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Nationals Release Chris Heisey

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The Nationals have released veteran outfielder Chris Heisey in order to clear a spot on the roster for right-hander Erick Fedde, who will make his Major League debut today, tweets Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post.

Heisey, 32, provided some pop off the Washington bench in 2016 and returned in a similar capacity this year, but he hasn’t been productive through 79 plate appearances. In that brief sample, he’s batted just .162/.215/.270 with a homer, three doubles and a triple. He’s missed time with a biceps injury and a groin injury thus far in 2017, and Washington’s acquisition of Howie Kendrick made Heisey somewhat of a redundancy on the active roster.

Twins Release Craig Breslow

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July 30: The Twins announced that Breslow has been released.

July 23: The Twins have designated veteran left-hander Craig Breslow for assignment, Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports (Twitter link).

Breslow signed a minor league deal with Minnesota last winter that ended up paying him $1.25MM in guaranteed money when he broke camp with the team after Spring Training.  After getting off to a good start in his first 21 outings, Breslow struggled in June and then spent much of July on the DL with a rib injury.  Overall, Breslow has a 5.34 ERA, 5.3 K/9, 1.64 K/BB rate over 30 1/3 IP for the Twins.

Twins manager Paul Molitor told Berardino and other reporters that Breslow (who turns 37 on August 8) intends to continue his career.  Despite the lackluster overall numbers, there is still evidence that Breslow has something left in the tank — he held left-handed hitters to just a .176/.262/.235 slash line this season.  Since right-handed batters (.992 OPS) were responsible for much of the damage against Breslow this season, he could still provide value to another team in a strict specialist role.  With several teams looking for bullpen help, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Breslow get some calls should he hit the open market, or perhaps even a club could work out a minor trade to acquire Breslow from Minnesota during the DFA period.

Yankees Acquire Jaime Garcia

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The Yankees and Twins have agreed to a trade that will send left-hander Jaime Garcia from Minnesota to New York in exchange for Double-A right-hander Zack Littell and Triple-A lefty Dietrich Enns, the Yankees announced on Sunday.

Jaime Garcia | Neville E. Guard-USA TODAY Sports

The 31-year-old Garcia will bring some stability to the Yankees rotation, having logged a 4.29 ERA with 6.9 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 and a 55 percent ground-ball rate between Atlanta and Minnesota this season. He’s worked six or more innings in 15 of his 19 starts this year, which is especially encouraging for a Yankees team that features a deep bullpen — particularly following the trade that netted them both David Robertson and Tommy Kahnle from the White Sox.

Garcia is a free agent at season’s end, making him a pure rental. However, the Yankees reportedly plan to continue their talks with the A’s regarding a longer-term rotation piece, Sonny Gray, even after completing the Garcia trade. Whether those talks come to fruition remains to be seen, but Garcia alone is a nice step up for a Yankees rotation that recently lost Michael Pineda to Tommy John surgery. The veteran Garcia, who comes with a solid postseason track record and a World Series ring (2011 Cardinals) will join Luis Severino, CC Sabathia, Masahiro Tanaka and Jordan Montgomery in the starting five.

Garcia’s stint with the Twins lasted less than a week. Minnesota’s declining play and lengthy winning streaks for the Royals and Indians have created a seven-game gap for the Twins in the American League Central, which is steep enough for the front office to sell off some short-term assets. The Twins, though, agreed to pay the remainder of Garcia’s $12MM salary when acquiring him from the Braves in exchange for right-hander Huascar Ynoa, and they’ll reportedly pay that figure down to the pro-rated league minimum for the Yankees.

Minnesota will remain on the hook for about $4MM in this trade, which effectively amounts to buying a pair of prospects that the Twins clearly feel to be superior to the player they initially surrendered to acquire Garcia. Littell ranks 22nd among Yankees prospects on MLB.com’s midseason top 30 list. (By comparison, Ynoa ranked 22nd in a weaker Twins farm system.)

Littell, 21, was the Mariners’ 11th-round pick back in the 2013 draft and landed in the Yankees organization as part of last November’s James Pazos trade. After a strong 2016 campaign split between two Class-A levels, he’s taken another step forward in 2017. In a combined 115 1/3 innings between Class-A Advanced and Double-A, he’s worked to a 1.87 ERA with 8.5 K/9, 1.8 BB/9 and a 52 percent ground-ball rate. MLB.com’s Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo write that Littell has three average or better offerings with above-average control.

The 26-year-old Enns isn’t considered to be one of the Yankees’ best prospects, but he has an excellent track record of results in his minor league career. The Central Michigan University product has never posted an ERA higher than 2.94 in a full season, and he’s worked to a 1.99 ERA with 9.3 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 in 45 1/3 innings between Triple-A and a Rookie-level injury rehab start this year. Enns is on the 40-man roster, though he was just added this past offseason, so he has two more option years remaining beyond the 2017 campaign.

Yahoo’s Jeff Passan first broke news that the two sides were moving toward a deal. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi first mentioned that Littell could be involved in the deal. ESPN’s Buster Olney tweeted that talks were at the “1-yard lins.” FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweeted that there was an agreement. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported that Enns was also in the deal (Twitter link). Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN and MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand added details on the financial component (Twitter links).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Twins, Yankees Moving Toward Jaime Garcia Trade

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7:10am: Talks between the Twins and Yankees are “at the 1-yard line,” tweets ESPN’s Buster Olney. The Yankees will continue to talk to the A’s about acquiring Gray as well even after the Garcia trade is finalized.

12:53am: Yankees Double-A pitching prospect Zack Littell is part of the talks, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB Network. The Yankees scratched the righty from his start Saturday. MLB.com ranks Littell as New York’s 22nd-best prospect.

12:39am: The Yankees and Twins are “deep into discussions” on a trade that would send left-hander Jaime Garcia to New York, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). Acquiring Garcia would not take the Yankees out of the running for Athletics right-hander Sonny Gray, according to Passan. Reports on Saturday tabbed the Yankees as the favorites to land Gray.

As is the case with Gray, the Yankees have come up in Garcia rumors throughout July. Garcia has already changed teams once this month, having gone from the Braves to the Twins this past Monday in a deal that netted Atlanta unheralded pitching prospect Huascar Ynoa. While the upstart Twins were buyers at the outset of the week, they’ve done a 180 thanks to a 1-5 skid since Monday that has dropped them to 50-52 – seven games out in an American League Central division they once led and four back in the wild-card race.

The 31-year-old Garcia has made just one start with the Twins, a 6 2/3-inning, three-earned run effort in which he struck out seven and walked three in a win over the A’s on Friday. Garcia, an impending free agent who’s owed around $4.5MM through year’s end, has been effective all season, having logged a 4.29 ERA (4.04 FIP), 6.29 K/9, 3.31 BB/9 and a 55 percent ground-ball rate over 119 2/3 innings. He’d upgrade the back end of a Yankees rotation that has most recently relied on Caleb Smith, who has combined to throw seven subpar frames in two starts dating back to last Sunday, and join Luis Severino, Masahiro Tanaka, CC Sabathia and Jordan Montgomery to comprise their starting staff.

Acquiring Gray on top of Garcia would create an extremely interesting conundrum for the Yankees, as it would give the team six capable starters and more than make up for the loss of Michael Pineda to Tommy John surgery. The least proven member of the group would be Montgomery, though the rookie has pitched at least as well as Garcia this year. It’s worth noting, however, that Montgomery has never thrown more than 139 1/3 innings in a season and has already amassed 108 this year. In an effort to tamp down his workload, then, perhaps he’d be a candidate to shift to a relief role. Jon Heyman of FanRag noted Saturday (on Twitter) that the Yankees “wouldn’t mind” picking up another southpaw for their bullpen, and the lefty Montgomery has limited same-sided hitters to a horrid .177/.236/.392 line this season.

Regardless of how the Yankees’ rotation aligns going forward, it’s apparent that general manager Brian Cashman believes the club is a legitimate World Series contender. Cashman made a bold strike earlier this month in picking up two standout relievers – Tommy Kahnle and David Robertson – as well as third baseman Todd Frazier in a trade with the White Sox, and New York has awoken from an early summer slumber since then to regain first place in the American League East. Winners of six straight, the Yankees own a 56-46 record and a half-game advantage over the Red Sox in the division. The Yankees also boast the AL’s second-best run differential (plus-117), which suggests their record should be even better than it is.

Mariners To Select Leonys Martin’s Contract

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Three months after the Mariners designated Leonys Martin for assignment, the outfielder will rejoin the club. The Mariners will select Martin’s contract prior to Sunday’s game, reports the Seattle Times’ Ryan Divish, who adds that they could designate right-hander Cody Martin to create a 40-man spot.

As far as the 25-man roster goes, Leonys Martin will take the place of fellow outfielder Mitch Haniger, who’s going to the 10-day disabled list after suffering a scary injury Saturday. Haniger took a 95 mph fastball to the face from Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom, video of which is available in Divish’s story, and departed with a mouth contusion. Fortunately, that’s not a catastrophic injury. Nevertheless, it will force Haniger to undergo plastic surgery, general manager Jerry Dipoto said after the game, and shelve him “for a little while,” per the executive.

Haniger’s injury is a disappointing development for a Seattle team that’s 52-53 and out of a wild-card spot by 3.5 games. Haniger, whom the Mariners acquired from the Diamondbacks in the teams’ offseason Jean Segura–Taijuan Walker trade, has batted a respectable .255/.355/.425 in 246 plate appearances this season. However, the 26-year-old’s output has declined significantly since he landed on the DL in late April with an oblique strain that kept him out until early June. Haniger was hitting an incredible .342/.447/.608 prior to his return.

It’s unclear how much playing time the 29-year-old Martin will garner in his second go-around with the Mariners this season, as they still boast three capable outfielders in Jarrod Dyson, Ben Gamel and Guillermo Heredia. Martin was a satisfactory option in his own right as recently as last year, when the then-starting center fielder posted a .247/.306/.378 line with 15 home runs, 24 stolen bases and a 2.2 fWAR across 576 plate appearances, but he got off to a horrid start this season. Before the M’s booted Martin off their roster at the end of April, he batted .111/.172/.130 in 58 PAs. Martin, who’s on a $4.85MM salary, then cleared waivers and eschewed free agency in favor of an outright assignment to Triple-A Tacoma, where he has slashed .312/.352/.506 with 11 HRs and 24 steals in 373 trips to the plate.

Cody Martin, meanwhile, just rejoined the Mariners on Wednesday after spending the first few months of the season in Tacoma. The swingman registered a 3.81 ERA, 11.75 K/9 and 2.54 BB/9 over 28 1/3 innings there and hasn’t gotten into a major league game this season. That wasn’t the case in 2016, though, as the 27-year-old pitched to a 3.86 ERA and logged 5.26 K/9 against 3.16 BB/9, with a 47.5 percent ground-ball rate, across 25 2/3 frames in Seattle. The Mariners then outrighted Martin to Tacoma in January.

Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Yanks, Red Sox, Royals, Braves, Brewers

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This week in baseball blogs:

Submissions: ZachBBWI @gmail.com

Sonny Gray Rumors: Saturday

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With two days left before the deadline, here’s the latest on the market for Athletics starter Sonny Gray, with the most recent updates at the top.

  • Gray to the Yankees is “somewhere between likely to inevitable,” according to Sherman, who reports that the trade could happen Sunday. An executive who has been involved in Gray talks told Sherman that the Yankees are “holding firm” in what they’re willing to offer because they’re not convinced there are any other serious bidders. In case their negotiations with the A’s collapse, the Yankees are discussing starters with other teams as fallback options, per Sherman.

Earlier updates:

  • Neither the Astros nor Brewers are “serious players for Gray,” writes MLB Network’s Ken Rosenthal, who adds that the Braves and Cubs also don’t look likely to acquire him. The Dodgers are the biggest threat to the Yankees in this sweepstakes, but Gray isn’t LA’s main focus, per Rosenthal. With that in mind, Rosenthal expects the Yankees to land Gray, though it might not happen until Monday. Gray to the Bronx makes sense, opines Rosenthal, who notes that the Yankees need answers in their rotation beyond this year (only Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery are locks to return in 2018) and want to get under the $197MM luxury-tax threshold next season. Acquiring the affordable Gray would help them on both fronts.
  • Heyman, Sherman, Bob Nightengale of USA Today and Buster Olney of ESPN (on Twitter) each report that the A’s and Yankees are making progress in Gray talks. There’s “optimism” a deal will happen, per Nightengale.
  • As expected, Oakland has pushed Gray’s next start from Sunday to Monday, reports Joe Stiglich of NBC Sports California (Twitter link).
  • The A’s talks centering on Gray have been heavier with the Yankees than any other team over the past 48 hours, per Morosi (Twitter link).
  • Gray will, in fact, skip his start tomorrow if he hasn’t been traded by then, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets. Bob Klapisch of USA Today previously tweeted that the A’s were likely to pull Gray from his scheduled start tomorrow due to requests from teams interested in trading for him.
  • The Yankees’ reluctance to part with Torres or Frazier is not currently holding up talks with the A’s about Gray, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick tweets. The two sides are currently discussing other players and still have not reached an agreement. In fact, Morosi tweets that the A’s prefer another Yankees prospect, Estevan Florial, to Frazier because of his center field defense.
  • Only after the A’s trade Gray will there be a flurry of activity surrounding other starters, Jon Morosi writes for MLB.com. Teams in the pitching market are primarily seeking multiyear assets like Gray rather than rentals, Morosi writes. That means there are more teams interested in Gray than in rentals like Yu Darvish or Lance Lynn.
  • The Brewers and Athletics have hit an impasse in their discussions about Gray, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. The hangup, it seems, is that the A’s want top young outfielder Lewis Brinson, and the Brewers don’t want to trade him. Brinson arrived last winter in the Jonathan Lucroy deal and made his big-league debut last month.
  • The Yankees still have interest in Gray, but are now looking to rental options like Darvish, Lynn and Jaime Garcia, FanRag’s Jon Heyman writes. (A report earlier today also connected the Yankees to Dan Straily.) As was previously reported, the Yankees do not want to part with Gleyber Torres or Clint Frazier. Still, teams expect Gray to be traded before Sunday, when he’s scheduled to start.
  • The Yankees “might take” first baseman Yonder Alonso to help “facilitate” a Gray deal, but they aren’t currently focused on first base, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick writes (Twitter links). If the Athletics don’t reduce their price for Gray, the Yankees are prepared to look elsewhere. To state the obvious, Alonso is a terrific asset in his own right, and does not fit the profile of a player a team would take merely to facilitate a trade. The first baseman is batting .262/.360/.525 with 21 home runs this season.

East News & Rumors: Hellickson, Kim, Yanks, Rays

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Right-hander Jeremy Hellickson changed clubs when the Phillies traded him to the Orioles on Friday, but a car crash has delayed his arrival to meet his new teammates, reports Brittany Ghiroli of MLB.com (on Twitter). Hellickson was rear-ended on his way to the airport to fly to Texas, where the Orioles are playing, and he and his girlfriend had to go to the emergency room as a result. Fortunately, it seems the two avoided major injuries. “I think Jeremy is OK, but his girlfriend had to go to the emergency room,” manager Buck Showalter said Saturday (via Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com). “I know Roger (McDowell) has talked to him a couple of times. If everything stays…if she gets cleared, they’ll be in Baltimore tomorrow. No reason to come here (to Texas) now. We’ve got a catcher set up tomorrow in Baltimore.”

The Phillies received little-used outfielder Hyun Soo Kim in the package for Hellickson, and the 29-year-old’s playing time won’t increase with his new team, writes Matt Breen of Philly.com. “I don’t know how much time I’ll be able to get for Kim,” admitted manager Pete Mackanin. “It’s a conundrum.” With Aaron Altherr and Nick Williams flanking center fielder Odubel Herrera, the Phillies have younger options entrenched in starting roles. That’s unfortunate for Kim, who hit .302/.382/.420 in 346 plate appearances as a rookie last year. The free agent-to-be took massive steps backward this season before the trade (.232/.305/.288 in 142 tries), and he won’t have an opportunity to improve his stock in the next couple months. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams suggested Friday, including Kim and his $4.2MM salary in the trade was a money-driven decision by the teams.

The latest on a couple of Baltimore’s AL East rivals:

  • The Yankees made Double-A right-hander Zack Littell a healthy scratch from his start on Saturday, reports Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter). Sherman believes the move has something to do with Monday’s trade deadline, and it’s worth noting that the Yankees and A’s are deep in talks regarding Oakland right-hander Sonny Gray. Speculatively, Littell could end up in the package going to Oakland if the Yankees acquire Gray (or as part of another deal). MLB.com ranks the 21-year-old Littell as New York’s 22nd-best prospect.
  • More from Sherman, who writes that the Yankees may trade hot-hitting Triple-A outfield prospects Billy McKinney and Jake Cave by the end of August as a way to alleviate the 40-man roster crunch they’re slated to face in the offseason. Neither player is on the Yankees’ 40-man right now, and the team is already well off in the outfield. In lieu of protecting the McKinney-Cave tandem over the winter, then, the Yankees could do what they did with outfielder Ben Gamel last year and deal one or both of them. Gamel wasn’t on the 40-man for New York when it traded him to the Mariners last Aug. 31 for a pair of pitching prospects. While Gamel’s now enjoying an excellent rookie season in Seattle, odds are that he wouldn’t have gotten the chance to shine as a major leaguer this year had he stayed in the Yankees organization.
  • In regards to the low-payroll Rays’ trading spree this season, owner Stuart Sternberg told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times: “The impetus? This is a special group of guys who have the talent and are hungry.” Sternberg has picked up $7MM in salary via trades this year – though Colby Rasmus’ departure did save the team $2.5MM, as Topkin points out – and is looking to make more additions to the Rays’ playoff-contending roster. “The money and the talent we no longer have hurts, and makes us a bit weaker in the future,” continued Sternberg. “In a perfect world there will be more to do to improve the club. It’s hard to see how that presents itself, though I have confidence (we) will explore any and every opportunity.”

Yu Darvish Rumors: Saturday

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Here’s the latest on the trade market for Rangers star Yu Darvish:

  • The Yankees don’t seem likely to land Darvish, suggests Heyman, who tweets that they haven’t gotten “deep” into talks centering on the 30-year-old. The Rangers should be able to get a better return from another team, adds Heyman, who points to the Dodgers as a “logical” fit.

Earlier updates:

  • A Darvish trade is “becoming increasingly likely,” Jon Heyman of FanRag writes. It was previously unclear whether the Rangers, who have been on the fringes of the Wild Card race, would trade Darvish, but teams interested in trading for Darvish now suggest that negotiations have become more intense lately. (FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal reported earlier this week that the Rangers would trade Darvish.) Darvish is a rental, but the Rangers are, perhaps understandably, seeking a top prospect in return. The Yankees, however, have indicated they won’t trade Gleyber Torres or Clint Frazier, and there is no indication the Dodgers would trade Alex Verdugo or Walker Buehler. The Rangers have also received interest in Darvish’s fellow starter Andrew Cashner, Heyman writes.
  • The Dodgers’ three top targets are Darvish, Sonny Gray and Zach Britton, Rosenthal tweets. He indicates, however, that the team’s preference is “not necessarily in that order,” and that the team’s plan will likely be dictated by asking prices for each player. (The latest rumors about Gray suggest the A’s are seeking top young talents, like Milwaukee’s Lewis Brinson, in return, just as the Rangers seem to be doing with Darvish.)

Astros Interested In Lance Lynn

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The American League-leading Astros have shown interest in a bevy of starting pitchers leading up to Monday’s trade deadline, and the latest is Cardinals right-hander Lance Lynn, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB Network. While the teams were recently embroiled in a hacking scandal that resulted in Major League Baseball forcing the Cardinals to send two draft picks and pay a $2MM fine to the Astros, the clubs are “comfortable” dealing with each other, per Morosi.

As Morosi points out (on Twitter), Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow is quite familiar with Lynn, having been in St. Louis’ front office when the team used a first-round pick on the hurler in the 2008 draft. Lynn has enjoyed a nice career with the Cardinals since debuting in 2011, but with his contract up at year’s end and the Redbirds sitting at 51-52 (3.5 games out of the National League Central lead and seven back of a wild-card spot), he could move in the next couple days.

With the exception of 2016, which he missed on account of Tommy John surgery, the 30-year-old Lynn has typically been good for 30-plus starts and at least 175 innings of strong work per season. That has been the case again this year in his return from the procedure, as Lynn has logged a 3.21 ERA, 7.98 K/9, 3.06 BB/9 and a 44 percent ground-ball rate across 120 2/3 frames (21 starts). Lynn has also registered an 11 percent infield fly rate, which ties him for 20th among starters, and posted a 9.1 percent swinging-strike mark that’s right in line with his career mark (9.2). Additionally, per Statcast (via Baseball Savant), Lynn’s terrific .305 expected weighted on-base average against is in line with his actual wOBA allowed (.298).

On the negative side, Lynn’s velocity hasn’t gotten back to its previous levels, and there’s some luckiness behind his stellar run prevention. FIP (4.83), xFIP (4.45) and SIERA (4.39) indicate there could be regression coming, and both Lynn’s .225 batting average on balls in play and 82.3 percent strand rate look likely to trend in the wrong direction as the season progresses.

Regardless of any red flags, Lynn’s track record and results this year have put him on several teams’ radars as Monday approaches. If the Astros win the derby for the $7.5MM man, he’d presumably join Dallas Keuchel, Lance McCullers and Charlie Morton to comprise their top four starters, though Brad Peacock and Mike Fiers have pitched so well out of their rotation over the past couple months that it would be unwise to discount them.

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