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Rays Designate Ryan Weber

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The Rays have designated righty Ryan Weber for assignment, club broadcaster Neil Solondz tweets. The open roster spot will go to outfielder Johnny Field, whose contract was selected — as the team had announced already.

Weber had already been removed from the active roster to make way for Field, with the Rays initially optioning him out. Now, the 27-year-old will head to DFA limbo.

Weber has worked to a 5.11 ERA in 68 2/3 total MLB innings over the past four years. He missed a chunk of time in 2017 due to injury but did impress in his limited action at Triple-A. In 31 2/3 innings in six appearances, five of them starts, Weber worked to a 0.85 ERA with 5.4 K/9 against 1.1 BB/9.

Travis d’Arnaud To Undergo Tommy John Surgery; Kevin Plawecki Placed On Disabled List

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Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who’d previously been diagnosed with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, the team announced on Friday.

Additionally, the Mets placed Kevin Plawecki on the 10-day DL due to a hairline fracture in his left hand, selected the contract of Jose Lobaton from Triple-A Las Vegas and optioned out righty Jacob Rhame in place of outfielder Brandon Nimmo.

To make room on the 40-man roster for Lobaton, d’Arnaud was placed on the 60-day DL. Plawecki is expected to be out three to four weeks, the team told reporters (Twitter link via Mike Puma of the New York Post).

Suffice it to say, it’s been a devastating 48 hours for the Mets, who just days ago were counting on d’Arnaud and Plawecki to shoulder the entirety of their catching work in 2018. Now, they’ll be without Plawecki for perhaps a month’s time, while d’Arnaud will be lost for the whole season. In their stead, the Mets will turn to Lobaton and Double-A backstop Tomas Nido to handle immediate catching duties. Lobaton is in tonight’s lineup.

However, for a club that started 10-1, the Mets understandably aren’t keen on merely relying on depth pieces and journeyman stopgaps as they await the return of Plawecki, who, while he has shown promise in the past, is no sure bet for a productive campaign.

To that end, the Mets are already on the lookout for catching help, per multiple reports. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets that a small-scale move — something along the lines of a pickup of recently designated veteran Miguel Montero — could be in play for the Mets. FanRag’s Jon Heyman, meanwhile, tweets that the Mets are “seriously” looking at adding a catcher, though GM Sandy Alderson, at least publicly, spoke to the contrary (Twitter links via DiComo and Puma).

Alderson indicated that his club will “be aware” of what is available on the catching market but is not actively pursuing a Major League catching addition. Puma notes that Alderson did suggest that trades are more plausible early this season than in other years because of the number of teams that “aren’t trying that hard.”

One move that seems decidedly unlikely is a swap for J.T. Realmuto. DiComo and Newsday’s Tim Healey have both thrown significant cold water on the possibility, downplaying the notion that the Mets would be able to put together a sufficient package and also downplaying the Marlins’ willingness to move him. Healey notes that the Mets and Marlins haven’t spoken about Realmuto at all this week, noting that offseason talks for the star catcher failed to gain any traction.

More emphatically, Joe Frisaro of MLB.com tweets that the Marlins don’t have any intention of dealing Realmuto while he’s rehabbing from injury and, in the grander scope of things, don’t even plan on making him available at all this season. It seems that the Fish would prefer to hold Realmuto through the end of the 2018 season and market him again next winter when a wider base of clubs could likely inquire about his services. Of course, such plans can always change at the deadline if a few contenders find themselves with an acute need, thus creating the basis for a bidding war, but for the time being it doesn’t sound as if a Realmuto trade is even worth speculating upon.

As far as depth options go, the Mets have already acted quickly to pursue one such addition. Former Mets backstop Johnny Monell announced today on Instagram that he’s signed a new minor league deal with the team and will return to the club. The 32-year-old logged 57 plate appearances for the 2015 Mets and is a lifetime .278/.350/.460 hitter in parts of five seasons in Triple-A, which is where he’ll be headed.

Blue Jays Place Josh Donaldson On 10-Day DL

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The Blue Jays have placed third baseman Josh Donaldson on the 10-day DL with shoulder inflammation, per a club announcement. With the open active roster spot, the Jays will promote outfielder Teoscar Hernandez.

Donaldson, 32, has hit just fine in the early going but has notably struggled with his throwing. The organization had to this point resisted a DL placement but will now see whether some rest will allow the club’s best player to get back to full strength.

There’s no indication of a new injury or any kind of “structural instability,” Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports on Twitter. Instead, it seems that Donaldson just hasn’t responded as hoped over the early portion of the season.

It’s hard to know how long Donaldson might be out. The Jays intend to put him on a throwing program at the team’s spring facility, Nicholson-Smith notes, but it’s not evident whether there is any kind of anticipated timeline.

Despite the issues with his throwing shoulder, Donaldson has received positive marks in his 55 frames at third on the year. It’s not worth reading too much into fielding metrics at this stage, but that’s generally promising for a player who has graded more as good than great in the field over the past two seasons.

Any uncertainty is unwelcome in a contract year, though, particularly for a player that is already set to enter the open market at a somewhat advanced age. That said, there’s plenty of time for Donaldson to get back to form and turn in a big platform campaign.

Reds Designate Ariel Hernandez For Assignment

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The Reds announced on Friday that they’ve designated right-hander Ariel Hernandez for assignment. His 40-man spot will go to righty Dylan Floro, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Louisville. Right-hander Tanner Rainey was optioned to Louisville to open a spot on the active roster for Floro, who’ll join the bullpen for tonight’s game.

Hernandez, 26, is best known for an electric fastball that he can run up into triple digits, though his big league debut in 2017 wasn’t particularly inspiring. Through 24 1/3 innings out of the Reds’ bullpen last year, the 6’4″, 230-pound righty posted a 5.18 ERA with and impressive 29 strikeouts against a disastrous 22 walks. He also served up six homers in that short time and posted a 42.9 percent ground-ball rate that was noticeably lower than his typically strong minor league marks.

That said, as a power arm with multiple minor league options remaining, Hernandez seems like the type of arm that could well command interest from other clubs — if not via trade then certainly on the waiver wire. It’s worth noting that Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper pointed out a spring velocity drop for Hernandez (Twitter link), which could very well have contributed to his DFA, though.

Floro, meanwhile, has 24 2/3 innings of big league experience and a 5.11 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 to show for it. While Hernandez struggles with his control, Floro specializes in preventing free passes, having only yielded 1.5 walks per nine innings in 245 2/3 frames at the Triple-A level. The 27-year-old has averaged just 5.9 K/9 at that level, but he’s also routinely posted ground-ball rates in the mid-50s and notched an impressive 61.6 percent grounder rate in Triple-A last year.

Pirates Select Contract Of Richard Rodriguez, Recall Kyle Crick

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The Pirates announced today that they’ve selected the contract of right-handed reliever Richard Rodriguez and recalled fellow righty Kyle Crick. Both players were pitching for the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis. To make room on the big league roster, right-hander Clay Holmes and left-hander Josh Smoker were optioned to Triple-A.

Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster was at a count of 38 players prior to Rodriguez’s selection, so there’ll be no 40-man move necessary to accommodate him, and the team can even make another addition without needing to open further space. The 28-year-old Rodriguez, a longtime Astros farmhand, broke into the Majors with the Orioles in 2017 but tallied just 4 2/3 frames with Baltimore at the big league level.

Rodriguez, though, has carved up Triple-A hitters dating back to 2015, working to a 2.54 ERA with a 221-to-65 K/BB ratio in in 219 2/3 innings. His strikeout rate has steadily risen on a year-over-year basis, topping out at 10.2 K/9 in 2017, and he’s already whiffed nine in five shutout innings this season. Last year with the O’s, Rodriguez’s fastball sat at 93.8 mph in his brief big league audition.

As for Crick, he was one of two pieces acquired in the trade that sent franchise icon Andrew McCutchen from the Pirates to the Giants. The former supplemental first-rounder and top prospect shifted to the bullpen with quite a bit of success in 2017, punching out 12 hitters per nine innings with a 2.76 ERA in Triple-A. That prompted a big league call-up for Crick in San Francisco, where he’d go on to log a 3.06 ERA in 32 1/3 innings — albeit with much more pedestrian marks of 7.8 K/9 against 4.8 BB/9. Crick averaged 95.5 mph on his heater, though, and was superb at limiting hard contact in his time with the Giants (20.5 percent).

The Pirates undoubtedly hope that he can be a viable bullpen weapon in Pittsburgh, as the hard-throwing 25-year-old can be controlled through the 2023 season. He’d allowed one run with five strikeouts and no walks through four innings of relief thus far in Triple-A this year.

J.C. Ramirez To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

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Angels right-hander J.C. Ramirez will miss the remainder of the 2018 season due to Tommy John surgery, GM Billy Eppler tells reporters (Twitter link via Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register). The procedure will be performed next Tuesday.

Ramirez, 29, was largely successful in his conversion from the bullpen to the rotation in 2017, tossing 147 1/3 innings of 4.15 ERA ball for the Halos while averaging 6.4 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and 1.3 HR/9 to go along with a strong 51.4 percent ground-ball rate. Ramirez had never started a big league contest prior to the 2017 season but took the ball to open the game on 24 occasions in addition to three relief appearances.

Whether it was a case of correlation or causation, that significant hike in workload ended with Ramirez hitting the 60-day disabled list due to an elbow strain, which was later reported to be a small tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. Ramirez received a platelet-rich plasma injection and stem-cell therapy on his right elbow in hopes of avoiding a surgical procedure that would’ve wiped out his entire 2018 season anyhow, but those treatments didn’t prove sufficient.

With Ramirez on the shelf for the remainder of the year and plenty of uncertainty surrounding righty Matt Shoemaker at present, the Angels have taken a pair of early hits to their starting pitching depth. They still have Shohei Ohtani, Garrett Richards, Tyler Skaggs, Andrew Heaney, Nick Tropeano, Parker Bridwell and Jaime Barria as options, though the majority of those arms have all had some form of medical issue within the past year or two. Given the team’s fast start and some early cracks in the rotation foundation, it stands to reason that the Halos will be connected to pitching upgrades over the next few months as the non-waiver deadline draws nearer.

As for Ramirez, he’ll earn his full $1.9MM salary for the 2018 season and accrue big league service time while he mends on the disabled list. He’ll be eligible for arbitration once again this winter and shouldn’t command much of a raise, if any at all, after starting just two games and pitching 6 2/3 total frames. The Angels will have to make the call, then, whether they prefer to pay him around $2MM for the 2019 campaign or cut him loose via non-tender and perhaps try to bring him back on a minor league deal. The Angels control Ramirez through 2021, so there’s some added appeal to keeping him on the roster and paying a small price for his rehab season.

Bruce Maxwell Reaches Plea Agreement

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The Athletics announced on Friday that backup catcher Bruce Maxwell has reached a plea agreement with the State of Arizona, pleading guilty to disorderly conduct (a class 6 undesignated offense). He’ll be placed on probation and be required to complete community service, with a formal sentencing set for June 4. Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets that it’s possible Major League Baseball could still impose further punishment on Maxwell, as the Commissioner’s Office prefers to wait for criminal proceedings to conclude before passing its own judgment.

“Accepting responsibility is the first step in working to make amends for my lapse in judgment,” said Maxwell in a statement. “I am truly sorry for the pain that my actions have caused, and while they are not representative of who I am, I understand that I have to earn back the trust and respect of those around me.”

Maxwell was arrested back on Oct. 28 and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and disorderly conduct after waving a gun at a delivery person at his home in Scottsdale. He’d been slated for an Aug. 9 trial if today’s settlement meeting — his second such meeting — did not yield a plea agreement.

Oakland general manager David Forst voiced a commitment to Maxwell this offseason even in the face of the charges brought forth against him, though the Athletics ultimately found a value on which they didn’t feel they could pass, signing Jonathan Lucroy to a one-year deal worth $6.5MM. That acquisition pushed Maxwell into a more limited role with the club, though Forst again spoke of Maxwell as a potential long-term member of the A’s organization today.

“I am pleased Bruce has taken responsibility for his actions,” said Forst in the press release announcing the agreement. “We expect our players to conduct themselves in a manner that reflects the standards of the Oakland Athletics. His conduct in this incident did not live up to that. We have communicated with him throughout the legal process about our expectations as a representative of the organization. I believe he has already begun the work of making amends for his actions and look forward to his continued positive contributions to our community.”

NL East Notes: Blair, Chen, Glover, Pivetta

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Braves righty Aaron Blair is dealing with a shoulder injury and is headed to see Dr. James Andrews for an evaluation on Monday, tweets David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. O’Brien’s colleague, Gabe Burns, had previously tweeted that Blair could miss “significant time” with the injury, though the specifics of the issue aren’t yet known. The 25-year-old Blair was viewed as a largely MLB-ready starter when the Braves picked him up from the D-backs alongside Ender Inciarte and Dansby Swanson in the Shelby Miller blockbuster, but he’s struggled to a 7.89 ERA in 73 big league innings thanks largely to shaky control and a susceptibility to home runs. Blair has a career 4.36 ERA with 7.6 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9, and while he may not have been viewed as an immediate piece of the rotation, a notable absence will thin out Atlanta’s rotation depth to an extent.

Some more notes from the division…

  • The Marlins announced last night that left-hander Wei-Yin Chen was able to throw three shutout innings in an extended Spring Training game. Chen didn’t allow a hit or a walk and picked up one strikeout as he tossed 35 pitches in the rehab outing. The results, of course, are largely inconsequential. The key takeaway, rather, is simply that Chen is throwing at all. The southpaw suffered a partial tear of the UCL in his left elbow back in 2016 and was limited to just 33 frames by injury in 2017. Late last season, skipper Don Mattingly revealed that the organization wasn’t sure whether Chen would be able to pitch in 2018 at all. The Marlins owe the veteran lefty more than $50MM over the next three seasons, so any progress toward a return to the hill is significant plus for the team. It’s also worth noting that J.T. Realmuto caught three innings and took three at-bats in an extended spring game, per the team. He’s reportedly eyeing a return to action next week.
  • MASNsports.com’s Byron Kerr tweets that Nationals reliever Koda Glover is making some progress in his return from shoulder troubles. Glover, who was briefly the team’s closer in a 2017 season marred by back and hip injuries, opened the year on the 60-day DL after a spring MRI revealed inflammation in his right shoulder. He’s now throwing from 75 feet though, which is at least a step in the right direction for a young power arm for whom the organization has quite a bit of hope. The outlook on Joaquin Benoit is less optimistic, as Kerr notes that the veteran has yet to begin throwing. Washington added Benoit late this spring — not long after Glover’s MRI, in fact — but he quickly went down with a forearm strain and opened the season on the DL himself.
  • Phillies righty Nick Pivetta has somewhat quietly been one of the team’s biggest surprises of the year thus far, as Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia observes. The right-hander spoke after his most recent quality outing about how last year’s struggles — a 6.02 ERA in 133 innings — have helped prepare him for better success in 2018. “I worked hard with [pitching coach Rick Kranitz] and everybody not trying to be so perfect in the strike zone,” said Pivetta. “I think that really has carried over this year and it’s been good so far.” Manager Gabe Kapler praised Pivetta for improving his concentration level since the beginning of Spring Training, his willingness to attack up in the zone with his fastball and his ability to throw his curveball for a strike when needed.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/13/18

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Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league, all courtesy of Baseball America’s Matt Eddy unless otherwise noted…

  • The Angels have added right-handed reliever Jordan Jankowski on a minor league contract. The 28-year-old got his first taste of the big league in 2017, tossing 4 1/3 frames for the Astros before landing with the Dodgers via waiver claim. Jankowski has averaged 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings in 177 1/3 Triple-A frames in his career, though he’s struggled with control since being selected in the 34th round of the 2012 draft as well.
  • Former big league infielders Tyler Ladendorf and Darnell Sweeney have signed minor league pacts with the Blue Jays. Ladendorf, a former Twins second-rounder who was once traded to the A’s in exchange for Orlando Cabrera, logged 68 MLB plate appearances with Oakland from 2015-16 but hit just .123/.149/.154 in that brief time. He’s a career .258/.326/.350 hitter in Triple-A and has played second base, shortstop, third base and corner outfield as a pro. Sweeney, meanwhile, posted a .639 OPS in 98 plate appearances with the Phillies in 2015 after they acquired him from the Dodgers in the Chase Utley trade. He’s a career .258/.325/.394 hitter in Triple-A.
  • The Giants released outfielder Daniel Carbonell, who they’d originally signed Carbonell to a four-year, $3.5MM contract back in 2014 after he left Cuba. Signed because of his defensive prowess and speed, Carbonell’s bat never came around, as he appeared in just two Triple-A games with the Giants after stalling out in Double-A. In 437 plate appearances at that Double-A level, the now-27-year-old Carbonell hit just .188/.227/.273.

Kevin Plawecki Has Hairline Fracture In Left Hand

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10:10am: The Mets confirmed that Plawecki did indeed suffer a harline fracture in his left hand. Initial X-rays last night were negative, but a Friday morning MRI revealed the break (Twitter link via Newsday’s Tim Healey). He will not require surgery.

There’s been no timeline given on the injury, though SNY’s Steve Gelbs tweets that Plawecki could be out for as little as three weeks. That’d seem to be a surprisingly quick turnaround for a fracture in his catching hand, but if that timeline holds true, then the Mets may not feel much pressure to make a significant catching acquisition.

9:25am: In a staggering stroke of bad luck, the Mets look to have lost their top two catchers in a span of just two days. Mike Puma of the New York Post reports that just a day after Travis d’Arnaud was diagnosed with a partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, Kevin Plawecki has been diagnosed with a fractured left hand after being hit by a pitch in last night’s game. Mets manager Mickey Callaway said after last night’s contest that initial X-rays on Plawecki’s hand were negative, though it seems that further testing may have revealed the reported fracture.

Puma adds that veteran Jose Lobaton will join Tomas Nido on the big league roster — he’ll require a 40-man move — though clearly the Mets will be on the lookout for additional options. Miguel Montero jumps to mind as one readily available backstop, as he was only just designated for assignment by the division-rival Nationals earlier this week. When looking at some remaining free agents a couple of weeks ago, I noted that Ryan Hanigan, Derek Norris, Carlos Ruiz and Geovany Soto were also without a contract at the time. (Chris Herrmann and Cameron Rupp, each also listed there, have since signed deals with the Mariners and Rangers.)

The Mets, to the surprise of many, are off to the best start of any team in baseball. Their 10-1 record gives them the best winning percentage of any club in the Majors, and their +24 run differential ranks fourth in the game. Given that excellent start to the season, it seems unlikely that the Mets will be content to merely rely on depth options in the event that Plawecki needs to miss a substantial period of time.

That said, there also aren’t going to be many clubs looking to part with a catcher at this time. J.T. Realmuto was available for much of the offseason, but he’d come with an extremely steep asking price and is currently on the DL with a lower back injury for the division-rival Marlins (though he has begun a minor league rehab assignment).

An intriguing and more plausible fit could be a match with the Red Sox, who opened the year with three catchers — Christian Vazquez, Sandy Leon and Blake Swihart — on the big league roster. Vazquez is the team’s long-term answer after signing an extension this offseason, and the club has previously gone with Leon as a backup option over Swihart, who is out of minor league options and has been relegated to a utility role. A deal for Swihart, once one of the game’s top prospects, would certainly be a more appealing option than piecing the catching corps together with minor league journeymen for the foreseeable future.

Likewise, the Brewers could soon find themselves with three catchers on the roster — two of whom are out of options. Manny Pina has emerged as the starter in Milwaukee over the past year, but backups Jett Bandy and Stephen Vogt are each out of minor league options. A spring shoulder injury for Vogt temporarily delayed an inevitable decision for the Brewers, but Vogt is rehabbing the shoulder and hoping to return before month’s end. It’s not clear that Bandy is a marked upgrade over any internal options the Mets have, but Vogt does have a fairly solid big league track record.

A smaller-scale move to pick up someone such as Rupp from the Rangers could make sense as well. The former Phillies backstop signed a minor league pact there just over a week ago and reported to Triple-A Round Rock, though perhaps the organization would allow him to pursue a big league opportunity elsewhere, or at least consider trading him for cash considerations. The Braves possess some depth in the form of recently outrighted veteran Chris Stewart, and they’ll likely have to remove Carlos Perez from the roster once Tyler Flowers is healthy. The D-backs, meanwhile, are carrying Alex Avila, Jeff Mathis and John Ryan Murphy, though Avila won’t be going anywhere after signing a two-year deal this winter. Colorado’s Tom Murphy is another speculative fit, as he’s been displaced on the big league roster by Chris Iannetta and Tony Wolters. And it might be worthwhile for the Mets to see if the cost-conscious Rays, off to a dreadful start, would part with impending free agent Wilson Ramos.

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