Nick Ahmed Elects Free Agency
Nick Ahmed elected free agency after going unclaimed on outright waivers, per the transaction log at MLB.com. The Dodgers had designated the veteran shortstop for assignment on Monday.
Ahmed signed with the Dodgers a month ago. With Mookie Betts and Miguel Rojas out at the time, Los Angeles added Ahmed directly onto the major league roster. The defensive stalwart started 14 games at shortstop. He continued to provide defensive value but didn’t produce much offensively. While Ahmed hit a go-ahead home run to help beat the Giants (his former team) early in his Dodger tenure, he ultimately hit just .229/.245/.292 in 49 trips to the plate.
Between San Francisco and L.A., Ahmed carries a .232/.271/.300 batting line through 221 plate appearances. While he has never been a huge offensive threat, Ahmed has particularly struggled at the dish over the last two seasons. The two-time Gold Glove winner remains a strong defender, but the lack of firepower at the plate has squeezed him off a trio of rosters within the past two seasons. The Dodgers have welcomed Betts and Rojas back in recent weeks. Even with Betts returning to the outfield, they were comfortable enough with their infield depth to waive deadline pickup Amed Rosario after five games.
Ahmed is now free to look for a third team of the ’24 season. If he signs elsewhere before September 1, he’d be eligible for postseason play with another club.
Padres Option Matt Waldron
The Padres optioned starter Matt Waldron to Triple-A El Paso. San Diego recalled reliever Logan Gillaspie to step into the bullpen before tonight’s series opener with the Mets.
Waldron, MLB’s lone knuckleballer, has held a rotation spot all year. He has made 26 starts and is second on the team behind Dylan Cease with 142 2/3 innings. His 4.79 ERA belies decent peripherals. Waldron has a roughly average 21.6% strikeout percentage and has kept his walk rate to a tidy 6.6% clip. Hitters have generally had a tough time making hard contact against him. An abnormally low 67.1% left on base rate is the biggest factor in Waldron allowing nearly five earned runs per nine. ERA estimators like FIP and SIERA suggest his peripherals should point to an ERA in the low-4.00s.
Things have gone downhill over Waldron’s last few starts. He carried a 3.71 ERA into the All-Star Break. He has given up exactly eight earned runs per nine innings in 36 frames during the second half. Waldron has surrendered five-plus runs in four of his last five starts. The Twins blitzed him for 12 hits and 10 runs in 4 1/3 innings last night.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that the assignment is about giving Waldron some rest before the stretch run. While it’s possible that fatigue has played a role in the righty’s recent struggles, Waldron isn’t too far beyond last year’s innings total. He combined for 133 2/3 frames between the majors and Triple-A a season ago. There seems to be something amiss with his recent skid, so the Padres will give him at least a couple weeks away from big league hitters. A pitcher cannot be recalled from an optional assignment for at least 15 days unless he’s replacing another pitcher who is going on the injured list.
San Diego doesn’t have an off day until September 3. They’ve got a handful of rest days built into their September schedule but will need a full rotation for the next two weeks. The Friars have Cease, Michael King, Joe Musgrove and Martín Pérez in their rotation for now. There’s still not much clarity on whether Yu Darvish will be able to return from the family matter to which he’s attending. Randy Vásquez is the top depth arm on the 40-man roster. He has a 4.63 ERA over 17 major league starts this year and has been hit extremely hard (8.78 ERA) in the Pacific Coast League.
The demotion shouldn’t have much impact on Waldron from a service time perspective. He entered the year with 54 days of MLB service and has already topped the necessary 118 days on the active roster to surpass the one-year service mark in 2024.
What Might It Cost To Extend Garrett Crochet?
Despite months of trade speculation, Garrett Crochet was not moved at the deadline. His contract status seemed to be a big reason. A few days before the deadline, Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that Crochet sought an extension if he was going to pitch in the postseason. Whether he'd simply have refused to play in October if he landed with a contender isn't clear. Crochet didn't have the leverage to force a team to sign him long term.
At the same time, Crochet's stance complicated the White Sox's efforts to find a package they felt worthwhile. GM Chris Getz seemed taken aback by the public revelation of Crochet's extension desire (link via Scott Merkin of MLB.com). While Getz maintained that the relationship between the player and team was still strong, he said the manner in which the situation was addressed was "a bit hurtful ... considering I felt like we could have handled it a little bit differently."
The Sox continued to discuss Crochet right up to the July 30 deadline. No deal came together. Only the White Sox know whether that's because of the extension hold-up. In any case, he'll finish out the year in Chicago. Crochet could be the most popular trade candidate of the upcoming offseason. The Sox are very unlikely to be competitive in the next two seasons. Chicago should try to move Crochet this winter.
Maybe they won't need to make progress on an extension to do so. Crochet's desire for a long-term deal was tied to his workload reaching a level which he'd never approached in college or the minor leagues. His camp was worried about his arm health if he pitched into October. That's not happening with the White Sox, who can pull back on his workload in an effort to keep him on the field. They're already doing so. Crochet hasn't thrown more than four innings in a game since the start of July. That's generally not a performance question but a clear goal to avoid stressing his arm. Chicago pulled him yesterday after 57 pitches and four innings of one-run ball with four strikeouts.
Even if an extension isn't an absolute necessity to facilitate a trade, Crochet is presumably still amenable to discussing a long-term contract. That's unlikely to come with the White Sox, who are at the nadir of a rebuild and have never guaranteed a player more than $75MM (the ill-fated Andrew Benintendi deal). If a contender wanted to extend Crochet -- either as a condition of a trade or simply after acquiring him -- what kind of price could it take?
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NPB Players Pushing For Earlier Free Agency
Just like their counterparts in Major League Baseball, the players in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball have various ongoing labor battles in the context of their league. Evan Drellich of The Athletic took an extensive look at some of the current discussion topics in a column published this morning.
Some of the battles involves things like endorsement rights but fans of MLB will likely be most interested to know that the players are fighting for earlier free agency, which could allow some of them to make the move to North America sooner.
As laid out by Drellich, NPB players have two different forms of free agency. A player can achieve domestic free agency after seven or eight years in the league, depending on whether the player was drafted out of high school or college. Unlocking that right gives a player the ability to sign with another NPB club. But getting full international free agency, allowing a player to sign with an MLB club, takes nine years.
The Japan Professional Baseball Players Association is trying to lower both of those numbers to six years, the same amount of service time that MLB players need for free agency. One source tells Drellich that the league was willing to offer a reduction in domestic free agency but not international free agency, though the full details of that offer aren’t publicly known.
NPB players are often made available to MLB clubs before those nine years are up via the posting system. Under that system, the player’s NPB club posts them for MLB clubs, opening a 45-day negotiating window. If a player signs with an MLB club in that time, the NPB club gets a posting fee, which is relative to the size of the contract the player got from the MLB club. Bigger deals naturally lead to bigger posting fees. In an extreme example, when the Dodgers signed Yoshinobu Yamamoto to a 12-year, $325MM deal this offseason, they also had to pay almost $51MM to the Orix Buffaloes, the NPB team that posted him.
Although Yamamoto was able to come over to the majors at the relatively young age of 25, other pitchers often have to wait longer. Shota Imanaga, for example, was just posted in the most recent offseason and signed with the Cubs. He had pitched in parts of eight NPB seasons through 2023 but still didn’t have full international free agency. He is now in his debut MLB season at the age of 30.
There’s also no guarantee that a player will be made available via the posting system. Kodai Senga had to reach full international free agency before coming to the majors because his NPB club, the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, has a team policy against posting their players. Senga signed with the Mets going into 2023, which was his age-30 season.
If the rules were to change, future players in a similar position to Imanaga or Senga could make the move to North America a few years earlier. That would increase their earning power in a couple of ways. Teams clearly value youth, as shown in the massive guarantee that Yamamoto got. Senga and Imanaga got $75MM and $53MM guarantees, respectively. Part of that may be due to the Dodgers valuing Yamamoto as more talented, but it’s also fair to assume that he wouldn’t have got as much money if he were heading into his age-30 season like Senga and Imanaga.
Beyond the age factor, if a player is able to reach full free agency at a young age, the lack of a posting fee could mean more money going directly to the player. The Cubs were willing to give Imanaga a $53MM guarantee but also paid $9.825MM to the Yokohama BayStars, his NPB club. Theoretically, that willingness to spend north of $60MM on Imanaga could have seen that amount of money go straight to him if he were a free agent, as opposed to the BayStars getting a big cut.
There’s nothing in Drellich’s article to suggest that changes are coming to the system that would affect younger players such as Roki Sasaki. Yamamoto was made available to MLB clubs just after turning 25, a notable age since that is when international players are no longer considered “amateurs” under MLB rules. Before turning 25, players are subject to the international bonus pool system, where each team gets roughly $4-8MM to spend on player bonuses. Broadly speaking, the small-market teams get bigger pools and the large-market clubs get smaller ones.
If a player wants to make the move before turning 25, they are therefore limited to a relatively modest bonus. For example, Shohei Ohtani left the NPB and signed with the Angels prior to his age-23 season. He received only a $2.3MM signing bonus at that time, obviously far less than what Yamamoto got by waiting until his 25th birthday.
Sasaki, who doesn’t turn 23 until November, may be in a similar boat to Ohtani. He turns 23 in November and there have been rumors that he may be posted this offseason. If that comes to pass, he would only be able to secure a small signing bonus of a few million bucks and there’s nothing to suggest that is changing.
Whether Sasaki is posted this winter or not is therefore another matter, but it could still be a notable change if it the JPBPA is successful in changing the free agency rules. In future, players as talented as Imanaga or Senga could have the chance to come over to Major League Baseball a few years earlier than under the current system, which could be a nice development both for those players and fans who want to see the best players competing against each other in North America.
It’s perhaps due to the constraints of the current system that another young Japanese player, Rintaro Sasaki, chose to play college ball in the United States rather than enter the NPB draft. While NPB clubs may not be excited about losing their control over players, they may also recognize that loosening the reins could reduce the chances of other players skipping the NPB entirely.
Whether the JPBPA will be successful remains to be seen. The system is not exactly analogous to the MLB-MLBPA dynamic. As laid out by Drellich, the collective bargaining agreement doesn’t have a set time limit like in North America, rather a rolling and ongoing negotiation. It’s also a complicated legal matter involving Japanese antitrust laws, with JPBPA set to file a challenge to the NPB’s reserve system at some point this year. Fans interested in getting into all the nitty-gritty details of the negotiations are encouraged to read the piece in full.
Reds Designate Brooks Kriske For Assignment
The Reds announced that they have signed first baseman Dominic Smith, a move that was previously reported. He takes the active roster spot of outfielder Jake Fraley, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right knee sprain, retroactive to August 21. To open a 40-man spot for Smith, the Reds have designated right-hander Brooks Kriske for assignment.
Kriske, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Reds in the offseason. He was selected to the roster June 17 but wasn’t put into that day’s game and was optioned after it ended. That means he’s been stuck in Triple-A all year, where his numbers have been solid. He has tossed 49 1/3 innings, allowing 3.10 earned runs per nine. His 14.8% walk rate is quite high but he has also punched out 36.7% of batters faced.
That’s not totally out of character for him. He has 21 2/3 major league innings with an 11.22 ERA in that small sample, striking out 24.3% of batters faced while walking 16.5%. In 108 minor league innings dating back to the start of 2021, he has a 3.92 ERA, 13.2% walk rate and 36.8% strikeout rate.
With the trade deadline now in the rear-view mirror, the Reds will have to place him on waivers in the coming days. The lack of control is obviously a concern but the big strikeout numbers are enticing. If any club puts in a claim, Kriske has less than a year of service time. He is in his final option year and will be out of options as of next season.
Dodgers Designate Jason Heyward For Assignment
The Dodgers announced that they have designated outfielder Jason Heyward for assignment. His roster spot will go to infielder/outfielder Chris Taylor, who has been activated from the injured list. Robert Murray of FanSided reported the Heyward DFA on X prior to the official announcement.
Heyward, 35, engineered a solid bounceback season with the Dodgers last year. After struggling with the Cubs for many years, he got into 124 contests with the Dodgers in 2023 and hit .269/.340/.473 for a wRC+ of 120. He also continued to get solid grades for his outfield glovework, mostly in right field but with some time in center as well.
He and the club reunited on a one-year, $9MM pact, though his results have tailed off a bit this season. He has had a couple of stints on the injured list, one due to lower back tightness and one due to a left knee bone bruise. Around those, he has hit .208/.289/.393 for a wRC+ of 91.
That is hardly disastrous production but the Dodger roster is strong enough that even decent players are getting squeezed off. The club acquired Amed Rosario at the deadline but he was nudged off the roster a couple of weeks later when Mookie Betts returned from his stint on the IL.
Speaking of Betts, his return to right field likely played a role in Heyward getting pushed out. Betts had started the year in the middle infield but it was decided to move him back to his customary right field position when he recently returned. The Dodgers acquired Kevin Kiermaier as a glove-first center fielder between the big bats of Betts and Teoscar Hernández in the corners.
The club has seemingly given a priority to flexibility in its bench spots. Guys like Taylor and Enrique Hernández aren’t having amazing seasons at the plate but are capable of playing all over the diamond. Tommy Edman, recently acquired from the Cardinals, has missed most of the season recovering from wrist surgery but can also bounce around to multiple different positions. Heyward can play a bit of center, as mentioned, but is mostly a corner guy with some lackluster results this year, so he is the odd one out.
With the trade deadline now passed, the Dodgers will have to put him on waivers in the coming days. Given his mediocre season and notable salary, it’s possible that he goes unclaimed. If that comes to pass, he has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment while keeping all of that salary on the table. Perhaps that will see him on the free agent market in the coming days.
If that comes to pass, the Dodgers would remain on the hook for what’s left of his salary. Heyward would then be free to sign with any other club, with that team only responsible for paying him the prorated version of the $740K league minimum for any time Heyward spends on the roster, which would be subtracted from what the Dodgers pay.
Assuming he signs elsewhere before September 1, he would be postseason eligible with his new club. He is likely to garner interest given the low-cost investment that would be required and his competent play. His offense has a bit a bit below par this year but was quite strong as recently as last year and his glovework is still solid. He would likely appeal to a club that’s weak against right-handed pitching, given his notable platoon splits. He’s hit .265/.350/.432 against righties for a 114 wRC+ in his career, whereas he has a line of .231/.301/.344 and 78 wRC+ without the platoon advantage.
Reds To Sign Dominic Smith
The Reds are signing first baseman Dominic Smith to a major league deal, per Jeff Passan of ESPN on X. He was released by the Red Sox earlier this week. Whenever the deal becomes official, the Reds will need to make a corresponding move or moves to get Smith onto their active and 40-man rosters.
Smith, 29, was signed by the Red Sox to replace an injured Triston Casas at first base. He was a solid but not outstanding fill-in for Boston. He got into 84 games and hit .237/.317/.390 for a wRC+ of 95. That indicates he was 5% worse than league average at the plate, hardly disastrous but also not great for a position that generally has high offensive expectations.
When Casas returned from the IL, the Sox designated him for assignment. As a veteran player, he had more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment, so the Sox skipped that formality and released him. He became a free agent, allowing him to now sign with the Reds.
The club in Cincinnati has been hovering around contention and clearly still considers themselves to be in it. Though they traded Frankie Montas to the Brewers at the deadline, among other moves, they also added first baseman Ty France from the Mariners. Since the deadline, they claimed infielder Amed Rosario off waivers from the Dodgers and have now brought Smith into the mix as well.
Adding France and now Smith is due to the first base spot taking a few hits this year. Jeimer Candelario recently landed on the injured list due to a toe fracture while Christian Encarnacion-Strand has been out for months due to wrist surgery. Spencer Steer can also play some first but he’s been in the outfield mix lately.
With France and Smith both on the roster, perhaps one will be at first base and the other in the designated hitter slot, but a platoon is also possible. Smith is a lefty and has a career .245/.311/.417 line and 98 wRC+ with the platoon advantage, along with a .254/.324/.367 line and 92 wRC+ without it. France is a righty with fairly neutral platoon splits in his career, though there’s a wider gap this year. He has slashed .244/.358/.389 against lefties in 2024 for a 122 wRC+, .221/.293/.362 against righties for a 90 wRC+.
The Reds are 5.5 games back of a Wild Card spot in the National League right now, but would have to leapfrog five different clubs to snag a spot. If they manage to succeed, Smith will be eligible for their postseason roster since he’s being signed prior to September 1.
Orioles Option Trevor Rogers, Designate Bruce Zimmermann
The Orioles announced a series of roster moves today. Infielder Emmanuel Rivera, recently claimed off waivers, has been added to the roster. They also selected the contract of right-hander Matt Bowman and recalled lefty Nick Vespi. To open spots for those three, they optioned left-hander Trevor Rogers, right-hander Colin Selby and infielder Liván Soto to Triple-A Norfolk. To open a 40-man spot for Bowman, lefty Bruce Zimmermann has been designated for assignment.
Just over three weeks ago, the Orioles acquired Rogers from the Marlins in a pre-deadline trade, sending youngsters Connor Norby and Kyle Stowers to Miami. The O’s have been having a strong season overall but keeping the rotation intact has been a challenge. All three of Kyle Bradish, John Means and Tyler Wells required surgery to address their respective ulnar collateral ligaments in their elbows earlier this year. To bolster the group, they added both Zach Eflin and Rogers prior to the deadline.
It was a buy-low situation with Rogers, who had posted a 2.64 earned run average with the Marlins in 2021 but struggled since. He dealt with various injuries in 2022 and finished that year with a 5.47 ERA. In 2023, he was only able to make four starts due to a left biceps strain and a partial tear in his right lat.
Here in 2024, he was healthy enough to stay on the mound, making 21 starts for the Fish prior to the deal. His velocity was down but the results were passable, as he had a 4.53 ERA in those 21 outings. A few days after the deal, the lefty said he had already received more analytical information relating to his pitch mix and mechanics than during his entire time with the Marlins, per Andy Kostka of the Baltimore Banner on X. Perhaps the O’s felt there was a path to getting Rogers back to his 2021 form via those analytics, or simply him getting healthier as he moved further away from his injuries.
It has not gone to plan so far, as Rogers hasn’t fared well in his first four starts with the O’s. He has allowed 15 earned runs in 19 innings, leading to a 7.11 ERA. His 13.3% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate are both well below league average and nowhere near his previous work.
It seems the O’s have decided that a reset in Triple-A is in order. Perhaps that will give him a chance to work on their suggested tweaks in a lower-stakes environment. He can still be retained via arbitration for two more seasons after this one, so they have some time to figure out a path forward. This isn’t a service time manipulation situation, as he already crossed four years of service time earlier this year.
Still, it’s obviously less than ideal for the club to be subtracting one of its key deadline pickups in the middle of a playoff race. The O’s are still in comfortable position with a 74-54 record, just half a game behind the Yankees in the East and currently possessing the top Wild Card spot. But the Royals and Twins are just 2.5 games back and the Red Sox trail the O’s by only six games, so nothing is set in stone with more than a month left to play.
The rotation continues to be an issue as now both Eflin and Grayson Rodriguez are on the injured list, Eflin due to some shoulder discomfort and Rodriguez due to a lat strain. With Rogers now intentionally removed from the mix, the rotation is now down to Corbin Burnes, Dean Kremer, Albert Suárez, Cole Irvin and Cade Povich. Burnes is great but there are plenty of questions with the others. Kremer and Irvin are essentially back-end guys, with the latter having been passed through waivers a few weeks ago, recently being added back to the roster. Suárez keeps putting up good numbers but is a 34-year-old journeyman who is in the majors for the first time since 2017. Povich has just nine major league starts and a 5.77 ERA in those.
Ideally, the club will be hoping to get Rodriguez and Eflin back for the end of the regular season and then the playoffs as well, but they will have to try to get by with this group for now. Perhaps Rogers can also work his way back into the mix with some quick adjustments in the minors, but he can’t be recalled for the next 15 days unless replacing someone going on the injured list.
Bowman, 33, was signed to a minor league deal a week ago. That pact contained an upward mobility clause today and an opt-out next week. It seems the O’s didn’t want him to get away or simply wanted to add some a fresh arm to their bullpen, so he’s been added to their roster today.
As soon as he gets into a game for the O’s, it will be his fourth club of the year, as he’s already suited up for the Twins, Diamondbacks and Mariners. Since he’s out of options, he’s continually been squeezed out of his opportunities. Whenever he has cleared waivers, he has elected free agency and signed a new deal with fresh opt-outs, seemingly having a strong preference for flexibility.
While bouncing around, he has thrown 15 major league innings with a 5.40 ERA, 15.2% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate and 46.8% ground ball rate. But he’s also thrown 33 2/3 Triple-A innings with a 1.87 ERA, 31.3% strikeout rate, 6.9% walk rate and grounders on more than half of the balls in play he’s allowed.
That minor league performance has seemingly led to plenty of interest around the league, with Baltimore being his latest stop. If he can perform like that at the major league level, he could be a nice asset for a Baltimore bullpen that hasn’t been strong this year. Their relief corps has a collective 4.18 ERA, putting them in the bottom third of the league. If things click, he can be retained beyond this season via arbitration, but based on the way his year has gone, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see him bouncing around again soon.
Zimmermann, 29, has been in the Orioles’ organization for more than six years now. He came over from Atlanta in the July 2018 trade that sent Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day the other way. He appeared in 38 games over the 2020-23 seasons, logging 158 1/3 innings with a 5.57 ERA, 18.1% strikeout rate, 5.2% walk rate and 41.1% ground ball rate.
He’s been on optional assignment for all of 2024 so far, having tossed 69 1/3 innings in the minors with a 4.41 ERA, 21.7% strikeout rate and 8.6% walk rate. With the trade deadline now passed, the O’s will have to put Zimmermann on waivers in the coming days.
This is his final option year, so he’ll be out of options next year. A claiming club could potentially stash him in the minors for the rest of this season but he would need an active roster spot by next year. He has less than two years of service time, so any claiming club could control him for five seasons beyond this one. If he were to pass through outright waivers unclaimed, he would stick with the O’s in a non-roster capacity.
Astros To Sign Héctor Neris
The Astros are signing right-hander Héctor Neris, reports Ari Alexander of KPRC 2 on X. The righty was released by the Cubs earlier this week. Assuming it’s a major league deal, the Astros will need to make corresponding moves to get the righty onto their active and 40-man rosters once the deal is made official.
Neris, 35, returns to an organization that he has had success with. After many successful years with the Phillies, Neris joined the Astros going into 2022. He signed a two-year, $17MM deal with a club option for 2024, though he could vest that into a player option based on the number of appearances he made for the club during the life of the contract.
Over those two years in Houston, Neris got into 141 regular season contests, allowing 2.69 earned runs per nine. He struck out 29.1% of batters faced and gave out walks at a 9% clip. He earned five saves and 56 holds in that time. He also made 15 postseason appearances over those two years, including eight in 2022 with a 1.50 ERA, helping Houston win its second World Series title.
By July of 2023, he had made his 110th regular-season appearance with the club, thus converting the club option into a player option. He eventually decided to turn that down, taking the $1MM buyout and returning to free agency, rather than agreeing to the $8.5MM salary.
He eventually signed with the Cubs for the 2024 season, a one-year, $9MM guarantee. Again, there was a club/player option provision, this time with a $9MM salary on the table for 2025. It would begin as a club option that could become a player option with 60 appearances or 45 games finished in 2024.
His time as a Cub was mixed. He made 46 appearances for them this year with a 3.89 ERA that doesn’t look too bad at first blush. However, his 23.5% strikeout rate and 13.3% walk rate were both significant drop-offs from his previous work. He managed to dance around those free passes a bit with a 76.9% strand rate that’s on the lucky side, perhaps why his 4.09 FIP and 4.36 SIERA were a bit worse than his ERA.
The Cubs decided to set him loose, releasing him earlier this week. That was likely a reflection of his diminished performance but also the Cubs not wanting him to unlock that player option. Since Neris was released and no club grabbed him off waivers, that option is now dead and won’t carry over to any new deal he signs.
Though he hasn’t been as crisp this year, it’s a sensible pickup for the Astros. For one thing, there’s no real financial cost. Because they released him, the Cubs are on the hook for the majority of his 2024 salary that is still to be paid out. The Astros only have to pay him the prorated version of the $740K league minimum salary for any time Neris spends on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Cubs pay.
The Astros have also taken a few hits in their bullpen. Kendall Graveman, Penn Murfee, Oliver Ortega and Bennett Sousa are all currently on the 60-day injured list, with each of them undergoing a significant surgery earlier this year. Righty Ryan Pressly also landed on the 15-day IL a few days ago due to a low back strain. There’s nothing to suggest Pressly is slated for a lengthy absence, but it’s another gap in the relief corps until he comes back.
Perhaps a return to a familiar environment can get Neris back on track after some wobbles this year. Even if that doesn’t quite come to pass, it’s a low-cost signing that lengthens the club’s depth for the stretch run and postseason.
The Opener: Cole, Series Preview, deGrom
As the 2024 regular season continues, here are three things we’ll be keeping an eye on around the baseball world throughout the day today:
1. Cole chasing #150 amid struggles:
When veteran right-hander Gerrit Cole takes at Yankee Stadium this afternoon, he’ll do so in search of the 150th win of his career. Should he earn the win for tonight’s game, he’ll become just the fourth active big leaguer to reach the milestone, joining Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, and Max Scherzer. He’s scheduled to take on the Guardians and youngster Gavin Williams (5.02 ERA) at 1:05pm local time this afternoon in his next bid to make that trio a quartet.
It would be a welcome source of positivity in the midst of what has been a very difficult season for Cole. The 33-year-old missed the first ten weeks of the season due to an elbow injury and hasn’t looked like the dominant ace who won the AL Cy Young award last season in ten starts since returning. Over 52 innings of work, Cole has a pedestrian 4.15 ERA with a 4.20 FIP to match. While his 26.8% remains excellent, the righty’s 7.1% walk rate is a tick higher than normal and he’s struggled badly in terms of keeping the ball in the park, with nine home runs allowed already this season.
2. Series Preview: Astros @ Orioles
In what could prove to be a preview of a playoff series, the Astros are set to visit the Orioles for a three-game set that starts today. The set begins amid what has been a difficult month of August in Baltimore, as the club has won just one series so far this month with a 9-10 record over that time. Those struggles have allowed the Yankees to reclaim a half-game lead in the AL East race, leaving the Orioles to enter the upcoming series with an eye toward regaining the momentum that previously propelled them to run down New York earlier this year.
Meanwhile, the Astros are on the upswing in recent weeks with a 12-6 record since the calendar flipped to August and a solid five-game lead over the Mariners in the AL West. A series win against Baltimore could not only help Houston pad its division lead but help them as they look to move further up the overall standings to secure a top-2 record in the AL and the accompanying bye through the Wild Card Series. The Astros will send right-hander Spencer Arrighetti (5.20 ERA) to the mound tonight opposite Baltimore ace Corbin Burnes (3.10 ERA), though the club has not yet announced who will take the ball opposite youngster Cade Povich (5.77 ERA) tomorrow or journeyman Albert Suarez (3.18 ERA) on Saturday.
3. deGrom to begin rehab assignment:
Jacob deGrom hasn’t pitched in an official game since last May, but that’s expected to change tonight with the start of his rehab assignment at Double-A. While Rangers manager Bruce Bochy didn’t commit to a specific day for deGrom’s rehab to begin, deGrom himself indicated that he expected to take the ball today. Whether he ultimately begins his rehab today or tomorrow, it’s surely a huge relief for the 36-year-old to be returning to the mound over a year after undergoing Tommy John surgery.
The Rangers’ postseason hopes are all but snuffed out at this late point in the schedule, but even so it will surely provide a huge boost to the club heading into 2025 if deGrom can return healthy and effective before season’s end. Often considered to be perhaps the best pitcher in the sport when healthy, the right-hander sports an incredible 2.08 ERA and 2.11 FIP dating all the way back to the 2018 season, when he won the first of two back-to-back NL Cy Young awards with the Mets. deGrom has struggled to stay on the field in recent years, with just 186 2/3 innings of work since the start of the 2021 season, but he’s been as dominant as ever in those limited innings with a 2.03 ERA and a mind-boggling 1.59 FIP in 32 starts.