Nationals Place Jonathan Papelbon On Disabled List
2:30pm: Baker told reporters, including the Washington Post’s Chelsea Janes (Twitter link), that Papelbon initially incurred the injury while warming up on Sunday. There’s no set timetable for his return right now, nor do the Nats have a designated closer to step into Papelbon’s place. Baker noted that he likes Shawn Kelley quite a bit (via MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman, on Twitter) but noted that the team is being careful with Kelley’s arm due to the fact that he has twice undergone Tommy John surgery in his career.
1:17pm: The Nationals have placed right-hander Jonathan Papelbon on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to yesterday, with a strained right intercostal muscle, per a team announcement. Right-hander Matt Belisle has been activated from his rehab assignment to take Papelbon’s spot on the roster. Remarkably, MLB.com’s Jamal Collier points out that this will be the first DL stint of Papelbon’s Major League career (Twitter link).
The Nats neglected to lit a specific timeline for Papelbon’s return, though Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post tweets that skipper Dusty Baker will chat with the media within the next hour, at which point further information should be available. It’s not immediately clear who will inherit the ninth inning during Papelbon’s absence, although Shawn Kelley has been far and away the team’s best short-stint reliever this season, having pitched to a 2.70 ERA with 13.1 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9 in 23 1/3 innings. Those numbers trump even Papelbon, who currently is sporting a 3.28 ERA with 6.9 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 in a similar workload of 24 2/3 innings. Other considerations could be Felipe Rivero and Blake Treinen, though Rivero has struggled quite a bit of late and is sporting an ERA north of 5.00 at the moment.
[Related: Updated Washington Nationals depth chart]
While there’s no guarantee as to how long Papelbon will be out, the injury raises further questions about the back end of the club’s bullpen. It’s no secret that Papelbon’s peripheral stats have declined in recent seasons; his current strikeout rate, average fastball velocity (90.7 mph) and swinging-strike rate (9.5 percent) are each career-lows, and the aforementioned 2.9 BB/9 rate is the highest it’s been since 2010. Papelbon’s ERA remains serviceable, to be sure, but metrics like xFIP (4.74) and SIERA (4.23) paint a far less-favorable picture.
The Nationals have been oft-connected to a shutdown reliever on the trade market, with both Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller mentioned as targets the Nats hope will become available. The injury to Papelbon only figures to increase the amount of chatter surrounding their hunt for a formidable ‘pen arm — especially if he is to expected to miss more than the minimum 15-day requirement. As MLBTR’s Jeff Todd pointed out last week in running down some of the top trade candidates from around the league, there figures to be a large number of relievers available this summer, whereas many other positions will be considerably more difficult to fill.
Astros Designate Juan Minaya For Assignment
The Astros announced on Tuesday that they have designated right-hander Juan Minaya for assignment in order to clear a spot on the roster for infielder Danny Worth, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Fresno. Worth will step into Luke Gregerson‘s 25-man roster spot for the time being, as Gregerson has been placed on the family medical emergency list.
[Related: Updated Houston Astros depth chart]
Minaya, 25, has pitched to a 3.91 ERA with a 19-to-10 K/BB ratio through 25 1/3 innings out of the Triple-A bullpen this season. He has yet to make it to the Major League level in his career, though he did enjoy an excellent season at Triple-A in 2015, when he logged a 2.80 ERA with 9.7 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 in 54 2/3 innings of work. He didn’t crack Baseball America’s list of Top 30 Astros prospects this offseason and hasn’t done so in the past, but Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis of MLB.com currently have him ranked 23rd among Astros farmhands. Callis and Mayo praise his 95-96 mph fastball that can touch 98 giving the pitch a 70-grade on the 20-80 scouting scale and also crediting him with a 55-grade slider. However, their report indicates that he still needs work when it comes to throwing strikes more consistently, and walks have indeed been a problem for him throughout his minor league tenure.
Worth, 30, appeared in parts of five big league seasons with the Tigers from 2010-14 and is a career .230/.293/.295 hitter at the Major League level. He’s capable of playing second base, third base and shortstop, and he’s in the midst of an outstanding season at Triple-A, where he’s batting .330/.449/.550 with eight homers through 235 trips to the plate. He can provide the ‘Stros with depth all around the infield.
Pirates Place Gerrit Cole On DL, Recall Jameson Taillon
The Pirates announced that they have placed ace Gerrit Cole on the 15-day disabled list due to a right triceps muscle sprain, as MLB.com’s Adam Berry tweets. Right-hander Jameson Taillon has been recalled from Triple-A Indianapolis to make tonight’s start — the second big league outing of his career. Cole’s DL stint is retroactive to June 11.
Cole, 25, has worked to a 2.77 ERA this season that closely matches last season’s 2.60 mark, although his strikeout (7.2 K/9), walk (2.6 BB/9) and ground-ball (42.9 percent) rates have all trended in the wrong direction this year. He exited his most recent start after two innings due to tightness in his triceps, and the Pirates had been hopeful that he’d only miss one start, but it appears he’ll be sidelined a bit longer than that at this stage. Whether his DL stint extends beyond the minimum 15 days remains to be seen.
[Related: Updated Pittsburgh Pirates Depth Chart]
The 24-year-old Taillon has made a dominant return to the mound in 2016 after missing the 2014-15 seasons due to injury. In 61 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level this season, Taillon has a 2.04 ERA with a brilliant 61-to-6 K/BB ratio, and he turned in a quality start in his first big league effort last week when he held the Mets to three runs on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts across six innings. He’ll tangle with the Mets once again tonight — this time on the road in New York. Taillon doesn’t appear to quite be in the Bucs’ long-term rotation plans for this season just yet, as he was optioned following his recent appearance. Cole’s health could play a role in those plans, of course, though one would also imagine that Pittsburgh will be mindful of Taillon’s innings count following a two-year layoff from taking the mound in a game setting.
Rockies To Sign Fourth Overall Pick Riley Pint
The Rockies have agreed to sign right-hander Riley Pint, whom they selected with the fourth overall pick in this year’s draft, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network and FanRag Sports (Twitter link). The prep right-hander out of Kansas City will receive a $4.8MM signing bonus, which is $458,700 less than the No. 4 slot’s value of $5,258,700 (as reported earlier this year by MLB.com’s Jim Callis).
Pint, 18, rated as the No. 2 prospect in this year’s draft in the estimation of Callis and colleague Jonathan Mayo at MLB.com, and Baseball America rated him as the No. 2 prospect as well. ESPN’s Keith Law was a bit less optimistic, rating him 12th. Callis and Mayo note that he’s the highest prep arm to come out of Kansas state since 1983 due in large part to a fastball that sits 93-97 mph and reached as high as 102 mph this spring. BA calls Pint a “much better version of the same template” as former No. 2 overall pick Tyler Kolek, who went second to the Marlins in 2014 due largely to his own triple-digit heater. BA writes that Pint regularly hits 100 mph with sink and can flash a pair of above-average breaking pitches. Law notes that Pint will sometimes show a sharp curveball but doesn’t do so consistently, though the same is true of an above-average changeup, so there’s clearly the potential for a wide array of above-average offerings in the power-armed teenager’s future. Each report, however, mentions some concerns surrounding Pint’s delivery as well as his ability to consistently throw strikes, creating a fair amount of risk around him as well (as one would expect with any high school pitcher).
The Rockies went exceptionally heavy on college players in the 2016 draft, as Pint is one of just nine high school players the team selected out of 41 picks. Some of the savings they received on Pint could be applied to fourth-round pick Colton Welker, a prep third baseman out of Florida whom Callis and Mayo noted may require an over-slot deal due to a strong commitment to the University of Miami. Colorado entered the draft with a pool of $11,453,100 and will have $6,353,400 of that sum remaining upon the formalization of Pint’s agreement.
Cubs, Brian Matusz Agree To Minor League Deal
The Cubs have signed free-agent lefty Brian Matusz to a minor league contract, reports Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune (via Twitter). The longtime Orioles southpaw was recently traded from Baltimore to Atlanta alongside a Competitive Balance Draft Pick in a salary dump deal. The Braves immediately designated Matusz for assignment upon making the deal and released him shortly thereafter.
The 29-year-old Matusz missed significant time with an intercostal strain this season and has struggled when healthy enough to take the mound. He’s surrendered eight runs in six innings while allowing 11 hits and seven walks with just one strikeout. Those unsightly numbers aside, Matusz has a solid track record in the bullpen, where he posted a combined 3.32 ERA with 9.4 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9 in 151 2/3 innings from 2013-15. In that time he faced 333 lefties and held them to a miserable .190/.245/.320 batting line with a 100-to-17 K/BB ratio.
While off-hand comparisons to Orioles-castoff-turned-Cubs-ace Jake Arrieta are probably unavoidable, there’s not much of a parallel here, as Matusz has already been cast aside by a second team and already has enough service time to become a free agent at season’s end, whereas Arrieta was acquired in a trade with four and a half years of club control remaining. Matusz, however, will be stretched out as a starter with Triple-A Iowa, according to MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko, so it appears he’ll at least be presented with an opportunity to show that he has some rotation upside remaining. Of course, the Cubs don’t have a spot in their rotation that is open at the moment — Arrieta, Jon Lester, John Lackey, Kyle Hendricks and Jason Hammel have all pitched to a 3.05 ERA or better — but Matusz could be a depth piece in the event of an injury to one of those five or a safety net should Clayton Richard‘s recent struggles in the bullpen persist.
Padres, Third-Rounder Mason Thompson Agree To Over-Slot Deal
The Padres and third-round pick Mason Thompson appear to have an agreement for a considerably over-slot deal, as MLB.com’s Jim Callis reports that the No. 85 overall pick will receive a bonus of $1.75MM (Twitter link). That’s more than double the slot value of $730,400, although as Callis notes, the high school righty out of Texas would likely have been a first-round pick had he not undergone Tommy John surgery. As such, Thompson likely required a considerably larger bonus in order to persuade him to sign as opposed to honor his commitment to the University of Texas.
Because of his injury, Thompson rated 105th on Baseball America’s Top 500 ranking of draft prospects and 109th on the Top 200 of Callis and colleague Jonathan Mayo at MLB.com. Both scouting reports note that Thompson was able to play this spring but was limited to hitting for the most part. He was able to throw some bullpen sessions for scouts, per MLB.com’s report, and Callis/Mayo note that he looked “as athletic and projectable as ever” in them. The 6’7″, 180-pound 18-year-old was able to run his velocity up to 94 mph when at his best, and BA notes that he shows a feel for a power curveball as well as a changeup with fade and deception. Both reports note that he is teeming with upside, so if he can make a full recovery from Tommy John (which, of course, is far from a guarantee — hence the slide), the Padres may very well have made a nice value play.
San Diego entered the draft with a $12,869,200 pool due to the fact that they possessed six of the first 85 picks in the draft (the team’s three natural picks, plus a Competitive Balance pick and a pair of compensation picks for the free-agent losses of Justin Upton and Ian Kennedy), and they’ve now reached agreement with a pair of those top six picks. The team announced last night that it had reached an agreement with Stanford righty Cal Quantrill, the son of former Major Leaguer Paul Quantrill and the team’s top overall selection. Quantrill, like Thompson, is recovering from Tommy John surgery, and MLB.com felt he might have been a top-of-the-draft consideration had he been fully healthy. The Padres look to have targeted a few players that slid due to injury concerns with the hopes of landing high-upside arms at “discount” spots in the draft, as even No. 71 pick Reggie Lawson had some injury concerns that might’ve harmed his stock.
Glen Perkins Receiving Another Opinion On Injured Shoulder
Twins closer Glen Perkins hasn’t pitched in a game since early April and has now suffered a pair of setbacks in his rehab, prompting him to head to Los Angeles to receive a third opinion on his shoulder from renowned orthopedist Dr. Neal ElAttrache, as Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tweeted yesterday. Perkins himself joined Phil Mackey of 1500 ESPN on the radio yesterday and offered a candid and fairly bleak update on his efforts to return from a left shoulder strain (links to Twitter): “I can’t throw a ball more than fifty percent off a mound without pain.” Perkins, according to Mackey, had an MRI in Minneapolis yesterday before heading out to see ElAttrache.
As 1500 ESPN’s Derek Wetmore writes, Perkins described the injury to Mackey in more detail during the interview, citing a “stabbing” sensation in his shoulder and expressing frustration that he appears to have actually taken a step backward in each of his attempts to throw a bullpen session. “I don’t have a good feeling about it but hopefully that’ll be proven wrong,” Perkins said of today’s appointment. Suffice it to say, the Twins don’t appear to be in position to get their top reliever healthy at any point in the near future. Back in April, team doctors and an outside second opinion agreed that surgery wasn’t necessary to repair Perkins’ shoulder, but the prolonged absence and multiple setbacks are unequivocal red flags. Wetmore notes that GM Terry Ryan said on Sunday that there wasn’t yet any consideration of shutting Perkins down for the season
Perkins, a former first-round pick (22nd overall in 2004), toiled as a starter for the early portion of his career before emerging as a lockdown setup man in 2011 and ultimately rising to claim the team’s closer role midway through the 2012 season. From 2011-13, he was somewhat quietly one of baseball’s best relievers, recording a 2.45 ERA with 10.2 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 in 194 2/3 innings. Neck and back injuries have shortened each of his past two seasons, and he’s appeared in just two games in 2016. Perkins is earning $6.3MM with another $6.5MM guaranteed for the 2017 season. Minnesota also carries a $6.5MM club option on him for the 2018 season (his age-35 campaign), which comes with a $700K buyout.
Had the Twins performed up to expectations this season, perhaps there’d be cause for Perkins to attempt to rush back to the mound more aggressively, but Minnesota’s current 20-43 record and last-place standing in the AL Central gives both the team and Perkins every reason to exercise caution. Minnesota has used Kevin Jepsen at closer for the majority of the season in his absence, but while Jepsen filled in well for Perkins in 2015, he’s struggling through one of the worst seasons of his career in 2016. Minnesota has recently installed minor league signees Brandon Kintzler and Fernando Abad as a closer committee.
Trade Rumors Acquires Roster Resource
Today, we’re proud to announce an acquisition of our own! Trade Rumors has purchased the Roster Resource website, which was formerly known as MLB Depth Charts before expanding into other sports. Additionally, we’ve hired the site’s creator, Jason Martinez. Jason will continue to obsessively update depth charts and roster information quickly and accurately for all MLB, NBA, and NFL teams, and he’ll also contribute articles here at MLBTR.
The depth charts and roster information will continue to live at Roster Resource for now, though it is officially under the Trade Rumors umbrella. You’ll see us begin linking more to the Roster Resource depth charts in our posts, as we feel this information is a perfect fit for readers of MLB Trade Rumors, Hoops Rumors, and Pro Football Rumors. We are striving to bring you the best possible coverage of transaction-related news as well as depth charts and roster information you can consult for further analysis.
We’d love your feedback on Roster Resource, whether through comments on this post, replies on Twitter, or messages through our contact form. We’ve already got a number of improvements planned. Below, I’ve linked to depth charts for each of the 30 teams, which is the heart of what the site offers.
- Arizona Diamondbacks
- Atlanta Braves
- Baltimore Orioles
- Boston Red Sox
- Chicago Cubs
- Chicago White Sox
- Cincinnati Reds
- Cleveland Indians
- Colorado Rockies
- Detroit Tigers
- Houston Astros
- Kansas City Royals
- Los Angeles Angels
- Los Angeles Dodgers
- Miami Marlins
- Milwaukee Brewers
- Minnesota Twins
- New York Mets
- New York Yankees
- Oakland Athletics
- Philadelphia Phillies
- Pittsburgh Pirates
- San Diego Padres
- San Francisco Giants
- Seattle Mariners
- St. Louis Cardinals
- Tampa Bay Rays
- Texas Rangers
- Toronto Blue Jays
- Washington Nationals
Giants, Brewers Have Briefly Discussed Ryan Braun
JUNE 14: The Brewers and Giants have thus far had only one “minimal” discussion surrounding Braun, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Rosenthal reminds that the Giants are one of six teams to which Braun cannot block a trade (along with the Angels, Dodgers, D-backs, Padres and Marlins, as Rosenthal initially reported back in March), but there are nonetheless obstacles to a deal. Chief among them is that Brewers owner Mark Attanasio is more concerned with ensuring that the Brewers receive premium talent than he is shedding a portion of Braun’s notable contract. The Giants’ farm system is considered below average in recent rankings from Baseball America (19th in baseball) and ESPN’s Keith Law (21st), so other teams may be able to offer a better package to meet those demands. Rosenthal also notes that the Giants will need to restock their bullpen after the ’16 season, and spending heavily on Braun limits their ability to do so by pushing them considerably closer to the luxury tax threshold (even with the aforementioned contracts coming off the books).
JUNE 13: With Hunter Pence on the disabled list due to a torn hamstring, the Giants are “looking everywhere” for another outfielder, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports (on Twitter). To that end, they’ve had preliminary discussions with the Brewers about Ryan Braun, according to Nightengale, though he also cautions that there’s nothing imminent between the two teams.
Braun’s name has been mentioned frequently as a potential trade candidate — he sat at No. 3 on Jeff Todd’s most recent trade candidate rankings here at MLBTR — in large part because he’s having one of the most productive seasons of his career on a rebuilding Brewers club. The 32-year-old is batting .316/.378/.541 with 11 homers, 11 doubles and five stolen bases through his first 217 plate appearances this season.
That production aside, the common consensus surrounding the controversial slugger is that the Brewers would likely have to absorb some salary in order to move him. Braun is in the first season of a five-year, $105MM contract extension that was tacked onto his initial eight-year, $45MM deal back in 2011. He’s earning $19MM this season (with about $11.5MM remaining) and is owed a total of approximately $87.52MM through the end of the 2020 campaign. From a contractual standpoint, the Giants can likely afford Braun; Angel Pagan, Santiago Casilla, Gregor Blanco, Jake Peavy, Sergio Romo and Javier Lopez are all free agents at season’s end, and the team has an extremely affordable arbitration class with only George Kontos ($1.15MM in 2016) and Cory Gearrin (pre-arb) looking at raises.
That massive extension for Braun (the largest in Brewers franchise history) came before his 2011 NL MVP Award and also before a messy PED scandal in which Braun accused a test collector of tampering with his urine sample before publicly admitting to steroid use more than a year later in the wake of the Biogenesis investigation.
While Braun certainly comes with some past baggage, he’s regained much of his production and hasn’t failed a test since serving a 65-game suspension to close out the 2013 season. With both Pence and Pagan on the disabled list, the Giants have been relying on a combination of Gregor Blanco and rookies Jarrett Parker and Mac Williamson to flank Denard Span in the outfield corners. None of that trio, however, is enjoying a particularly productive 2016 campaign to date. Pagan has hit well when healthy enough to take the field, but he’s also spent three weeks on the DL with a hamstring injury and missed 10 days earlier this season with that same injury.
What remains unclear at this time, though, is the Giants’ sense of urgency in getting a deal done. Pence tweeted that he underwent his operation last Thursday, and the Giants may not want to make a drastic move until having a clearer picture of his ability to return to the field. Indeed, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle notes (links to Twitter) that the Giants are hoping to hold down the fort until Pence’s return, making a more incremental trade likelier in the short-term. ESPN’s Jim Bowden discussed a Braun/Giants scenario earlier today as well (Insider subscription required), writing that it shouldn’t be a surprise if the Giants pursue Braun and linking prospects Tyler Beede and Christian Arroyo to the Brewers, though it’s not entirely clear if those names are mentioned in speculative fashion. Like Schulman, Bowden implies that a significant move for the Giants would happen at the deadline as opposed to seven weeks in advance, where we presently stand.
Nationals Agree To Terms With Comp Pick Carter Kieboom
The Nationals have agreed to terms with their first selection from this year’s amateur draft, high school shortstop Carter Kieboom, MLB.com’s Bill Ladson first reported. Bonus terms weren’t reported.
He is the younger brother of Spencer Kieboom, a 25-year-old catching prospect who’s also in the Washington system. The younger Kieboom followed his brother to Marrietta, Georgia’s Walton High School. And he, too, committed to Clemson University, but won’t join him in attending.
It’s an open question whether Kieboom can stick at shortstop for the long run, though expectations are that he’d be a quality defender at third regardless. And his bat could be good enough to carry him at the corner infield, with observers giving him high marks for instincts, bat speed, coordination, and approach at the plate.
In the aggregate, ESPN.com’s Keith Law rates Kieboom as one of the thirty best draft-eligible prospects. Other outlets aren’t quite as enamored, with Baseball America placing him 44th and MLB.com giving him #45 billing.
The Nationals have a $2.066MM allocation for the 28th overall slot, which was used to take Kieboom. Washington also had the next choice, which it used on University of Florida righty Dane Dunnning, who is still pitching in the NCAA tournament.
The club didn’t have much of a need for cost savings, as it selected just one high-schooler in the first ten rounds: southpaw Jesus Luzardo, who was plucked in the third round. The Nats gave up their first-round selection by signing Daniel Murphy.