Erik Cordier Declines Assignment, Re-Signs With Giants
Right-handed reliever Erik Cordier declined an outright assignment with the Giants but re-signed with the club on a minor league deal, Chris Haft of MLB.com tweets. The live-armed hurler had been designated for assignment and cleared waivers.
Cordier, who works in the triple digits with his fastball, struck out nine and walked only two in six MLB innings last year for San Francisco. He has steadily improved over a lengthy minor league career, with his strikeout tallies soaring after moving to a pen role.
The 29-year-old had been on a rehab assignment to start the year. He owns a 1.50 ERA with twenty strikeouts against eight walks over a dozen minor league frames in 2015.
Cordier’s new deal contains several opt-out dates, per Andrew Baggarly of the Mercury News, which explains the procedural moves.
Brewers Rescind Brandon Kintzler DFA
6:13pm: Milwaukee announced that it has rescinded the move and instead placed Kinzler on the 15-day DL, with the team apparently learned that Kinzler was suffering from a pre-existing knee issue.
1:23pm: The Brewers announced that they have designated right-handed reliever Brandon Kintzler for assignment in order to clear a roster spot for shortstop Jean Segura, who has been activated from the disabled list. Segura had been on the shelf with a broken pinkie finger.
The 30-year-old Kintzler has allowed five runs in seven innings since being recalled from Triple-A Colorado Springs earlier this month, and his 6.35 ERA in 5 2/3 innings at Triple-A this year wasn’t much more inspiring. Still, as Adam McCalvy notes, Kintzler could have simply been optioned to Triple-A but was instead designated for assignment. He becomes the third relatively long-tenured reliever to be designated by the Brewers over the past few weeks, as the team outrighted Rob Wooten to Triple-A last night and did the same with Jim Henderson earlier this month.
Kintzler has been an effective middle relief option for the Brewers over the past two seasons, however. From 2013-14, he notched a 2.93 ERA with 5.9 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 in 135 1/3 innings of work, thanks in part to a 57.2 percent ground-ball rate. Milwaukee’s 40-man roster drops to 37 with Kintzler no longer on board.
Rangers To Promote Alex “Chi Chi” Gonzalez
The Rangers will bring up top pitching prospect Alex “Chi Chi” Gonzalez to make his first big league start on Saturday, the club announced. Gonzalez came to Texas as the 23rd overall pick in the 2013 draft.
Gonzalez is a consensus top-100 pitching prospect, though most outlets have placed him near the back of that list. But Baseball Prospectus is particularly bullish on him, rating him inside the thirty best pre-MLB players in the game before the season.
Most view Gonzalez as a mid-rotation starter, with his upside limiting his value. Indeed, the 23-year-old has slowed somewhat in his first run at Triple-A, striking out 5.4 and walking 3.9 batters per nine innings while working to a 4.15 ERA over 43 1/3 innings.
Texas apparently intends to give Gonzalez every chance of entrenching himself in the rotation. GM Jon Daniels says that a regular starting job is “his spot to lose,” as Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets. That would make him an unlikely Super Two candidate: the cutoff was most recently projected at 2.140 years of service, while Gonzalez can accrue as many as 128 days on the active roster this year.
Matt Adams Out At Least 4 Months With Quad Tear
FRIDAY: The surgery revealed a complete tear of the quad muscle, tweets Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com, which will likely extend his recovery time to over four months.
While the news does not shift the timeline too significantly, it already seemed there was a fairly slim chance that Adams would return for the regular season or even postseason. Now, that seems all but impossible unless Adams can beat expectations.
WEDNESDAY, 11:04pm: Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets that Adams will undergo surgery to repair the tear on Friday.
8:01pm: GM John Mozeliak just discussed the injury in an appearance on KMOX radio, stating: “We anticipated this being a DL, but now we have to look at how we look at this club long-term,” (Twitter link via KMOX’s Benjamin Boyd).
7:43pm: The Cardinals announced tonight that Adams will miss an estimated three to four months with the injury. Given that timeline, it’s fair to suggest that there’s a chance he could miss the remainder of the regular season. MLB.com’s Jen Langosch hears that the team is still deciding whether or not Adams will undergo surgery (Twitter link).
A recovery timeline of that significance would seem to increase the chances that the Cardinals will look outside the organization eventually in order to address the need. Reynolds has plenty of power and could serve as a stopgap, but he batted just .209/.297/.394 from 2013-14 with the Indians, Yankees and Brewers in fairly regular duty, making him a questionable long-term solution.
4:05pm: Cardinals first baseman Matt Adams will miss significant time with a torn quadriceps, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports on Twitter. Surgery is a possibility for the 26-year-old.
The injury is said to be worse than that of fellow St. Louis outfielder Tommy Pham, who is on the 60-day DL with his own quad injury. The Cardinals had already decided to rely on Mark Reynolds at first for the immediate future, but the severity of the injury could potentially contribute to additional roster planning over the summer.
Of course, Adams has been off to a rough start, hitting just .243/.281/.375 over his first 153 plate appearances on the year. But the team certainly had good reason to expect better the rest of the way: after all, Adams averaged a .287/.327/.474 line over the prior two seasons.
Reynolds could ultimately be paired with Dan Johnson, who is in the fold at Triple-A, or a similarly available left-handed bat such as Travis Ishikawa. The team could in theory consider sliding an outfielder like Matt Holliday, Randal Grichuk or Stephen Piscotty in at first, but none of them have played the position before (at least professionally).
But if Adams will miss much of the rest of the season, it certainly seems at least plausible that the Cards will dabble in the summer trade market. Adam Lind, Justin Morneau, and Ryan Howard are among the players that could be marketed at the deadline.
Scott Feldman To Miss Six Weeks Following Knee Surgery
Astros right-hander Scott Feldman will be out for “approximately six weeks” following arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn medial meniscus in his right knee, the team announced on Friday. The 32-year-old injured his knee while fielding a grounder in his most recent start. Right-hander Michael Feliz, one of the organization’s most highly regarded pitching prospects, has been promoted from Double-A to take Feldman’s spot on the roster.
Rotation depth was already an area that many expect the Astros to address on the trade market this summer, based on previous comments from GM Jeff Luhnow and from some struggles at the back end of the rotation. While a glance at Feldman’s ERA might not inspire much confidence, he’s pitched significantly better since a disastrous second start of the season. Overall, he has worked to a 4.47 ERA (3.42 FIP, 3.62 xFIP) in 48 1/3 innings over a stretch of eight starts.
Feldman has served as a nice veteran complement to the less experienced Dallas Keuchel and Collin McHugh. To this point in the season, Keuchel has looked the part of a bona fide ace yet again. And while McHugh hasn’t repeated last season’s breakout numbers, he’s enjoyed solid peripheral stats and is still sporting a relatively serviceable 4.24 ERA.
The question for the Astros is who will fill in the rotation behind Keuchel, McHugh and Feldman. So far, Roberto Hernandez has soaked up 54 2/3 innings, though he’s done so with a 4.77 ERA and peripherals that suggest he’ll continue to produce at that clip. Lance McCullers has stepped into the rotation and impressed over a pair of starts, but he’s largely unproven and hasn’t thrown more than 104 innings in a pro season since being selected 41st overall back in 2012. The Astros have also cycled through Asher Wojciechowski, Sam Deduno, Brad Peacock and Brett Oberholtzer at the back of the rotation with little success to show. (The latter three of that quartet are now each on the disabled list, as well.)
A wide variety of pitching options figures to be available this summer, if the Astros elect to go that route. Cole Hamels represents a long-term, top-of-the-rotation option, whereas teammate Aaron Harang would be a reliable, low-cost rental. Kyle Lohse and Matt Garza‘s names have both been mentioned as trade candidates as well, although neither veteran is performing at the moment. Scott Kazmir and Johnny Cueto represent potentially more impactful rental players that would, of course, come with a higher price tag, in terms of prospects.
Marlins Claim Chad Smith From Angels
The Marlins announced that they have claimed right-handed reliever Chad Smith off waivers from the Angels and optioned him to Triple-A New Orleans. Smith had previously been designated for assignment by the Halos in order to clear a roster spot for the recently acquired Kirk Nieuwenhuis.
With this waiver claim, the 25-year-old Smith will join his fourth organization of the past six months. Originally a 17th-round draft pick of Detroit back in 2011, Smith has made his way from the Tigers to the Athletics to the Angels and now the Marlins via waiver claim.
Smith tossed just 1 1/3 innings for the A’s this season and yielded five runs. That, combined with the 11 2/3 innings he pitched last year with Detroit, accounts for the entirety of his work at the Major League level. In his 13 big league frames, he’s struck out 11 batters against six walks.
In the minor leagues, Smith has a rather strong track record, however (this season’s poor results notwithstanding). Though he’s allowed 12 runs in 20 innings at the Triple-A level this season, Smith posted a 3.45 ERA across Double-A and Triple-A in 2014, and he sports a lifetime 2.97 ERA with 8.5 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 in 184 2/3 innings.
Phillies Notes: Asche, Hamels, Nola
The Phillies announced today that Cody Asche has been recalled from Triple-A Lehigh Valley, indicating that the former third baseman’s transition to left field will continue at the Major League level. After being sent to Triple-A to work on the position, Asche batted .295/.358/.393 in 15 games. A corresponding roster move has yet to be announced, but the presence of Asche will further crowd an outfield mix that currently includes Ben Revere, Odubel Herrera, Grady Sizemore, Jeff Francoeur and Darin Ruf. Veterans Sizemore and Francoeur have each struggled at the plate this season, and it seems fair to speculate that Asche’s presence could squeeze fellow lefty swinger Sizemore out of a roster spot.
Here’s more on the Phillies…
- Cole Hamels is becoming a more attractive trade chip with each passing day, writes Ryan Lawrence of the Philadelphia Daily News. While GM Ruben Amaro Jr. has taken his share of flak, Lawrence opines that he’s played the Hamels situation “close to perfect,” as Hamels is the most attractive trade chip in a market filled with teams in need of rotation help. Johnny Cueto and Scott Kazmir each hold their own appeal, Lawrence notes, but Cueto recently underwent an MRI after being scratched from a start, whereas Scott Kazmir had an MRI on his left shoulder after experiencing pain of his own. Neither test revealed structural damage, but the MRIs could create a bit of unease as teams look at the pair of rentals, Lawrence notes. He also reminds that Amaro and team president Pat Gillick expressed in Spring Training a desire to get more bats into a minor league system that has added some intriguing arms over the past year or so. I’m inclined to agree with Lawrence — it didn’t make sense late in the offseason or in Spring Training for Amaro to merely take the best offer he could get for Hamels, and he’s now in a position where multiple teams will need to show interest, thereby increasing the possible return by forming somewhat of a bidding war.
- Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com writes that “all signs point to the Red Sox” as the team on which the Phillies are focused in looking to move Hamels. Salisbury cautions that the interest may not be reciprocated, but he did speak to a scout who feels that the two teams can line up on a trade, even without including Mookie Betts or Blake Swihart. Salisbury runs down several of the names listed in their conversation, though they’re listed in a speculative nature.
- Todd Zolecki of MLB.com feels that while Amaro’s comments about impatient fans “not understanding” the game were regrettable, there was merit to his message that the development of top prospects like Aaron Nola is a process that shouldn’t be rushed. Zolecki looks at top draft picks from the 2006-12 drafts and notes that highly drafted college pitchers have averaged 32.4 starts in the minors before establishing themselves as big leaguers. (The number jumps to 34.7 if Mike Leake — an exceptionally rare case who skipped the minors entirely — is excluded.) To this point, Zolecki notes, Nola has made just 20 minor league starts. While Stephen Strasburg and Tim Lincecum jumped to the Majors after 11 and 13 minor league starts, respectively, those two and Leake are more of the exception than the rule.
Sanchez’s Latest: Martinez, Fox, Arroyo
Just over two weeks remain in the current international signing period, which will come to a close on June 15. Following that will be a roughly two-week dead period before July 2 marks the kickoff of the the 2015-16 international prospect signing period. MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez recently penned a piece looking at some changes at the top of the international signing class, and he also has a second piece centering around a particularly interesting player in the upcoming June draft. A few highlights…
- Cuban prospects Eddy Julio Martinez and Yadier Alvarez have vaulted to the top of the upcoming July 2 class of international prospects, joining Bahamian shortstop Lucius Fox in Sanchez’s Top 3 prospects. Martinez is technically eligible to sign during the current period, Sanchez notes, though a deal would have to come together quickly in order for that to become a reality. Some scouts have made the lofty comparison of a young Andruw Jones when evaluating the 20-year-old Martinez, according to Sanchez. He lists the Cubs, Yankees, Angels, Blue Jays, Nationals, Rockies, Tigers, Dodgers, Giants, Reds and White Sox as teams that have shown interest in Martinez. It should be noted that the Angels and Yankees would only be able to sign Martinez in the current signing period, as they incurred maximum penalties in 2014-15 for soaring past their allotted bonus pool and will be unable to sign a player for more than $300K. The Cubs, on the other hand, are ineligible to sign him during this period but could do so in the 2015-16 period, as their penalty for exceeding their 2013-14 bonus pool will then have been served. The Dodgers are the favorite to sign Alvarez — Fangraphs’ Kiley McDaniel has previously reported that they’re believed to have an agreement worth as much as $16MM waiting to become official after July 2 — and have been aggressive on the Cuban market, adding Pablo Fernandez and Hector Olivera for a combined sum worth more than $70MM.
- The Dodgers, Rangers, Reds, and Giants are among the teams most frequently connected to the 18-year-old Fox, Sanchez hears. McDaniel reported a little over a month ago that Fox had been declared a free agent and could sign in the upcoming period, and he’s since noted that the Cubs, Dodgers and Rangers were serious players for Fox. Fox tells Sanchez that he’s added about 15 pounds of muscle in the past year, which he feels has dramatically improved his game since appearing in the Perfect Game and East Coast Pro showcases last year. (Fox attended American Heritage High School in Florida for two years before returning home to the Bahamas and petitioned to be declared an international free agent.)
- In the second piece linked above, Sanchez looks at the curious case of right-hander Octavio Arroyo, who was expected to be selected out of San Diego’s San Ysidro High School somewhere in rounds 15-20 in the June draft. However, Arroyo was recently deported to Tijuana, as his family incorrectly filled out his paperwork when moving him to the United States to live with his grandparents, both of whom are United States citizens. “The plan was for my grandparents to adopt me and get my paperwork, my residency,” Arroyo told Sanchez. “But I was denied. I don’t know why. I was told we filled out the paperwork wrong. We tried for three years, but I never got it.” Arroyo crossed the U.S./Mexico border multiple times while knowing that his paperwork had been rejected, and he was detained and deported in an attempt this spring. He’s still, however, eligible for the draft, but it’s uncertain whether or not he’ll be granted a work visa by the U.S. government. If no team selects him, Arroyo could sign as an undrafted free agent or sign with a Mexican League club, who could then sell his rights to a Major League team, Sanchez writes.
West Notes: Kazmir, Crisp, Saltalamacchia, Halos
The Athletics had somewhat of a scare yesterday when Scott Kazmir left his start in the third inning and underwent an MRI due to shoulder soreness, but MLB.com’s Jane Lee tweets that the injury isn’t serious. Kazmir’s MRI revealed no structural damage, and the left-hander is expected to miss only one start before rejoining the Oakland rotation. It’s good news for the A’s on multiple fronts, as a healthy Kazmir will either be a key to a theoretical turnaround of their season or a highly desirable trade chip come July.
Some more news from the game’s Western divisions…
- News on Coco Crisp, however, isn’t as encouraging for the Athletics, writes Joe Stiglich of CSN Bay Area. Doctors have recommended that Crisp receive an epidural injection to attempt to alleviate the chronic pain in his neck. The center fielder will be shut down from baseball activities for the next month or so, according to manager Bob Melvin. That, as Stiglich notes, would mean that Crisp would likely be out past the All-Star break, as he wouldn’t resume baseball activities until late June or early July.
- The D-Backs are planning to promote Jarrod Saltalamacchia from Triple-A Reno tomorrow, reports Steve Gilbert of MLB.com (via Twitter). Saltalamacchia signed a minor league pact with Arizona after being surprisingly designated for assignment and subsequently released by the struggling Marlins. Saltlamacchia has struggled some at Triple-A after a notable absence from playing in games — he was on paternity leave prior to his DFA, then waited 10 days before being released and another couple of days before signing — but he does have a pair of homers in nine games with Reno. The Diamondbacks will need to add Saltalamacchia to the 40-man roster before he can join the big league club.
- The addition of Kirk Nieuwenhuis doesn’t figure to be the only trade the Angels will make in the coming months, as GM Jerry Dipoto told reporters, including Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times, that the search for offense will continue for the next few months. “We’ll be looking for the remainder of the trade season,” said Dipoto, whose team surprisingly ranks 26th in runs scored, 29th in OPS and 26th in wRC+. Dipoto specifically states that he’s not interested in trading the pitching depth he worked long and hard to acquire — presumably referring to Andrew Heaney, Nick Tropeano and Sean Newcomb. He also doesn’t sound like a GM ready to act rashly. “Quite frankly, you try to fix something now, you cost yourself pitching depth, and many different things that could happen along the way would tell you that was the wrong way to go,” he adds.
Brewers Outright Rob Wooten
Brewers right-handed reliever Rob Wooten has been outrighted to Triple-A Colorado Springs, according to the club’s transactions page.
Wooten, 29, appeared in four games for the Brewers this season, yielding eight runs on five hits and six walks. Never a flamethrower in previous seasons, Wooten’s fastball velocity dipped to 87.9 mph in his small sample of work in 2015. This season’s unsightly results aside, Wooten has some encouraging career peripherals, including a 48.1 percent ground-ball rate, a 3.21 FIP and a 3.61 SIERA.
Wooten becomes the second reliever removed from Milwaukee’s 40-man roster in recent weeks, as the team also outrighted former closer Jim Henderson‘s contract to Colorado Springs. Wooten’s outright brings the Brewers’ 40-man roster to 38.