Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Twins Notes: Woods Richardson, Varland, Headrick, Lee
The Twins optioned right-hander Louie Varland to Triple-A St. Paul yesterday, creating a vacancy in the rotation in the process. That spot will be filled by right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson, writes Bobby Nightengale of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, noting that manager Rocco Baldelli confirmed as much following yesterday’s moves. Woods Richardson will take the ball Friday in Anaheim.
It took longer than the team might’ve hoped, but adding the 23-year-old Woods Richardson to the rotation means the Twins will now have both prospects they acquired from the Blue Jays in exchange for Jose Berrios contributing on the big league club. Woods Richardson already tossed six innings of one-run ball in a spot start against the Tigers earlier this year and showed a notable velocity uptick (93.4 mph average, up from 91 mph in two spot starts in 2022-23). Meanwhile, infielder/outfielder Austin Martin has hit .244/.292/.400 through his first 48 MLB plate appearances this season. The former No. 5 overall pick has homered, hit four doubles and fanned only seven times (14.5%) early in his MLB tenure.
Varland, a St. Paul native, was expected to enter spring training in a competition with veteran Anthony DeSclafani that would determine who won the team’s fifth starter job. Instead, DeSclafani required season-ending surgery to repair his flexor tendon, effectively giving Varland the five spot by default.
Varland entered the season with a career 4.40 ERA, 23.7% strikeout rate and 5.9% walk rate in 94 big league innings, so the former top prospect was hardly unqualified for the job. However, Varland’s previously plus command has evaporated in the early stages of the season. He walked 10.3% of his opponents and was also missing frequently within the zone, evidenced by a lack of missed bats (a paltry 7.6% swinging-strike rate) and a glaring six homers in 16 2/3 frames (3.24 HR/9). He’ll continue to work as a starter with the Saints for the time being and could be an option if he gets back on track and/or an injury occurs elsewhere in the rotation.
The rotation depth took a further hit when lefty Brent Headrick was transferred from the 7-day IL in Triple-A to the 60-day IL just yesterday. Headrick, who made his MLB debut last season, recently suffered a forearm strain. It appears the injury is significant enough that he’ll be sidelined for multiple months. The lefty posted a combined 3.32 ERA in 108 1/3 innings between High-A and Double-A in 2022 before turning in a 4.68 ERA in 75 Triple-A frames last year. His first taste of the big leagues produced a grisly 6.31 ERA in 25 2/3 innings, though that came in a long relief setting and a disproportionate amount of the damage came in one nightmare outing where he allowed five runs to the Red Sox and only completed one inning.
Headrick’s injury isn’t the only minor league injury of note for the Twins, though. Infielder Brooks Lee, the No. 8 overall pick in 2022 who’s widely considered to be one of the game’s 25 to 50 best prospects, has been out all season with a lower back strain. Triple-A skipper Toby Gardenhire said early in the season that the hope was Lee would only be down three to four weeks, but Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic now reports it’ll be a much lengthier absence.
Per Gleeman, Lee has been diagnosed with a herniated disc in his lower back. He’s working with renowned spinal specialist Dr. Robert Watkins but is only about three weeks into what’ll now be a two-month rehab plan. That’ll take Lee out of consideration for any near-term promotion. For a Twins team that’s currently without Royce Lewis and Carlos Correa, it’s a notable blow.
The 23-year-old Lee is generally viewed as near MLB-ready. He struggled in his first taste of Triple-A in the second half of the 2023 season but produced a stout .292/.365/.476 slash in 399 Double-A plate appearances. Lee walked at a 10.3% clip against just a 15.8% strikeout rate in Double-A while also popping 11 homers and 31 doubles. He’s played shortstop almost exclusively in the minors, and if Lee were healthy, he’d likely have been an option to replace either Lewis or Correa by this point in the season.
Once healthy, Lee could emerge as the Twins’ long-term option at second base, with Edouard Julien sliding over to first base — or Lee could simply oscillate between multiple positions in a super-utility role that provides him regular at-bats. For now, the focus will simply be on rehabbing his back with an eye toward a return this summer.
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The Opener: Brewers, Mariners, Rangers, MLBTR Chat
As MLB’s regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Who’s starting for the Brewers?
The Brewers have yet to announce a starter not only for today, but for any of the three remaining games in their ongoing four-game set against the Pirates. That’s not necessarily surprising, given the fact that lefties DL Hall and Wade Miley both recently joined right-hander Jakob Junis on the injured list, leaving the club with minimal options to complement Freddy Peralta, Joe Ross, and Colin Rea in their starting mix. Right-hander Tobias Myers was called up yesterday and has maxed out at 93 pitches in the minors this season, while lefty Aaron Ashby and righty Janson Junk could also provide the club with multiple innings over the next few days.
Updates regarding the statuses of both Junis and Miley could be available as soon as today. Miley said last night that he’ll undergo imaging today after hitting the shelf with a bout of elbow inflammation. Junis has been on the injured list since early April due to a shoulder impingement, but things took a scary turn yesterday afternoon when he was struck in the neck by a fly ball while working out in the outfield during batting practice. As noted by MLB.com’s Jake Crouse, Junis was eventually taken off the field in a stretcher and brought to the hospital via ambulance. The Brewers said in a statement following the accident that Junis was “conscious, alert, and responsive” when the club sent him to the hospital for further evaluation.
2. Series Preview: Mariners @ Rangers
A three-game set between the Mariners and Rangers in Texas is set to begin this evening at 7:05pm local time. Right-hander Logan Gilbert (2.33 ERA) is set to take on righty Dane Dunning (3.91 ERA) in tonight’s game, with Bryce Miller (1.85 ERA) and Jon Gray (3.15 ERA) scheduled to face off in Game 2 before Luis Castillo (4.40 ERA) and Andrew Heaney (6.35 ERA) wrap up the series on Thursday.
The trio of games come at a time when both Seattle and Texas are locked in a race for the AL West lead, with the Rangers leading the Mariners by half a game entering play today. The two clubs have taken an early lead over the Athletics, Angels, and Astros, each of whom are at least five games under .500 and three games back of the AL West crown. The surprising struggles of Houston (7-16, five games back) have opened the door for the Mariners to emerge as the primary competition of the reigning World Series champs early in the 2024 season as Seattle looks to return to the postseason after finishing just one game back of a playoff spot last year.
3. MLBTR Chat today:
The 2024 season is now in full swing, and some clubs have gotten off to surprisingly strong starts while a handful of others have unexpectedly struggled to open the year. If you have questions regarding your favorite club’s start to the campaign, or perhaps questions that look ahead to this summer’s trade deadline and the 2024-25 offseason, MLBTR’s Steve Adams will host a live chat with readers today at 1pm CT. You can click here to ask a question in advance, and that same link will allow you to join in on the chat once it begins or read the transcript after it is completed.
Jose Abreu’s Continued Struggles
No hitter has had a worse start to the season than José Abreu. The veteran first baseman has only picked up four hits in 65 plate appearances. He’s hitting .068/.138/.085 with one extra-base knock, a double. Among hitters with 50+ trips to the dish, none has made less of an impact from a power perspective. Only Victor Scott II — a glove-first rookie whom the Cardinals optioned over the weekend — has as poor an on-base mark.
While St. Louis had the luxury of sending Scott to Triple-A, the Astros can’t do the same with Abreu. He’d need to agree to any kind of minor league assignment. They’re not going to find a trade partner. In all likelihood, the only way for Houston to take him off the MLB roster is to release him and eat the remaining money on his $58.5MM free agent deal. Considering Abreu is making $19.5MM both this season and next, it’s not especially surprising that Houston isn’t ready to move on entirely.
At the same time, they have to at least consider the possibility of making a change at first base. The Astros have already kicked Abreu to the bottom third of the batting order after he started the year in the #5 hole. He has gotten the start in 16 of Houston’s 23 games, with Jon Singleton getting the nod at first base for the other seven appearances.
If Singleton were hitting well, perhaps Abreu would be in danger of losing his starting job. Yet the lefty-hitting Singleton is off to a lackluster .229/.308/.286 line in his own right. It comes as no surprise that Houston’s first basemen have been the sport’s least productive through three weeks. No team has gotten less than their .110/.187/.146 showing over 91 plate appearances.
While Singleton isn’t exactly forcing his way into the lineup, the Astros could consider alternatives in the minors. Offseason trade acquisition Trey Cabbage is on the 40-man roster but has been on optional assignment to Triple-A Sugar Land all season. He’s hitting .262/.407/.492 over his first 18 games. Former seventh-round pick Joey Loperfido has raked at a .260/.359/.688 clip over 19 contests for the Space Cowboys. The Duke product is tied with Heston Kjerstad for the Triple-A lead with 10 home runs. Loperfido is not on the 40-man but will need to be added at some point this year if Houston wants to keep him out of next offseason’s Rule 5 draft.
Neither Cabbage nor Loperfido is certain or even necessarily likely to produce against big league pitching. Cabbage appeared in 22 games for the Angels last season and struck out in nearly half his plate appearances. He’s going down on strikes a third of the time this year in Triple-A. Loperfido has had a similarly high swing-and-miss rate, fanning at a 33.7% clip this year after running a 32.6% strikeout percentage in his first look at Triple-A pitching last summer. He’s soon to turn 25 and has yet to make his major league debut.
Even if the Astros aren’t sold on Loperfido or Cabbage making enough contact to produce at the MLB level, they’ll obviously need to see more from Abreu to continue running him out there. General manager Dana Brown acknowledged as much last week. The GM told Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle on Friday that while the Astros would continue to give Abreu playing time in hopes that he finds his stride, they’d “have to circle back and make some decisions” if the former MVP doesn’t start hitting. That preceded an 0-8 showing from Abreu in the first two games of their weekend series against the Nationals. Singleton got the nod in yesterday’s series finale and went 0-3.
A player starting the year slowly can easily be overemphasized. A terrible three-week stretch to begin the season is more visible than a similar run in the middle of the summer might be. Teams are understandably wary about overreacting to a small sample in April, as Brown noted. Abreu’s struggles are magnified, though, because he’s already coming off a disappointing first year.
In 594 plate appearances a year ago, he hit .237/.296/.383 with 18 home runs. Of the 25 first basemen who took at least 500 plate appearances, Abreu was last in OBP and 22nd in slugging. Including this year’s start brings his overall line as an Astro to .220/.281/.354. That’d be subpar production for virtually any regular on a team with postseason aspirations. It’s particularly poor for a 37-year-old first baseman whose main source of value is supposed to be his bat.
To his credit, Abreu found his form to some extent late last season. He carried a .237/.296/.350 mark into September before connecting on seven homers with a .237/.299/.536 line in the regular season’s final month. He built off that in October, mashing at a .295/.354/.591 clip with another four longballs in 11 playoff contests. Abreu has also traditionally been a slow starter, even if this month’s struggles are at another level. For his career, he owns a roughly league average .241/.309/.421 line in March and April; he has posted well above-average offensive numbers in every other month.
That perhaps offers some level of optimism that Abreu will be able to turn things around. Still, despite a strong Spring Training performance, he hasn’t smoothly carried his late-2023 rebound into this season. How much more leeway the front office and manager Joe Espada can afford to give him remains to be seen.
Houston’s offense has been solid overall despite the complete lack of production at first base, yet they’re operating with far less margin for error than they have in past seasons. Poor performances from the starting rotation and the back of the bullpen, combined with a lack of timely hits, have led to a dismal 7-16 start. Only the White Sox have been worse in the American League. Urgency is soon going to mount. If the Astros get to a point where they feel a change in playing time is necessary, first base might be the likeliest position to do so.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Diamondbacks Release Jace Peterson
The D-Backs have released Jace Peterson, according to the infielder’s transaction log at MLB.com. That was expected after Arizona designated him for assignment last week.
That ends Peterson’s tenure with the Snakes, which began last summer. The D-Backs sent minor league righty Chad Patrick to the A’s to take a flier on the versatile infielder. Peterson was sitting on a middling .221/.313/.324 slash line at the time of the trade, but he’d been a more productive player for the Brewers over the preceding two seasons. Between 2021-22, the left-handed hitter posted a .243/.332/.376 slash in over 600 plate appearances.
Moving to the desert didn’t spark the turnaround for which Arizona was hoping. Peterson’s bat faded further down the stretch, as he hit .183/.276/.258 in 41 games. He got off to an even slower start this year. Peterson collected one hit and three walks over his first 26 plate appearances before Arizona took him off the roster.
The 33-year-old (34 next month) is free to explore other opportunities. He’s still due what remains of this season’s $5MM salary. The A’s agreed to pay $2MM of that sum as part of last summer’s trade, while Arizona is on the hook for the other $3MM. Any team that signs Peterson would only owe him the prorated portion of the $740K minimum for whatever time he spends in the big leagues this year. Nevertheless, his offensive downturn could require that he take a minor league deal and look to play his way back to the majors.
Orioles Designate Peyton Burdick For Assignment
The Orioles announced a few roster moves before this evening’s game against the Angels. Baltimore placed outfielder Austin Hays on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to Sunday, due to a left calf strain. They selected catcher David Bañuelos onto the MLB roster in a corresponding move. To create space on the 40-man roster for Bañuelos, the O’s designated outfielder Peyton Burdick for assignment.
Bañuelos finds his way to the majors for the second time. Baltimore called him up for one day last week when a roster spot opened with Tyler Wells heading to the injured list. The seven-year minor league veteran came off the bench to make his big league debut. Baltimore designated him for assignment and outrighted him off the roster a day later.
It’s possible we’ll see a similar course of events this week. Bañuelos’ previous call was spurred largely by his availability, as he has been traveling with the team as a member of the taxi squad. He’ll offer extra catching depth behind Adley Rutschman and James McCann in the short term, collecting a prorated MLB minimum salary in the process.
Hays has had a tough start to the year, picking up only five hits and four walks in his first 45 plate appearances. Colton Cowser has quickly hit his way into the lineup alongside Cedric Mullins and Anthony Santander. Hays, a 2023 All-Star, has only started 11 of Baltimore’s first 21 games. He’ll now be out of action at least into the middle of next week. Skipper Brandon Hyde told reporters the team expects Hays will be back not long after the minimal 10 days (X link via Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com).
That outfield depth has helped keep Burdick off the MLB roster entirely since the O’s claimed him on waivers last month. The right-handed hitter has spent the year on optional assignment to Triple-A Norfolk. Burdick has gotten out to a tough start there, hitting .182/.333/.455 in 16 games. He has hit four homers and taken plenty of walks, yet he’s also gone down on strikes 28 times.
It’s still an open question whether Burdick can make consistent enough contact to establish himself at the MLB level. Prospect evaluators have credited him with plus raw power, which he’s translated into 43 homers in just over 1000 Triple-A plate appearances. That has come with huge swing-and-miss rates. Burdick has punched out in nearly a third of his trips to the dish in Triple-A. He fanned more than 38% of the time in 46 big league contests with the Marlins between 2022-23.
Burdick has gone from Miami to the O’s to the White Sox and back to Baltimore within the past couple months. The Orioles will need to trade or waive him again within the next week. He’s in his second of three option years, so another team could keep him in Triple-A without exposing him to waivers if they were to give him a spot on the 40-man roster.
Reds Place Frankie Montas On Injured List
The Reds announced today that right-hander Frankie Montas has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a right forearm contusion, with fellow righty Casey Legumina recalled to take his place on the active roster.
Montas was struck by a comebacker off the bat of Taylor Ward in yesterday’s game, departing after recording just two outs. Amazingly, the bullpen covered 8 1/3 shutout innings and the Reds pulled off a 3-0 victory over the Angels. X-rays on Montas’s arm came back negative but he said yesterday that he would probably have to miss at least one start due to the soreness and swelling.
It seems the concern is still on the mild side, though the club will give him a couple of weeks to rest his arm. Per Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer, manager David Bell says the expectation is that Montas will just miss two starts, with Nick Martinez taking the ball on Thursday to fill the rotation spot.
The Reds signed Montas to a one-year, $16MM deal in the offseason, hoping for a bounceback campaign. He had struggled with shoulder problems in the second half of 2022 and then missed almost the entire 2023 season after undergoing surgery to address that shoulder.
But prior to those shoulder issues, he was quite good. In 2021, he tossed 187 innings for the A’s with a 3.37 earned run average. He struck out 26.6% of batters faced while walking just 7.3%, and he also got grounders on 42.8% of balls in play. The following year, he had a 3.18 ERA with similar peripherals before getting flipped to the Yankees. The shoulder problems had already popped up before that deal but got worse after it, leading to the surgery and lengthy absence.
The Reds have not yet seen the bounceback they were hoping for. Montas has a 4.19 ERA through his five starts but might be lucky to even be at that level. He has punched out just 16.7% of opponents thus far while giving out free passes at an 11.9% clip. Were it not for a .263 batting average on balls in play, he might have allowed even more runs, which is why his 5.33 FIP and 5.12 SIERA are about a run higher than his ERA.
We’re still talking about a small sample size of 19 1/3 innings but it’s also perhaps worth nothing that his stuff hasn’t come all the way back to pre-surgery levels. He averaged 96.4 miles per hour on his fastball in 2021 but is only at 94 mph so far this year, with his other pitches all down a few ticks as well. Perhaps Montas will find that missing velocity later in the year but he’ll now have to sit on the shelf for a few weeks.
In the meantime, the rotation will consist of Martinez, Hunter Greene, Nick Lodolo, Graham Ashcraft and Andrew Abbott. Martinez opened the season in the rotation and made two starts but got bumped to a long relief role when Lodolo came off the injured list. He spent his time with the Padres moving between starting and relieving, so this is something he has experience with and likely why the Reds signed him in the first place.
Mariners Notes: Urias, Woo, Miller
Mariners infielder Luis Urias exited last night’s game after taking a 94 mph fastball of his left wrist, but the Mariners announced that he’s been diagnosed with a contusion. X-rays on the wrist were negative, per MLB.com, and he’ll be considered day-to-day for the time being.
The 26-year-old Urias has gotten out to a .160/.300/.400 start this season, striking out 11 times in 30 plate appearances (36.7%) — an uncharacteristically high rate for a player who entered the season with a career 21.6% strikeout rate.
The Mariners entered the season envisioning a platoon of the righty-swinging Urias and lefty-hitting Josh Rojas — a more contact-oriented pairing than the more boom-or-bust nature of since-traded third baseman Eugenio Suarez. Rojas has been one of the team’s bright spots, hitting .311/.392/.422 (148 wRC+) in 51 trips to the plate thus far. Only four of those plate appearances have come against lefties, but if Urias is sidelined for a bit, Rojas could get some more reps against southpaws. Seattle doesn’t have many lefty opponents on the immediate horizon, though they’re slated to face Andrew Heaney on Thursday.
Elsewhere on the injury front, the M’s are getting closer to welcoming righty Bryan Woo back to the staff. The right-hander made his first minor league rehab appearance with Triple-A Tacoma last night, and as broadcaster Mike Curto points out, pitched three perfect innings while fanning five of his nine opponents.
Woo’s fastball ranged from 91-95 mph, per Curto, which is down from last year when he averaged 95.2 mph on his heater. That said, it’s also the first rehab start for a right-hander who’s yet to pitch this season while waiting for some elbow inflammation to calm down, so that’s not necessarily a massive red flag just yet. It’d be natural if he built closer to that velocity as he continued to ramp up over what could be multiple rehab starts between now and his activation.
In place of Woo in the rotation, Seattle has been relying on former top-10 pick Emerson Hancock, who’s posted a 6.10 ERA through four starts, although the vast majority of the damage came in one tough outing against the Brewers. Hancock has yielded a combined seven earned runs through 17 1/3 innings in his other three appearances but was lit up for an eight spot in just 3 1/3 innings that day. He’s sporting a well below-average 16.7% strikeout rate but also an exceptional 3.3% walk rate. Hancock is the least established arm in Seattle’s rotation, trailing Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert and Bryce Miller — so he’s likely to be the odd man out if everyone’s healthy when Woo returns.
Miller, in particular, has impressed the Mariners this year. He’s pitched to an electric 1.85 ERA with a 26.1% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate in 24 2/3 innings. Miller recently chatted with Adam Jude of the Seattle Times about his incorporation of a new splitter into his repertoire — a pitch that’s been flat-out dominant for the 25-year-old righty so far. Miller has thrown his new pitch at a 19.4% clip this season, finishing off 24 plate appearances with the pitch. Those 24 plate appearances have resulted in 21 outs — eight of them strikeouts — and yielded only three singles. Both Gilbert and Kirby began throwing splitters last season, and Miller has leaned on his teammates for advice and guidance when looking to master his new pitch.
“It kind of has a mind of its own sometimes, but I’ve been able to command it really well,” Miller tells Jude of his new weapon. “So, I’m really happy with it and I think it’s opened up a lot of things for me [against] lefties and righties.”
White Sox Designate Zach Remillard For Assignment
3:35pm: The Sox have now made it official, selecting Mendick and designating Remillard for assignment. They also reinstated John Brebbia from the injured list and optioned right-hander Nick Nastrini and infielder Lenyn Sosa to Triple-A Charlotte. Nastrini’s option means they will need another starter later this week.
11:15am: The White Sox will designate infielder Zach Remillard for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for fellow utilityman Danny Mendick, reports Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Van Schouwen first reported last night that Mendick’s contract would be selected prior to today’s game.
It’s the second DFA of the calendar year for Remillard, whom the White Sox designated back in January but selected back to the 40-man roster nine days ago. Now 30 years old, Remillard has spent his entire career in the White Sox organization after the team selected him in the tenth round of the 2016 draft.
Remillard has seen big league time in each of the past two seasons, albeit in fleeting fashion. He tallied 160 plate appearances last year and another five this season. Overall, he’s a .250/.292/.316 hitter in that limited sample. Remillard posted a nice .280/.373/.400 slash in 491 plate appearances during his 2022 run in Triple-A Charlotte, but those numbers dipped in 2023 and he’s out to a dismal .120/.224/.160 start through his first 58 Triple-A appearances so far in 2024.
While Remillard has primarily played third base in his professional career (2356 innings), he’s also logged time at shortstop (1646 innings), at second base (961 innings), at first base (696 innings), in left field (333 innings), in right field (133 innings) and in center field (76 innings).
The White Sox will have a week to trade Remillard, pass him through outright waivers or release him. Because he was outrighted after clearing waivers back in January, he’d have the right to reject a second outright assignment in favor of free agency if he goes unclaimed a second time.
