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Marlins Do Not Intend To Trade Sandy Alcantara In Offseason

By Anthony Franco | August 14, 2024 at 5:54pm CDT

The Marlins have informed Sandy Alcantara that they will not trade him during the upcoming offseason, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid (X link). Mish writes that the Fish are hopeful that the 2022 NL Cy Young winner will be ready to take the ball for them on Opening Day.

Alcantara missed this entire season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in October. That was the first major blow in what has turned out to be a very difficult 12 months at loanDepot Park. Eury Pérez went down with a Tommy John procedure of his own a week into the ’24 season. The Marlins got 12 inconsistent starts out of Jesús Luzardo; his season is over due to a stress reaction in his back. A finger injury has interrupted what might have been a step forward from Ryan Weathers. Lefty Braxton Garrett is currently down with a flexor strain and has made all of seven starts. Edward Cabrera lost a couple months in the first half.

A rotation with a fully healthy Alcantara, Luzardo, Pérez, Garrett and Weathers would probably be a top 10 group in MLB. The Marlins have instead lost them all for significant chunks of the season. Between that brutal stretch of starting pitching injuries and one of the worst lineups in the majors, the Marlins have had a nightmare of a year. They started 0-9, never got back to .500, and are fully amidst a rebuild. Miami shipped out Jazz Chisholm Jr., Luis Arraez, Josh Bell, Trevor Rogers, Tanner Scott, Bryan De La Cruz and a few others as part of a roster overhaul. First-year president of baseball operations Peter Bendix has begun to reshape the front office, and it’s widely believed that manager Skip Schumaker and the organization could part ways at season’s end.

That upheaval means there aren’t many players whom the Marlins would probably steadfastly refuse to discuss in trade talks. That said, it never seemed especially likely they’d deal Alcantara next winter. He’s rehabbing a major arm procedure that at least clouds his trade value. While there’d surely still be interest if the Marlins shopped him, other teams would presumably want to price in some kind of discount in case Alcantara doesn’t regain his pre-surgery form.

There’s little reason for the Marlins to entertain diminished trade offers. Miami signed Alcantara to a $56MM extension the year before his Cy Young campaign. He’s under contract for another two seasons and the team holds an option for 2027. Alcantara is making $9MM this year. His salaries will jump to $17MM annually for the next two seasons; the option is valued at $21MM and comes with a $2MM buyout. (He’d also receive a $1MM assignment bonus if the Marlins trade him at any point.) From here forward, it’s a two-year, $36MM guarantee that comes with a third-year club option.

Despite the surgery, that’s good value for a pitcher of Alcantara’s caliber. Bounceback starters like Frankie Montas, Jack Flaherty and Luis Severino signed for between $13MM and $16MM in free agency last offseason. They all inked one-year deals, but that allowed them all to retest free agency in search of a much bigger contract if they returned to form. Alcantara is coming from a higher baseline than that trio of pitchers. If he looks anything like his old self, the final guaranteed season and the club option would be well below market value.

It’s a relatively costly commitment by Miami’s standards, but the Marlins have little else on the books next year. They owe the already released Avisaíl García $17MM between his $12MM salary and a $5MM buyout on his 2026 option. They’re responsible for $10MM annually to the Yankees between 2026-28 on the Giancarlo Stanton contract. Minor league reliever Woo-Suk Go, who is owed $2.75MM next season between his salary and a ’26 option buyout, is the only other player on a guaranteed deal beyond this season.

Luzardo, Jesús Sánchez and Garrett headline what’ll be a relatively light arbitration class. The Fish aren’t likely to do much in free agency after spending all of $5MM last winter on a one-year deal for Tim Anderson. Even with Alcantara’s salary rising by $8MM, they could open next season with a lower player payroll than their approximate $92MM mark this year (calculated by Cot’s Baseball Contracts).

If Alcantara performs well in the first half, he could be one of the most in-demand players at next summer’s deadline. Even if all their starters come back healthy, Miami will be hard-pressed to compete barring a major lineup overhaul. The Marlins still may not want to move Alcanatara with the amount of time remaining on his deal, but that’d be a more interesting question for the front office than it would to sell low on him over the offseason.

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Miami Marlins Newsstand Sandy Alcantara

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Giants Select Grant McCray

By Anthony Franco | August 14, 2024 at 5:36pm CDT

The Giants announced they’ve selected outfielder Grant McCray onto the major league roster. San Francisco optioned Marco Luciano back to Triple-A Sacramento in a corresponding move. The Giants already had an opening on the 40-man roster.

They’ll use it to take their first look at McCray, whom they drafted out of a Florida high school in 2019. The former third-round pick is starting in center field tonight against Braves righty Grant Holmes. McCray can play all three outfield positions and has spent the vast majority of his minor league time up the middle.

That defensive acumen is McCray’s biggest appeal. Prospect evaluators credit him with plus or better speed and an excellent arm. He has the tools to be a plus defender in center field. Outfield defense has been an issue for the Giants for a few seasons. That’s particularly true in center, where Heliot Ramos has been the starter lately. Ramos has had a breakout year offensively but is clearly stretched playing up the middle. Most scouting reports have long pegged him as a corner outfield fit. Both Defensive Runs Saved and Statcast’s Outs Above Average have graded him harshly in his 493 innings of center field work this year.

Ramos moves to left field tonight, pushing Michael Conforto to designated hitter. If McCray is up as an everyday center fielder, that’ll probably have the biggest impact on Jerar Encarnacion’s playing time. The Giants have given him five starts apiece at DH and in the corner outfield since they selected his contract on August 2. He’s hitting .237/.293/.395 over 41 plate appearances. McCray playing center field would leave the corner outfield/designated hitter roles to some combination of Ramos, Conforto and Mike Yastrzemski on most days.

The long-term viability of that plan probably depends on how well McCray acclimates to big league pitching. Scouting reports at Baseball America and FanGraphs credit him with nascent raw power but have never been bullish on his pure hitting ability. McCray has turned in decent results between the top two levels of the minors this year, combining to hit .242/.330/.446 in 97 games. He has 12 homers, seven triples and 26 doubles through 421 plate appearances.

McCray is drawing walks at a strong 10.7% clip but has fanned in nearly 29% of his trips. Strikeouts have been a problem throughout his minor league tenure. It’ll be a challenge for him to make contact in his first look at big league pitching, but his combination of power and athleticism present some upside if he can put the ball in play somewhat regularly.

Strikeouts have also been a question for Luciano, who has long been one of the Giants’ top prospects. San Francisco initially planned to give him everyday run at designated hitter after the Jorge Soler deadline trade. They backed off on that fairly quickly, perhaps because of trepidation about his elevated strikeout tallies in the upper minors and his limited look (31 games over two seasons) against MLB pitching. Luciano scuffled defensively at shortstop and has yet to really find a position at the MLB level. He’s still just 22, so the Giants will get him consistent reps in Triple-A to continue his development on both sides of the ball.

The Giants have dropped three straight to fall back to .500, though they’re only 3.5 games behind Atlanta in the Wild Card race. They’re playing the Braves tonight and tomorrow in what could be pivotal games.

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San Francisco Giants Transactions Grant McCray Marco Luciano

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Yankees Designate Enyel De Los Santos For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | August 14, 2024 at 4:00pm CDT

The Yankees announced today that infielder Oswald Peraza and right-hander Will Warren have been recalled to the active roster. One spot was opened by infielder/outfielder Jazz Chisholm Jr. landing on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to August 13, with a left elbow sprain. That injury and Chisholm’s expected IL placement were both previously reported. The other roster spot was opened by right-hander Enyel De Los Santos being designated for assignment. Additionally, the Yanks added that righty Lou Trivino will begin a rehab assignment with Double-A Somerset.

It’s a very quick turnaround for De Los Santos, 28, who was just acquired prior to the deadline a couple of weeks ago. The Yankees sent outfielder Brandon Lockridge to the Padres in order to acquire De Los Santos and minor league pitcher Thomas Balboni.

It seems that the buyer’s remorse set in very quickly, as things didn’t go well for De Los Santos after swapping his Padre pinstripes for the Yankee variety. After the trade, he tossed 6 1/3 innings over five appearances, allowing 10 earned runs in that time. He struck out five opponents while walking three of them.

The Yankees were rained out on Friday and played a double-header on Saturday, meaning their five starters have each pitched in the past four days. They needed Warren to come up and make a spot start today, which required a corresponding move. The only member of their bullpen that can be optioned is Jake Cousins, who has a 2.25 ERA on the season. Rather than send Cousins down, they have decided to bump De Los Santos off the 40-man roster not too long after trading for him.

Since the deadline has now passed, the Yankees will have no choice but to put De Los Santos on waivers in the coming days. Although his results have clearly been poor since coming to the Bronx, it seems likely that some other club will look beyond that and put in a claim based on his previous work.

From the start of 2022 and up until the trade, the righty actually posted some strong numbers between the Guardians and Padres. He tossed 159 1/3 innings in that time with a 3.50 ERA, 26.4% strikeout rate and 8.5% walk rate.

Meaningful roster upgrades are difficult to come by at this post-deadline part of the calendar, so a club looking for bullpen reinforcements will probably put in a claim. That might not even need to be a contending club, as De Los Santos is making just $1.16MM this year and can be retained via arbitration for two additional seasons.

Waiver priority goes in reverse order of the standings, so the teams with the worst records will have first dibs. Even a team out of contention might take a shot on De Los Santos given those two extra years of control. But if they all pass, some club in a playoff race could benefit with a fresh arm that has had some success in recent seasons, Yankee tenure notwithstanding.

Cutting bait on De Los Santos will cut into the club’s bullpen depth, but they are about to backfill some of that with Trivino. The righty underwent Tommy John surgery in May of last year and missed all of the 2023 season. He hit free agency and the Yanks re-signed him on a one-year deal with a $1.5MM guarantee and a $5MM club option for 2025, plus bonuses and escalators that kick in at 15 appearances this year.

Prior to this lengthy injury layoff, he put up some strong numbers. Most of that came with the Athletics, though he also came over to the Yankees at the 2022 deadline as part of the Frankie Montas trade. Overall, he has 284 2/3 innings under his belt with a 3.86 ERA. His 10.6% walk rate is a bit high but his 24.5% strikeout rate and 47.4% ground ball rate are both strong.

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New York Yankees Transactions Enyel De Los Santos Jazz Chisholm Lou Trivino Oswald Peraza Will Warren

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Mariners Release Mauricio Llovera

By Darragh McDonald | August 14, 2024 at 3:15pm CDT

The Mariners have released right-hander Mauricio Llovera, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The righty will head to the open market in search of his next opportunity in the coming days.

Llovera, 28, has bounced around a bit in the past year-plus. The Giants added him to their roster last July, a few weeks before he was then designated for assignment and traded to the Red Sox for righty Marques Johnson. He stuck on Boston’s roster for a few months before he was designated for assignment again in January. The Mariners claimed him off waivers at that time but then passed him through unclaimed in March.

He accepted that outright assignment and has been pitching in the Mariners’ system this year, though without much success. He has been on and off the minor league injured list a few times and has only thrown 19 2/3 innings on the farm this year. In that time, he has allowed 4.58 earned runs per nine frames, striking out just 16.5% of batters faced. That lackluster performance apparently compelled the Mariners to let him go.

His performance in previous years was much stronger, which is why he was garnering interest from various clubs not too long ago. He tossed 42 2/3 minor league innings over 2022 and 2023 with a 2.11 ERA. In that time, he struck out 33.5% of batters faced while only walking 5.9% of batters who stepped to the plate.

Llovera has also tossed 59 major league innings in his career, but with an uninspiring 5.80 ERA. But both his fastballs averaged in his mid-90s while he also threw a slider, cutter and changeup, per Statcast. It’s been a rough season so far but perhaps some club has a plan for getting him back on track, especially if his injuries were holding him back this year. If Llovera eventually makes it back to the majors, he is out of options but has less than two years of service time.

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Mauricio Llovera

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Diamondbacks Option Alek Thomas

By Darragh McDonald | August 14, 2024 at 12:50pm CDT

The Diamondbacks have recalled infielder Blaze Alexander from Triple-A Reno. Going the other way in a corresponding move is outfielder Alek Thomas, who has been optioned to Reno. Prior to the official announcement, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic was among those to relay on X that Alexander was in the clubhouse while Thomas’s locker was being cleared out.

Thomas, 24, gets sent to the minors for the first time in over a year, as he was last optioned in May of 2023. As of a few years ago, he was considered one of the top prospects in baseball based on his potential ability to be an all-around contributor. While he has shown some speed and some strong defense at times, he has been consistently subpar at the plate.

From his 2022 debut to the present, Thomas has now stepped to the plate 915 times at the major league level. He has 20 home runs in that time but his 5.2% walk rate is a few ticks below average and his overall batting line of .226/.271/.359 translates to a wRC+ of 71, indicating he’s been 29% worse than league average overall. That includes a .191/.248/.362 line and 67 wRC+ here in 2024.

Thomas has some encouraging signs on his Statcast page in terms of how hard he hits the ball, so it might seem like bad luck that he has a .261 batting average on balls in play, which is well below par. However, he’s also continually struggled to get underneath the ball, with a 57.2% ground ball rate in his career and a 60% rate here in 2024.

In previous seasons, Thomas has made up for his lack of offense by providing value in center field, but that hasn’t been the case this year. He came into 2024 with 11 Defensive Runs Saved and 11 Outs Above Average in the outfield but both of those metrics have put a mark of -1 on him this year. Perhaps he hasn’t been fully healthy, as he spent some time on the injured list due to a left hamstring strain and his sprint speed of 27.9 feet per second is down from previous years. He was at 29.3 in 2022 and 28.8 last year.

Whether his health has played a factor or not, he’s essentially been a replacement level player this year and Jake McCarthy has forced his way into more playing time. McCarthy is hitting .311/.380/.458 this year for a wRC+ of 135 while stealing 17 bases and and getting solid marks for his outfield work. Those all-around contributions have led FanGraphs to credit him with 2.7 wins above replacement on the year already.

The Snakes have an outfield mix that consists of McCarthy, Corbin Carroll and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. with Joc Pederson in the designated hitter slot most days. Randal Grichuk is often Pederson’s short-side DH platoon partner and is also capable of serving as a fourth outfielder. McCarthy has played all three outfield positions but could perhaps become the regular in center now while Thomas gets regular at-bats in Reno and tries to get in a groove down there.

He is still quite young and still has time to find himself at the plate but the Diamondbacks are trying to win now and need to put their best club on the field. They are currently 68-53 and tied with the Padres for the top National League Wild Card spot. Both clubs are also just 3.5 games behind the Dodgers in the West division.

Speaking of platoons, subbing in Alexander could help the club in that regard. Each of Thomas, Carroll, McCarthy and Pederson are lefties and all of them have notable platoon splits except for McCarthy, who has reverse splits. Alexander hits right-handed could perhaps cover third base against southpaws while Eugenio Suárez, also a righty, moves into the DH slot, allowing Grichuk to move to the outfield and perhaps shield Carroll from time to time. When Christian Walker returns from the IL and takes over at first base, the switch-hitting Josh Bell could be a factor as well. Alexander will also give the club a bit of extra cover at second while Ketel Marte is banged up with a left ankle injury.

Turning back to Thomas, the move has the potential to impact his earning power. He came into this season with one year and 132 days of service time. If he had stayed up in the majors all year, he would have gone into the offseason at 2.132 and with a very good chance at qualifying for arbitration as a Super Two player, based on past cutoffs. This year’s cutoff won’t be determined until the end of the year but each day he stays down in the minors will decrease his chances of crossing it. If he falls short of the line, he will get the usual three arbitration seasons, while getting to Super Two status would have given him a fourth chance at a salary bump.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Alek Thomas Blaze Alexander Jake McCarthy

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Angels Release Amir Garrett, Adam Kolarek

By Darragh McDonald | August 14, 2024 at 10:35am CDT

The Angels have released a pair of lefties that were each in the system in a non-roster capacity. Amir Garrett and Adam Kolarek have both been let go, per each player’s transactions tracker at MLB.com.

Garrett, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Giants this winter. That club decided he wasn’t going to make the Opening Day roster and released him, which freed him up to sign a minor league deal with the Angels. He was selected to the big league roster at the end of April and was in the majors for about two weeks. He tossed 5 1/3 innings in that time, racking up an impressive 11 strikeouts but also giving out five walks, leading to a 5.06 earned run average.

He was designated for assignment in the middle of May but returned to the Halos on a new minor league deal. He has tossed 33 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level this year with a 5.08 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate and 10.6% walk rate. He’s been in good form lately, with a 1.59 ERA over his eight most recent appearances. In 11 1/3 innings in that stretch, he has 20 strikeouts and just four walks, all of that taking place in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

Despite that strong run in recent weeks, the lefty has little utility for the Angels at this point. They are out of contention and will likely be using what’s left of the season to evaluate guys who could help in the future. That includes plenty of internal arms and they also claimed a couple of arms yesterday in Nick Robertson and Brock Burke, who are both optionable and controllable. Garrett, on the other hand, is a veteran with over six years of service time.

Perhaps those waiver claims nudged Garrett out, giving him a chance to a find a new club in the coming weeks. He has some success on his track record, mostly combining lots of strikeouts with lots of walks. In 330 2/3 big league innings to this point in his career, he has a 4.95 ERA, 26.7% strikeout rate and 13.3% walk rate.

With the trade deadline now in the past, teams are fairly limited in terms of their avenues for adding talent. Garrett can be wild but he has been an effective setup guy in the past, racking up over 20 holds with the Reds in both 2018 and 2019. His numbers this year are decent and could lead to him getting a shot somewhere else in the coming weeks. If he signs before the end of August, he’ll be postseason eligible with a new club.

Kolarek, 35, is also a veteran with a notable track record, but he’s had less success this year. The Angels signed him in the offseason to a deal worth $900K and then ran him through waivers. Since Kolarek has more than three years of service time but less than five, he could have returned to free agency but would have left that money on the table by doing so.

He accepted his assignment and has tossed 31 innings at the Triple-A level this year but with a 6.97 ERA. There’s surely some bad luck in there, as his .415 batting average on balls in play and 58.5% strand rate are both on the unfortunate side, but his rate stats aren’t amazing either. His 22% strikeout rate and 48.9% ground ball rate are close to average but his 12% walk rate is a few ticks worse than par.

His major league track record consists of 149 1/3 innings with a 3.62 ERA. His 15.9% strikeout rate in that time is low but he has only walked 6.8% of batters faced and has gotten grounders at a huge 63.9% clip. His Triple-A numbers this year haven’t taken the same shape but some club could perhaps take a shot on him, especially since the Angels are on the hook for what’s left of that salary. Any other club would only have to pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster, which would be subtracted from what the Halos pay.

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Los Angeles Angels Transactions Adam Kolarek Amir Garrett

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The Opener: Harris, Judge, LLWS

By Leo Morgenstern | August 14, 2024 at 8:17am CDT

Here are three things to keep an eye on around baseball today:

1. Braves to reinstate Michael Harris II:

Braves manager Brian Snitker told reporters (including Mark Bowman of MLB.com) that Michael Harris II will be activated from the 60-day injured list today. He will join the Braves in San Francisco as they attempt to secure a series victory over the Giants. The center fielder has been out since mid-June with a hamstring strain.

Harris tore things up at Triple-A over six rehab games, batting .435 with a 1.065 OPS. The Braves will hope he stays hot in the majors; before his injury, he was hitting just .250 with a disappointing .653 OPS in 67 games. Atlanta will need to make an additional transaction or two to clear space for Harris on the 26 and 40-man rosters. Bowman implies the Braves could DFA Adam Duvall as a corresponding move. Duvall is in the midst of a dreadful season (.178/.240/.315, -1.1 FanGraphs WAR), and as Bowman points out, the righty-batting Duvall did not get the start last night even with a left-handed pitcher on the mound.

2. Aaron Judge going for home run No. 300:

Yankees outfielder and AL MVP frontrunner Aaron Judge has been sitting on 299 career home runs since Sunday, when he took Rangers southpaw Andrew Chafin deep for his MLB-leading 42nd homer of the season. With his next long ball, Judge will become the 162nd player in MLB history to join the 300-homer club. He will also, almost surely, become the fastest player to hit 300 home runs. That honor currently belongs to Ralph Kiner, who hit his 300th home run in his 1,087th career game. Judge has played just 954 games since his debut in 2016. In other words, Judge will become the fastest player to reach the 300-homer mark whether he hits his next bomb today, next week, or next month. However, he’ll have a pretty good shot tonight, as the Yankees play their final game of the season against the hapless White Sox. White Sox pitchers have given up the third-most home runs in MLB this season (157).

3. Little League World Series starts today:

The Little League World Series kicks off this afternoon in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Ten teams from around the United States and another ten from around the world will compete to be crowned LLWS champions. The tournament, which airs on ESPN, runs through August 25. Meanwhile, the Yankees and Tigers will take the field in Williamsport for the Little League Classic on August 18.

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The Opener

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Dodgers’ River Ryan To Undergo Tommy John Surgery

By Steve Adams | August 13, 2024 at 11:59pm CDT

The Dodgers announced Tuesday that top pitching prospect River Ryan will undergo Tommy John surgery. He’ll miss the remainder of the 2024 season and quite possibly all of the 2025 campaign while recovering. Ryan, who posted a 1.33 ERA through his first four big league starts, hit the injured list over the weekend after suffering a UCL sprain in his most recent start.

Ryan’s 2024 season was already known to be over, but the Tommy John procedure marks a worst-case scenario in the wake of his UCL injury. An internal brace procedure might’ve come with a shorter timeline for recovery, but he’ll require a full ligament replacement, which tends to shelve pitchers for upwards of 14 months. Every rehab process is different, and there’s always a chance Ryan might heal a bit faster than the standard pitcher, but a 12-month recovery is typically an absolute minimum for pitchers who require Tommy John surgery.

The 25-year-old Ryan was an 11th-round pick by the Padres in 2021. He went to the Dodgers in a trade that now looks like a heist, sending first baseman/outfielder Matt Beaty back to San Diego. (Beaty played in 20 games with the Padres and hit .093/.170/.163 before being cut loose.) Ryan hadn’t even made his professional debut at the time and had signed for a $100K bonus, so he was hardly a high-end prospect. Ryan simply getting to the majors would’ve been a player development success story for Los Angeles, but he instead ascended to the point where he’s regarded as one of the top pitching prospects in the sport. Ryan climbed as high as No. 21 overall on FanGraphs’ top-100 prospect rankings and sits 99th on MLB.com’s top-100 list at the moment.

The reasoning behind that rise isn’t especially difficult to see. Ryan spent the majority of the 2023 season in Double-A and pitched to a tidy 3.33 ERA in 97 1/3 frames before being bumped to Triple-A late in the year. He was hit hard in those two starts but returned to Triple-A this year and carved up opponents with a 2.76 ERA, 28.8% strikeout rate and 9.1% walk rate in five starts. He was limited in the minors this season due to a shoulder injury, but Ryan graduated to the majors with a 3.22 ERA, 28.5% strikeout rate and 10% walk rate in parts of three professional seasons since being traded to the Dodgers organization.

Ryan becomes the latest Dodgers hurler to land on the injured list in what’s been a trying season for their rotation depth. Los Angeles entered the year with Clayton Kershaw on the injured list and knowing that Tony Gonsolin would miss most/all of the season recovering from last summer’s Tommy John surgery. They’ve since seen Emmet Sheehan (Tommy John surgery) and Dustin May (esophageal surgery) fall to season-ending surgeries, while Yoshinobu Yamamoto (strained rotator cuff) and Walker Buehler (hip and elbow) land on the shelf with long-term injury troubles of their own. Prospects Nick Frasso (shoulder surgery) and Kyle Hurt (Tommy John surgery) are on the minor league injured list and done for the year as well. Last year’s breakout right-hander, Bobby Miller, has made just seven MLB starts and been ineffective both with the Dodgers and with Triple-A while navigating a shoulder injury of his own.

With that laundry list of injuries, the Dodgers currently have a rotation that includes Kershaw, Tyler Glasnow, Gavin Stone and deadline pickup Jack Flaherty. Buehler is expected to return from the injured list later this week, but he’s been bludgeoned for a 5.84 ERA in eight big league starts and has a 5.01 mark in another eight Triple-A starts this season — his first year back from 2022 Tommy John surgery. He offered a glimmer of hope in his most recent rehab start, tossing 5 1/3 innings and holding the Rangers’ Triple-A club to one run on one hit and three walks with five punchouts.

Because Ryan’s injury occurred while pitching at the big league level, he’s on the MLB injured list and will spend his 2025 rehab on the big league injured list as well. He’ll earn major league pay and service time while recovering from the injury. That’ll give him at least a full year of service while he recovers, putting him on track for arbitration in the 2027-28 offseason and free agency following the 2030 season. Of course, future optional assignments could change one or both of those trajectories, and for now the immediate focus will simply shift to the long process of getting the talented young righty back to full strength with an eye toward a late-2025 or early-2026 return.

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Los Angeles Dodgers Newsstand River Ryan

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Mike Cubbage Passes Away

By Anthony Franco | August 13, 2024 at 11:27pm CDT

Former major league infielder and coach Mike Cubbage has passed away after a battle with cancer, according to a report from Bradley Locker of the New York Post. He was 74.

Cubbage played parts of eight seasons between 1974-81. A left-handed hitter, he was drafted by the Washington Senators in the second round in 1971. The Senators had also taken Cubbage in the sixth round of the ’68 draft, but the Charlottesville native had honored his college commitment to the University of Virginia. A few months after selecting him for a second time, the Senators moved to Texas and became the Rangers.

After playing parts of four seasons in the minors, Cubbage made his debut with Texas early in the ’74 season. He nevertheless spent most of that year in Triple-A. Cubbage appeared in 58 MLB contests the following season. Texas included him in a four-player package to land future Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven from the Twins midway through the ’76 campaign. Cubbage played regularly for Minnesota over the next four-plus seasons. He topped 100 games on three occasions while working as the Twins’ primary third baseman. He hit .266/.336/.378 in just under 2000 plate appearances with Minnesota.

Cubbage signed with the Mets as a free agent going into the 1981 season. He finished his career with 67 games for New York. While he didn’t make a huge impact on the organization as a player, he quickly embarked on a lengthy run as a minor league manager in the New York system. Cubbage reached the MLB coaching staff in 1990, working as a hitting coach under Davey Johnson. He served as the MLB team’s interim manager for a week in 1991 and continued coaching throughout the decade. Cubbage was on the Red Sox’s staff in the early 2000s and subsequently worked in various scouting roles. He was a member of the Nationals’ pro scouting department during the team’s 2019 World Series season.

In just over 700 MLB games, Cubbage was a .258/.330/.369 hitter. He connected on 34 homers and drove in 251 runs. His playing days served as a springboard into a true “baseball lifer” career that spanned nearly four more decades. MLBTR sends our condolences to his family, loved ones, friends and the various people he impacted over his lengthy career.

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Angels, Corey Knebel Agree To Minor League Deal

By Anthony Franco | August 13, 2024 at 9:22pm CDT

The Angels are signing reliever Corey Knebel to a minor league contract, as first reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. He’ll report to Triple-A Salt Lake. Knebel was granted his release from a non-roster deal with the White Sox earlier this month.

Now 32, Knebel is trying to get back to the majors for the first time since 2022. He has generally been a productive pitcher when healthy — highlighted by an All-Star season as Milwaukee’s closer back in ’17 — but has had various arm issues. He underwent a Tommy John procedure in 2019 and subsequently missed time with lat and shoulder concerns. Knebel didn’t pitch last season as he rehabbed a capsule strain that he suffered with the Phillies two years ago.

Most of his time with Chicago was also spent on the minor league IL. Knebel made six rehab appearances split between the complex and High-A. He only pitched six times for Triple-A Charlotte, though he impressed with 5 1/3 scoreless frames while striking out eight. While it wasn’t enough to convince the Sox to give him a look, that production evidently intrigued the Los Angeles front office.

It’s a fairly inconsequential move for the Halos, who aren’t anywhere near the playoff mix. Knebel will return to free agency this offseason regardless of whether he makes the MLB team. The final six weeks could serve as an audition as he tries to secure a big league opportunity going into 2025.

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Los Angeles Angels Transactions Corey Knebel

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