has had a solid season but pitched at sub-replacement level in 2017. Adding Harvey to the staff, especially considering the improvements he’s made since being traded from New York to Cincinnati, has plenty of merit even if it can be argued that it shouldn’t be an imperative.

Harvey has unquestionably improved since changing uniforms a first time this season, working to a solid 4.28 ERA with 6.9 K/9, 2.1 BB/9, 1.39 HR/9 and a 43.1 percent ground-ball rate in 90 1/3 innings. Much of the damage against him came in one eight-run meltdown against the Pirates back on July 22, but the majority of Harvey’s starts with the Reds have at the very least been competitive efforts outside of that showing. He’s still averaging just 5 1/3 innings per start, but Harvey’s velocity has steadily increased with Cincinnati. He’s also seen a modest improvement in his swinging-strike rate (currently 8.9 percent) and seen substantial jump in his chase rate on out-of-zone pitches while also throwing first-pitch strikes at a considerably higher clip (up to 63.3 percent).

There’s little denying that Harvey would at the very least deepen the current pitching staff by adding another serviceable arm to the mix, and that depth is especially important with rosters set to expand in September. Even incremental upgrades for the Brewers should be viewed as important, given that they’re currently 3.5 games back of the National League Central-leading Cubs and a half-game behind the Cardinals in the division as well. Milwaukee is more favorably positioned in the Wild Card hunt — currently tied with Colorado for the second spot and a half-game back of the Cardinals, who hold the top spot.

For the Reds, there’s been no indication that they’d simply let Harvey go via waivers. His $5.6MM salary has about $1.13MM remaining to be paid out, so the financial implications aren’t exactly overwhelming. But if the Brewers are willing to offer even a modest prospect in return, the Reds should be happy to add to their continually improving farm system in exchange for a pitcher who is otherwise set to hit free agency after the season.

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Reds To Pull Billy Hamilton Off Revocable Waivers

By | at August 24, 2018 1:11pm CDT

Following up on his statement that Matt Harvey will remain in Cincinnati, Reds general manager Nick Krall added that he expects Billy Hamilton to remain with the team as well (link via Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer). Hamilton, like Harvey, had been claimed on revocable waivers and could’ve been traded to the claiming team — the identity of which remains unreported.

Unlike Harvey, however, Hamilton is controllable beyond the 2018 season. He’s eligible for arbitration one last time this winter and figures to receive a raise on his current $4.6MM salary. Reds president of baseball operations Dick Williams suggested earlier this summer that his team wasn’t all that interested in moving pieces controlled beyond the current season, and the decision to retain Hamilton meshes with that line of thinking.

Hamilton, 27, would’ve been an ideal pickup for a contender seeking a defense/baserunning upgrade in advance of the upcoming Sept. 1 roster expansion. It’s not uncommon for contending clubs to carry pinch-running/base-stealing/defensive specialists through the month of September and into the month of October (e.g. Terrance Gore and the Royals in 2014-15), and no one in baseball has more steals than Hamilton’s 206 dating back to 2015. Hamilton has also posted sterling defensive marks in that time, including 37 Defensive Runs Saved and a 33.1 Ultimate Zone Rating.

Rather than joining a new team for the stretch run, it seems that Hamilton will instead remain with the Reds into the 2019 season (barring an appealing trade offer this winter). While he’s never developed any real semblance of on-base skills, Hamilton has nonetheless delivered consistent value on the basepaths and in the field which have helped to overcome his deficiencies at the plate. He’s a career .246/.299/.332 hitter through 2624 plate appearances, and his 2018 results (.239/.304/.321) are more or less in line with those career marks.

Hamilton is a known favorite of Reds owner Bob Castellini, who has said in the past that he hopes Hamilton will spend his entire career in Cincinnati (Twitter link via ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick). Castellini’s affinity for Harvey reportedly served as a factor in the team’s decision not to trade him, and it seems possible that the same is true with regard to Hamilton.

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Rays Pulled Sergio Romo Off Revocable Waivers

By | at August 24, 2018 9:07am CDT

Aug. 24: Heyman tweets that the Rays did indeed pull Romo off waivers after “multiple” American League clubs placed a claim on the right-hander.

Aug. 23: Veteran reliever Sergio Romo is “not going anywhere,” a source tells Jon Heyman of Fancred (via Twitter). It seems “likely,” Heyman adds, that Romo was pulled back from revocable waivers after being claimed.

Romo, 35, featured prominently on MLBTR’s latest ranking of the top August trade candidates. He’ll be a free agent again at season’s end, so there isn’t much reason for the out-of-contention Rays to hang onto him.

On the other hand, Romo is only owed about half a million dollars for the rest of the season. And he has played a notable role for an organization that has built some momentum with its unusual approach to building out a pitching staff. It certainly seems possible the Rays will seek to bring him back over the offseason to come; perhaps that consideration also weighed in the decision.

In 56 1/3 innings this year, Romo carries a strong 3.36 ERA with peripherals to match. He has generated 10.1 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 and still draws swings and misses on over 13% of his pitches. Romo has held opposing hitters to a .294 wOBA, with Statcast suggesting he has been even a bit better than that (.286 xwOBA).

While it seems he’ll remain in Tampa Bay to finish out the year, Romo ought to be a fairly popular target in free agency over the winter to come. The veteran is on pace to finish out his 11th-straight MLB campaign with a sub-4.00 ERA and recorded 18 saves this year, which may still hold some sway for certain teams. Whether he can secure a multi-year commitment remains to be seen, but he ought at least to have a strong possibility of beating the salaries he has settled for in each of the past two years ($3MM and $2.5MM, respectively).

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