MLB, MLBPA Announce New Domestic Violence Policy
Major League Baseball and the MLB Player’s Union have announced a new “Joint Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.” The full announcement can be found here: Twitter link.
Reaching agreement on a policy of this kind was long said to be a priority, especially in light of the multiple controversies that have engulfed the NFL in recent years. In its final form, the policy appears to empower Commissioner Rob Manfred to act strongly in the event that allegations arise or are found to be borne out by an investigation.
According to the policy, the Commissioner’s Office is tasked with investigating “all allegations of domestic violence, sexual assault, and child abuse in the Baseball community.” Notably, the Commissioner is vested with the authority to “place a player accused of” such behavior “on paid Administrative Leave for up to seven days while the allegations are investigated before making a disciplinary decision,” though players also have a mechanism to challenge that treatment “immediately.”
If the Commissioner finds that a player has committed one of the covered acts, he has broad power to determine the penalty. By its terms, the policy does not place any limitations on the type or duration of the punishment, providing that “the Commissioner can issue the discipline he believes is appropriate in light of the severity of the conduct” — regardless whether the player faces any criminal charge or conviction.
The primary check on the propriety of any punishment is through the arbitration process. Players can appeal to the MLB-MLBPA arbitration panel, which will determine whether the Commissioner had “just cause” for the discipline imposed. The panel can refer to prior league disciplinary precedent except for that involving domestic violence, sexual assault, or child abuse. (Effectively, then, the record of prior discipline in these arenas has been wiped clean and cannot be used to argue for a more limited punishment.)
The agreement includes more than just provision for investigation and punishment. Intervention, treatment, training, and education are all contemplated. It also provides for a 24-hour helpline for players and families and other such resources.
Padres Complete Venable Trade, Designate Chris Rearick
The Padres have officially added righty Jon Edwards from the Rangers to complete the recent trade that sent Will Venable to Texas, the club announced. Edwards had needed to clear revocable waivers before he could be sent as the player to be named later.
San Diego designated Chris Rearick for assignment to clear a 40-man spot. The 27-year-old southpaw was knocked around in his first three big league innings this year, and struggled to a 5.11 ERA (with thirty strikeouts and thirty walks) over 44 Triple-A frames. Rearick has been much more successful in the minors in past seasons, and has never shown those kinds of control issues previously.
Pirates Activate Josh Harrison From DL, Designate Josh Wall
The Pirates announced today that they have reinstated Josh Harrison from the disabled list and designated right-hander Josh Wall for assignment to clear room on the active roster.
Harrison tore the UCL in his left thumb on July 6 — an injury that required surgery to correct. He’s returned to action slightly faster than the Pirates anticipated, as their initial announcement said he’d be sidelined for seven weeks. The loss of Harrison left the Pirates short-handed and contributed to the acquisition of Aramis Ramirez. Now that Harrison is back, he’ll presumably split time at third base and in right field, possibly at the expense of some playing time for Ramirez and Gregory Polanco. Given his defensive prowess and solid bat, it’d be surprising if Harrison weren’t in the lineup on an everyday basis.
Wall, 28, had his contract selected to the roster earlier this week after a 15-inning game that left Pittsburgh’s bullpen short-handed. Wall has appeared in the Majors in each of the past three seasons, totaling 13 2/3 innings, but he’s yet to pitch in the Major Leagues this season. Instead, he’s spent the year at the Triple-A level, where he owns a very strong 2.93 ERA with 8.5 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 30 2/3 innings.
Nationals Promote Trea Turner
The Nationals announced that they have selected the contract of top shortstop prospect Trea Turner to the Majors.In order to clear a spot on the active roster, the Nationals have placed Tyler Moore on the disabled list. Meanwhile, righty Aaron Barrett will hit the 60-day DL to clear a 40-man spot.
With the move, Washington has added its best position-player prospect for the stretch run. The team previously called up fellow middle infielder Wilmer Difo, but used him only sparingly and decided this time to give the nod to Turner.
This move seems more significant than the Difo call-up, because Turner did not need to be added to the 40-man after the season. Giving him a roster spot now means that the club has one less opening to protect other assets from the Rule 5 draft. It’s certainly possible that Washington decided it could get by without the extra space, but the move might also suggest that the club feels Turner can contribute down the stretch and/or make a viable challenge to take over for pending free agent Ian Desmond to open the 2016 season (in which case it might be valuable to give Turner a look at the bigs this year).
Turner came to the Nats along with right-hander Joe Ross in the three-team trade that sent Steven Souza to the Rays and Wil Myers to the Padres. He now joins Ross as part of the organization’s 25-man roster, a fact which reflects better on the trade than it does the team’s overall performance this year.
Since the deal, Turner has done nothing but enhance his value. He’s now a consensus top-20 prospect leaguewide, if not better, after dominating at Double-A and putting up a strong .314/.353/.431 slash with 14 steals in his first 205 plate appearances at the highest level of the minors.
While his first-round draft status and rising stock have elevated Turner’s profile, he is probably still best known for being dealt as the player to be named later in the aforementioned trade. The two sides used a loophole in a since-changed rule that stated a player could not be traded until one year after he is drafted. San Diego took Turner 13th overall in the 2014 draft, and they took advantage of the fact that teams can take up to six months to determine a PTBNL to trade him in December. Of course, that meant that Turner, who had been widely reported as the PTBNL, spent Spring Training and the first three months of the season with the Padres despite the fact that everyone knew he’d been traded to the Nationals. This was far from the first occurrence of PTBNL manipulation, but it was perhaps the most public example, and it spurred the league to take action and amend the rules so that players can be traded upon completion of the World Series in the year they are drafted.
Rockies Release Drew Stubbs
AUG. 21: The Rockies released Stubbs yesterday, per the club’s transactions page at MLB.com.
AUG. 12: The Rockies have designated outfielder Drew Stubbs for assignment and selected the contract of fellow outfielder Matt McBride from Triple-A, tweets MLB.com’s Thomas Harding.
The 30-year-old Stubbs enjoyed arguably the best season of his career with the Rockies in 2014, but he opened the season with a 6-for-51 slump and was ultimately optioned to Triple-A, where’s he’s spent much of the year. Stubbs hit well enough in the minors, but his typical power was nowhere to be seen, as he homered just twice at the Triple-A level. He returned to the Majors in early July and has hit well in limited duty, though his overall batting line of .216/.286/.431 leaves plenty to be desired (especially for someone playing half his games at Coors Field).
Stubbs and the Rockies agreed to a $5.825MM contract this winter to avoid arbitration — a raise he earned by hitting .289/.339/.482 in 424 plate appearances last season. Stubbs has always had pretty notable platoon splits, though, and nearly all of his damage both with the Rockies and the Reds came while playing in his hitter-friendly home environments. Defensively speaking, he can handle all three outfield spots with UZR and DRS pegging him as a roughly average center fielder over the life of his career.
Brewers Claim Cesar Jimenez
12:59pm: Philadelphia has announced that the Brewers have claimed Jimenez.
12:43pm: The Brewers have claimed left-handed reliever Cesar Jimenez off outright waivers from the Phillies, MLBTR has learned (Twitter link). Jimenez was designated for assignment by Philadelphia last night.
The waiver claim of Jimenez may indicate that Milwaukee feels confident that it can work out a trade of fellow southpaw reliever Neal Cotts, who has reportedly been claimed on revocable trade waivers by an unknown club. Or, Milwaukee may simply want to add some depth in the event that Cotts is dealt elsewhere. If assigned to Triple-A, Jimenez could join the big league club in short order, as rosters are set to expand on Sept. 1. In announcing the claim, the Brewers did note that Jimenez’s assignment is still TBD.
Jimenez, 30, has been up and down with the Phillies over the past three seasons despite solid bottom line results. Though he does have some control issues, he’s delivered a 2.48 ERA with 5.7 K/9 and 4.2 BB/9 in 36 1/3 innings with Philadelphia dating back to 2013. In particular, he’s been tough on lefties in that span, holding them to a .148/.233/.231 line (over a span of 60 plate appearances).
Jimenez has three years of big league service already under his belt, so if he joins the big league roster now or in September, he’ll have some time to audition for the 2016 roster and convince Milwaukee that they want to go through the arbitration process with him his offseason.
Unknown Team Claims Neal Cotts On Revocable Waivers
Brewers left-hander Neal Cotts has been claimed on revocable waivers by an unknown team, reports Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links). Rosenthal notes that it seems unlikely Cotts made it through the National League.
Cotts, 35, is in the midst of a solid season with the Brewers, having pitched to a 3.28 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and a 42.2 percent ground-ball rate in 49 1/3 innings. FIP paints a more pessimistic picture, although that mark is skewed by a fluky 17 percent homer-to-flyball ratio that is well out of line with Cotts’ career norms. Cotts has been highly effective against left-handed hitters in particular, limiting same-handed opponents to a .185/.230/.346 batting line and striking out 27 percent of them (24 of 89).
Somewhat coincidentally, Cotts was claimed on trade waivers nearly one year ago to the date — Aug. 20, 2014 — also by an unknown club. Ultimately, a trade did not occur, and Cotts hit the open market after his season with the Rangers ended. He would eventually land with Milwaukee on a one-year, $3MM contract, and he’s still owed about $754K of that sum. The Brewers will have 48.5 hours to work out a trade with Cotts, and if no deal is struck in that time, they can pull him back off waivers.
For a refresher on how the August trade process works, check out MLBTR’s August Trade primer.
NL East Notes: Utley, Phillies, Olivera, Stanton
Following Chase Utley‘s departure from the Phillies, Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com pays tribute to one of the greatest and most beloved players in franchise history. Salisbury recalls the draft-day dilemma the Phillies faced, weighing the decision between Utley and Rocco Baldelli (though the Rays made the decision easier by selecting Baldelli nine picks before Utley). The selection reshaped the Phillies’ history, leading to the emergence of a player that Salisbury calls a “100 percent pure ballplayer” and whom Salisbury believes played through more pain and injury as a member of the Phillies than anyone in recent history. Meanwhile, Ryan Lawrence of the Philadelphia Daily News spoke to a number of Phillies players about their favorite Utley memories and what it meant to have him as a teammate.
More on the Phillies’ transition and the rest of their division…
- Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports writes that while the Phillies may have waited too long to begin their rebuilding process, they deserve credit for making their sixth trade in the past eight months that has bettered the organization. The Phillies did well to include more than $24MM in cash considerations to improve their returns (to say nothing of taking on the remaining $32MM of Matt Harrison‘s contract), and as Rosenthal points out, nine of their top 16 prospects at MLB.com have been acquired in the past year’s trades. One rival exec to whom Rosenthal spoke praised the Phillies for ultimately doing what needed to be done — “[they] sold everyone they could get value from.”
- Hector Olivera‘s debut with the Braves could come as soon as next Monday, reports David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The infielder, acquired from the Dodgers in a 13-player trade last month, had his minor league rehab assignment moved up to Triple-A on Thursday. O’Brien spoke to Freddie Freeman about the acquisition of Olivera, and Freeman candidly admitted that it was tough, as a player, to see the team give up so many players to acquire a hitter who has never played a Major League game. However, Freeman also saw Olivera while the two were rehabbing together and did come away impressed with the infielder’s skills — particularly his power. As O’Brien notes, Olivera has defensive versatility, but the Braves plan to make him their everyday third baseman.
- Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton is hopeful that he can return to the roster by early September, writes MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. Stanton says he’s still feeling weakness when turning over his wrist, but he has progressed to hitting 95 mph pitches in the batting cage on back-to-back pain-free days. Stanton has been on the shelf since June 26, when he broke his hamate bone upon being hit by a pitch. He underwent surgery two days later.
Brewers Promote Domingo Santana
The Brewers announced that they’ve recalled top prospect Domingo Santana from Triple-A Colorado Springs. (MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy had tweeted prior to the announcement that Santana could be on his way to the bigs.) Acquired last month from the Astros as part of the Carlos Gomez/Mike Fiers blockbuster, Santana ranks 83rd on MLB.com’s list of Top 100 prospects.
This will not be the 23-year-old Santana’s first taste of Major League action, as he tallied 20 games with the Astros over the past two seasons before coming over to Milwaukee in the trade. Santana hit .256/.310/.462 in 14 games with Houston earlier this season and has delivered excellent production at the Triple-A level all season between both organizations. Though his numbers come with the usual Pacific Coast League caveat (the league is an exceptionally hitter-friendly environment), Santana’s .333/.426/.573 batting line is nonetheless impressive.
Santana will take the roster spot of injured right-hander Tyler Cravy, though he seemingly will also be auditioning to lock down a long-term role in a Brewers outfield that is at least somewhat in transition following the departure of Gomez. Though Santana has played primarily in the corner outfield as a minor leaguer, and his future is likely to be in right or left field, he does have experience in center field as well, where Milwaukee has a more immediate need.
From a long-term perspective, the Brewers seem to have three big-league-ready assets for two corner outfield spots. Ryan Braun is, of course, under contract through the 2020 season at an average of $19MM per year. And while Khris Davis has had his struggles this season, he’s homered nine times in his past 35 games (29 starts), albeit with low batting average (.224) and OBP (.306) marks. The team’s corner outfield situation though, will seemingly be one of many situations that the Brewers’ new general manager will have to sort out this winter. A move from the outfield to first base for Braun has been discussed in the past, but neither he nor Davis has ever played a professional game at first base.
Looking more toward the short-term, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel notes that the Brewers do have an interleague series against the Indians coming up that will be played in Cleveland, giving manager Craig Counsell the opportunity to work all three right-handed bats into his lineup by adding a DH possibility. And, with rosters expanding on Sept. 1, Counsell and the Brewers won’t have to worry about keeping too many corner options on the active roster for long.
AL East Notes: Dombrowski, Yankees, Shapiro, Gonzalez
The hiring of Dave Dombrowski puts a new face atop the Red Sox‘ baseball operations hierarchy but does not change the goal and the philosophy of the organization, writes Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald. As Silverman writes, the Red Sox were going to overhaul the roster this winter whether Dombrowski, Ben Cherington or someone else was leading the charge. Chairman Tom Werner and president John Henry both spoke about how the team will still use data and analytics to its advantage, while Dombrowski said he’s not planning to “blow up” Boston’s baseball ops department.
More from the AL East…
- Tim Britton of the Providence Journal looks at how Dombrowski’s history will tie in with the Red Sox. Dombrowski has a reputation for trading prospects for proven talent after his time in Detroit, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing, he notes. Part of successfully executing that philosophy is trading prospects at peak value and maximizing return — something the Sox failed to do with names like Will Middlebrooks and Anthony Ranaudo. Dombrowski spoke of dealing from a surplus in his introduction to Boston media, Britton writes, and he points out that center field, shortstop and catcher could all be areas of surplus/redundancy for the Sox. The other questions for Dombrowski in Boston will be how aggressively he’ll pursue top-flight free agent pitching this winter and whether or not he can rebuild a bullpen that has been largely problematic in 2015, writes Britton.
- Praising the Yankees‘ decision to hang onto the likes of Greg Bird, Luis Severino and other top prospects is premature, opines Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. While Bird and Severino have each contributed to the Bombers over the past few weeks, Martino writes that the true wisdom or folly of that decision won’t be known for quite some time. A dominant October run from Severino might speed up the process of proving GM Brian Cashman’s decision to be shrewd, but the possibility also exists that the Yankees’ coveted prospects will go the route of Jesus Montero. Martino doesn’t necessarily make the argument that Cashman should have traded prospects away, but rather just urges onlookers to take a less reactionary approach following a two-homer game from Bird and a trio of solid starts from Severino, as narratives can change quickly when looking at small samples from early in prospects’ careers.
- On the heels of last night’s report from Ken Rosenthal, Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi writes that he, too, hears the Blue Jays consider Indians president Mark Shapiro a “strong candidate” to replace retiring CEO Paul Beeston. However, Davidi notes that there may yet be others in the mix for the impending vacancy. Notably, Davidi writes that the “assumption” is that GM Alex Anthopoulos will be offered some kind of extension prior to his contract’s expiration on Oct. 31.
- Miguel Gonzalez‘s struggles with the Orioles are ill-timed, writes Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. The organization’s top alternatives at the minor league level — Tyler Wilson and Mike Wright — are both injured at the moment, and there aren’t many other options to give him a break from his troubles. As Encina notes, Gonzalez has struggled quite a bit when ahead in the count — even on 0-2 counts — which has contributed to a 6.48 ERA over his past 11 starts. I’ll add that the struggles are doubly problematic for Gonzalez, who is eligible for arbitration for the second time this winter and due a raise on his $3.275MM salary.