Red Sox Place Rafael Devers On 10-Day Injured List
September 22: Cora confirmed to reporters (including McCaffrey) this morning that Devers will not require surgery, as the infielder’s MRI revealed only inflammation in his shoulders.
September 21, 2:12PM: The Red Sox made it official, shutting down Devers by placing him on the 10-day injured list due to left shoulder inflammation. Infielder/catcher Mickey Gasper was called up from Triple-A to take Devers’ spot on the active roster.
8:13AM: Rafael Devers will undergo an MRI on his bothersome right shoulder today, Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters (including The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey) after yesterday’s 4-2 loss to the Twins in extra innings. Devers was removed from the game prior to the start of the 11th, and Cora said that the slugger had been trying to tough it out Friday despite tweaking his shoulder during pregame batting practice.
While Cora said “we’ll see where we’re at” following the MRI, “probably, this is it for [Devers]” this season. With just eight games remaining and the Red Sox all but officially eliminated from the playoff race, the club is likely to play it safe with the star third baseman.
Devers has been dealing with discomfort in both shoulders for a good chunk of the season, and it is fair to wonder if his determination to keep playing has contributed to his severe slump. The third baseman had an outstanding .296/.375/.587 slash line through his first 488 plate appearances, but has only a .172/.265/.212 slash line over his last 113 trips to the dish. Among all qualified batters since August 19, Devers’ 34 wRC+ is the third-worst in the league.
The Red Sox as a whole have a team wRC+ of 74 since August 19, ahead of only the lowly White Sox in that timespan. Boston had a 67-60 record as recently as August 22, but a 9-18 record over the club’s last 27 games has sunk the Fenway nine’s chances of a return to the postseason. Even though Devers’ slump dovetails pretty directly with Boston’s offensive slide, he is far from the only Red Sox hitter who hit a cold streak at exactly the wrong time.
Assuming this is indeed it for Devers’ 2024 season, he’ll still finish with a typically strong set of numbers — 28 homers and a .272/.354/.516 slash over 601 PA, with a 133 wRC+ and his third All-Star nod. Though a veteran of eight MLB seasons, Devers still doesn’t turn 28 until the end of October, and 2024 marked the first season of the ten-year, $313.5MM contract extension he signed with the Red Sox during the 2022-23 offseason. Since Devers is such a key component of Boston’s present and future plans, it’s a wise move to figure out as early as possible if Devers’ shoulder might require any kind of surgery heading into 2025.
Latest On Diamondbacks’ Stadium Renovation Negotiations
Tensions seem to be rising between the Diamondbacks and local officials as the sides negotiate a lease extension for the club at Chase Field in Phoenix before the current lease runs out in 2027. Back in February, team ownership appeared to be frustrated with the lack of progress in negotiations, and things appeared to escalate recently when club president and CEO Derrick Hall criticized a recent proposal from the county during a local radio interview, as discussed by AZFamily’s David Baker.
During the interview, Hall described the offer from the county as “ridiculous,” adding that the proposed lease extension would expect the team to pay upwards of $150MM for stadium upgrades without public funding. Said proposal from the county would come with a 50-year term and keep the Diamondbacks in Arizona until at least 2034, as the club would have the right to terminate the lease with three years’ notice starting in 2032.
Sasha Hupka of the Arizona Republic notes that a major sticking point in the negotiations is the fact that the D-Backs are seeking funding to renovate the ballpark and construct an entertainment district similar to the one surrounding Atlanta’s Truist Park. Hupka notes that the club and Maricopa County (which owns Chase Field) are currently “tens of millions of dollars apart” in negotiations over how much the team should invest in leasing and developing land around the ballpark for said entertainment district, including a proposed investment of $200MM if the team is allowed to develop mixed-use property on the Chase Field site. Hall criticized that proposal during the interview as well, noting that the deal would hamper the team’s development goals around the ballpark.
“They say they won’t allow us to even talk about that opportunity and ‘unlock’ that opportunity and possibility until we’ve put nearly $200 million into the ballpark,” Hall said of the team’s desire to build restaurants, shops, and hotels surrounding Chase Field. “Again, they’re not even putting a penny.”
The lack of public funding for stadium renovations in the county’s proposal also appears to be a major point of contention. The current lease stipulates that the team controls maintenance of the ballpark, and Hupka notes that both sides are in agreement on that continuing in a hypothetical lease agreement. While the club controls that maintenance, however, the club appears to want public funding for that maintenance that goes beyond the agreement from 2018 that gave the club control over maintenance at Chase Field. Baker notes that same deal funnels $2MM of the $2.25MM annual sum that the D-Backs pay to the county in rent and fees into an account reserved for covering stadium maintenance costs.
Regardless of whose responsibility it is to pay for maintenance, all sides agree that the ballpark has seen better days since it was built in 1998. Issues with the stadium’s retractable roof, which cannot be operated while fans are inside the ballpark, and a lack of air conditioning are at the forefront of problems with Chase Field that are in obvious need of repair, but Hupka notes that the team has previously indicated they aren’t willing to invest in upgrading the facility without a lease extension in place. Per Hupka, the club has put just $14.5MM toward stadium repairs since the 2018 agreement putting them in control of maintenance was put into place, a far cry from the more than $46MM Maricopa County invested in repairs from 2005 to 2017.
As part of a lease extension deal, the Diamondbacks are hoping to secure a tax recollection deal that would funnel tax revenue from the D-Backs’ operations (including state taxes on the salaries of players and staff) towards stadium maintenance. As Hupka notes, Spring Training’s Cactus League is already among the beneficiaries of the Arizona Sports and Tourism Authority, which is primarily fueled by a tax recollection deal with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals and also funds the Cardinals’ stadium.
That sort of tax recollection deal would require approval from Arizona’s state government, separate from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors that Diamondbacks have been sparring with to this point. With a major election coming up in November, officials both from the county and the D-Backs previously indicated that they hoped to hammer out a deal before the end of the year in order to avoid the possibility of changes in county or state leadership causing a setback in the negotiations. That no longer seems feasible, however, as recent comments from the team describing the current state of Chase Field as “shameful” prompted a letter from Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers.
“We find the recent remarks from the team that the stadium’s condition is ‘shameful’ confusing and troubling,” Sellers wrote. “Reports of falling concrete and excessive heat are an indication that the party responsible for the structure may not be taking the steps necessary to maintain a safe and friendly environment.”
Given the friction between the current board and D-Backs officials, the club may at this point prefer to wait out the current administration and hope for a more favorable negotiating environment in January, when Hupka notes that three of the board’s five current members are set to depart the board after either declining to run for re-election or, in the case of Sellers, losing a primary election. With that being said, holding out for a potentially more favorable group of county officials to negotiate with runs the risk of the state government’s makeup changing during the upcoming elections, leaving the club with a less favorable climate in which they’ll be pushing their tax recollection plans.
Reds Activate Hunter Greene, DFA Alan Busenitz
The Reds announced this morning that they’ve activated right-hander Hunter Greene from the 15-day injured list ahead of his scheduled start against the Pirates later today. Right-hander Alan Busenitz was designated for assignment in order to clear a roster spot for Greene. The club’s 40-man roster now stands at 39.
Greene, 25, signed a six-year extension with the Reds in April of last year that keeps the right-hander under club control through the 2029 season. His first year after signing that extension was a somewhat lackluster one as he pitched to a 4.82 ERA (97 ERA+) while being limited to just 112 innings of work by injuries. The youngster has turned things around in a big way with a breakout performance this year, however, and in doing so has become a major bright spot in an otherwise disappointing season for fans in Cincinnati.
In 143 1/3 innings of work to this point in the year, Greene has posted a incredible 2.83 ERA (155 ERA+) while striking out an excellent 27.8% of batters faced. Some of Greene’s good results have been thanks to good fortune on his part, as demonstrated by a deflated .243 BABIP for opposing hitters and the fact that just 6.6% of the hurler’s fly balls have left the yard for home runs this year despite his home ballpark being the most homer-happy field in the majors. With that being said, advanced metrics are also generally impressed with Greene as demonstrated by his 3.41 FIP and 3.76 SIERA. It’s a season that could even earn Greene some down-ballot attention in NL Cy Young award voting this year, as his aforementioned sterling ERA trails only Chris Sale and Zack Wheeler among NL starters with at least 140 innings of work this year.
Whatever chance Greene may have had at the award was put to bed by a trip to the IL due to elbow soreness back in August, however. A subsequent MRI revealed no structural in a huge relief for the club, but inflammation in the hard-throwing righty’s elbow has still kept him on the shelf for more than a month. His time on the shelf has ended now, though, and with just a few games left in the regular season Greene is slated this afternoon to go toe-to-toe with another up-and-coming ace in the NL Central: Pirates righty Paul Skenes, who has posted an eye-popping 2.07 ERA with a 32.2% strikeout rate in 126 frames this year.
As for Busenitz, the 34-year-old righty has pitched briefly for the Reds in each of the past two seasons. In seven innings of work for the club last year, he looked quite good with a 2.57 ERA and 2.29 FIP, but things have taken a turn for the worse this year as he’s surrendered seven runs (six earned) on nine hits while striking out three across four innings of work in the majors. Things have gone better for him at Triple-A, however, where he’s posted a decent 4.07 ERA in 66 1/3 innings of work this year. Assuming Busenitz isn’t claimed off waivers, he’ll likely head to free agency either in the coming days or this November and search for a fresh minor league deal on the open market.
Nationals Option CJ Abrams To Triple-A
In a surprising move, the Nationals optioned shortstop CJ Abrams to Triple-A Rochester, the Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli reports (via X). Infielder Trey Lipscomb is being called up in the corresponding move, as per The Washington Post’s Andrew Golden (X link).
Nationals manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including Golden and MASNsports.com’s Dan Kolko) that Abrams was optioned not for his play on the field, but rather “an internal issue” matter that Martinez didn’t discuss in further detail. Abrams will report not to Rochester for the last two games of the Triple-A season but will instead go to the Nats’ spring camp in Florida to work out. Martinez confirmed that Abrams wouldn’t appear in the majors again in 2024, but remains a big piece of the organization’s present and future.
It was just over two months ago that Abrams was representing the Nationals in the All-Star Game, as the 23-year-old was named to the NL squad as a reward for his outstanding first half. Abrams hit .268/.343/.489 with 15 home runs in 398 plate appearances prior to the All-Star break, and looked all the world like a breakout player in his age-23 season. As the sixth overall pick of the 2019 draft and the centerpiece of the trade package Washington received from the Padres in the Juan Soto trade, Abrams has long been seen as a future star, and the early returns of his 2024 season looked like a big step forward from his respectable performance in 2023, his first full MLB campaign.
Since the Midsummer Classic, however, Abrams’ production has tailed off. The shortstop has hit only .203/.260/.326 in 204 PA during the second half, and gone yard only five times. Abrams’ strikeout rate has risen from 20.1% in the first half to 23.53% in the second half, and his line drive rate plummeted from 23.6% to 7.8%. This decline in hard contact indicates that Abrams’ .243 BABIP since the All-Star break is more than just bad batted-ball luck, and his .307 BABIP in the first half wasn’t too far above league average anyways.
This extended slump notwithstanding, it is clear that Abrams wouldn’t have been sent down if it wasn’t for this off-the-field issue. Whatever the circumstances, the club deemed the situation serious enough to send this public message to Abrams as something of a wake-up call or a punishment. There is bound to be some speculation that the Nats might now look to trade Abrams, yet Martinez’s comments about Abrams’ importance to Washington’s future seemed designed to end such speculation before it even got off the ground. Going forward, Martinez feels Abrams “will be better” in the aftermath of the option.
Missing the last nine days of the 2024 season shouldn’t have any impact on Abrams’ Super Two eligibility. As a reminder, “Super Two” players have less than three years of MLB service time, but sit in the top 22 percent of service time of all players between two and three years, and as such are awarded an extra year of arbitration eligibility. Abrams entered the 2024 campaign with one year and 130 days of service time, and thus a full season on Washington’s active roster would’ve put him at the 2.130 mark — almost surely qualifying him for Super Two status based on the cutoff points over the last 15 years.
However, a player only needs to be on an active roster or the Major League injured list for 172 days of the 187-day season to qualify as having received one full year of official service time. As such, since Abrams has already been with the Nationals beyond the 172-day threshold, he has achieved one full year of service time for 2024 and remains on track to be a Super Two player.
Diamondbacks Notes: Kelly, Nelson
The Diamondbacks suffered an injury scare during their game against the Brewers this evening when right-hander Merrill Kelly walked off the mound after five innings due to what Arizona brass later indicated was a bout of cramping in his right calf.
As noted by Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, that’s the second time in three starts that Kelly has exited early due to a cramping issue, after he departed his start on the 11th after just four innings due to cramping in his right hamstring. Cramping doesn’t seem to be an immediately concerning injury for the 35-year-old veteran to be suffering from but the fact that Kelly has had two starts cut short due to the issue, both of which involved his lower right leg, in such short order is somewhat worrisome for a Diamondbacks club that both has its eyes on a second consecutive postseason run and has not yet clinched its spot in the playoffs.
After an excellent 2023 season where he pitched to a 3.29 ERA and 3.85 FIP in 30 regular season starts before dominating with a 2.25 ERA in four starts during the club’s pennant-winning playoff run, Kelly got off to a similarly strong start early this year with a 2.19 ERA and 3.78 FIP through the middle of April, but was promptly sidelined by a teres major strain that wound up keeping him on the shelf for the majority of the season. The right-hander finally returned to action last month but hasn’t been nearly as successful since returning from injury.
In seven starts spanning 38 1/3 innings of work prior to tonight’s game, Kelly has surrendered a 5.17 ERA with a 5.44 FIP while striking out just 17% of opponents. That’s a worrisome dip for a pitcher who punched out more than a quarter of batters faced just last year, and it’s further exacerbated by Kelly’s sudden penchant for the long ball; prior to tonight’s shortened scoreless outing, Kelly had surrendered eight home runs since returning from the IL. Only six qualified starters have surrendered more homers in that time. Tonight’s five innings of shutout baseball seemed to represent a step in the right direction for Kelly with the postseason just over the horizon, so long as he remains healthy enough to pitch.
With Zac Gallen sure to front the club’s playoff rotation, an injury to Kelly that prevents him from starting postseason games for Arizona would seemingly line lefty Eduardo Rodriguez and youngster Brandon Pfaadt up to start behind Gallen in the playoffs, though (much like Kelly) Rodriguez has struggled since coming off the IL last month while Pfaadt has a 7.58 ERA in September. Both pitchers seem more likely to start playoff games for the Diamondbacks than lefty Jordan Montgomery, who has struggled to a 6.23 ERA and 4.59 FIP since he signed with the club back in March and was demoted to the bullpen late last month.
Fortunately, the club could have another option. As noted by MLB.com’s Injury Tracker, the club remains optimistic that right-hander Ryne Nelson will be able to return from the injured list prior to the end of the season next week. The righty was placed on the shelf last weekend due to shoulder inflammation but was scheduled to throw a bullpen session today and is first eligible to return to action on September 26. The 26-year-old has impressed in his second season as a regular starter for Arizona, with a roughly league average 4.33 ERA and a stronger 3.76 FIP in 147 2/3 innings of work this year. Should Nelson return from the injured list next week as expected, he’ll be able to join the club’s postseason rotation and give the Diamondbacks some flexibility if Kelly’s exit this evening proves serious.
Braxton Garrett Suffers Setback In Elbow Rehab
Marlins left-hander Braxton Garrett was seemingly poised to be activated from the injured list to start tomorrow’s game against the Braves, but MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola was among those to note that the southpaw suffered a setback in his rehab today that will bring his 2024 season to a close. Garrett reportedly “felt something” in the back of his elbow after throwing a bullpen session yesterday, and the lefty is now set to undergo testing and turn his attention towards a healthy return to the mound in 2025.
The 2024 season has been one to forget for Garrett. The 27-year-old southpaw seemed poised to enter the season as one of the club’s most promising starters after pitching to a solid 3.63 ERA (124 ERA+) with a near-matching 3.64 FIP in a combined 247 2/3 innings of work for the Marlins over the previous two seasons. Unfortunately, no such successful campaign came to fruition as the lefty dealt with shoulder issues that sidelined him for the first six weeks of the season.
Upon returning to the club’s rotation on May 12, Garrett’s performance was mixed with several starts where he was shelled despite strong peripheral numbers with occasional dominant performances mixed in such as his four-hit, complete-game shutout of the Diamondbacks in his third start of the year. Overall, the lefty pitched to a lackluster 5.35 ERA in 37 innings of work across seven starts this year despite fantastic peripheral numbers, including a 2.5% walk rate and a 51.3% ground ball rate that gave him a 3.82 FIP and a 3.46 SIERA for his work this year.
It’s possible that his results would’ve eventually caught up to his strong peripherals had he been able to pitch more this season, but the lefty was placed on the injured list in late June due to elbow soreness that was eventually diagnosed as a forearm flexor strain. That proved to be his final start in the majors this year, though he began a rehab assignment earlier this month and had carved up minor league opponents with 15 strikeouts across 10 2/3 innings of work before suffering yesterday’s setback, suggesting his repertoire was in a relatively good place despite the long layoff.
Unfortunately, that layoff now figures to get even longer. While the results of Garrett’s testing have not yet been made clear, the club is now looking towards the 2025 season for the lefty’s return to action. With a 57-97 record, it’s been a disastrous season in Miami but the club does have some reasons to expect improvement next year, such as the excellent start Connor Norby has gotten off to since being acquired from the Orioles at the trade deadline back in July as well as the returns of Sandy Alcantara, Eury Perez, Jesus Luzardo, and now Garrett from the injured list.
With four above-average starting pitchers set to return to action next year after making anywhere from zero to 12 starts for the club this season, it’s not hard to imagine Miami turning things around in relatively short order if they can improve an offense that has few long-term pieces in place besides Norby, Xavier Edwards, Jake Burger and perhaps Kyle Stowers.
Phillies Notes: Hays, Turnbull, Painter
Now that the Phillies have officially clinched a spot in the postseason, manager Rob Thomson spoke to reporters (including Alex Coffey of The Philadelphia Inquirer) earlier today about the club’s plans for the postseason roster. Per Coffey, the club appears to be leaning towards a 12-man pitching staff and an expanded bench for the playoffs this year.
Garrett Stubbs, Edmundo Sosa, Kody Clemens, Weston Wilson, and Cal Stevenson currently make up the club’s bench mix. Stubbs and Sosa are all but guaranteed spots on the postseason bench as the club’s backup catcher and primary utility infielder respectively, but if the club plans to utilize a five-man bench in the postseason then there are still three spots up for grabs. In addition to Clemens, Wilson, and Stevenson, Coffey notes that recently-optioned infielder Buddy Kennedy could be in the mix for a spot on the postseason bench as well.
Perhaps most notably, outfielder Austin Hays also figures to factor into the club’s bench conversation this postseason despite having spent the entire month of September to this point on the IL due to a kidney infection. Hays began a rehab assignment at Triple-A earlier today and while that rehab stint only figures to last two days with the Triple-A season set to end tomorrow, Thomson indicated to reporters (including Coffey) that the club isn’t concerned about the lack of in-game reps due to the fact that, if the Phillies secure a bye through the Wild Card round as they currently seem poised to do, Hays would be able to get plenty of at-bats in intra-squad games during that layoff prior to the NLDS.
Hays, 28, started the season with the Orioles but was dealt to the Phillies in the trade that sent right-hander Seranthony Dominguez to Baltimore ahead of the trade deadline back in July. Overall, he’s been a roughly league average bat this year with a .254/.305/.388 slash line (96 wRC+), though he was above average before slumping in Philadelphia as he adjusted to a bench role. With that said, he’s still an excellent source of offense against left-handed pitching, as demonstrated by his sensational 166 wRC+ against southpaws this season. That could make him a perfect platoon partner of sorts for Brandon Marsh, who the Phils have worked to protect from same-handed pitching for much of the year.
If Hays joins Sosa and Stubbs on the club’s bench, that would leave two spots available for the other four names that seem to be in discussion. Stevenson has enjoyed semi-regular playing time in a platoon with Johan Rojas in center field over the past month and could continue in a similar role into the playoffs, while Clemens has the strongest record of the group as a pinch hitter this year and could therefore be an attractive option as well. That being said, both Wilson and Kennedy could be viable alternatives if the club prefers more right-handed options on the bench beyond Sosa and Hays.
Set to join Hays on a rehab assignment tomorrow is right-hander Spencer Turnbull, who MLB.com’s Injury Tracker notes is expected to start the season finale at Triple-A before continuing his rehab at the club’s complex in Florida. It’s a step in the right direction for the 32-year-old, who has been shelved since late June due to a lat strain but could still return to the club during the postseason. The right-hander was nothing short of excellent for the Phillies in a swing role early this year, pitching to a 2.65 ERA with a 3.85 FIP in 54 1/3 innings of work.
Speaking of injured right-handers, Coffey noted that top pitching prospect Andrew Painter could be in the conversation to participate in the Arizona Fall League as he works his way back from Tommy John surgery, per president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. Painter has been throwing to live hitters in the club’s Florida complex, but Dombrowski noted that the club has avoided making a firm decision on his availability for the AFL so as to not put pressure on the 21-year-old to get ahead of himself in his rehab.
The club’s top pitching prospect and a consensus top-30 prospect in the sport, Painter was in the conversation for the club’s Opening Day roster after a dominant Spring Training last year but ended up undergoing Tommy John surgery before being sidelined by injuries and eventually going under the knife. The youngster figures to be ready to return in time for the 2025 season, but a return this fall in Arizona would be an encouraging development for a youngster who has lost plenty of reps over the past two seasons due to injury.
Marlins Outright Jose Devers
September 21: Devers has cleared outright waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A, according to the Transactions Tracker on Devers’s MLB.com profile page.
September 19: The Marlins have designated infielder Jose Devers for assignment, tweets Issac Azout of Fish on First. Miami also optioned infielder David Hensley to Triple-A Jacksonville. That pair of moves will create space for the return of outfielder Derek Hill and infielder/outfielder Vidal Brujan, both of whom have been reinstated from the 10-day injured list.
It’s the second DFA in the career of Devers, who came to Miami alongside Starlin Castro and Jorge Guzman in the Giancarlo Stanton blockbuster with the Yankees. Devers was also designated for assignment back in 2022 but remained with the organization after going unclaimed on outright waivers. This time around, if he clears, he’ll have the opportunity to elect minor league free agency (as is the right of all players who have previously been outrighted at least once in their career).
Devers, 24, has only received 50 plate appearances in the majors — 46 back in 2021 and just four this season. He’s posted a .244/.300/.311 slash in that tiny sample. It’s tough to glean much information from such minimal playing time, but then again, Devers has hardly forced his way into the big league picture with his minor league play.
To the contrary, Devers has struggled considerably at the plate both in Double-A and Triple-A. He was never projected to hit for power even as a young prospect, instead drawing praise for his speed, glove and bat-to-ball skills. He’s indeed proven tough to strike out, fanning in about 16% of his plate appearances both in Double-A and Triple-A, but he’s also been unable to hit the ball with any sort of authority. Devers is a career .251/.319/.380 hitter in 673 Double-A plate appearances and just a .238/.296/.352 hitter in 249 Triple-A turns at the plate. Despite often being credited with plus speed, he’s never been much of a baserunning threat.
Injuries have played a role in Devers’ struggles. He hit the injured list with a right shoulder impingement early in 2021, not long after making his debut, and eventually underwent surgery to repair the labrum in that shoulder. Recovery from that August surgery unsurprisingly lingered into the 2022 season and limited him to just 60 games overall. Devers appeared in just 96 games in ’23 thanks to further trips to the injured list. He’s posted a tepid .239/.304/.362 batting line in 54 games and 208 Triple-A plate appearances this season.
Cardinals Place Sonny Gray On 15-Day Injured List
Veteran right-hander Sonny Gray‘s first season with the Cardinals has come to a close, as the club has placed him on the 15-day injured list due to flexor tendonitis in his right forearm. Right-hander Kyle Leahy was recalled to replace Gray on the big league roster, and rookie Michael McGreevy is currently slated to take Gray’s place in the rotation as noted by Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat.
Gray, 34, joined the Cardinals after signing a three-year, $75MM deal with the club on the heels of a dominant 2023 season that saw him post an MLB-best 2.83 FIP as a member of the Twins and finish second in AL Cy Young award voting to Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. Gray’s start to the season was slightly delayed by injury but he started strong overall, with a 2.60 ERA and 2.84 FIP in his first nine starts with the club that made it look as though Gray might be able to deliver more of the dominance that he flashed in Minnesota with St. Louis this year.
The results have left something to be desired for Gray ever since the calendar flipped to June, however, as he posted a 4.92 ERA in a 15-start stretch from early June to late August before managing to finish the season strong with a 2.55 ERA and 1.91 FIP in his final four starts of the year. That leaves him with a relatively pedestrian 3.84 ERA overall in 166 1/3 innings of work, though the underlying metrics suggest he’s been a good bit better than that. After all, even that aforementioned stretch of 15 starts where Gray struggled saw him post a solid enough 3.63 FIP while striking out an excellent 29.3% of his opponents. Looking at his full season stats, he’ll end the year with a 3.13 FIP that ranks seventh-best in the majors, a 30.3% strikeout rate that’s tied with Tarik Skubal for the second-best figure in the big leagues behind likely NL Cy Young award winner Chris Sale, and 3.8 fWAR that’s good for seventh-most among NL pitchers this year.
Unfortunately, those promising peripheral numbers neither translated to elite production on the field for Gray nor wins for a Cardinals club that was recently eliminated from playoff contention and has a 77-77 record with eight games left to go in the regular season. With that being said, those strong underlying numbers do provide reason for optimism that better days ought to be ahead for the veteran in the future. That’s good news for fans in St. Louis, as Gray is sure to be a key fixture of the club’s starting five next year. As noted by Jones, Gray underwent an MRI recently that came back clean and would likely still be pitching if the Cardinals remained in the playoff hunt. That makes it seem unlikely that Gray’s current ailment will have any sort of impact on him when camp opens up for Spring Training next year.
Looking ahead to 2025, Gray figures to anchor a rotation that seems likely to include deadline addition Erick Fedde, veteran innings eater Miles Mikolas, and youngster Andre Pallante but still features some uncertainty due to the fact that the club holds team options on the services of both Kyle Gibson and Lance Lynn for next year. While both veterans have been perfectly serviceable back-end arms for the Cardinals this year, with the aforementioned quartet and Steven Matz all expected to return in 2025 it would hardly be a shock to see the club decline the options of one or both players in search of an upgrade to either the rotation or lineup elsewhere on the market.
As for replacing Gray in the short term, Leahy returns to the club’s roster as a multi-inning relief option after posting a 4.02 ERA and 3.62 FIP in 47 innings of work earlier this year. Meanwhile, McGreevy made his big league debut in a spot start back in July and impressed with seven innings of one-run ball and currently sports a 0.90 ERA in ten innings at the big league level along with a 4.02 ERA in 27 starts at Triple-A this year.
Rangers Place Max Scherzer On 15-Day Injured List
The Rangers announced today that they’ve placed veteran right-hander Max Scherzer on the 15-day injured list due to a strained left hamstring. Right-hander Gerson Garabito was recalled to take Scherzer’s place on the active roster. Scherzer was scheduled to start tonight’s game against the Mariners, but that start will go to right-hander Dane Dunning instead.
The news brings to an end Scherzer’s 2024 season. In all, Scherzer managed just nine starts and 43 1/3 innings of work this year, the first time since his rookie year back in 2008 where he pitched less than 145 1/3 innings in a 162-game season. His results weren’t especially dominant even when healthy enough to take the mound, either. His 92.6mph average on his fastball was the lowest of his career, while a 22.6% strikeout rate, 3.95 ERA (100 ERA+), and a 4.18 FIP were all closer to pedestrian than elite. Since being acquired from the Mets in exchange for infield prospect Luisangel Acuna last summer, the veteran righty has pitched to a 3.57 ERA with a 3.79 FIP in 88 1/3 innings of work for Texas.
Those may turn out to be the only innings Scherzer pitches in a Rangers uniform. The future Hall of Famer’s contract in Texas runs only through the end of the current campaign, and he now appears ticketed for another trip through free agency. Scherzer celebrated his 40th birthday back in July and has dealt with a number of injury concerns this year ranging from offseason back surgery to nerve irritation in his throwing hand and triceps area on different occasions, but that hasn’t stopped the veteran from planning to continue pitching next year.
Even on the heels of the first injury-marred campaign of his career, Scherzer’s overall resume speaks for itself: the veteran boasts more than 3400 strikeouts in his career to go with eight career All-Star appearances, three Cy Young award wins, and three additional years wherein he was a finalist for the awards. The right-hander hasn’t posted an ERA north of 4.00 or a below-average ERA+ since 2011, and since then he sports a 2.95 ERA and 3.00 FIP, to say nothing of his career 3.78 ERA and 28.8% strikeout rate in the postseason and the two World Series rings he’s earned as a result of those 143 innings of work in the playoffs over the years. Still, at Scherzer’s age and coming off a platform season that raised plenty of questions about his ability to act as the workhorse starting pitcher he was throughout his 30s now that he’s entering his 40s, it’s not entirely clear what sort of market awaits the veteran ace in free agency.
Texas has exciting young arms like Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter coming up from the farm system to join a 2025 rotation corps that includes Dunning, Jacob deGrom, Jon Gray, Cody Bradford, and Tyler Mahle, but a return to the Rangers certainly can’t be ruled out. After all, Scherzer is likely to be joined in heading for free agency by Nathan Eovaldi, Andrew Heaney, and Jose Urena. That quartet has combined to start 74 of the Rangers’ 154 games to this point in the season, or nearly half of the club’s contests. Given the combination of youth and lengthy injury histories at play in Texas’s current rotation group headed into next year, it would hardly be a surprise to see the club prioritize adding at least one arm to help carry the load of the departing starters.
Of course, a player with Scherzer’s storied resume could easily draw interest from plenty of other clubs in the league the league. The right-hander’s former teams in Detroit and D.C. are both seemingly ready to take the next step after lengthy rebuilding periods and could benefit from adding a veteran arm to their young rotations, and Scherzer’s hometown Cardinals appear likely to try and revamp their rotation mix behind staff ace Sonny Gray after their second-straight disappointing season. Given the ace’s talent when healthy and the fact that his age and recent injury history appear likely to limit him to a short-term deal, there’s countless teams that could reasonably be positioned to take a chance on the 40-year-old future Hall of Famer this winter.