Phillies To Promote Henderson Alvarez
The Phillies are set to promote right-handed starter Henderson Alvarez to the major-league level, according to Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports. The Phillies have an open spot on the 40-man roster, so the organization will not need to make a corresponding roster move.
It’s been a complicated road back to the majors for Alvarez, who last appeared at the MLB level with the Marlins in 2015. His season was cut short that year due to right shoulder surgery in July, and the Marlins non-tendered him in the offseason. The Athletics signed him to a major-league deal in that December, but he never made the major-league club and ended up back on the disabled list, ultimately undergoing a second shoulder surgery in September of 2016.
After being unable to find a major-league deal for the 2017 season, he decided to showcase his talents by pitching for the Long Island Ducks in independent ball. The Phillies elected to sign him to a minor-league contract, assigning him to Triple-A LeHigh Valley to pitch for the Iron Pigs. It’s unclear when he will pitch for the Phillies, but with Mark Leiter Jr., Jake Thompson and Nick Pivetta struggling of late, it seems likely that he will get a chance to start at some point before the season is over.
Alvarez’s greatest success came with the Marlins between the 2013 and 2014 seasons. During that time, he pitched to a sparkling 2.98 ERA with a 3.71 xFIP and 53.7% ground ball rate across 289 2/3 innings. He etched his place in history on September 29th, 2013 when he threw a no-hitter against the Tigers. Alvarez even made the NL All-Star team in 2014.
Alvarez will fall short of the service time required to be a free agent, so if he pitches well, the Phillies will be able to retain him for another year through arbitration.
Phillies Claim Zac Curtis
The Mariners have announced that recently-designated left-hander Zac Curtis has been claimed by the Phillies. The Mariners also announced that right-hander Ryan Weber has been outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma.
Curtis, 25, is best known for being part of the package the Diamondbacks sent along with shortstop Jean Segura in order to land Taijuan Walker from the Mariners. He did not allow an earned run in 4 2/3 innings at the major-league level this year and enjoyed some success with the Mariners’ Double-A affiliate, pitching to a 10.52 K/9 and 3.33 BB/9 with a 3.51 ERA in 51 1/3 innings. With two options and plenty of team control remaining, Curtis could be a nice cog in Philadelphia’s current rebuild.
Weber was recently set to come off the 60-day DL. He’ll remain with the organization for now, but will have to work his way back to the majors. Before missing the past three months with a right biceps strain, Weber had pitched to a 0.85 ERA spanning five starts with the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers. Though he didn’t show a penchant for strikeouts with the Rainiers (5.40 K/9), he showed excellent ground ball-inducing skills (72.5 GB%).
NL Notes: Mets, Phillies, Giants, Dodgers
Infielder Jose Reyes told reporters on Friday that he’d like to finish his career with the Mets, but it doesn’t appear the team will re-sign the impending free agent. Mets officials are “lukewarm” about bringing back the 34-year-old, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post, while Marc Carig of Newsday adds (on Twitter) that he’s unlikely to be in their plans next season. Reyes’ fate with the Mets could ultimately hinge on whether they exercise fellow veteran infielder Asdrubal Cabrera‘s $8.5MM option (or buy him out for $2.5MM), writes Puma, who notes that Reyes is immensely popular in their clubhouse. Along with his behind-the-scenes presence, including his close relationship with Amed Rosario, Reyes has recovered from a subpar first half to provide a .288/.355/.468 batting line in 155 post-All-Star break plate appearances to make his case for another Mets contract. He signed his current deal last summer after serving a domestic violence suspension as a member of the Rockies, who released him.
More from the National League:
- Phillies general manager Matt Klentak indicated Friday that he’ll emphasize acquiring pitching in the offseason, leading Todd Zolecki of MLB.com to suggest that the team could deal from its logjam of infielders for help in that area. That could mean moving struggling third baseman Maikel Franco, though Klentak still has a high opinion of the 25-year-old. “I absolutely believe in Maikel Franco’s future,” Klentak said. “I think there’s too much talent there. He has the bat speed, the strength, his defense has taken a step forward. All the components are there for Maikel to still be a really good player. I know his numbers right now aren’t what a lot of people expected or hoped, but we still believe strongly in his future.” Despite Klentak’s vote of confidence, Franco simply hasn’t given the Phillies much in the way of results since what looked like a breakout rookie year in 2015. This season has been particularly ugly for Franco, who has slashed a weak .224/.279/.392 and accounted for minus-0.7 fWAR in 559 trips to the plate.
- Giants first baseman Brandon Belt has been out since Aug. 4 on account of a concussion, and the likelihood is that he won’t return this season, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. While Belt has suffered four documented concussions during his career and is still having vision problems related to his latest brain injury, doctors have informed him he’ll make a full recovery. As such, the 29-year-old Belt insists his career isn’t in jeopardy. “It’s not like I’m repeatedly banging my head against something,” Belt told Pavlovic. “If that was the case, it might affect me more in the long term. This is more sporadic and the hits aren’t too terrible. Once I get over these concussions, they tell me that I won’t have to worry about them anymore.”
- The Dodgers have shut down reliever Adam Liberatore and outfielder Franklin Gutierrez for the season, Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times tweets. A left elbow strain limited Liberatore to just four innings this year and has kept him from taking a major league mound since May 30. Gutierrez, meanwhile, has been on the shelf since June 25 with arthritis in his spine. He was on the disabled list earlier in the year with a hamstring strain, making this another injury-marred campaign for someone who hasn’t played 100 games in a season since 2010. After reviving his career in Seattle from 2015-16, the Dodgers inked Gutierrez to a $2.6MM contract over the winter, but the 34-year-old hit just .232/.317/.389 in 63 PAs this season.
NL Central Notes: Nicasio, Baez, Cards’ Outfield
The National League Central division race is the only one in baseball with at least three teams within five games of first place. As we watch to see how things shake out down the stretch, here’s the latest:
- There are a few more details available on the strange circumstances that led to the Cardinals acquiring reliever Juan Nicasio from the Phillies earlier today– but without the ability to utilize him in the postseason. A team other than the Cards won the claim for Nicasio when the Pirates put him on trade waivers in August (only to pull him back when no deal was reached), per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). Rather, it may actually have been yet another NL Central rival — the Cubs — that had the highest-priority claim on Nicasio last month, per Elizabeth Bloom of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — which would mean the Cards bypassed a shot at adding him at that time. In any event, St. Louis did place a successful claim this time around, when the Phillies ran him through trade waivers after acquiring him via outright waivers on the last day of August, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets.
- Javier Baez‘s elevated play in the place of the injured Addison Russell has been a boon for the Cubs, writes ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers. Manager Joe Maddon feels that Baez’s status as a part-time player earlier in his career has been to his benefit. “If he had [played 30 games in a row] two years ago, he would have buried himself,” the skipper tells Rogers. “…I don’t think he would have made the same adjustments at the plate. You would have seen a lot more mistakes on defense. … You would not have seen the same baserunning.” Since taking over as the starting shortstop, Baez is hitting .292/.350/.522 with seven homers — albeit with a 28% strikeout rate (par for the course for the free-swinger) and a .366 BABIP (which isn’t entirely sustainable). Eventually, Chicago will have to sort out playing time for both Russell and Baez, though that likely falls into the “good problem to have” category for the Cubs.
- Looking further out into the future for the Cardinals, the team faces a potentially interesting slate of questions — and possibilities — involving its outfield in the coming offseason. As Jesus Ortiz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes, picking and choosing between the many existing options carries plenty of risk, but also perhaps could open some intriguing avenues to shoring up other needs. “The question is balancing future projection on performance relative to playing time,” says president of baseball operations John Mozeliak. “Clearly you’ve seen some exciting things from really everybody involved. But at some point we’re going to have to decide who we think our top three outfielders are.” While players such as Harrison Bader, Jose Martinez, and Magneuris Sierra don’t have much experience, all occupy 40-man spots and are arguably ready for a full shot at the majors. Tyler O’Neill is pushing for his own opportunity and will need to be added to the MLB roster. With high-priced free agent Dexter Fowler and breakout star Tommy Pham seemingly unlikely to go anywhere, that could leave the Cards considering deals involving still-youthful, former top prospects Randal Grichuk and Stephen Piscotty.
Cardinals Acquire Juan Nicasio
The Phillies announced that they have traded right-hander Juan Nicasio to the Cardinals in exchange for minor league infielder Eliezer Alvarez. Philadelphia had recently claimed Nicasio off outright waivers from the Pirates. Nicasio will give the Cardinals’ bullpen a boost, though since he’s been acquired after Aug. 31, he won’t be eligible for the postseason roster if St. Louis qualifies. Nicasio is a free agent after the season.
Nicasio’s time with the Phillies will last all of a week, bringing to a close one of the more puzzling sequences in recent August trade history. The Pirates were unable to pass Nicasio through revocable trade waivers last month, ultimately pulling him back off waivers and placing him on outright waivers and instead losing him to the Phillies, who had top waiver priority, for nothing other than salary relief that amounted to roughly $600K.
The move was confusing enough that Pittsburgh GM Neal Huntington felt the need to explain the team’s rationale to the media. Per Huntington, Nicasio was claimed by a “playoff-caliber” team on trade waivers — it’s not clear if that Cardinals were that club, though it’d make sense — and the Bucs opted to place him on outright waivers in hopes of getting him to an AL contender rather than helping a “direct competitor.” (Trade waivers are league-specific, whereas outright waiver priority ignores league and is solely determined in reverse order of MLB standings.)
Nicasio will ultimately end up with a direct competitor of the Pirates anyhow, though he won’t be able to pitch in the postseason. Moreover, the Phillies will make out extremely well in this deal, as Alvarez entered the season ranked 10th on Baseball America’s list of the Cardinals’ top 30 prospects. He currently ranks 19th among St. Louis farmhands in the eyes of Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com. In essence, the Phillies were able to claim a Cardinals prospect off waivers, which ultimately cost them about $138K in terms of salary (the pro-rated portion of Nicasio’s week-long tenure with the team).
For the Cardinals, Nicasio immediately becomes one of their best relievers. Through 61 1/3 innings, Nicasio has averaged 8.95 K/9, 2.64 BB/9 and a 46.9 percent ground-ball rate en route to an excellent 2.79 ERA. The 31-year-old has averaged a career-best 95.4 mph on his heater in 2017 and is sporting a 10.7 percent swinging-strike rate that would rank third among current St. Louis relievers (not including the injured Trevor Rosenthal, who led the team’s bullpen in that regard).
Alvarez, 23 next month, has spent the season with St. Louis’ Double-A affiliate, hitting .247/.321/.382 with four homers and eight steals (in 11 tries). Those numbers don’t immediately stand out, though it’s worth noting that Alvarez skipped Class-A Advanced entirely and was considerably younger than the league average in Double-A.
Callis and Mayo note in their free scouting report that Alvarez has a line-drive approach with a knack for making hard contact and could eventually grow into more power. He’s an above-average runner and could profile as a regular at second base down the line if everything breaks right for him. Alvarez was added to the Cardinals’ 40-man roster last winter to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft, so he’ll go onto the Phillies’ 40-man roster and fill the spot that was vacated by trading Nicasio.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
NL Injury Notes: Imhof, Goldschmidt, Ahmed, Carpenter, Fedde
Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer sat down with former Phillies pitching prospect Matt Imhof to discuss the tragic accident that derailed his once-promising career and left him without his right eye. His journey offers worthwhile lessons to everyone, especially those with a passion for baseball.
Here are the latest updates on injury situations from around the National League:
- The Diamondbacks are awaiting the results of an MRI on the right elbow of star first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, as Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic writes. Goldschmidt himself suggests he’s not too concerned about the discomfort he has experienced in the joint — he describes it as tightness that recedes once he has loosened up — though the team is surely wise to take a proactive approach with such a key player.
- Meanwhile, Diamondbacks infielder Nick Ahmed will undergo surgery after suffering a fractured wrist, as MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert tweets. Odds are, then, that he’s done for the year after twice suffering broken bones on pitched balls. The 27-year-old will qualify for arbitration this fall, though his injury-shortened season and lack of offensive output will tamp down on his earning power quite a bit. In just over three hundred total major league games, Ahmed has established himself as a quality defender but owns only a .226/.273/.345 batting line with twenty home runs.
- The Cardinals are dealing with a few position-player injuries, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. Infielder Matt Carpenter will likely undergo an MRI and may also require an injection to deal with ongoing shoulder issues. It seems those problems have nagged Carpenter all season long, though it became a particular problem during yesterday’s contest and may now require some rest. Outfielder Tommy Pham is also dealing with some shoulder difficulties, though he’s not expected to miss time at this point.
- Nationals righty Erick Fedde will be shut down for the rest of the season after he was diagnosed with a strained flexor mass, as Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com reports. Though GM Mike Rizzo explained that the injury isn’t all that worrisome — the strain occurred away from the elbow joint, which is not damaged — the club decided the time was right to put its best pitching prospect on ice. Fedde, 24, is generally seen as the organization’s top pitching prospect, though he has gone through some struggles over the second half of this season since moving up to Triple-A and then on to the majors. Depending upon the club’s offseason moves, Fedde could challenge for a rotation or bullpen spot next spring.
Phillies To Promote J.P. Crawford
The Phillies will promote long-time top shortstop prospect J.P. Crawford, Tom Housenick of The Morning Call reports on Twitter. He will need a 40-man roster spot before he can be called up.
Crawford, 22, has been viewed as one of the game’s elite prospects for the past two or three years. While evaluators mostly forgave a less-than-inspiring run at Triple-A in 2016, though, they began to raise questions about Crawford’s outlook as he struggled there again this year.
On mid-season ranking lists, Crawford plummeted. He currently rates 60th on MLB.com’s listing and 92nd on Baseball America’s, while missing on a spot amongst the top fifty prospects named over the summer by ESPN.com’s Keith Law.
The change of heart seemingly motivated the former 16th overall draft pick, as Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote recently. Indeed, Crawford has been on a tear of late. In sixty games since the start of July, he’s slashing .284/.383/.533 with a dozen home runs. It’s especially promising to see the power coming for a player who is most known for his glovework and on-base/contact ability.
Philadelphia will hope that Crawford can maintain that momentum with him to the majors. It’ll be interesting to see how he’s utilized upon his arrival. Freddy Galvis has moved around of late, opening some daylight at shortstop, though Crawford himself has spent some time appearing at other positions. Ultimately, the organization surely hopes that Crawford will take over everyday duties at short, so he’ll likely have an opportunity to stake a claim that job at some point.
Minor MLB Transactions: 9/3/17
Sunday’s minor moves from around baseball:
- The Indians have signed 16-year-old Cuban right-hander Roberto Hernandez to a deal with a $320K bonus, Baseball America’s Ben Badler reports. Hernandez wasn’t included within MLB.com’s top 30 or BA’s top 50 rankings of 2017-18 international prospects, though Badler describes the righty as “one of the better” arms available in the July 2 class. Cleveland had an international spending pool of $5.75MM to work with in this signing period, and $3.825MM has already been accounted for by the team’s signings of youngsters George Valera, Aaron Bracho, Jose Tena and Wilfi Peralta.
Earlier moves
- The Phillies announced that they have outrighted first baseman Brock Stassi to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Stassi lost his spot on the Phillies’ 40-man roster when they claimed reliever Juan Nicasio off waivers from the Pirates on Thursday. Prior to his designation for assignment, the 28-year-old Stassi batted just .167/.278/.295 in his first major league action (90 plate appearances). Stassi has been better – albeit not great – at Triple-A this year, having hit .256/.328/.354 in 186 PAs.
- The Rangers have outrighted right-hander Anthony Bass to Triple-A Round Rock, executive vice president of communications John Blake tweets. Texas designated Bass on Thursday when it acquired righty Miguel Gonzalez from the White Sox. Bass’ most recent extensive big league action came during a 64-inning campaign with the Rangers in 2015, when he pitched to a 4.50 ERA. He has made two appearances with the Rangers this season, but his work has otherwise come at Triple-A, where the 29-year-old has put up a 4.18 ERA with 10.39 K/9 and 3.35 BB/9 in 75 1/3 frames.
Phillies Claim Kevin Siegrist From Cardinals
The Phillies have announced that they’ve claimed lefty Kevin Siegrist from the Cardinals. The Cards designated Siegrist for assignment on Thursday as they activated him from a stint he spent on the DL with forearm tendinitis. To clear space on their 40-man roster, the Phillies have transferred righty Jerad Eickhoff (hand) to the 60-day DL.
Siegrist was a key reliever for the Cardinals in 2015 and 2016, when he combined for a 2.44 ERA, 10.3 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 over 136 1/3 innings. This season, though, he’s dealt with a neck injury in addition to the forearm problem, and he’s posted a 4.98 ERA, 9.4 K/9 and 5.2 BB/9 over 34 1/3 innings. He’s also dealt with somewhat diminished velocity, with his mid-90s heater dipping more into the 92-93 MPH range.
Siegrist is, however, eligible for arbitration for two more seasons after this one and he’s making a modest $1.64MM this year. Assuming he’s able to come back healthy, the Phillies can use the rest of the season to get a read on him, then decide if they want to keep him in their bullpen as a relatively cheap addition for 2018. The Phillies, despite not contending this season, have also already shown somewhat of a willingness to take on short-term veteran bullpen upgrades, having also recently added Juan Nicasio on a waiver claim.
Phillies Release Casey Fien
The Phillies announced that they’ve released veteran right-hander Casey Fien.
Fien, 33, had been on the 60-day disabled list due to an impingement in his right shoulder and would’ve required a 40-man roster spot in the month of September upon his activation from the DL. Instead, the Phils will cut him loose and use that slot to look at other options in the season’s final month.
Philadelphia acquired Fien from Seattle back in early May, but Fien didn’t log much time in the Majors for either the Phillies or the Mariners this year. In a total of 12 innings, he was tattooed for 17 runs on 23 hits and six walks with 10 strikeouts.
Fien had a nice run with the Twins from 2012-15, pitching to a 3.54 ERA with 7.9 K/9 against 1.6 BB/9 in 223 2/3 innings, but he’s now struggled to a 7.19 ERA with the Twins, Dodgers, Mariners and Phillies over the past two seasons. If he’s healthy, though, he’ll likely find some minor league offers this winter, which would afford him the opportunity to break camp with a big league club in Spring Training next year.