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Pirates Outright Canaan Smith-Njigba; Ali Sanchez Elects Free Agency

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8:54AM: Sanchez chose to reject the outright assignment and become a free agent, as per his personal MLB.com profile page.

8:28AM: The Pirates have outrighted outfielder Canaan Smith-Njigba and catcher Ali Sánchez to Triple-A Indianapolis, according to the team’s official transactions feed.  The two players were designated for assignment on Opening Day but have now cleared waivers.

Smith-Njigba has become quite familiar with the DFA wire, as he briefly left the Pirates organization via waiver claim when Pittsburgh initially designated him back in January.  The Mariners claimed Smith-Njigba but then designated him shortly thereafter, allowing the Pirates to claim him back less than three weeks after initially parting ways with the outfielder.  This latest transaction allows the Bucs to move Smith-Njigba off their 40-man roster, but he’ll remain as a depth option at Triple-A.

CSN turns 25 next month, and his big league resume consists of 18 games and 44 plate appearances (with a .493 OPS) with Pittsburgh over the last two seasons.  Apart from his brief sojourn as as Mariner, Smith-Njigba has also been a member of the Yankees organization, beginning his pro career as a fourth-round pick for New York in the 2017 draft.  He came to the Pirates as part of the four-player trade package for Jameson Taillon in January 2021.

Over 686 career plate appearances at the Triple-A level, Smith-Njigba has hit a solid .273/.366/.439 while hitting 16 homers and stealing 29 bases in 37 attempts.  He isn’t particularly fast despite those good base-stealing numbers, and Smith-Njigba has primarily played the two corner outfield positions apart from a handful of appearances in center field.  Smith-Njigba is also a left-handed hitter and the Pirates are currently loaded with right-handed bats, even though the outfield (left-handed hitting Jack Suwinski and switch-hitter Bryan Reynolds) has more balance.

This isn’t the first time Sanchez has been outrighted off a 40-man roster, so the catcher has the right to reject the Pirates’ assignment and re-enter free agency.  There hasn’t yet been any word on whether or not Sanchez will remain in the organization, though he is currently the only catcher in Indianapolis with any big league experience and would be the first call-up if either of Henry Davis or Jason Delay was injured.

Sanchez’s tenure in MLB isn’t exactly vast, as he debuted with five games with the Mets in 2020, two games with the Cardinals in 2021, and he hasn’t since returned to the Show.  The 27-year-old has spent much of his career in the Mets’ farm system, but has since bounced around to multiple teams in search of catching depth.  This is technically Sanchez’s second stint with the Pirates, as he was claimed off waivers from the Tigers in October 2022 only to be claimed away again a couple of months later by the Diamondbacks without ever actually suiting up for Pittsburgh in a pro game.

The Pirates signed Sanchez to a guaranteed Major League deal this past December, perhaps as an acknowledgement of his strong .311/.375/.492 slash line over 267 PA in 2023 with Arizona’s Triple-A affiliate in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.  The catcher is out of minor league options, so the Bucs had to designate Sanchez for assignment in order to remove him from the 40-man.

Giants To Select Daulton Jefferies

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The Giants will select the contract of right-hander Daulton Jefferies prior to Sunday’s game against the Padres, manager Bob Melvin announced the team’s beat in tonight’s postgame session (X link via Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle). He’ll get the start. Since Jefferies isn’t on the 40-man roster and the Giants don’t have a vacancy, they’ll need to clear space.

It’ll be an emotional day for Jefferies, whose last MLB appearance came nearly two years ago as a member of the A’s — the only team for which he’s ever pitched. The 28-year-old righty has undergone both thoracic outlet surgery and Tommy John surgery (in that order) since walking off the mound that day. The two procedures were performed only months apart; Jefferies suffered a torn UCL while working back from that TOS operation. Considering that was the second Tommy John procedure of Jefferies’ career, his return to a big league mound is all the more remarkable.

The A’s selected Jefferies with the No. 37 overall pick back in 2016. He was long considered one of the system’s more promising arms, even after that first Tommy John procedure slowed his development. Between those two UCL surgeries, the TOS and the canceled 2020 minor league season, Jefferies has pitched only 231 2/3 professional innings — just 11 more than he pitched in his three-year college career at Cal.

Jefferies may not have a large volume of innings, but at least in the minors, the work he’s turned in has been strong. He sports a solid 3.93 ERA in his minor league career, with a strong 25.7% strikeout rate and a superlative 3.1% walk rate. He’s been roughed up for a 5.75 ERA in 56 1/3 big league innings, with far fewer missed bats in the majors but still very strong command (5.8% walk rate) and an above-average 45.5% ground-ball rate. Jefferies was excellent for the Giants this spring, pitching 14 innings and allowing just four runs (2.57 ERA) on 14 hits and three walks with 16 strikeouts.

Tomorrow’s appearance could go down as a spot start when all is said and done. The Giants currently have Logan Webb, Jordan Hicks, Kyle Harrison and Keaton Winn in the rotation. Reigning Cy Young winner Blake Snell, who signed late in spring training, tossed 74 pitches against Double-A hitters in an extended spring training game yesterday, tweets Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. The quality of competition obviously wasn’t MLB-caliber, but Snell still punched out 11 batters in a four-inning appearance. The Giants are still determining his next step. It’s possible Snell will get a minor league start to finish off his tune-up, but it doesn’t sound like he’s too far from game readiness.

Rockies Outright Warming Bernabel

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March 30: Bernabel went unclaimed on waivers and has been assigned outright to Double-A Hartford, per the Rockies’ transaction log at MLB.com. He’ll remain with the organization.

March 28: The Rockies announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of utilityman Alan Trejo and opened a spot on the roster by designating third base prospect Warming Bernabel for assignment. Colorado also placed relievers Daniel Bard and Lucas Gilbreath on the 15-day IL, as expected. The former is recovering from spring knee surgery and the latter from 2023 Tommy John surgery.

Bernabel, 21, ranked seventh among Rockies prospects at Baseball America this time last year but has seen his stock drop considerably after a rough 2023 season. After a standout 2021 campaign in which he slashed .313/.370/.499 between Low-A and High-A, Bernabel batted only .225/.282/.367 in 83 Double-A games. A back injury cost him more than a month of the season and quite possibly impacted his performance at the plate as well. BA dropped Bernabel to 27th in a poorly ranked Rockies farm system for the 2024 campaign, noting concerns about his below-average raw power and poor exit velocities.

Bernabel has played third base in all but one game of his pro career, when he logged a brief two-inning stint at second base. Scouting reports credit him with an average arm and enough range to handle the hot corner, but he’s not regarded as a plus defender at this time. He only spent one season on the Rockies’ 40-man roster before being designated for assignment, meaning he has two minor league option years remaining. That, paired with his youth and pre-2023 reputation could create interest from other clubs.

The Rockies will have a week to trade Bernabel or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He doesn’t have the prior outright assignment or service time needed to reject an outright assignment, so if he goes unclaimed, Colorado can retain him and send him back to the minors (presumably, a second stint at Double-A) without needing to dedicate a 40-man roster spot to him.

Justin Steele Out Until At Least May

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Cubs ace Justin Steele exited his first start of the season with a hamstring strain, and he’s looking at an absence that’s more than double the minimum 15 days on the injured list. Manager Craig Counsell told the Cubs beat today that Steele has been diagnosed with a Grade 1 strain and is expected to miss the entire month of April (X link via Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic). The team doesn’t have an exact timetable yet, as they’re waiting for Steele to be able to walk without a limp before mapping things out more concretely.

Steele was cruising through a well-deserved first Opening Day start of his career when he tumbled awkwardly while fielding a bunt off the bat of Leody Taveras. The 28-year-old lefty managed to make an impressive play and throw out the speedy Taveras but immediately grabbed at his leg in the aftermath of the play before exiting with a trainer. The Cubs put him on the injured list earlier today and called up pitching prospect Ben Brown.

Losing Steele for at least a sixth of the season is a significant blow to a Cubs club that has its sights set on a return to the postseason in what’s viewed as a wide-open NL Central division. The left-hander was never considered to be a premium prospect but has nevertheless climbed from an unheralded fifth-round pick to not just a solid member of the starting staff but an All-Star and top-five finisher in National League Cy Young voting.

Steele made 30 starts for the Cubs in 2023 and pitched 173  1/3 innings with a 3.06 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate, 5% walk rate and 49.4% ground-ball rate. That marked his second straight season of a low-3.00s ERA, but Steele dramatically improved his walk rate in 2023 and enjoyed his success over a much larger sample in ’23 than the prior season. Including his 2021 rookie showing and this year’s lone appearance, he’s pitched to a 3.28 ERA in 354 big league innings.

With Steele sidelined for more than a month and perhaps even a fair bit more than that — Counsell did not specify whether early May or late May was the expectation — the Cubs’ rotation depth will be put to the test early. Chicago signed star NPB lefty Shota Imanaga to a four-year contract over the winter, effectively replacing righty Marcus Stroman, who eventually signed with the Yankees as a free agent. Imanaga, Kyle Hendricks and bounceback hopeful Jameson Taillon will lead a staff that’ll now be quite young in the four and five spots.

The 24-year-old Brown, a well-regarded pitching prospect whom the Cubs acquired from the Phillies in the 2022 David Robertson trade, will make his big league debut when he first takes the mound. He has significant command issues in Triple-A last year (15.8% walk rate in 72 2/3 innings) but impressed in spring training and has strong overall numbers up through Double-A. Javier Assad has a 3.06 ERA in 41 career appearances, but more than half those have come out of the bullpen. He’s also posted a below-average 20.2% strikeout rate against a higher-than-average 9.9% walk rate.

The Cubs have a few soft spots on the schedule over the next month-plus, but they’ll face more competitive teams than non-contenders. Their April schedule will see them square off against the Dodgers, Astros, D-backs, Mariners, Padres, Marlins, Red Sox and Rockies. They draw the Mets, Brewers (twice), Padres, Pirates (twice), Braves (twice) and Cardinals in May.

Yankees Designate Nick Ramirez For Assignment

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The Yankees have designated lefty Nick Ramirez for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to fellow lefty Tanner Tully, whose contract is being selected from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Manager Aaron Boone announced not long ago that Tully would be selected but didn’t divulge a corresponding move.

It’s a somewhat surprising DFA, given Ramirez’s solid performance in 2023 and strong spring showing. The 34-year-old logged 40 2/3 innings out of Boone’s bullpen last year and recorded a 2.66 ERA. His 16.3% strikeout rate was well shy of the league average, but Ramirez’s 5.2% walk rate was outstanding and his 47.4% grounder rate was sharp as well. This spring, he pitched 10 1/3 innings and allowed five runs on nine hits and a walk with nine strikeouts and a huge 62% ground-ball rate.

Ramirez didn’t make the Opening Day roster with the Yankees, however, and it seems that for the time being anyhow, they prefer to turn to Tully to add some length in the bullpen rather than the more straightforward move to recall Ramirez. In doing so, they’ll now have a week to trade Ramirez, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him. He’s been outrighted previously in his career, so he’d be able to reject an outright assignment even if he clears waivers.

In parts of four big league seasons between the Tigers, Padres and Yankees, Ramirez has tallied 151 1/3 innings with a 4.04 ERA and fielding-independent marks that more or less support that level of performance (4.15 FIP, 4.33 SIERA). He doesn’t throw hard, sitting 90-91 with his fastball, and his 19.3% strikeout rate is below par. But Ramirez has solid control and ground-ball tendencies, just as he showed in 2023, and has virtually no platoon split. Ramirez is in his final minor league option year and has four years of club control remaining.

Twins Sign Diego Castillo To Minor League Deal

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The Twins have signed reliever Diego Castillo to a minor league contract. The former Rays and Mariners setup man was announced as part of the Opening Day roster for their Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul.

From 2018-22, the now-30-year-old Castillo was excellent out of the bullpens in Tampa Bay and Seattle, pitching to a combined 3.12 earned run average (3.69 FIP, 3.38 SIERA) with a strong 28.1% strikeout rate and an 8.9% walk rate that’s barely north of the league average. He kept the ball on the ground at an impressive 50.7% clip as well, and Castillo yielded just 1.07 long balls per nine frames.

Castillo has battled shoulder trouble throughout his career, however — three different IL stints — and that seems to have taken some toll on the righty. Early in his career, he averaged 98.8 mph on his four-seamer and 98.2 mph on his sinker. Those velocities were down to 94 mph with the Mariners in 2023. Castillo was rocked for six runs in his first 8 2/3 innings last season, walking an uncharacteristic seven of 41 hitters (17.1%) and plunking another during that time.

The Mariners passed Castillo and his $2.95MM salary through waivers unclaimed last May, surely hoping that he’d return to form in Triple-A Tacoma and help the club later in the season. However, his time in Tacoma didn’t go much better. In 47 1/3 frames, he posted a dreary 5.13 ERA with a decent 22.1% strikeout rate but also an alarming 15.5% walk rate. The Mariners never brought him back to the big leagues, and Castillo elected free agency at season’s end.

The Rangers signed Castillo to a minor league pact over the winter but weren’t able to get him straightened out in spring training. Command was once again a prominent issue. He walked six of 39 opponents with Texas (15.4%), plunked another and tossed a wild pitch.

Despite the sharp decline since the end of the 2022 season, Castillo has a strong overall track record in the big leagues. Minnesota, meanwhile, opened the season with closer Jhoan Duran (oblique strain) and relievers Caleb Thielbar (hamstring strain), Justin Topa (patellar tendinitis) and Josh Staumont (calf strain) on the injured list. It’s not a surprise to see them add a veteran arm with some big league success under his belt, but Castillo is clearly a project for them at this point.

If the Twins are able to get him back on track, Castillo’s 4.150 years of big league service time mean he can be controlled via arbitration through the 2025 season.

Yankees To Select Tanner Tully

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The Yankees are set to option right-hander Clayton Beeter and select the contract of left-hander Tanner Tully, manager Aaron Boone announced before today’s game (X link via Greg Joyce of the New York Post). They’ll need to make a corresponding 40-man roster move, but the Yankees have not yet announced what that’ll be.

Tully, 29, has just six major league innings under his belt — all coming with the 2022 Guardians. He allowed four runs on eight hits and six walks in that short sample of work. Cleveland selected Tully in the 26th round back in 2016, and he spent the next seven seasons in their system, working primarily as a starting pitcher in the minors. Following that cup of coffee in the majors in ’22, he was removed from the 40-man roster and became a free agent, ultimately signing a minor league deal with the Yankees.

It proved to be a brief stint with the Yankees, as Tully made 19 starts in Triple-A before being granted his release to sign with the NC Dinos of the Korea Baseball Organization. He made 11 starts for the Dinos in the final couple months of the season, tossing 64 2/3 frames of 2.92 ERA ball with a 17.7% strikeout rate, 4.9% walk rate and 59.6% ground-ball rate. The Yankees brought Tully back on a minor league deal over the winter, and he’ll now make his first appearance on the big league roster.

The Yankees burned through five relievers yesterday after Carlos Rodon lasted only 4 1/3 innings in his first start of the year. They also needed four innings from the ’pen following a five-inning Opening Day outing by Nestor Cortes. Tully will provide a multi-inning option to give them some length in the event of a short start from Marcus Stroman or should the game get out of hand one way or another. In parts of five Triple-A seasons, Tully has a 5.06 ERA with an 18.7% strikeout rate and 5.7% walk rate. He pitched six innings for the Yankees this spring and yielded one run on four hits and a walk with two strikeouts.

DJ LeMahieu Diagnosed With Fracture In Foot

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Yankees third baseman DJ LeMahieu opened the season on the injured list with what the team termed a foot contusion after he fouled a ball into himself late in camp. The team said yesterday he’d been slated for a second MRI because the swelling had taken so long to go down, and it appears this new round of imaging revealed a more notable injury. Manager Aaron Boone told the Yankees beat today that the new round of imaging revealed a non-displaced fracture (X link via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). He’ll be reevaluated in two weeks but is now clearly facing a lengthier absence than originally anticipated.

The Yankees made a late-spring trade to acquire utilityman Jon Berti from the Marlins, sending catcher Ben Rortvedt to the Rays and outfield prospect John Cruz to the Marlins in a three-team swap. Berti’s presence on the roster will be all the more important now. The Yankees didn’t provide a timeline beyond that two-week reevaluation, but at the very least LeMahieu will be sidelined into late April — although an absence extending beyond that seems likely.

LeMahieu, 35, is in the fourth season of a six-year, $90MM contract. He came to spring training hoping to rebound from a down year at the plate, by his standards (.243/.327/.390, 101 wRC+), but he struggled in 29 spring plate appearances and will now face an prolonged absence to begin the year.

With LeMahieu and prospect Oswald Peraza (shoulder strain) both on the injured list for what’s likely to be a notable period, the Yankees will use Berti and fellow utilityman Oswaldo Cabrera at the hot corner early in the season. Cabrera has started each of the team’s first two games and gotten out to a hot start, going 6-for-9 with a home run and a double.

Robert Stephenson Aiming For Late-April Activation From 15-Day IL

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Robert Stephenson’s tenure with the Angels got off to an unwelcome start when the reliever had to start the season on the 15-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation.  The righty provided MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger with an update, saying that his hope is to be available before April is over, though he’ll first need to complete a rehab assignment.

The shoulder soreness first arose before the Angels’ spring camp even opened, and as a result, Stephenson wasn’t able to pitch at all in the Cactus League.  Stephenson will therefore need some extra ramp-up time to try and simulate the Spring Training experience, though he has already started to pick up his throwing progressions.  The right-hander had his first bullpen session on Thursday and another is planned for Monday.

Los Angeles signed Stephenson to a three-year, $33MM free agent deal in January, as the 31-year-old was handsomely rewarded for a major in-season turnaround.  With a penchant for inconsistency both as a starter and then after he became a full-time reliever in 2019, Stephenson had a 5.14 ERA in 14 innings for the Pirates before the Bucs dealt him to Tampa in a somewhat under-the-radar deal.  Stephenson then became the latest in the Rays’ long line of pitching reclamation projects, as he broke out with a 2.35 ERA, eight percent walk rate, and a fantastic 38.3% strikeout rate over 38 1/3 innings in a Tampa Bay uniform.

While the shoulder injury isn’t the best start to a $33MM deal, the Angels are betting that Stephenson can keep the magic going to become a lockdown member of their bullpen.  The Halos invested heavily in their relief corps (and not much else) this winter, adding Stephenson, Matt Moore, Luis Garcia, Adam Cimber, and Jose Cisnero as part of an extensive bullpen overhaul.

Cubs Promote Ben Brown, Place Justin Steele On 15-Day IL

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2:34PM: The Cubs officially announced Brown’s promotion and Steele’s IL placement.  Steele’s time on the injured list retroactively begins on March 29, and his injury was designated as a left hamstring strain.

12:59PM: The Cubs will call up right-hander Ben Brown from Triple-A today, according to FanSided’s Robert Murray (via X).  Brown will likely take the roster spot of Justin Steele, who is ticketed for the 15-day injured list after suffering a hamstring injury on Opening Day.

It would also appear that Brown will take over Steele’s place in the rotation for the time being, with Brown lined up to make his MLB debut on either Tuesday or Wednesday when the Cubs host the Rockies.  It will be quite the moment for 24-year-old Brown, whose pro career began as a 33rd-round draft pick for the Phillies in 2017 when injuries contributed to his fall down the board.  As noted by Baseball America’s scouting report, Brown has had to overcome a burst appendix, a Tommy John surgery, an elbow strain, and some time on the Covid-related injured list before finally getting healthy in 2022 and getting some extended time on the mound.

That season brought about another change for Brown, when Philadelphia dealt him to the Cubs at the trade deadline in the David Robertson deal.  Making his Triple-A debut in 2023, Brown posted a 5.33 ERA in 72 2/3 innings for Iowa before missing about a month with a lat problem.

A 15.8% walk rate was the biggest factor in Brown’s Triple-A struggles, and he has occasionally experienced some control problems in past years as well.  The strikeout potential is evident, however, as Brown has a 31.1% strikeout rate over his 297 career minor league innings, and both Baseball America and MLB Pipeline give 60-grades to his fastball and curve, with Pipeline adding a 60 to his slider as well.  Clearly Brown has plenty of stuff, though both scouting outlets wonder if his future might ultimately be as a reliever if he can’t stay healthy or deliver more consistent control.

Until that decision has to be made, the Cubs will see what Brown can do as a starter.  Between Steele’s hamstring issue and Jameson Taillon already on the IL with back problems, Chicago has had to made some early dips in its rotation depth, which allowed both Javier Assad and Jordan Wicks to make the Opening Day rotation.  Assad and Wicks have limited MLB experience, and Brown and NPB import Shota Imanaga have never pitched in the majors, leaving Kyle Hendricks as far and away the most experienced healthy starter in Wrigleyville.  Veteran Drew Smyly was slotted for bullpen work rather than the starting rotation, and it seems like the Cubs will keep Smyly in that role even with Steele now sidelined.

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