Rangers Designate Jake Smolinski
The Rangers have designated outfielder Jake Smolinski for assignment, executive VP of communications John Blake announced on Twitter. His 40-man and active roster spots were needed for the team to activate Ryan Rua from the 60-day DL.
Smolinski, 26, had hit just .133/.270/.200 in 74 plate appearances at the big league level this year. But he’s had plenty of success in other recent stints. Smolinski has obliterated Triple-A pitching in 2015, putting up a 1.280 OPS in 50 turns at bat, and slashed a strong .349/.391/.512 over 92 trips to the plate in his first run at the majors last year.
Both of those big state lines were fueled by huge BABIP numbers, however, and Smolinski’s history is more of sturdy reliability than significant pop. He has never finished a full campaign in the upper minors with an OPS over the .800 mark.
Many Clubs Scouting Jonathan Papelbon
There was a “heavy” scouting presence in attendance for Jonathan Papelbon‘s most recent appearance, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. Both the Blue Jays and Cubs are known to have interest in the closer, but Rosenthal now adds that additional clubs have inquired on the reliever.
Meanwhile, Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com writes that the Jays have had a high-ranking scout trail Papelbon for his past 10 contests. He’s only had one save opportunity in that time, though he has pitched in non-save situations. Per Salisbury, determining how much money would need to head to the Blue Jays has been a “significant” hurdle in talks thus far.
Papelbon has pitched well all season and has continued to put up rather excellent results since experiencing a significant velocity drop beginning in 2013. Rosenthal notes that he averaged 94.1 mph in his most recent outing, but he only threw nine pitches, so it’s not necessarily an indicator that his velocity has returned for good. Indeed, a look at Papelbon’s game-to-game velocity charts (via Fangraphs) reveals that the most recent appearance is something of an outlier.
PITCHf/x data shows that Papelbon has upped the usage of his slider in 2015, which may explain the increase in both his swinging-strike rate and his K/9 rate. At 34 years old, it’s unlikely that Papelbon will see a dramatic resurgence in the velocity department, but he’s still managed to post a pristine 1.01 ERA with 10.5 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 and a career-best 51.5 percent ground-ball rate in 26 1/3 innings this year.
The remaining $7.67MM on his contract is an obstacle, to be sure, as is the $13MM option for 2016 that seems likely to vest. But, at roughly $20.5MM over the coming nine-and-a-half months of regular season games (to say nothing of potential postseason innings), Papelbon’s really not the overpriced asset that he’s often portrayed to be. Depending on the extent to which the Phillies are willing to subsidize an acquiring team, Papelbon could ultimately be looked upon as a below-market asset relative to his production.
Podcast: Selling Big Pieces?
Steve Adams joins the show to discuss the growing departure from traditional “buyers” and “sellers,” the Braves’ expedited rebuild process and the possibility of teams cashing in their biggest assets for younger, more controllable talent. Jeff then takes a closer look at one such hypothetical: the Reds and Aroldis Chapman.
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The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.
Erisbel Arruebarrena’s Suspension Reduced To 30 Days
The team-issued, season-long suspension of Dodgers minor league shortstop Erisbel Arruebarrena has been reduced to 30 days, reports Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports’ Hardball Talk. Citing Arruebarrena’s attorney, Jay Reisinger, Calcaterra adds that an appeal to the commissioner’s office was filed on behalf of Arruebarrena, and the two sides ultimately reached a settlement.
The 25-year-old Arruebarrena had originally been suspended for the season due to “repeated failures to comply with his contract,” although his exact transgressions were never reported. Because it was a team-issued suspension, however, performance-enhancing drugs can be ruled out, and drugs of abuse can likely be crossed off the list as well.
Arruebarrena signed a five-year, $25MM contract with the Dodgers upon defecting from Cuba. Said at the time to be a brilliant defensive infielder with a questionable bat, Arruebarrena batted .259/.304/.417 across four minor league levels with the Dodgers in 2014 before surfacing at the Major League level. True to the scouting reports, he struggled at the plate in 45 appearances, batting just .195/.244/.220.
Arruebarrena has already reported to the Dodgers’ Spring Training facility in Arizona to resume baseball activities and begin baseball activities. The decision doesn’t seem to dramatically increase the likelihood that Arruebarrena will appear in a Dodgers’ uniform in the near future, as there’s still likely some bad blood between the player and the organization. From a financial standpoint, the reduced suspension carries some ramifications for the Dodgers. Had Arruebarrena spent the entire season serving a suspension, he wouldn’t have earned his $3MM salary. With that reduced to 30 days, Arruebarrena is now “only” out $491K, meaning the Dodgers will still have to pay him a little more than $2.5MM of his salary.
Heyman’s Latest: Phillies, C. Johnson, Sellers, Harang, Rays
In his weekly Inside Baseball column, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports begins by taking a look at a messy situation in Philadelphia. Heyman hears the same rumblings that were first reported by CSN Philly’s Jim Salisbury — that Andy MacPhail could very well be in line for an executive role with the Phillies. The hiring of MacPhail would bring into question the status of both GM Ruben Amaro and manager Ryne Sandberg. While one exec notes that no one could have had much success with the hand Sandberg has been dealt, his calm demeanor hasn’t motivated the team much, and he may have lost the clubhouse at this point. Heyman notes that partial owner John Middleton, who is believed by some to be calling the shots in Philly, may have extra impetus to get a new decision-maker in the door so that a lame-duck GM (Amaro’s contract expires at season’s end) isn’t the primary decision-maker on what could be a franchise-altering Cole Hamels trade. Speaking of Hamels, Heyman notes that interested teams will want to see him pitch at least twice now that he had a start pushed back due to a hamstring strain, thinning the window of opportunity to trade him. As far as Jonathan Papelbon goes, the belief is that he’d approve any trade that sent him to a contending team, though the Cubs might be his preferred fit at this point if he had a say in the matter.
Some more highlights from Heyman’s latest (though there’s more in the column than we can cover here)…
- The Braves have tried to trade Chris Johnson and even offered to substantially pay down the remaining money on his contract, but there’s been little interest. The Johnson deal was widely questioned from the start, and there’s still about $21MM owed to Johnson through the end of the 2017 season. Johnson’s a viable weapon against lefties, but he’s a sub-par hitter against right-handed pitchers and is not well-regarded from a defensive standpoint.
- Rival teams are beginning to wonder if the Red Sox might sell some pieces this summer, with Mike Napoli, Clay Buchholz and Koji Uehara among the possible names listed by Heyman. Napoli isn’t hitting for average but has shown good power and a nice walk rate. Buchholz has improved after a rocky start and Uehara again has strong numbers in the ‘pen.
- The White Sox are beginning to think about selling, Heyman hears, but they’re not quite ready to move their bigger pieces. Emilio Bonifacio might be the first name they make available, but eventually, Jeff Samardzija‘s name could be out there. Heyman writes that while Samardzija isn’t pitching well in 2015, his big arm is so tantalizing to scouts that there will still be interest in him.
- The Reds aren’t expected to sell until after the All-Star Game and would be very open to shedding Brandon Phillips‘ contract, per Heyman, though I have a difficult time envisioning too many teams lining up to take on the remainder of that deal. Phillips is owed about $34.1MM through the end of the 2017 season and has seen his power more or less vanish. Heyman speculates that Everth Cabrera could be a fit in Cincinnati with Zack Cozart out for the year, and there’s some logic to that scenario, though they may first prefer to see what they have in Eugenio Suarez. The Mets aren’t interested in Cabrera, he adds later.
- The Marlins aren’t selling yet, according to GM-turned-manager Dan Jennings. “We’re in it, we’re not jumping off the ship. No doubt about that,” Jennings told Heyman. If their attitude changes, Heyman thinks they’ll find interest in Martin Prado and Mike Dunn.
- The Astros like Aaron Harang but are said to be aiming higher when looking at potential trade targets to bolster their rotation.
- The Dodgers are on the hunt for a top-tier starting pitcher and a late-inning arm to help bridge the gap to Kenley Jansen. In other Dodgers-related news, Heyman hears that No. 35 pick Kyle Funkhouser is strongly considering returning to Louisville. Funkhouser was once looked at as a potential Top 10 pick, but he fell to a slot with a $1.756MM value. He’d have less leverage in 2016 as a senior sign, of course, but he could certainly improve his draft stock and his bonus with a big senior year.
- Yankees chief international officer/executive vice president Felix Lopez is no longer listed on the team’s web site and some indicate that he’s been gone from the organization for three months, Heyman writes. Lopez was said to have angered Yoan Moncada‘s camp after calling to express displeasure with their decision to sign in Boston over New York. The team hasn’t made a statement on his departure.
- The Rays are looking for first base help with James Loney on the disabled list, but Loney’s said to be returning around the All-Star break. Heyman speculates on the possibility of Ryan Howard ending up in Tampa Bay if the Phillies eat some or all of the contract, but I’d think there’d be something of a logjam there once Loney is activated in that scenario.
Rockies Sign Mike Nikorak, Tyler Nevin
JUNE 19: Nevin received an even $2MM bonus, tweets Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com. That places him about $373K over slot value.
JUNE 18, 2:49pm: Second-round selection Tyler Nevin has also agreed to terms, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports on Twitter. Like his father, veteran big leaguer Phil Nevin, the would-be UCLA commit is a third baseman. MLB.com rated Nevin just inside the top fifty available prospects.
Nevin’s bonus remains unreported at present. The 38th pick came with a $1,626,500 allocation.
2:23pm: The Rockies have announced the signing of righty Mike Nikorak, the 27th overall selection in the draft. He’ll receive a $2.3MM bonus, per MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter).
The slot value for the comp pick was $2,004,600, meaning that Colorado went nearly $300K over to draw him away from a commitment to the University of Alabama. That eats up a decent portion of the $723K that the team saved in signing its first selection, Brendan Rodgers.
Callis says that Nikorak has the highest ceiling of any prep arm in this year’s draft class, and indeed the MLB.com team rated him the 15th-best player available. His big fastball has lost steam at times, but MLB.com says that it has plenty of movement regardless. While he’ll need to keep developing his secondary offerings, Nikorak is said to have excellent athleticism and still has not filled into his sizable frame.
Baseball America agrees that Nikorak has top-of-the-rotation upside, rating him 16th among draft-eligible players. Meanwhile, ESPN.com’s Keith Law placed Nikorak in his 22nd slot, noting some control issues, and Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs put him in the 25th place on his board while pointing out that there were some velocity drops at times this year.
Latest On Federal Investigation Of Cardinals
The Cardinals are currently under federal investigation for allegedly gaining illegal access into the Astros’ internal computer network, and Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle reports the latest wrinkle in the scandal. In addition to the previously known security breaches in 2014 and 2013, Drellich now has learned that the Cardinals accessed the Astros’ network as early as 2012, bringing light to a third and previously unreported breach.
Previous reports have indicated that the Cardinals employees in question gained access to Houston’s Ground Control system by utilizing a master list of passwords from when Jeff Luhnow and other execs were still with St. Louis, fueling speculation that Luhnow had neglected to update old passwords. The Houston GM told Ben Reiter of SI.com that any such speculation was “absolutely false,” continuing to add:
“I absolutely know about password hygiene and best practices. I’m certainly aware of how important passwords are, as well as of the importance of keeping them updated. A lot of my job in baseball, as it was in high tech, is to make sure that intellectual property is protected. I take that seriously and hold myself and those who work for me to a very high standard.”
In speaking to Reiter, Luhnow also addressed the supposed concern from Cardinals employees that he may have taken some proprietary information from St. Louis to Houston, denying that any such action took place and adding that he never received any sort of inquiry from the Cardinals on the matter. Luhnow says that his departure from the Cardinals was amicable, adding that many of his former colleagues were invited to and in attendance for his 2012 wedding.
Drellich has previously reported that the list of suspected Cardinals employees has been narrowed to four or five, and it seems at this point that the highest-ranking members of the Cardinals’ front office weren’t involved. Attorney Jim Martin, whose firm was retained by the Cardinals in February to perform an organizational review upon learning of the investigation, expressed confidence to the Associated Press that GM John Mozeliak and chairman/CEO Bill DeWitt, Jr. had no knowledge of the events. “With what we have done so far, I am 100 percent confident that this does not touch upper management,” said Martin.
Via Robert Patrick of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, DeWitt himself addressed the media yesterday and said that he was “shocked” and “in disbelief” when he learned of the allegations. “There was zero knowledge until the FBI launched their investigation and we became aware of it,” said DeWitt.
The Chronicle reported earlier in the week that the investigation was in its latter stages, and Drellich explained in a followup piece last night that it would be the commissioner’s office — not a civil suit — that would determine the punishment for the Cardinals and award potential damages to the Astros. As Drellich explains, Major League clubs cannot file civil suits against one another, despite the fact that a former Department of Justice attorney who specialized intellectual property and commercial litigation told him the Astros “could have a case for theft of trade secrets.” The Cardinals cannot be fined more than $2MM as an organization, and DeWitt and other employees cannot be fined more than $500K. However, the commissioner’s office can punish the Cardinals by way of both the Rule 4 Draft (the yearly amateur draft in June) and the Rule 5 Draft, in addition to “other unspecified actions as the commissioner sees fit.”
Braves Promote Matt Wisler
The Braves announced tonight that top right-handed pitching prospect Matt Wisler will be promoted tomorrow and make his big league debut against the Mets. Righty Sugar Ray Marimon will be sent back to Triple-A Gwinnett to clear room on the 25-man roster, and the team has an open spot on its 40-man roster. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s David O’Brien tweeted earlier this afternoon that he expected Wisler to get the call for tomorrow’s start.
Acquired from the Padres in the blockbuster trade that sent Craig Kimbrel and Melvin Upton Jr. to San Diego, Wisler entered the 2015 season ranked as the No. 34 prospect in the game, according to Baseball America. Baseball Prospectus ranked Wisler 53rd, while Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com ranked him 69th. Fangraphs’ Kiley McDaniel pegged Wisler 41st overall.
Wisler has pitched reasonably well at Triple-A this season, although his numbers don’t line up with the type of production one might expect from such a highly touted prospect. In 65 innings thus far, he’s worked to a 4.29 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 1.8 BB/9. He’s been plagued by a 64 percent strand rate, which helps to explain why FIP credits Wisler with a much more favorable 3.33 mark.
Per BA, Wisler sits in the 92-94 mph range and tops out at 96 with a two-seam fastball that features above-average sink. He also has a lively four-seamer and control of his entire arsenal — a trait that has manifested itself in his stellar BB/9 rate. McDaniel notes that his slider is a plus pitch, while his changeup is average or better at times, and he can command the ball on both sides of the plate. BA noted that most scouts see Wisler as a No. 3 type of starter on a contending club, and all of the aforementioned scouting reports agreed heading into the season that he could be ready to join the rotation midway through this year.
Wisler will step into the rotation spot that was recently vacated when Atlanta optioned fellow promising righty Mike Foltynewicz to Triple-A. He’ll join Julio Teheran, Alex Wood, Shelby Miller and Williams Perez for the time being. Atlanta has experienced quite a bit of change in its rotation through the first portion of the season, with the jettisoning of struggling veterans Eric Stults and Trevor Cahill, the decision to option Foltynewicz, and a shoulder injury that ended Mike Minor‘s season before it began. Given all of that turnover, it would seem that Wisler may have an opportunity to carve out a long-term spot in the Braves’ starting five from this point forth.
If Wisler is indeed here to stay following Friday’s promotion, he’ll accrue 109 days of Major League service time in 2015, which should leave him comfortably shy of Super Two status as he works through the arbitration process. He’d be controllable through the 2021 season in the event that he remained at the big league level from this point forth.
Injury Notes: Moscot, Medlen, Lagares
Reds right-hander Jon Moscot appears to be done for the season, writes MLB.com’s Robert Bondy. The rookie starting pitcher suffered a dislocated left (non-throwing) shoulder in his most recent outing while tagging out Anthony Gose in a rundown. Moscot will require surgery to repair what has been termed “significant” damage in the shoulder. Manager Bryan Price told Bondy and others that it would be “optimistic” to expect Moscot to pitch again in 2015, making the 23-year-old righty latest addition to a rapidly growing list of injured Reds. Homer Bailey is out for the season following Tommy John surgery, and Zack Cozart will miss the remainder of the year due to torn ligaments and tendons in his knee. Marlon Byrd is presently sidelined with a fractured wrist, and a hip impingement has prevented Devin Mesoraco from playing for nearly the entire season. In three starts this season, Moscot allowed six runs in 11 2/3 innings for the Reds, striking out six and walking five. With Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake looking like probable trade candidates, a strong early impression from Moscot could have potentially positioned him to remain in the rotation for the duration of the 2015 season. The good news for Moscot is that, according to Price, he’s expected to be ready for the 2016 campaign.
A couple more notable injury updates from around the league…
- Kris Medlen is slated to begin a rehab assignment with the Royals‘ Double-A affiliate on Friday, which will commence a 30-day window to complete a rehab assignment, tweets MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan. Medlen is said to be “all systems go” at this point in his recovery from a second Tommy John surgery. The Royals will hope that he’s healthy enough to join what has been a lackluster rotation in the season’s second half and help the team remain atop of a close race with the Twins, Tigers and Indians in the AL Central.
- Mets manager Terry Collins told reporters on Thursday that Juan Lagares is playing through an elbow ailment that could be fixed by either rest or Tommy John surgery, but the Record’s Matt Ehalt writes that surgery is not on the table for Lagares at this time. Both Collins and GM Sandy Alderson said that the injury is something that Lagares can play through, with Collins adding that “a lot of guys” have previously played through this particular ailment. “We just have to be careful he doesn’t get crazy and make an awkward throw or try to overthrow too much,” said Collins. Alderson added that the injury is “not an issue” and that surgery is “not on our radar.”
Twins Release Jordan Schafer
The Twins have released outfielder Jordan Schafer, director of communications Dustin Morse announced on Twitter. He had been on the DL with a knee sprain.
Schafer, 28, had a nice run with the Twins last year after being claimed off waivers from the Braves. That led the team to tender him a contract through arbitration, ultimately agreeing upon a $1.55MM pact.
This year, however, has been a disappointment. Schafer owns a meager .217/.250/.261 slash over 74 plate appearances. The typically fleet runner has also gone 0-for-3 in stolen base attempts.
With top prospect Byron Buxton up to man center, Schafer did not seem to have a significant role going forward. Minnesota has also deployed Shane Robinson and the injure Aaron Hicks up the middle.