The Opener: Yamamoto, Padres, Mariners, MLBTR Chat
As the 2024 regular season winds down, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Yamamoto to return:
Prized right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto last pitched for the Dodgers back in June. A rotator cuff strain sidelined the $325MM rookie 14 starts into his big league career, but he’ll return to the roster to take on the Cubs in L.A. at 7:10pm local time with another former NPB ace, left-hander Shota Imanaga (2.99 ERA), on the mound for Chicago. Prior to his injury, Yamamoto had pitched to a sterling 2.94 ERA with a 2.62 FIP in 74 innings of work while striking out 27.9% of opponents.
The 26-year-old hurler’s return to action is a welcome development for a Dodgers rotation that has recently lost Tyler Glasnow, Clayton Kershaw, and Gavin Stone to the injured list. Yamamoto will spend the next couple weeks preparing for his first stateside playoff run as the Dodgers look to fend off the Padres and Diamondbacks in the NL West. Corresponding moves will be necessary on both the active and 40-man rosters to accommodate Yamamoto, who is returning from the 60-day injured list.
2. Series Preview: Padres @ Mariners
After dominating the AL West for the first half of the season, the Mariners have stumbled to a 21-25 record in the second half that’s allowed the Astros to run them down and take possession of the division crown. With less than three weeks to go until the regular season concludes, Seattle’s playoff hopes are looking unlikely but not impossible, as FanGraphs gives the club a 7.7% chance to make the postseason, highest of all AL clubs not currently in playoff position.
In order to make it to October for just the second time since 2001, the Mariners will have to take down a Padres club that’s firmly in playoff contention itself. San Diego is 5.5 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West but has a firm grasp on the top NL Wild Card spot with an 81-64 record that leaves them just a half game in front of Arizona but well ahead of the Braves and Mets as the two clubs battle for the third spot. The two-game set kicks off at 6:40pm local time this evening and will feature a pair of exciting pitching matchups, with veteran righty Yu Darvish (3.51 ERA) facing Mariners righty George Kirby (3.61 ERA) tonight. Tomorrow’s matchup will pit Michael King (3.10 ERA) against breakout youngster Bryan Woo (2.36 ERA).
3. MLBTR Chat Today:
With the calendar now flipped to September, all eyes are on the push to the postseason, where the Mets have recently pushed their way into the race with a torrid stretch and now sit just one game ahead of the Braves in the NL Wild Card standings. If you’re wondering about your team’s hopes of a World Series championship this fall or how your club could approach the coming offseason, MLBTR’s Steve Adams is holding a live chat with readers at 1pm CT today. You can click here to ask a question in advance, join in live once the chat begins, or read the transcript once the chat is complete.
Yankees Promote Jasson Domínguez
The Yankees have promoted outfielder Jasson Domínguez ahead of tonight’s game against the Royals at Yankee Stadium, the team announced. To make room on the active roster, they placed infielder DJ LeMahieu on the 10-day IL with right hip inflammation. In addition, the Yankees reinstated utility man Jon Berti from the 60-day IL. They had already cleared a spot for him on the 28-man roster by optioning outfielder Duke Ellis on Sunday. To make room for Berti on the 40-man roster, the team designated left-hander Anthony Misiewicz for assignment.
Domínguez made his hotly-anticipated MLB debut last September, putting up a .980 OPS and 160 wRC+ in eight games as the Yankees’ center fielder before he tore his UCL and required season-ending Tommy John surgery. The team reinstated him from the injured list this past June but optioned him to Triple-A rather than put him back on the active roster. It made enough sense at the time, considering New York’s crowded outfield picture; in addition to mainstays Aaron Judge in center and Juan Soto in right, Alex Verdugo was enjoying a solid season as the starting left fielder (108 wRC+, 1.1 FanGraphs WAR at the time). Moreover, Giancarlo Stanton was playing every day at DH. Thus, the Yankees decided to give Domínguez regular reps with the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders.
Yet, Verdugo has struggled tremendously over the past three months, batting .210 with a .568 OPS and 62 wRC+. Meanwhile, Domínguez has thrived over the past month at Triple-A, batting .318 with an .893 OPS and 132 wRC+ across his last 27 games. He has also 11 stolen bases in 12 attempts during that time. The 21-year-old was briefly called up to be the 27th man in a doubleheader last month, but he returned to the minors the next day. With the Yankees holding onto the slimmest lead (0.5 games) of any division leader in MLB right now, their hesitance to call up the star prospect seemed strange, to say the least. Now, however, that point of discussion is finally moot.
Domínguez would not have been called up if he weren’t going to get frequent playing time, a point that GM Brian Cashman emphasized last week (per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com). Indeed, he will start tonight in center field and bat sixth in the Yankees’ lineup. Judge will DH, while Stanton takes the day off against Royals right-hander Brady Singer. The lefty batting Verdugo remains in the lineup, playing left field. It’s safe to presume that Domínguez will eventually take some playing time away from the floundering Verdugo, but he is also a valuable asset as a replacement for Judge in center field. The MVP candidate has held his own at the position, but he is better suited for a corner outfield spot. Furthermore, Judge could surely benefit from some days as the DH when he can stay off his feet for most of the game.
Berti, whom the Yankees acquired from the Marlins this past offseason, has spent almost the entire year on the injured list, first with a groin strain and more recently with a calf strain. He has played just 17 games for New York this year, 16 of them at third base. However, the 34-year-old can also play second base, shortstop, and all three outfield positions in a pinch. Berti is not in the starting lineup tonight, but he will provide the team with versatility off the bench.
LeMahieu has not played since last Tuesday. Manager Aaron Boone told reporters that the veteran’s hip has been an issue for several weeks now, and it’s unclear if he will be able to return before the end of the regular season (per Gary Phillips of the New York Daily News). That’s not necessarily much of a loss for the Yankees, considering the former batting champ is hitting .204 with a .527 OPS and 51 wRC+ in 67 games during his age-35 season.
Misiewicz, 29, first joined the Yankees as a waiver claim in July 2023. He re-signed with the organization on a minor league deal this past offseason, and the big league club selected his contract in June. The southpaw made one scoreless appearance for the Yankees before he was returned to Triple-A, where he has pitched to a 3.33 ERA in 54.0 innings this year.
The Yankees claimed Ellis, 26, off of waivers from the Mariners at the end of August. They promoted him to the big leagues when rosters expanded on September 1, and he appeared in three games, collecting one hit and one stolen base. He will return to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Chris Getz Discusses Potential Loss Record, Crochet, Managerial Search
The White Sox lost again on Monday, dropping a 5-3 contest to the Guardians. Chicago didn’t have a baserunner until the seventh inning against rookie Joey Cantillo in a game that dropped them to a staggering 33-112. They’re now just eight losses away from matching the 1962 Mets for most in a season since 1900. They’d need to go 9-8 to avoid setting the modern era record.
Sox general manager Chris Getz met with the team’s beat before Monday’s game. The GM said he’d “have been a little surprised” if he were informed coming into the season that the Sox could — and, at this point, seem quite likely to — set the loss record (link via Jesse Rogers of ESPN). However, Getz implied that he did anticipate one of the worst seasons in franchise history.
“Now if you would have told me prior to the year that we would have ended up with over 100 losses, 105, 110, I wouldn’t have been as surprised,” he told reporters. “But this is the cards that we’ve been dealt at this point. You try to make the best of it, and I think it’s an opportunity to embrace the situation that we’re in.” Before this year, the Sox’s franchise high was the 106 losses they posted in 1970.
That situation is of the Sox’s own making, of course. Getz had been assistant general manager under Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn until that duo was fired shortly after the 2023 trade deadline. Owner Jerry Reinsdorf tabbed Getz to take over baseball operations not long thereafter. The White Sox were already fully amidst a teardown by the time Getz took the reins.
Bright spots on a team that’ll probably lose 120 games are obviously few and far between. Getz unsurprisingly pointed to Garrett Crochet’s breakout as a starting pitcher when asked about his favorite development of the season. Chicago made a risky decision to give the hard-throwing southpaw a rotation job despite his limited workload coming into the year. Yet that turned out to be an excellent call, as Crochet has turned in a 3.83 ERA while striking out nearly 35% of opponents through 29 starts. The Sox have eased up on his workload in the second half, but Crochet should top 140 innings after entering the year with all of 85 1/3 professional frames.
Fantastic as Crochet has pitched, the Sox weren’t able to find an offer to their liking at the deadline. Their trade talks were complicated by the lefty’s camp angling for an extension as a condition of continuing to pitch into October with a new team. Getz and his staff will no doubt field a ton of interest in the 25-year-old during the upcoming winter.
Crochet will probably be the offseason’s top trade candidate. Getz acknowledged they’ll explore the market on the former first-round pick, who is eligible for arbitration for two seasons after this one. “The reality of baseball and where we’re at as an organization, you need to look at the types of return you could potentially get in trades,” Getz said (link via Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times). “We need to weigh where we’re going to be in a year or two years, but we also know how talented he is, and he can certainly lead a rotation with the White Sox or anyone else. So we’re going to take advantage of what he’s capable of doing as a starter. But also it’s wise to see what the market holds for Garrett Crochet to see if we can improve the White Sox for the future.”
Getz added that the Sox are not “actively shopping” Crochet, though there’s probably not much distinction in practice. Virtually every contender figures to gauge the Sox’s asking price. Chicago is almost certainly not going to be competitive in either of the next two seasons. There’s no indication that an extension is particularly likely. That would require ownership to sign off on a larger deal than the franchise-record $75MM Andrew Benintendi contract.
The Sox could choose to hold Crochet until the 2025 deadline. If he’s healthy and pitching at a top-of-the-rotation level, he could be the best starter available next summer. Holding him incurs the risk of an early-season injury or, less likely, a sharp drop in performance. An offseason trade seems probable now that Crochet has addressed a lot of the questions about his ability to hold up as a starter. An acquiring team could realistically expect him to build to 160-170 innings in his second full season from the rotation.
[Related: What Might It Cost To Extend Garrett Crochet?]
While a Crochet trade would probably be the Sox’s biggest move of the offseason, it won’t be their first major decision. Getz is leading a managerial search for the first time after the team fired Pedro Grifol a month ago. The Sox announced at the time that they expected their next hire would come from outside the organization. That remains the case, as Getz made clear they’re searching among “candidates that are in uniform with other organizations right now” (relayed by Jay Cohen of the Associated Press). The Sox have gone 5-23 since hiring Grady Sizemore on an interim basis.
In a separate piece at the Sun-Times, Van Shouwen suggests the White Sox could make a run at Skip Schumaker. The 2023 NL Manager of the Year will be out of contract at the end of the season. It is widely expected that he and the Marlins will part ways. Miami agreed to void a ’25 club option on Schumaker’s contract after the manager expressed his frustration with the decision to fire former GM Kim Ng. The Marlins almost immediately kicked off a multi-year rebuild under new baseball operations president Peter Bendix.
Whether Schumaker would have any interest in jumping to a Chicago team that is in an even worse short-term position isn’t clear. Perhaps that’ll depend on which other managerial positions open over the next couple months. Getz declined to narrow a timeline for the Sox hiring, though he said they have not begun to reach out to other teams about getting permission to interview personnel who are currently under contract.
Travis Blankenhorn Elects Free Agency
The Nationals announced that infielder/outfielder Travis Blankenhorn elected free agency following last week’s DFA. The left-handed hitter had that right once he cleared waivers because he has been outrighted multiple times in his career. Washington took him off the 40-man roster when they claimed reliever Michael Rucker from Philadelphia.
Blankenhorn has gotten to the majors in five consecutive seasons without ever getting consistent playing time. He has tallied exactly 100 trips to the plate at the highest level. That includes 32 plate appearances since the Nats selected his contract around the time of the trade deadline. Blankenhorn only hit .129 with one walk and nine strikeouts in that limited look. He has a career .154/.230/.264 slash against MLB arms.
While he hasn’t performed in his sporadic MLB chances, the 28-year-old has a solid minor league track record. Blankenhorn popped 23 home runs in Triple-A for the Nats a year ago. He connected on another 26 longballs in 106 contests with their top affiliate this season. Blankenhorn has power but has also struggled to make contact consistently in the minors. That continued this year, as he fanned in 26% of his plate appearances.
A third-round pick of the Twins in 2015, Blankenhorn has also had a brief stint with the Mets and spent time in the Mariners’ and Dodgers’ farm systems. He should be able to find another minor league opportunity heading into 2025. Speculatively speaking, his Triple-A power numbers could lead to offseason interest from teams in foreign leagues as well.
Red Sox Release Rich Hill
The Red Sox released Rich Hill, tweets Christopher Smith of MassLive. The veteran southpaw can latch on elsewhere for the final few weeks of the regular season. Since he’d be signing after the start of September, he will not be eligible for this year’s postseason if he continues playing.
Boston designated the 44-year-old Hill for assignment on Friday when they promoted rookie righty Luis Guerrero. That ended his latest stint with the Sox after four big league appearances. Hill logged 3 2/3 innings of two-run ball. He struck out five of 15 batters faced while issuing a trio of walks. With his fastball sitting in the mid-80s, Hill leaned most frequently on a 70 MPH breaking ball in that limited sample.
Whether Hill signs with another team or sits out the rest of the season, he managed to get to the majors for a 20th straight year. This was the Massachusetts native’s eighth different stint with the Red Sox, including minor league deals, and his fourth separate appearance at the big league level in Boston. Hill deliberately waited until the tail end of the season to sign, inking a minor league contract with the Sox in mid-August. The team called him up ten days later.
MLB’s oldest active player now returns to the open market. If he signs anywhere for the stretch run, it’d be with a contender. Hill can’t play in the postseason but could potentially work in a swing role to help push a team to October. He reportedly drew interest from the Yankees, Dodgers and Twins when he was building up earlier in the summer.
All three of those teams occupy a playoff spot. New York holds a half-game lead on the Orioles in the AL East, while a slumping Minnesota team is trying to hang onto a 3.5-game edge on the American League’s final Wild Card spot. Los Angeles has all but wrapped up another NL West title, but they’re looking to lock down the top seed in the National League while dealing with a number of rotation injuries.
Ed Kranepool Passes Away
Former All-Star and World Series champion Ed Kranepool passed away on Sunday, the Mets announced. Kranepool spent his entire 18-year MLB career with the franchise. He was 79 years old.
Kranepool debuted with the Mets at 17 years old in 1962, the club’s inaugural season. Over 18 seasons and 1,853 games, he helped them win their first two NL East titles, their first two NL pennants, and their first World Series title in 1969. He made the National League All-Star team in 1965.
The 6-foot-3 first baseman is perhaps best remembered for his home run in Game 3 of the 1969 World Series, but his significance to the organization goes well beyond one swing of the bat. Kranepool held the franchise record in hits from 1976 until 2011. As of today, he ranks second among all Mets players in career plate appearances, third in hits, fourth in doubles, and fifth in RBI. He also ranks among the top 10 in runs and walks. While thousands of players have suited up for the Mets over the past 63 seasons, no one has played more games for the franchise than Kranepool. Fittingly, he was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 1990.
In addition to his longevity and long list of accomplishments, Kranepool will be remembered for his pinch-hitting and first base defense. In 1974, his 13th major league season, he appeared in more games as a pinch-hitter than at any other position. He went 17-for-35 (.486) as a substitute batter that year, setting a record for the highest single-season batting average by a pinch-hitter (min. 30 AB). His record still stands today (per Baseball Almanac). Moreover, although he played long before the days of advanced defensive metrics, Kranepool put up an impressive .994 fielding percentage over more than 10,000 innings at first base in his career. Longtime teammate Jerry Koosman described Kranepool as “the best first baseman [he] ever played with” in a statement relayed by the Mets.
Kranepool will also be remembered for the leadership role he continued to play long after he last took the field. As Mets owners Steve and Alex Cohen wrote in a statement following his passing, “Ed continued to work tirelessly in the community on behalf of the organization after his playing career ended.”
We at MLB Trade Rumors send our sincerest condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues, as well as the many fans mourning his passing.
Mariners Claim Austin Kitchen, DFA Jason Vosler
The Mariners have claimed left-hander Austin Kitchen off waivers from the Marlins, per a team announcement out of Miami. In a corresponding move, Seattle has designated first baseman Jason Vosler for assignment.
Kitchen, 27, was designated for assignment over the weekend after a brief, but meaningful, stint with the Marlins. The club claimed him off waivers from the Rockies in June, and he made his MLB debut at the end of July. Unfortunately, his first few tastes of big league action in Miami weren’t particularly successful; he gave up 12 runs (11 earned) over seven innings before his DFA. On the bright side, he has a 2.96 ERA and 3.74 FIP across 48 2/3 minor league innings this season split between the Rockies and Marlins organizations.
The left-hander will now report to the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers. He will not be eligible to pitch for Seattle in the postseason, but he offers a bit of additional depth down the stretch. What’s more, he still has two option years remaining, so if the Mariners like what they see from Kitchen, they could easily choose to keep him around in 2025.
Vosler, 31, played 10 games with the Mariners this season during a brief call-up between mid-July and early August. He went 5-for-28 with a .519 OPS. However, he has looked much better at Triple-A, batting .299 with 28 home runs and a .934 OPS in 111 games. Despite his minor league success, he did not have a path to meaningful playing time in Seattle, so it’s not too surprising to see him cut from the 40-man roster. It’s likely he clears waivers, after which he will presumably elect free agency, either right away or at the end of the season. Vosler has played for five different organizations, including three at the MLB level, over a professional career that has spanned more than ten years.
Angels Select José Suarez, Move Jo Adell To 60-Day IL
The Angels have selected the contract of left-handed pitcher José Suarez from Triple-A, the team announced. To make room for Suarez on the active roster, the club optioned right-hander Hans Crouse to Salt Lake. Meanwhile, the Angels opened a spot for Suarez on the 40-man by transferring Jo Adell to the 60-day injured list, marking the end of the outfielder’s season.
Suarez, 26, signed with the Angels as an international free agent just over ten years ago. He has pitched for the big league club in each of the past six seasons. He was a solid contributor in 2021 and ’22, pitching a total of 207 1/3 innings over 45 games (34 starts) with a 3.86 ERA and 4.16 SIERA. However, he lost most of his 2023 season to a shoulder injury, and he was ultimately DFA’d this past June after a poor start to his 2024 campaign. Over 35 1/3 innings, the southpaw gave up 34 runs (32 earned) on 44 hits and 22 walks.
After clearing waivers, Suarez accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A, where he has pitched to an unsightly 6.54 ERA and 5.10 FIP over 11 starts. While his results have been poor, he offers the Angels a much-needed fresh arm for the bullpen. Top prospect Caden Dana only recorded three outs in his second career start on Sunday, and the bullpen was forced to pitch the rest of the game. Crouse, who was recalled yesterday, tossed 1 1/3 innings in that 7-4 loss to the Rangers, walking two and striking out one.
Adell, 25, landed on the 10-day IL over the weekend with a left oblique strain. By moving him to the 60-day IL with just three weeks left to go in the regular season, the Angels have officially ended his 2024 campaign. The former top prospect seemed to be enjoying a long-awaited breakout over the first eight weeks of the season, but he had since fallen back to earth. Over his last 90 games, Adell was batting .190 with a .611 OPS and 70 wRC+. He will be eligible for arbitration for the first time this coming offseason.
Guardians Designate Anthony Gose For Assignment
The Guardians designated left-hander Anthony Gose for assignment … again. Cleveland announced Monday that Gose has been DFA in favor of fellow southpaw Joey Cantillo, who has been recalled from Triple-A Columbus.
It’s the fourth DFA of the past month for the out-of-options Gose, who has fully embraced the depth role in which the Guardians have placed him. He can’t be optioned to the minors, so Cleveland has continually designated him for assignment and passed him through waivers, at which point Gose has either accepted an outright assignment or briefly elected free agency and near-immediately re-signed on a new minor league deal.
It’s an odd cycle but not an entirely unfamiliar one. The Yankees have gone this route with righties David Hale and Ryan Weber in the past. The Marlins have done the same this year with lefty Kent Emanuel, just as they did with Devin Smeltzer in 2023. Gose is clearly fine with the tumultuous and somewhat unconventional arrangement, as he’s getting frequent MLB service time and pay out of it and agreeing to return to the organization each time. Granted, not all of those situations featured such rapid-fire selections to the majors and immediate DFAs, but it’s conceptually the same scenario.
Gose allowed two runs in an inning of work during his most recent brief stint with the Guards. He’s pitched in three games this season and yielded runs in all of them, combining for five runs on nine hits and a walk with four strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings. He’s posted better run-prevention numbers in Triple-A, logging a 3.27 earned run average with a hearty 32.8% strikeout rate against a more troubling 14.7% walk rate.
The 2024 season is Gose’s first year back from a Tommy John procedure that wiped out his entire 2023 campaign. A former second-round pick who ranked as one of the top prospects in the game during his days as a center fielder, he’s still looking to establish himself as a viable big league option in the bullpen. Gose has pitched 32 innings in the majors since making the switch to the mound and recorded a 4.78 ERA with big strikeout numbers (29.7%) and also big walk issues (12.3%).
A two-way star in high school who had some draft interest as a pitcher, Gose was brandishing a fastball that averaged 99.3 mph when he made his mound debut in 2021. He’s since undergone elbow surgery and seen that average heater dip to 95.2 mph — still a well above-average mark (particularly for a lefty), but not the same type of overpowering offering it was a few years back. Gose is still piling up strikeouts in Triple-A, but the command of his fastball/slider combination is a work in progress. He’ll head back to waivers and likely clear quickly before returning to the Guardians, whether via outright assignment or again electing free agency and signing a new minor league pact while he awaits his next call to the majors.
Mets Designate Pablo Reyes, Select Eddy Alvarez
The Mets have selected the contract of recently acquired infielder Eddy Alvarez from Triple-A Syracuse and designated fellow infielder Pablo Reyes for assignment in order to open space on the active roster and 40-man roster, tweets Mike Puma of the New York Post. Alvarez was acquired from the Red Sox in exchange for cash earlier today.
Like Alvarez, Reyes was also acquired from the Red Sox in exchange for cash — although that swap took place back in May. The Mets selected him to the big league roster earlier this month when rosters expanded to 28 players. Reyes did not make a plate appearance with the Mets but did score a run after entering their Sept. 1 game as a pinch runner. He hit .183/.234/.217 in 64 plate appearances with Boston earlier this season.
The 31-year-old Reyes gave the Red Sox nearly league-average offense last season — .287/.339/.377 in 185 plate appearances — but has generally been a light-hitting utilityman in a big league career that’s now spanned four teams (Pirates, Brewers, Red Sox, Mets) across parts of six seasons. In 572 plate appearances at the MLB level, Reyes is a .248/.309/.349 hitter. He’s spent time at every defensive position other than catcher — pitcher included — but has primarily been a second baseman/shortstop/third baseman.
A career .277/.347/.450 hitter in parts of six Triple-A seasons, Reyes has a solid minor league track record but has never found extended success in the majors. He’s out of minor league options and thus can’t be sent down without clearing waivers first, and even then he’d have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency by virtue of the fact that he’s been outrighted previously in his career. He’ll head to waivers now that he’s been DFA and will likely clear, as he did back in May when Boston also designated him for assignment.