Giants Sign Andrew Knapp To Major League Deal
The Giants signed catcher Andrew Knapp to a major league contract. Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic first observed (on X) that the switch-hitting backstop was in tonight’s starting lineup. San Francisco designated Jakson Reetz for assignment to create a 40-man opening. Knapp, an Apex Baseball client, reaches the majors for the first time this season.
Knapp had been in Triple-A with the Rangers. He signed an offseason minor league deal, opted out at the start of July, then returned to Texas on a new non-roster pact around the All-Star Break. The Rangers granted him his release yesterday, presumably in tandem with his agreement with San Francisco. He didn’t get a look in Texas despite a strong .294/.383/.457 slash in 345 Triple-A plate appearances.
While the Rangers haven’t gotten much production out of the catching position, Jonah Heim was an All-Star last season. Texas moved on from struggling backup Andrew Knizner when they acquired Carson Kelly at the deadline. Barring injury, Knapp probably wasn’t going to get a look there. The Giants had more room for a short-term option after losing Patrick Bailey to the injured list this week. Bailey is battling what seems to be a low-severity oblique strain.
Knapp, 32, played in three games for the Giants two seasons ago. That marked his most recent MLB action. He has spent the past couple seasons bouncing around the Triple-A level. A Berkeley product and former second-round pick by the Phillies, Knapp is a career .209/.310/.313 hitter in 873 big league plate appearances. He’ll back up Curt Casali for the time being.
It’s possible his stay on the roster will be brief. Bailey could return right around when he’s first eligible on August 29. That’d give San Francisco three catchers and presumably force them to choose between retaining Casali or Knapp as the backup.
Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reported earlier in the week that the Giants had some interest in former All-Star Elias Díaz, whom the Rockies released a week ago. Bailey’s presumed forthcoming return apparently took that off the table. Slusser wrote this afternoon that Díaz declined to pursue the opportunity when the Giants indicated they couldn’t commit to keeping him on the roster beyond Bailey’s return date.
That’s understandable on Díaz’s part. The Rockies are on the hook for his $6MM salary while he’s a free agent. He’d need to be in an organization by September 1 to be eligible for postseason play. If he signed with the Giants for a week and was released as the corresponding move for a Bailey reinstatement on August 29, he’d have very little time to find another landing spot that could allow him to play in October. A short-term stint is much more appealing for Knapp, who had been on a minor league salary with Texas and has ties to the Bay Area.
San Francisco designates Reetz for the second time this season. He has appeared in six MLB games for them this year and played in two games with the 2021 Nationals. The former third-round pick has hit .254/.368/.431 over 58 games with Triple-A Sacramento. He’ll go on waivers in the next few days and would be able to elect free agency if he goes unclaimed.
Mariners Hire Edgar Martinez As Hitting Coach For Rest Of 2024
The Mariners announced this afternoon that they’ve hired Edgar Martinez as hitting coach for the remainder of the season. Adam Jude of the Seattle Times first reported (X link) yesterday that the Hall of Famer was going to join new manager Dan Wilson’s staff. The role was unreported, but in tandem with Seattle’s dismissal of hitting coach Jarret DeHart yesterday, it wasn’t hard to read between the lines.
While the M’s made clear that Wilson is their full-time manager, Martinez’s status after the year is up in the air. Seattle’s press release specified that Martinez has only taken the job for the final couple months of this season. The M’s would presumably be happy to keep him around beyond this year, but the 61-year-old has previously cited a desire for a less demanding position than a regular coaching role.
Few hitters are more accomplished than Martinez. He won two batting titles and three Silver Slugger awards during his 18-year big league career. Martinez made seven All-Star teams and finished his playing days with a .312/.418/.515 slash line. He spent his entire career with the M’s and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame within three years of his retirement after the ’04 season. While it took more than a decade, he eventually earned the sport’s highest honors with election into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in January 2019.
Wilson was an All-Star catcher who played for the Mariners from 1994-2005. He overlapped with Martinez for all but the final season. The two have both remained involved with the organization in their post-playing days. Martinez worked as hitting coach on Lloyd McClendon’s and Scott Servais’ staffs between 2015-18. He stepped down after the ’18 campaign and moved into a less intensive role as organizational hitting advisor — a position that enabled him to work with both minor league and MLB players. Wilson had been a special assistant for player development for seven years before moving into the manager’s office yesterday.
Tigers Sign Oscar Mercado To Minor League Deal
The Tigers inked outfielder Óscar Mercado to a minor league contract, as reflected on the MLB.com transaction log. He’s headed to Triple-A Toledo.
Mercado has spent the last few weeks in free agency. He opted out of a non-roster deal with the Padres at the start of August. Mercado wasn’t having a great season in Triple-A, hitting .226/.307/.425 in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. That unsurprisingly wasn’t enough to convince San Diego to call him up.
A former second-round pick, Mercado appeared in the majors each season between 2019-23. He looked like a potential everyday center fielder as a rookie in Cleveland, though his production dropped off sharply from there. Since the start of 2020, he owns a .206/.262/.334 slash in nearly 500 big league plate appearances.
Mercado is still capable of playing all three outfield positions. He logged a decent amount of action in both center and right field this season. He’s an above-average runner who swiped 12 bases in 16 tries in the minors with San Diego. He’ll provide the Tigers glove-first depth for the season’s final few weeks. Detroit is operating without a traditional fourth outfielder behind Parker Meadows, Riley Greene and Matt Vierling. Kerry Carpenter is mostly a designated hitter who is limited to the corners if he plays the outfield, while the Tigers have rotated infielders Zach McKinstry and Andy Ibáñez on the grass.
Mariners Claim Terrin Vavra, Designate Duke Ellis
The Mariners announced they’ve claimed infielder Terrin Vavra from the Orioles. Seattle designated outfielder Duke Ellis for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.
Vavra is a former Colorado draftee who went to Baltimore as a prospect in a trade that sent reliever Mychal Givens to the Rox. Vavra played briefly at the MLB level in 2022-23. The left-handed hitter combined for a .254/.331/.304 slash in 67 games. He showed decent plate discipline and contact skills with minimal power. That has been Vavra’s profile dating back to his college days at Minnesota.
Baltimore passed him through outright waivers last offseason. They reselected his contract around the trade deadline but didn’t get him into a game before optioning him back to Triple-A. Baltimore designated him for assignment earlier this week as the corresponding move to grab Emmanuel Rivera off waivers from Miami. Vavra has a .243/.350/.368 line in 178 Triple-A plate appearances this year. Primarily a second baseman, he also has a decent amount of experience at shortstop and in both corner outfield positions.
Ellis is a speed and defense outfielder who has bounced around this season. The Mets and Mariners successively claimed him after he was DFA by the White Sox in June. Ellis has barely played in the majors, picking up four at-bats in eight games with Chicago. The 26-year-old is hitting .235/.315/.336 in 273 minor league plate appearances on the year. He’ll land back on waivers in the coming days.
Angels Designate Mike Baumann For Assignment
The Angels announced that they have selected the contract of righty reliever Ryan Zeferjahn. In a corresponding roster move, fellow reliever Mike Baumann has been designated for assignment.
Baumann has ridden the DFA carousel throughout the season. The righty is out of options, so teams need to continue taking him off the 40-man roster if they nudge him out of the bullpen. No club has successfully gotten Baumann through waivers. He has gone from the Orioles to the Mariners, Giants and Halos via DFA resolutions throughout the year.
The 28-year-old hasn’t pitched especially well at any of those stops. He owns a cumulative 5.24 ERA through 44 2/3 innings. The Jacksonville product’s 19.5% strikeout percentage, 10.2% walk rate and 1.61 home runs per nine are all subpar. A few teams have nevertheless been intrigued by his still above-average velocity (96.4 MPH on the fastball) and last year’s decent results. He’s a season removed from a 3.76 ERA across 64 2/3 innings with Baltimore.
Baumann will land back on waivers in the next couple days. Any claiming team would need to keep him in the MLB bullpen. He surpassed the two-year service threshold this season and will play on a pre-arbitration salary for another year.
Zeferjahn, a University of Kansas product, steps into the vacated bullpen spot. The 6’5″ righty is a former third-round pick of the Red Sox. Command issues quickly pushed him to the bullpen, where Zeferjahn has shown strikeout stuff. He has fanned more than 28% of opponents in his five-year minor league career. That’s up to nearly 31% this season between the top two minor league levels. Zeferjahn carries a 3.33 earned run average across 46 innings on the season.
The Angels acquired him as part of a four-player return for reliever Luis García at the deadline. Three of them — Zeferjahn, outfielder Matthew Lugo and first baseman Niko Kavadas — were in the high minors at the time. Kavadas debuted last week. Los Angeles would have needed to add Zeferjahn to the 40-man this offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. They’ll give him his first big league opportunity a few weeks earlier than that as he tries to carve out a middle relief role going into next season.
Cubs Claim Gavin Hollowell, Designate David Bote
The Cubs have claimed right-hander Gavin Hollowell off waivers from the Diamondbacks and optioned him to Triple-A Iowa. The Snakes had designated him for assignment a few days ago. To open a 40-man roster spot, the Cubs have designated infielder David Bote for assignment. Paul Sullivan of the Chicago Tribune was among those to relay the news on X.
Hollowell, 26, was drafted by the Rockies and was with that organization until recently. The Diamondbacks claimed him off waivers in June and now he moves via another waiver claim, this time landing with the Cubs.
The interest from clubs likely stems from his big strikeout numbers in the minors, though he has also given out a large number of walks and hasn’t yet transferred those punchouts to the major league level.
The Rockies put him into 30 games over the 2022 and 2023 seasons and he pitched 40 2/3 innings with a 6.20 earned run average. He struck out 21.5% of batters faced in that time and gave out walks at an 11.8% rate. But since the start of 2023, he has thrown 47 minor league innings and struck out 27.9% of batters faced. That’s come with an elevated 13% walk rate and a 4.60 ERA, but clubs are always interested in missing bats.
He still has one option year after this one, so the Cubs could give him a lot of rope in the minors to see if he can rein in his stuff. If he does so, he has less than a year of service time and therefore comes with many years of club control and is still far away from qualifying for arbitration.
Bote, 31, signed an extension with the Cubs in April of 2019, a five-year pact that guaranteed him over $15MM. He served in a multi-positional role for a while but his results eventually tailed off, at least partially due to some injury troubles.
He was outrighted off the roster at the end of 2022 with two guaranteed years still left on his deal. Since he had more than three years of service time, he could have elected free agency, but doing so would have meant walking away from the remaining money on his contract since he was shy of the five-year service mark. Naturally, he stayed with the club and has been with them in a non-roster capacity until they selected his contract again in June.
He has a solid .304/.333/.391 batting line in his 48 plate appearances this year but that’s being held up by an unsustainable .424 batting average on balls in play. He has no home runs in that time and a 4.2% walk rate.
With the trade deadline now passed, the Cubs will have to put Bote on waivers in the coming days. It’s unlikely that any club would claim him and take on the remainder of his contract. He’s making $5.5MM this year with still roughly $1.1MM left to be paid out. There’s also a $1MM buyout on a $7MM club option for 2025.
Bote is still shy of five years of service time, meaning he still doesn’t have the right to reject an outright assignment and keep all of his money. Assuming he passes through waivers unclaimed, he will presumably accept another outright assignment and provide the Cubs with depth in a non-roster capacity.
Padres Reinstate Yu Darvish From Restricted List
The Padres announced that right-hander Yu Darvish has been reinstated from the restricted list and will join the club tonight, though he has been returned to the 15-day injured list. Infielder Matthew Batten was designated for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot for him.
Darvish, 38, began his season strong. He made 11 starts through the end of May, allowing 3.20 earned runs per nine innings, but his campaign has been on pause since then. He landed on the 15-day injured list June 1, retroactive to May 31, due to a left groin strain. He was supposed to return on June 25 but then was sidelined by some inflammation in his throwing elbow.
On July 6, he was transferred to the restricted list due to an undisclosed family matter, with no details about that situation having been made public. Last week, it was reported that Darvish set up a live BP session at a high school, trying to keep himself somewhat ready even while he was away from the club and perhaps demonstrating that he had put his injuries behind him. Whatever the family situation was, it now seems it has been resolved enough for the veteran to turn his attentions back to baseball.
However, he may not immediately join the big league club, as he is still on the injured list. After so much down time, he will likely need some kind of rehab assignment to build back up. Still, the fact that he is back from the restricted list at least provides some clarity and some expectations to a situation that was previously difficult to predict.
The Padres just optioned struggling knuckleballer Matt Waldron, leaving them with a rotation consisting of Joe Musgrove, Dylan Cease, Michael King and Martín Pérez. Whenever Darvish is in game shape, he will jump back into that mix. Until then, the club may need to call upon Randy Vásquez or Jhony Brito to cover Waldron’s spot, or perhaps deploy a bullpen game or two.
Batten, 29, was added to the club’s roster in June of 2022. He has largely been on optional assignment in the two-plus years since then, having appeared in 59 big league games with 164 plate appearances. He has hit .239/.337/.345 in those for a wRC+ of 96. His minor league work has actually been worse, as he has hit .242/.333/.372 at Triple-A El Paso since the start of 2023. In the context of the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, that translates to a wRC+ of 75.
He is in his final option year and will be out of options by next season. With the trade deadline having passed, the Friars will have to place him on waivers in the coming days. Despite the lack of offense, some club may be attracted to his other attributes. He has racked up double-digit steal totals in each minor league season since 2021 and has played every position on the diamond except catcher, including some mop-up duty on the mound. He has less than a year of service time and therefore could potentially be retained for six seasons beyond this one.
Red Sox Select Joely Rodríguez
The Red Sox announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Joely Rodríguez. Right-hander Greg Weissert was optioned to Triple-A Worcester in a corresponding active roster move. To open a 40-man roster spot, lefty James Paxton was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic was among those to relay the moves on X.
Rodríguez, 32, signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox in the offseason. He cracked their Opening Day roster but didn’t post strong results initially. He made 11 appearances for the club with a 6.55 earned run average, the same numbers he had in limited time with them last year.
He was designated for assignment at the end of April and accepted an outright assignment after clearing waivers. He then spent about six weeks on the minor league injured list from the middle of May until late June. That has left him with just 14 1/3 Triple-A innings pitched this year, but with a strong 1.88 ERA. There’s likely a good deal of fortune in there, based on his .175 batting average on balls in play in that small sample. His 20.6% strikeout rate and 12.7% walk rate in that time were subpar, though he did get grounders at a strong 52.6% clip.
Those rate stats aren’t too far off of his major league track record. In 168 innings dating back to his 2016 debut, he has a 4.82 ERA, 22.8% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 55.7% ground ball rate. He’ll give the club a second lefty in the bullpen alongside Brennan Bernardino. He is out of options but can be retained beyond this season via arbitration if he holds onto his roster spot through the end of the year.
As for Paxton, it’s not a surprise to see him moved to the 60-day IL. He suffered a partially torn right calf muscle last week and manager Alex Cora said it was unlikely that the lefty would be able to return this year. He’s now officially ineligible to be reinstated until the second week of October. Unless the Sox make a deep playoff run and he heals up in the next two months, his season is over.
Rockies Select Luis Peralta
The Rockies announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Luis Peralta. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Tanner Gordon to Triple-A Albuquerque and transferred righty Germán Márquez to the 60-day injured list.
Peralta, 23, was just acquired from the Pirates last month in the Jalen Beeks trade. The younger brother of Brewers ace Freddy Peralta, Luis signed with the Pirates out of the Dominican Republic in 2017. He came up as a starter but has been moved into a relief role this year, with some encouraging results.
He has pitched at High-A, Double-A and Triple-A this year between his two organizations. Between all those different stops, he has logged 47 2/3 innings while only allowing five earned runs for a tiny ERA of 0.94. His 11.2% walk rate in that time is a bit high but he’s worked around that by striking out 40.1% of batters that have stepped to the plate.
He was going to be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter and was likely going to get a roster spot in a few months’ time anyway, so the Rockies are jumping the gun and adding him now, which will allow them to get a look at him against major league hitters for a few weeks.
Gordon had been working out of the club’s rotation, so they will now have a hole there behind Cal Quantrill, Kyle Freeland, Austin Gomber and Bradley Blalock. Right-hander Ryan Feltner landed on the 15-day IL on August 8 due to a right shoulder strain but could perhaps be coming back. Patrick Lyons of Just Baseball relayed on X last week that Feltner’s MRI came back clean and he could be back after something close to a minimal stint. He made a rehab appearance for Triple-A Albuquerque on Wednesday.
As for Marquez, it was reported a couple of weeks ago that he won’t be coming back this year due to some elbow inflammation, so this transfer to the 60-day IL was an inevitable formality. He’ll be on the 60-day IL for the rest of the year but will need to be reinstated in the days following the World Series, as the IL goes away until Spring Training.
Reds Place Andrew Abbott On Injured List Due To Shoulder Strain
The Reds announced that left-hander Andrew Abbott has been placed on the 15-day injured list, retroactive to August 20, due to a left shoulder strain. Right-hander Alan Busenitz has been selected to take his place on the roster. To open a 40-man spot for Busenitz, catcher Austin Wynns has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.
At this point, the club hasn’t provided any information on when Abbott suffered the injury or how long they expect him to be out. He last took the ball on Sunday, tossing 83 pitches over five innings. His velocity was down a bit, per Statcast, with his fastball averaging 91.6 miles per hour. He was at 92.6 mph the previous start, perhaps indicating he wasn’t 100% last time out.
Regardless, it’s an unfortunate development for the Reds and their rotation. Abbott has been a mainstay this year, with a 3.72 ERA over his 25 starts on the season. Him and Hunter Greene are the two team leaders in innings but Greene landed on the IL last week due to elbow soreness. With Abbott now joining Greene on the IL, the club is without the two pillars of their rotation. That’s on top of Graham Ashcraft and Brandon Williamson, who are also on the IL.
Absences have been a key storyline for the Reds this year. In addition to those pitching issues, their position player mix currently has Wynns, Jeimer Candelario, Jake Fraley, Christian Encarnacion-Strand, Matt McLain and Nick Martini on the IL. They also didn’t have Noelvi Marté for the first 80 games of the year due to a PED suspension, lost TJ Friedl to the IL for a while, amid other issues.
Despite those challenges, the club is 63-64 and hanging in the playoff race. They are currently five games back of Atlanta for the final postseason spot in the National League, but staying afloat will be more challenging with the rotation in such trouble. Abbott was the scheduled starter today, so the club may have to do some kind of bullpen game, then proceed with a rotation consisting of Nick Lodolo, Nick Martinez, Carson Spiers and Julian Aguiar. Spiers and Martinez are swingmen who have moved into rotation roles due to injuries while Aguiar was just called up and has one major league start to his name.
The club has an off-day on Monday but then plays eight games in seven days thanks to a double-header next Friday, meaning they may have to call upon some depth. Lyon Richardson is on the 40-man roster but has been pitching in relief lately. Connor Phillips has a 9.92 ERA in Triple-A this year and just returned from a two-month stint at the club’s spring complex trying to get back on track. Prospect Rhett Lowder is at Triple-A but was just promoted there and has only one start at that level. Justus Sheffield is around in a non-roster capacity but has a 6.88 ERA in Triple-A this year.
For now, Busenitz will give the club a fresh arm for their bullpen. He signed a minor league deal with the club in January and has logged 55 innings over 40 Triple-A appearances this year. He has a 3.93 ERA in that time, along with a 22.3% strikeout rate and 7.9% walk rate. He is out of options and can’t be sent back down to the minors without first being exposed to waivers.
Wynns landed on the 10-day IL at the end of July due to a lat strain. It seems the club isn’t expecting him back any time soon, as he’s now ineligible to return until the final days of the regular season.