AL East Notes: Yankees, Headley, Blue Jays, Smith, Harvey, Britton
Less than one-sixth of the season is in the books, but the Yankees already find themselves looking at a six-game gap in the AL East. GM Brian Cashman acknowledged that the start is concerning, telling Ken Davidoff of the New York Post that “we urgently need to stop the bleeding now.” But doing that is more a matter of minor adjustments and improvements than significant changes to the roster or field staff, the veteran executive suggests — at least for now. “We’ll continue to do the work necessary to put ourselves in position to succeed, and eventually that worm will turn. In the event things don’t turn I’m going to have to make it turn and be forced to do things that weren’t part of the game plan, whatever that would be,” Cashman said. “The best answer would come from this mix of players.”
- Perhaps no Yankees player has scuffled as badly as third baseman Chase Headley, who has been among the worst regulars in baseball. In Cashman’s view, Headley isn’t so much a victim of batted ball luck as he is simply struggling to hit the ball with authority (as his lack of a single extra-base hit would suggest). “He’s getting his walks, and thank God for that because it would be worse [without them],” said Cashman. “He has not been able to impact the baseball like he’s capable of. We have problems all over, but … he’s definitely someone you can point to and say we have to figure it out. He’s struggling the most.” While Headley has dealt with back issues at times, Cashman says that’s “definitely not an issue” right now. Headley is in the second season of a four-year, $52MM free agent contract.
- The Blue Jays are in better position than their division rivals from New York, but also have played beneath their high expectations in the early going. That doesn’t mean that manager John Gibbons is at risk, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Instead, Toronto’s new front office is focused on finding a way to improve the results from the bullpen, per Heyman. Gibbons is under contract through 2017 under a reworked deal he agreed to this winter.
- The Red Sox are finally in position to call upon reliever Carson Smith, as he’s officially been activated from the DL. Smith has been expected to hold down a significant late-inning role since coming over this winter via trade, but first had to battle through a flexor strain. Boston will undoubtedly hope that Smith can avoid further elbow complications.
- Orioles pitching prospect Hunter Harvey will be delayed yet again, Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports, as he will undergo sports hernia surgery this week. Now, it’s not clear that Harvey will have a shot at making his next regular season, minor league appearance before passing the two-year anniversary of his last. Harvey is still just 21, and remains a highly-regarded prospect, but has yet to move past the Class A level due to a litany of injuries. He’s expected to begin working back to action in July.
- Meanwhile, the Orioles got promising news on closer Zach Britton, as MLB.com’s Britt Ghiroli reports (via Twitter) that an MRI revealed no major cause for concern. The southpaw relief ace is hopeful that he’ll avoid the DL entirely after turning his ankle recently.
Dale Thayer Opts Out Of Dodgers Deal
Veteran righty Dale Thayer has opted out of his minor league contract with the Dodgers, MLBTR has learned. The 35-year-old reliever is represented by O’Connell Sports Management.
After receiving inconsistent MLB opportunities earlier in his career, Thayer established himself as a reliable member of the Padres’ pen in 2012. Over the next four years, he contributed 225 2/3 innings of 3.19 ERA pitching to San Diego, with 7.9 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9.
Thayer experienced a bit of a dip last year, as his strikeouts dropped and walks trended up. He ended up with a 4.06 ERA in 37 2/3 frames while also spending some time at Triple-A. But his velocity remained in line with recent years and his brief minor league tenure was successful. Thus far in 2016, pitching at the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate, Thayer has a strong 10:2 K:BB ratio over eight innings, but he’s also allowed six earned runs on 16 hits.
Several organizations around baseball have struggled to find good innings from their middle relievers, so it wouldn’t be at all surprising to see Thayer land another big league opportunity before long. Having entered the season with just over four years of MLB service on his ledger, Thayer also can be controlled via arbitration.
Devin Mesoraco To DL With Torn Labrum In Left Shoulder
10:22pm: Mesoraco says he’s “going to definitely have to get surgery at some point,” as Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. But he’s still considering whether to try playing through the injury.
5:40pm: The Reds announced today that catcher Devin Mesoraco has suffered a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He’ll go on the 15-day DL for now. It certainly seems likely that he’ll require an extended absence, though it remains to be seen whether surgery will be required.
This injury constitutes the latest setback for the 27-year-old, who missed most of last season after undergoing hip surgery. Mesoraco signed a four-year, $28MM extension before the 2015 season, with the club buying out all of his arbitration eligibility and buying up one free agent-eligible campaign.
That deal came together after Mesoraco’s breakout 2014, in which he slashed .273/.359/.534 with 25 home runs in 440 plate appearances. It’s been mostly downhill from there, as the former top prospect has struggled at the plate while battling his various ailments. In just 106 plate appearances since the start of 2015, he’s carrying a .158/.245/.200 batting line without a single long ball.
Brewers Designate Sam Freeman
The Brewers have designated lefty Sam Freeman, per a club announcement. His roster spot was needed for righty Junior Guerra, who’ll come up for at least one start.
Freeman, 28, gave Milwaukee some innings but not much else. Over 7 2/3 frames, he allowed 11 earned runs on 13 hits. Worse, Freeman walked more batters (nine) than he retired via strikeout (eight).
Of course, he’s done more in the past. Over the last four seasons, in fact, Freeman provided 108 2/3 frames of 3.23 ERA ball. He ought to have a shot at re-establishing himself elsewhere, though that’ll likely require a trip to Triple-A. The southpaw still sits at 94 mph with his fastball and his sky-high walk rate may just be a sample blip, as his zone percentage is right at his career mean.
Pending Free Agents That Dug An Early Hole In April
Last night, MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk looked at a number of free agents that bolstered their stock with a huge April performance (with the help of some Fangraphs leaderboards that he made for free-agent position players and pitchers). While Mark elected to look at some second- and third-tier free agents that are currently ascending the free agent power rankings, it’s also worth taking a look at the inverse; that is, players that may have had fairly strong free agent cases but have put themselves behind the eight ball. There are, of course, a number of pending free agents that struggled in the season’s first month, but rather than focusing on players that were candidates for shorter, smaller-scale deals in the first place, it seems worthwhile to identify some potentially significant earners that have gotten off on the wrong foot. It should be noted, of course, that a poor month or two isn’t a nail in the coffin to a player’s free agent hopes. Ian Kennedy, for instance, had a 7.15 ERA on June 1 last season and still pulled in $70MM and an opt-out clause this winter. However, there were others that struggled — most notably, perhaps, being Ian Desmond — and never fully recovered.
For the purposes of this post, I’m highlighting players that entered the season with legitimate cases for earning a deal of three years or more on the open market this coming offseason but have a long ways to go to now make that a reality…
Matt Wieters: I was among the crowd that was surprised to see Wieters accept Baltimore’s qualifying offer last November. Despite the fact that he was eased back into catching and hadn’t shown that he could consistently catch on consecutive days, Wieters slashed .267/.319/.422 — a batting line that was precisely league average in the eyes of both OPS+ and wRC+. A catcher that can put up league-average numbers at the plate is a hugely valuable commodity, and Wieters was still reasonably young and had a notable pedigree. Now, however, he’s batting .214/.290/.304 through his first 16 contests, and he’s caught on back-to-back days just once. Nineteen strikeouts in 62 plate appearances doesn’t help his cause whatsoever.
Carlos Gomez: Some will scoff at this notion, but if Gomez had come out the gates blazing and finished with numbers that closely resembled his 2013-14 production, he’d have had a case for a $200MM contract. Jacoby Ellsbury‘s seven-year, $153MM contract would have been looked at as a floor for agent Scott Boras, if it was even on his radar at all. Players that can deliver elite center field defense, 20+ homer power and all-around batting lines that are 25 to 30 percent above the league average are of the utmost rarity, and Gomez would’ve been entering his age-31 season. That’s a year older than Ellsbury was when he signed, but Gomez has had more offensive success, and Shin-Soo Choo can speak to the fact that it’s possible to take home seven years entering an age-31 season. Gomez, though, is hitting just .213/.241/.275 with 24 strikeouts and two walks in 83 PAs. The enormous ceiling still has him rated fifth on Tim Dierkes’ free-agent power rankings, but another month like April and Gomez will continue his slide down the list.
Edwin Encarnacion: At .240/.287/.380, Encarnacion’s bat hasn’t been completely nonexistent, but it certainly hasn’t lived up to his standards. I’d be less concerned about his production than any hitter on this list, as he’s curbed a brief strikeout binge to some extent while being plagued by a BABIP south of .180 over his past 12 games and also struggled through a poor April last season before coming to life in May. Encarnacion missed most of Spring Training as well, which could further explain the early rust. Nonetheless, he can’t undo the poor month of production he endured, and he’ll need to offset that lack of pop and those Ks with some heightened productions in the season’s warmer months. He’s currently seventh on Tim’s power rankings.
Erick Aybar: Aybar’s earning power was never going to match that of Wieters or Gomez, but with a strong season and a paper-thin crop of shortstops on the horizon, he had an easy case for a multi-year deal if he could get back to his 2014 form. However, Aybar is hitting just .163/.180/.198, and his glove at shortstop has been so poor that the Braves are already giving him some time at second base. Aybar has cost the Braves three runs at shortstop according to both Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Saved, and his results at the plate are among the worst in baseball. That’s a terrible way to start any contract year, but it’s especially troubling for a player that will turn 33 next January.
Austin Jackson: We’re coming up on three years now since Jackson enjoyed an above-average offensive season, and with half of his games coming at the hitter-friendly U.S. Cellular Field this season, it’ll be difficult to make the claim that his home park played any role in his woes. Defensive metrics are down on his glove in center field as well. If his numbers since 2014 are indicative of Jackson’s true skills now, he’s a player that can handle center but perhaps not excel there with a bat that’s 10 to 15 percent below the league average. A .229/.273/.337 start through his first 90 plate appearances doesn’t do much to help his cause.
Doug Fister: Fister looked to be poised for a significant multi-year deal at the time of his trade to the Nationals, and while his first season carried some red flags, a one-year deal worth $7MM was still an implausible outcome heading into the 2015 season. Fister, though, lost his hold on a rotation spot thanks in large part to the fact that he struggled to scrape 87 mph for much of last season. The diminished velocity led to the second-worst strikeout rate of his career, and his control took a step backward as well. This season, Fister’s velocity is again in the mid-80s, and the collective result of his work is a 4.60 ERA with a 16-to-12 K/BB ratio in 29 1/3 innings. There’s some hope for the 32-year-old, though, as his sinker’s velocity has indeed steadily crept upward, topping out at an average of 88.2 mph in his most recent start (6.2 IP, 7 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 5 K). Fister was a fine pitcher when he last averaged 88-89 mph, and if he can maintain the most recent gains or even see a bit more of an increase, the rest of the season could look much brighter than his ominous April.
Drew Storen: A trade to the homer-friendly Rogers Centre is never particularly good for a pitcher, but Storen’s struggles to begin the 2016 campaign go beyond his early proneness to the long ball. Storen has surrendered three homers with the Jays after yielding just four in 2015 and two in 2014, and his home park isn’t the only issue. Storen’s fastball velocity is hovering around 92 mph this season — a noted step down from his previous levels of 93-94.5 mph. A look at his velocity charts shows that this isn’t simply a case where he’s yet to build up to a midseason peak, either; he’s never started out a season with velocity this low, and his swinging-strike rate is at its lowest point since a difficult 2013 season. All of these data points are small samples, and that’s doubly true with a reliever, so it should be stressed that we’re looking at eight innings worth of work here. However, the decreases in velocity and swings/misses are notable even if Storen’s 30 percent homer-to-flyball ratio is all but certain to regress.
Andrew Cashner: While there’s more to like about Cashner’s start than the starts of Fister and Storen — he’s averaging eight strikeouts per nine innings with a 3.91 FIP — Cashner’s 4.94 ERA leaves plenty to be desired. The results have never really lined up with the raw stuff and pedigree that Cashner brings to the table, sometimes due to underperformance and other times due to injury. Teams are more willing to look past ERA than ever before, but Cashner’s walk rate is up after a notable increase in 2015, and his early ground-ball rate hasn’t measured up to his previously strong marks.
There’s plenty of early-season noise every season, and many of these slow starts will prove to be just that. However, it’s also worth monitoring each of the listed players over the next month or two, as it becomes increasingly difficult to climb out of these holes as the season wears on. Desmond, Alexei Ramirez and two of the players on this very list (Wieters and Fister) all provide testament to that.
Thanks to MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk for creating the free agent leaderboards and of course to Fangraphs for providing the indispensable means to do so.
Josh Ravin Receives 80-Game PED Suspension
Dodgers righty Josh Ravin has received an 80-game PED suspension, according to Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). That is the penalty for a first-time offender under MLB’s Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Agreement.
Ravin, 28, was on the 60-day DL after breaking his non-pitching arm in a car accident during the offseason, so he wasn’t expected back for some time. Now, he’ll be unavailable until late July, at the earliest.
Last year was Ravin’s first at the major league level. He allowed seven earned runs on 13 hits in 9 1/3 innings of relief, but did impress with a 12:4 K:BB ratio and showed an upper-90s fastball. Ravin spent most of 2015 at Triple-A, where he worked to a 3.86 ERA in 28 frames with 12.2 K/9 against 5.1 BB/9.
Padres Designate Michael Kirkman
The Padres have designated lefty Michael Kirkman for assignment, per a club announcement. His spot on the active roster will go to outfielder Alex Dickerson.
Kirkman, 29, made just one appearance on the year, surrendering six hits and four earned runs in 1 1/3 innings. Long a member of the Rangers organization, Kirkman spent most of last year at the Triple-A level with the Brewers before receiving his release in August. He carried an impressive 2.81 ERA on just 19 hits over 32 innings at Colorado Springs, but his 9.6 K/9 was accompanied by a troubling 7.9 BB/9.
Mariners Outright Joe Wieland
The Mariners announced on Monday that they have outrighted the contract of righty Joe Wieland off the 40-man roster. Wieland, who passed through waivers, remains at the Triple-A level, while Seattle’s 40-man roster now sits at 39 players.
Seattle acquired Wieland from the Dodgers in exchange for minor league infielder Erick Mejia this offseason. Wieland was originally a fourth-round selection of the Rangers back in the 2008 draft but was dealt to the Padres in the 2011 Mike Adams trade and was then flipped to the Dodgers in the Matt Kemp blockbuster of the 2014-15 offseason. Wieland looked to be a potential rotation option in San Diego back in 2012 when he posted a 4.55 ERA with 7.8 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 in five starts (27 2/3 innings) as a 22-year-old, but he underwent Tommy John surgery that season and missed the entire 2013 campaign. A stress reaction and eventual arthroscopic surgery on his elbow cost Wieland much of the 2014 campaign, making the 2015 season the first in which he was fully healthy in two years.
Last year, Wieland worked to a 4.59 ERA in 113 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level with the Dodgers organization and also tossed 8 2/3 innings at the Major League level, though he surrendered eight runs in that brief big league stint. The 2016 season has been a disaster for the now 26-year-old Wieland, however, as he’s allowed an unthinkable 25 earned runs on 36 hits and eight walks with 10 strikeouts in just 13 innings at the Triple-A level. Perhaps even more amazing is the fact that Wieland actually looked sharp through his first two outings of the year, surrendering a total of three runs with a 7-to-1 K/BB ratio in nine innings. He’s made a trio of starts since that time, though, and failed to escape the second inning while allowing at least five runs in each of the three.
Braves Designate Drew Stubbs, Option Jace Peterson
The Braves has designated outfielder Drew Stubbs for assignment, reports Mark Bowman of MLB.com (Twitter link). That DFA comes as part of a flurry of roster moves; the Braves have selected the contracts of veterans Reid Brignac, Chase d’Arnaud and Matt Tuiasosopo (David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported the Tuiasosopo news earlier today) and also recalled right-hander Mike Foltynewicz from Triple-A Gwinnett. Infielder Jace Peterson and right-hander John Gant have been optioned to Gwinnett as well. Atlanta has since announced the moves (also via Twitter).
Stubbs, 31, batted .237/.310/.316 with a homer and four steals in 20 games/42 plate appearances for the Braves prior to being jettisoned from the 40-man roster. He picked up his fair share of at-bats with Ender Inciarte on the disabled list while serving as part of a timeshare in center field with rookie Mallex Smith. However, with Inciarte set to return from the disabled list in the near future, his presence on the roster was perhaps deemed superfluous for Atlanta.
Peterson, 25, saw regular at-bats with the Braves for much of last season but cooled considerably down the stretch and has posted a woeful .182/.260/.205 batting line in 50 plate appearances this season. The infielder will hope to get back on track and return to the form that allowed him to bat .284/.363/.389 through his first 65 games last season. That production, though, was bolstered by a .339 batting average on balls in play, and the fact that his strikeout rate climbed in the second half of the 2015 campaign as well as early in the 2016 season (26 percent this year) suggests that returning to those heights could be a difficult task.
Brignac, d’Arnaud (the older brother of Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud) and Tuiasosopo all come with their fair share of MLB experience, though none of the bunch has enjoyed prolong success a the big league level. Given the high volume of roster turnover we’ve seen from the Braves across the past seven months of regular-season play, it seems highly plausible that none of the three will be a long-term addition to the big league roster. Foltynewicz, however, should have a chance to stick in the rotation now that fellow right-hander Bud Norris has seemingly been dropped from the rotation.
Tim Lincecum’s Showcase Set For Friday
MAY 2: The Athletics will also be in attendance, tweets John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group. Meanwhile, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post (Twitter link) and Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link) report that the Rockies and Mets, respectively, will not be in attendance. Puma notes that the Mets are already comfortable with their pitching depth, and as Saunders notes, it’s highly unlikely that the Rockies would be able to convince Lincecum to attempt to revitalize his career at Coors Field.
MAY 1: Tim Lincecum will hold a long-awaited throwing showcase for scouts on Friday in Scottsdale, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter links). As many as 20 teams are expected to attend, including representatives from the Orioles, Padres and the Giants, Lincecum’s former team.
As of February, a return to the Giants was still Lincecum’s preference, as the right-hander told at least one person while visiting his old teammates during Spring Training, CSNBayArea.com’s Alex Pavlovic reports. The Giants have long said that they would be interested in a reunion with Lincecum if “the Freak” was willing to take on a bullpen role, and Pavlovic reports that this relief-only stance hasn’t necessarily changed even though the club’s rotation has had some early struggles.
Lincecum, for his part, wants to return as a starter and has been working out all winter in order to rebuild his durability and velocity following hip surgery that shortened his 2015 season. He reportedly wanted to be in top form before officially throwing for scouts, which is why the showcase (rumored to be imminent for four months) is only taking place this week. There is no small amount of mystery surrounding Lincecum’s condition as scouts have been kept away from his workouts, though recent reports have him throwing 70 pitches on an every-five-days basis and throwing in the 90 mph range off of flat ground.
If Lincecum looks good in his showcase, he would likely be able to find a starting job with one of the many interested teams, though it might be on a minor league contract given his health history. San Diego and Baltimore have both been connected to Lincecum all offseason, with both clubs perhaps in more need of starting pitching depth now due to injuries and ineffectiveness within their current rotations. The Orioles just added some veteran depth earlier this week by signing Wandy Rodriguez to a minors deal.