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AL East Notes: Bradley, Upton, Osuna, Yankees

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Jackie Bradley Jr. underwent an MRI on his right knee this morning and he isn’t in today’s Red Sox lineup, Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe reports (Twitter link).  Bradley took an awkward step while rounding first base during a flyout in the ninth inning of yesterday’s 4-1 loss to the Tigers, though he told Abraham and other reporters after the game that he was “all good…everything is intact” and joked that he was “built like Secretariat.”  Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told Abraham that the MRI didn’t reveal anything that would require a DL stint for Bradley, so it seems like Boston is simply being careful with its center fielder.  Given how the Red Sox roster has already been decimated by a flu bug, it’s hard to blame the team for guarding against Bradley potentially aggravating a minor injury.  Here’s more from around the AL East…

  • The Rays didn’t seek out a reunion with Melvin Upton for multiple reasons, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes, one of which was the club’s desire to give Peter Bourjos a chance.  Bourjos was only just acquired in a late-March trade with the White Sox, and like Upton, is a right-handed hitting outfielder capable of playing all three outfield spots.  Upton has been the much better hitter than Bourjos over the course of his career, though Upton’s own run-creating numbers have been well below the league average in three of the last four seasons.  Upton signed a minor league deal with the Giants after being released by the Blue Jays at the end of Spring Training.
  • Roberto Osuna reported no pain during a 24-pitch simulated game yesterday, the Blue Jays closer told Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi and other media.  Osuna began the season on the DL due to a cervical spasm, though the injury was thought to be fairly minor and Osuna is on pace to be activated for Toronto’s home opener on April 11.
  • With so much uncertainty within the Yankees lineup, ESPN.com’s Andrew Marchand opines that an extended DL stint for Gary Sanchez could ruin the team’s chances of contending.  The Yankees are off to a rough start both on the field and with the injury bug, as Sanchez and Didi Gregorius are on the DL and Greg Bird has been bothered by a sore ankle.  (Not to mention the concerning reports on the elbow of top pitching prospect James Kaprielian.)  Speaking of Bird, the first baseman tells MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (Twitter link) and other reporters that his ankle is feeling better, though he is currently bothered by the flu.

DL Notes: Howell, Beltre, Rickard, Johnson, Otani

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Here’s the latest injury news from around the baseball world…

  • The Blue Jays placed southpaw J.P. Howell on the 10-day DL with a sore shoulder, with righty Dominic Leone recalled from Triple-A to take Howell’s place on the roster.  (Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi was among those to report the news.)  Signed to a one-year, $3MM deal in the offseason, Howell has a 54.00 ERA over one-third of an inning in his brief Jays tenure, thanks to an ugly outing on Friday that saw him allow two runs without recording an out.  Howell underwent labrum surgery in 2010 but his shoulder hasn’t had any issues since; the durable reliever has averaged 64 games per season from 2012-16.  With Howell sidelined, Aaron Loup is the only left-hander in the Toronto bullpen.  [Updated Blue Jays roster at Roster Resource]
  • Adrian Beltre is eligible to return from the 10-day DL today but the Rangers have decided against activating the star third baseman, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports.  Beltre has been out of action due to a right calf strain and isn’t quite ready to play, though he has participated in batting practice and some running drills.  Joey Gallo has been filling in at third in Beltre’s absence.
  • Orioles outfielder Joey Rickard is headed to the 10-day DL due to a sprained left middle finger, manager Buck Showalter told MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko and other reporters.  Rickard suffered the injury sliding into second base yesterday.  The O’s had a ready-made replacement for Rickard on the 25-man roster, as Wade Miley was activated from the 10-day DL for his scheduled start this afternoon against the Yankees.  There was some question over how Baltimore would find a 25-man roster spot for Miley upon his return, and according to Showalter, Rickard wouldn’t have been optioned had he been healthy.  With Rickard out, Trey Mancini and Craig Gentry will be the right-handed hitting sides of Baltimore’s corner outfield platoons, with Hyun Soo Kim and Seth Smith providing the lefty bats.  [Updated Orioles roster at Roster Resource]
  • Showalter also told media that Chris Johnson suffered a broken bone in his forearm after being hit by a pitch during a Triple-A game yesterday.  Johnson is expected to miss six to eight weeks.  The Orioles signed Johnson to a minor league deal this winter, and then released and re-signed the veteran to a fresh contract at the end of Spring Training.  The opt-out dates within Johnson’s contract (if any) aren’t known, though this lengthy absence could likely impact his decision about staying in Baltimore’s organization.
  • In notable international injury news, Shohei Otani will miss approximately six weeks due to a strain in his left thigh muscle, The Associated Press reports.  Otani suffered the injury trying to beat out an infield single, and as the AP piece notes, “the injury will add further debate to Otani’s insistence on batting as well as pitching.”  The two-way star is both Japan’s best pitcher and a very promising hitter, posting a 1.004 OPS with 22 homers over 382 PA last season for the Nippon Ham Fighters and is off to a blistering start in his first eight games this season.  (Otani has yet to pitch in 2017.)  Otani’s professional future is the subject of wide interest on both sides of the Pacific, as the 22-year-old is reportedly planning to come to the Major League Baseball in 2018.

Brewers Designate Damien Magnifico For Assignment

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The Brewers have selected the contract of right-hander David Goforth and designated right-hander Damien Magnifico for assignment in a corresponding 40-man roster move, the club announced via Twitter.

Goforth, a seventh-round pick for the Brew Crew in 2011, has a 6.11 ERA over 35 1/3 career innings with the club and a 3.95 ERA, 6.5 K/9 and 1.65 K/BB rater over 481 1/3 frames in the minors.  Southpaw Brent Suter was optioned to Triple-A yesterday, so with Goforth taking his place, Milwaukee now has an all-righty bullpen.

Magnifico made his big league debut last season, notching three innings over a three-game cup of coffee with the Brewers.  The 25-year-old righty was selected in the fifth round of the 2012 draft and he has a 3.71 ERA, 7.0 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 over 339 2/3 career innings in Milwaukee’s farm system.

Nationals Designate Jeremy Guthrie For Assignment

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The Nationals announced that right-hander Jeremy Guthrie has been designated for assignment, and in a corresponding move, righty Matt Albers’ contract has been selected from Triple-A to fill the spot on the 25-man roster.

Guthrie signed a minor league deal with the Nats in February and got an opportunity to start yesterday due to something of a rotation crunch (Stephen Strasburg was given an extra day of rest and Joe Ross wasn’t yet eligible to be called back up after being optioned to Triple-A).  Unfortunately for Guthrie and the Nationals, the start was a disastrous one — Guthrie allowed 10 earned runs over just 2/3 of an inning in an eventual 17-3 loss to the Phillies.  Adding insult to injury, yesterday was also Guthrie’s 38th birthday.

The outing was Guthrie’s first MLB appearance since 2015, as the veteran posted a 5.95 ERA over 148 1/3 innings for the Royals and didn’t make the postseason roster for the eventual World Series’ champions.  Guthrie also struggled in 2016 pitching at the Triple-A level for the Padres and Marlins, posting a 7.17 ERA over 86 2/3 IP within the two organizations.  Given Guthrie’s age and lack of recent effectiveness, it seems questionable whether he could catch on with another team, though a move to relief pitching seems necessary for the longtime durable starter.  Guthrie averaged 201 innings per season from 2008-14 with the Royals, Rockies and Orioles, and he owns a career 4.42 ERA over 1765 1/3 innings in parts of 13 big league seasons.

Albers also signed a minor deal with Washington in February, though the Nats released him at the end of Spring Training and re-signed the righty to a new contract.  Both deals were for the same terms — a $1.15MM base salary for making the MLB roster and another $600K available in incentives.  Albers suffered through a rough 2016 season with the White Sox (6.31 ERA in 51 1/3 IP) but the pitch-to-contact specialist posted a 2.32 ERA, 6.1 K/9, 2.02 K/BB rate and a 59.2% ground-ball rate over 170 2/3 IP from 2012-15.

MLBTR Originals

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Here is this week’s original content from MLB Trade Rumors’ writing staff and contributors…

  • MLBTR contributor Chuck Wasserstrom looks back at the White Sox 1998 draft with former Sox scouting director Duane Shaffer.  While Chicago’s first four picks from that draft (Kip Wells, Aaron Rowand, Gary Majewski, Josh Fogg) went on to enjoy lengthy big league careers, the Sox 1998 draft class was a rare example of a team striking gold with a 38th-round pick — longtime White Sox rotation staple Mark Buehrle.  “The level of satisfaction with this draft is tremendous.  When you’re right on the top end of your draft, that’s basically what you get paid for.  You have to be right on those guys,” Shaffer said. “When you get a guy like Mark Buehrle down in the draft – he makes that draft that much better.”
  • Tim Dillard (a.k.a. @DimTillard) takes us inside the clubhouse of the Brewers’ Triple-A affiliate in his latest Inner Monologue , covering everything from Tim Tebow and vanity plate etiquette to 50 Cent and on-field wedding proposals.
  • MLBTR’s Offseason In Review series continued with Steve Adams examining the Royals, Connor Byrne looking at the Mariners, Charlie Wilmoth covering the Angels, and Jeff Todd breaking down the Rockies’ and Phillies’ winter moves.

NL Notes: Cubs, Mets, Nationals

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Ben Zobrist started the majority of the Cubs’ regular-season games at second base in 2016, but Javier Baez is now in the process of becoming the team’s everyday option at the keystone, writes Patrick Mooney of CSN Chicago. Baez started all 17 of the Cubs’ playoff games at second last fall and has opened 2017 by lining up there in four of five contests, which has pushed Zobrist into a super-utility role. Manager Joe Maddon isn’t ready to declare Baez the Cubs’ starter at second, largely because of “all the versatility” the team’s position players possess. However, he admitted that “pretty much what you’ve seen to this point, I think, is like a good indicator of what we’re going to be able to do with everybody being healthy.”

More on two other potential National League contenders:

  • Although Travis d’Arnaud is not among the 10 Mets who are scheduled to hit free agency after this season, this is nonetheless a crucial year for the catcher, observes Joel Sherman of the New York Post. The Mets will need to allocate a large portion of their offseason spending to positions other than catcher next winter, meaning they’d like to avoid having to upgrade behind the plate. The club eschewed free agent catchers this past winter in order to give d’Arnaud another chance to establish himself as a legitimate starter. That came in spite of the fact that the former top prospect has consistently dealt with injury problems, and he only hit .247/.307/.323 in 276 plate appearances last season. The 28-year-old was quite useful in 2015, though (albeit over only 268 PAs), and still regards himself a long-term piece for the Mets. “Big time,” said d’Arnaud, who’s controllable via arbitration through 2019.
  • Shortstop Trea Turner departed the Nationals’ loss to the Phillies on Saturday with a hamstring issue, but it seems he dodged a major injury. Manager Dusty Baker only expects Turner to miss a couple days, Dan Kolko of MASN was among those to report (Twitter link). That’s the lone good news of the night for the Nationals, who were on the wrong end of a football-like score (17-3) in Philadelphia.
  • Right-hander Jeremy Guthrie got the start for the Nationals on Saturday, his first major league action since 2015, but probably won’t be long for their rotation. Baker stated before the game, via Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com, that the demoted Joe Ross “will be back.” The skipper also insisted Ross and Guthrie aren’t competing for the fifth spot in the Nats’ rotation. Regardless, Guthrie didn’t exactly make his case for the role. In a nightmarish showing, the 38-year-old yielded 10 earned runs on six hits and four walks over just two-thirds of an inning. Ross will be eligible to return to the majors next week.

Baseball Blogs Weigh In: Jays, Bucs, Cubs, Twins, Rays, D-backs

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This week in baseball blogs:

Please send submissions to ZachBBWI @gmail.com.

West Notes: Padres, Astros, Dodgers, Rangers

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This year’s Padres are turning “tanking” into an art form, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. The Padres feature three players selected in the Rule 5 Draft, plus an incredibly inexperienced outfield and three starting pitchers who have recently been released. GM A.J. Preller’s strategy this season, Sherman writes, amounts to a “more extreme version of, say, what the Astros and Cubs did” — essentially, being indifferent to winning in the short term in order to get choice draft picks. Notably, Sherman detects a personal tone to criticism of the Padres’ strategy from employees of other organizations, in part because of Preller’s failure to disclose some relevant medical information in past trades, including the deal last season that sent Drew Pomeranz to Boston.

  • The Astros have liked what they’ve seen so far of Charlie Morton, who signed a two-year, $14MM deal with the team last winter, Tyler Kepner of the New York Times writes. “I do believe that Charlie Morton isn’t a back-of-the-rotation guy,” said GM Jeff Luhnow during Spring Training. “He hit 97 three times in the first inning yesterday, with a lot of sink on his pitches and good secondary stuff. A healthy Charlie Morton could work himself into the conversation with Dallas Keuchel and Lance McCullers at the top of our rotation.” Morton allowed just two runs and two walks while striking out six in his first start of the year against the Mariners this week, although, uncharacteristically, he allowed 11 fly balls. Morton is excited about his new team’s prospects, Kepner writes. “The whole team is strong,” he says. “I just don’t see how we’re not set up to win.”
  • With Rich Hill on the disabled list, the Dodgers will reinsert left-hander Alex Wood into their rotation for Monday’s game against the Cubs, manager Dave Roberts announced Saturday (via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com). Wood wasn’t able to crack the Dodgers’ season-opening rotation, but he has enjoyed plenty of success as a starter. The 26-year-old has racked up 458 1/3 frames from the rotation and recorded a 3.40 ERA, 8.01 K/9 and 2.88 BB/9.
  • Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre is eligible to come off the 10-day DL on Sunday, but the team is unsure if it will activate him, per T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com. “The bottom line is, we are in the information-gathering stage, and how he feels,” manager Jeff Banister said of Beltre, who’s sidelined with a calf injury. “We’ll go from there.” Beltre took live batting practice Saturday, though he’s not yet able to run at full speed. Considering they’re off Monday, the Rangers could opt against activating the 38-year-old in favor of a couple more days of rest.

Yankees To Place Gary Sanchez On 10-Day DL

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The Yankees will place catcher Gary Sanchez on the 10-day disabled list with a right biceps strain, Jack Curry of the YES Network was among those to report (Twitter link). Sanchez suffered the injury during the Yankees’ 5-4 loss to Baltimore on Saturday. He’ll see a doctor Monday or Tuesday, per Marly Rivera of ESPN.com.

New York has gotten off to a sluggish start even with the heralded Sanchez in its lineup, having dropped four of five to begin the season. Sanchez hit just .150/.190/.300 with a home run, four strikeouts and a walk during those five games, but the 24-year-old figures to rebound when he returns to action.

Sanchez slashed .299/.376/.657 with 20 homers in 299 plate appearances as a rookie last season, and while he won’t be able to replicate those numbers over a full campaign, he could nonetheless firmly establish himself as an elite catcher as early as this year. Further adding to Sanchez’s appeal is the fact that he cut down a whopping 41 percent of would-be base stealers in 2016. Given that the injury is to his impressive throwing arm, the Yankees will be extra careful with his recovery, according to manager Joe Girardi (via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, on Twitter).

With Sanchez out of action, the Yankees will try to escape their early season swoon using the uninspiring combination of Austin Romine and Kyle Higashioka behind the plate. Romine has batted an ugly .222/.256/.329 in 359 major league PAs, while the 26-year-old Higashioka hasn’t yet debuted in the bigs. He’ll join the Yankees on Sunday, tweets Hoch.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/8/17

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Saturday’s minor moves:

  • The Blue Jays have selected the contract of right-hander Casey Lawrence and moved right-hander Bo Schultz from the 10-day disabled list to the 60-day DL, per a team announcement. Lawrence, who has been with the Jays organization since signing as an undrafted free agent in 2010, could now be in position to log his first major league action. The 29-year-old saw significant time at the Triple-A level last season, when he posted a 3.83 ERA, 6.0 K/9 and 2.48 BB/9 in 87 innings and 15 appearances (all starts). Most of Lawrence’s work has come at Double-A, where he has pitched to a 4.23 ERA with 5.4 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9 in 410 1/3 frames (70 appearances, 65 starts).

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