NL Notes: Reds, Mets, Phillies
As a serviceable, affordable free agent-to-be who’s on a rebuilding team, Reds right-hander Scott Feldman should theoretically be a trade candidate at this time of the year. But it’s possible the Reds will opt to keep Feldman as a way to benefit their other pitchers, according to Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Retaining Feldman would help the Reds avoid risking the arms and psyches of some of their young starters who might not be ready for the majors, suggests Buchanan, who notes that his presence also helps preserve the bullpen. Feldman has lasted at least six frames in eight of 17 starts, and he easily leads the Reds’ woeful rotation in innings (97) and ERA (3.78). He has also accounted for 1.6 fWAR, while the remainder of the Reds’ starters have combined for minus-2.8. “We are lucky to have him,” said manager Bryan Price. “To really look at our season and say what’s been the really one, from a rotational standpoint, the one constant, and it’s been the quality of Scott Feldman.”
More from Cincinnati and two other National League cities:
- The latest member of the Mets to hit the disabled list is outfielder Michael Conforto, who’s now on the shelf (retroactive to June 28) with a bruised left hand, per a team announcement. Conforto suffered the injury on a hit by pitch last Sunday and hasn’t played since, thus depriving the Mets of a player who has slashed an excellent .285/.405/.548 in 269 plate appearances this season. Right-hander Zack Wheeler took Conforto’s vacant roster spot. Wheeler’s back after going on the DL on June 21 with biceps tendinitis.
- The Reds’ first-round pick, right-hander Hunter Greene, will head to Cincinnati in the coming days to take a physical, reports Buchanan. That seems to bode well for the Reds’ chances of signing Greene, the second overall pick, by the July 7 deadline. The 17-year-old is likely seeking the richest deal in the 2017 class, relays Buchanan. So far, that honor belongs to No. 4 selection Brendan McKay, whom the Rays gave a record $7,007,500 earlier this week.
- Phillies outfielder/infielder Howie Kendrick, who went on the DL on Friday with an injured left hamstring, will probably miss longer than 10 days, writes Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com. Kendrick will undergo an MRI in Philadelphia during the upcoming week, and the team’s bigwigs are undoubtedly hoping nothing serious crops up to prevent them from fetching a decent return at the trade deadline for the impending free agent. President of baseball operations Andy MacPhail suggested Friday that there should be plenty of interest in the 33-year-old Kendrick, saying, “If I wanted a professional hitter, I sure wouldn’t have any pause.”
NL Notes: Phillies, Mets, Cards, Dodgers
While the Phillies will shop players with expiring contracts leading up to the trade deadline, team president Andy MacPhail also suggested Friday that general manager Matt Klentak would at least listen to offers for all of their big leaguers, writes Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. “He needs to keep a wide spectrum, wide horizon, and any opportunity that makes sense for us going forward, he should explore,” MacPhail said of Klentak. The Phillies own the majors’ worst record (26-52), but they’re not devoid of intriguing, controllable players who might pique teams’ interest in the next month. Outfielders Aaron Altherr and Odubel Herrera stand out in their group of position players, while Aaron Nola, Jerad Eickhoff, Vince Velasquez and Hector Neris are among their cheap pitchers who could be on clubs’ radars.
More from the National League:
- Mets third baseman David Wright is at least three to five weeks away from beginning baseball activities, GM Sandy Alderson told Anthony DiComo of MLB.com and other reporters Friday. A setback would likely end the 34-year-old Wright’s chances of playing this season, observes DiComo, which is the latest discouraging update regarding the longtime franchise cornerstone. Wright, who’s dealing with neck, shoulder and back issues, has appeared in just 75 games dating back to 2015 and hasn’t played since May of last year.
- Cardinals first baseman Matt Carpenter hasn’t seen any action at second base this year, but he did get some work at his former position before the Redbirds’ game on Friday, relays Jenifer Langosch of MLB.com. Langosch adds that moving Carpenter back to the keystone, at least temporarily, could lead to more opportunities for first baseman Luke Voit (via Twitter). Notably, St. Louis didn’t try this season earlier in the season when it couldn’t find at-bats for first baseman Matt Adams, whom it traded to the Braves in May for an insignificant return. Adams has since been one of the majors’ hottest hitters. In fairness to the Cardinals, though, second baseman Kolten Wong wasn’t on the disabled list at that point. Wong landed on the DL with an elbow strain the week after the Adams trade and won’t return until mid-July.
- A first baseman throughout his professional career, the Dodgers are considering turning Ike Davis into a pitcher, per Ken Gurnick of MLB.com. Pitching isn’t foreign to the 30-year-old Davis, who was an accomplished hurler in high school and went on to strike out 78 hitters in as many innings at Arizona State. Now struggling offensively at Triple-A this season (.206/.257/.381 in 70 plate appearances), Davis threw a bullpen session Friday, tweets Oklahoma City broadcaster Alex Freedman. Dodgers director of player development Gabe Kapler then commented, “We all know he’s an athlete, and we believe he might be able to provide value in many different areas.” Davis is best known for his 32-home run season with the Mets in 2012, though he hasn’t made much of an offensive impact in the majors or minors since then. Davis isn’t the first Triple-A position player the Dodgers have experimented with on the mound this year, as they’ve also tried outfielder Brett Eibner in that role. Unfortunately, though, the club had to shut down Eibner on account of a sore arm, according to Gurnick.
Deadline Notes: Turner, Phelps, Cards, Brewers, Phils
The Nationals don’t expect to go without shortstop Trea Turner for more than two months, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports on Twitter. As such, the report suggests, Washington doesn’t currently intend to pursue a replacement at the position. The Nats do have internal options, of course, in veteran Stephen Drew and youngster Wilmer Difo, who could make for a functional platoon pairing. And the team is still holding a sizable lead in the division, although there’s still time for that to change. Regardless of whether any other position players are ultimately pursued, the biggest need in D.C. remains in the bullpen.
- Elsewhere in the division, the Marlins are lining up to sell barring a sudden turnaround, with their relief corps looking to be an area of focus for rival organizations. Indeed, the Fish have already been contacted by half the teams in baseball about righty David Phelps, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweets. That may be due to the fact that the team just pushed to move the salary of shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria, perhaps leading other organizations to smell some blood in the water. Surely, though, Miami will wait to allow interest to build to maximize the return on Phelps, who has continued to pitch well after a breakout 2016 season.
- Cardinals chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. discussed his organization’s approach with the trade deadline coming, as Jose de Jesus Ortiz of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. DeWitt said he “never” believes it’s advisable to “go all in for a season and sacrifice the future.” Obviously, that applies now as the Cards find themselves in a somewhat strange position — not playing terribly well and way out of the Wild Card race, but still within range of the division lead. He did say its possible the team could “try to do something with a short-term asset to get a long-term asset” — if, that is, the Cardinals end up being “totally out of the race.” As newly minted president of baseball operations John Mozeliak noted, even if the Cardinals are in the thick of things, it’s not clear to what extent they’ll be buyers. “When I look at the future we have to embrace our farm system,” he said. “For us unless there was this one thing that we felt could change the outcome of our season, then I might look at it a little differently. But we haven’t been able to identify what that one thing might be.”
- Brewers owner Mark Attanasio also commented on his team’s state of affairs, and Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has the story. While Milwaukee has surprisingly managed to stay out in front in the NL Central, Attanasio says he has expressed to GM David Stearns and skipper Craig Counsell that “there would be no pressure from me to divert from the plan.” (That, of course, is a reference to the organization’s long-term vision to build a sustainable winner.) Attanasio suggested that Stearns’s sober decisionmaking process has bought him significant operation leeway, though surely that same fact will lead to a calculated approach to the deadline. Still, the owner acknowledged that he’s excited to see his team in first: “I’ll admit my expectations are higher. How could they not be?”
- In a lengthy chat with the media that’s well worth a full read, Phillies president Andy MacPhail addressed the frustrating first half of the year for his organization. (Via CSNPhilly.com.) Generally, he expressed an inclination to continue staying the course, noting that the team is focused on evaluating its internal options and has maintained a mostly open balance sheet for future campaigns. As regards the coming deadline, MacPhail suggested that righty Pat Neshek and outfielder/infielder Howie Kendrick ought to draw significant interest, saying that it will be GM Matt Klentak’s “job” to “find a motivated buyer” for Neshek, in particular. He also said the organization does not see any untouchable players in its system. Klentak’s boss said that the GM “needs to keep a wide spectrum, wide horizon and any opportunity that makes sense for us going forward, he should explore.”
Phillies To Place Howie Kendrick On DL, Promote Nick Williams
The Phillies are set to promote outfield prospect Nick Williams to the Majors, reports Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com (via Twitter). The move means that left fielder Howie Kendrick will land on the 10-day disabled list due to an injured left hamstring, tweets MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki.
Williams, 23, rated as a consensus top 100 prospect headed into the 2016 season but saw his stock dip following an awful year with Philadelphia’s Triple-A affiliate last year (.258/.287/.427, 26% strikeout rate). Those struggles dipped him off most prospect lists this season, though Baseball Prospectus still ranked him 51st headed into the year, and MLB.com currently rates him fourth among Phillies prospects.
Thus far in 2017, Williams has demonstrated a large number of the skills that made him such a touted prospect and a key piece to the 2015 Cole Hamels blockbuster, though there’s still some work to be done. Through 302 plate appearances, he’s hitting a much-improved .277/.326/.511 with 15 homers, 16 doubles and two triples. He’s upped his walk rate a bit, but the boost from 3.6 percent to a still-modest 5.3 percent and Williams’ actually elevated 29.8 percent strikeout rate still indicate room for improvement.
That said, Williams has the potential to provide power and speed with solid defense in an outfield corner for years to come if he can manage to refine his approach at the plate. Whether he remains on the roster to stay or is only up in the big leagues for a brief period is unclear, though certainly one would imagine that a strong first showing could force Williams into the mix with Kendrick on the shelf and veteran Michael Saunders now back with the Blue Jays organization following his release.
As for Kendrick, his second trip to the disabled list saps some of the trade value he’d built up over the past month. Kendrick missed roughly six weeks of the season with an abdominal injury, but he returned swinging a blazing bat. In 96 plate appearances following his most recent activation from the DL, Kendrick slashed a ridiculous .356/.406/.471 with a pair of homers, four doubles and seven stolen bases.
It remains to be seen how long he’ll miss, but the injury seems minor enough that he’ll be back with time to spare before the July 31 non-waiver deadline. However, with a pair of DL stints under his belt, roughly $4-5MM remaining on his contract and his status as a rental player, Kendrick doesn’t figure to fetch a premium return, even though a number of teams will be intrigued by the thought of adding a well-respected veteran with some defensive versatility.
NL East Notes: Bartolo, Kendrick, Nationals
The Mets will at least consider a reunion with 44-year-old righty Bartolo Colon following yesterday’s DFA by the Braves, reports MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (Twitter link). They are, however, understandably wary of his poor performance in Atlanta. Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News spoke to one Mets person who expressed some intrigue regarding the possibility of once again pairing Colon with pitching coach Dan Warthen to see if Colon could succeed in a bullpen role in New York. And, as Ackert points out, the additional depth would hardly be a bad thing for a Mets pitching staff that has been decimated by injury.
Elsewhere in the NL East…
- The Phillies could be facing a trip to the disabled list for Howie Kendrick, writes CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury. Kendrick has been bothered lately by a sore hamstring, and while he was in the lineup as a DH on Tuesday this week, he told manager Pete Mackanin that he didn’t feel good enough to go on Wednesday. Mackanin acknowledged that the Phils have to consider a DL stint for Kendrick, which would be a disappointing development for the organization, as Kendrick’s hot bat has elevated his trade candidacy since returning from a lengthy six-week stint on the DL earlier this year. Salisbury wonders whether the Phils would bring up a prospect such as Nick Williams or Dylan Cozens and give him regular playing time in lieu of Kendrick, though that suggestion appears to be made somewhat speculatively.
- Although the Nationals have a well-documented need for bullpen upgrades, sorting out the roster in the wake of a move won’t be as easy as one would imagine, writes Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post. Ownership typically doesn’t love the notion of adding significant contracts midseason in the first place, she writes, and the concept of adding a reliever and then cutting a player already on a relatively significant deal (e.g. Joe Blanton) may not be appealing to the Lerner family — especially if it meant acquiring another significant contract. Janes runs down a list of virtually every relief option on the roster, noting that the team’s best-performing relievers (Matt Albers, Enny Romero) are among the most affordable options. Despite Shawn Kelley‘s struggles, Janes writes, he’s a well-liked clubhouse presence that is under contract through 2018, and it’s unlikely that the Nats would simply eat the rest of his contract to free up a roster spot.
NL Notes: Phillies, Marlins, Cards, Rox, Cubs
The last-place Phillies will be open for business at the trade deadline, reports Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. While free agents-to-be like Pat Neshek, Howie Kendrick, Jeremy Hellickson, Joaquin Benoit and Daniel Nava stand out as obvious trade candidates, Zolecki suggests that the Phillies could also listen to offers for some controllable players. That list includes first baseman Tommy Joseph, injured second baseman Cesar Hernandez and shortstop Freddy Galvis. Joseph is currently on a minimum salary and won’t even be eligible for arbitration until 2020, but moving him would enable the Phillies to open up first base for prospect Rhys Hoskins, who’s destroying Triple-A pitching. Hernandez, meanwhile, is on a $2.55MM salary and has three arbitration-eligible years remaining. However, he’s blocking another hot-hitting prospect – Scott Kingery, who’s at Double-A. Galvis is the most expensive of the three right now ($4.35MM) and only has another year of arbitration eligibility remaining. Behind him is J.P. Crawford, who hasn’t hit much at Triple-A since debuting there last year. Nevertheless, he still ranks as Baseball America‘s 19th-best prospect.
The latest on a few other NL teams…
- The Marlins probably won’t trade any major pieces as long as their ownership situation is in flux, tweets Joe Frisaro of MLB.com. If true, that would rule out deals involving the likes of Giancarlo Stanton, Christian Yelich, Marcell Ozuna and J.T. Realmuto, all of whom have been part of rumors this year. However, Frisaro notes that trades featuring lesser players (including Adeiny Hechavarria, Tom Koehler and certain relievers) remain possible.
- The Cardinals will recall outfielder Randal Grichuk, whom they demoted to the minors May 29, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The Redbirds sent down Grichuk after he batted a paltry .222/.276/.377 with a 29.8 percent strikeout rate in 181 plate appearances. He fared better at Triple-A, slashing .270/.313/.603 in 67 PAs, but struck out even more frequently (29.9 percent) and only posted a 4.5 percent walk rate. It’s unclear how often Grichuk will play in his return to St. Louis, at least initially, as the team has gotten terrific production in his spot (left field) from Tommy Pham. The Cardinals also have Dexter Fowler and Stephen Piscotty as everyday outfielders, of course, so there’s no obvious fit for Grichuk in a starting role.
- Right-hander Jon Gray will make his long-awaited return to the Rockies’ rotation during their series against Arizona next weekend, per Nick Groke of the Denver Post (Twitter links). Gray entered the season as the de facto ace of Colorado’s staff, but he has been out since mid-April with a stress fracture in his left foot. Still, the Rockies have stormed out of the gates at 47-30, and Gray’s return should only help the team’s already high playoff odds. The Rox will deploy a five-man rotation when Gray comes back, meaning someone will have to exit the group, observes Groke.
- Cubs righty Kyle Hendricks threw Saturday for the first time since going on the disabled list June 8, and he told reporters – including Glenn Sattell of MLB.com – that it was a pain-free session. “The arm felt good. I’ve been doing a lot of shoulder work. It took a few throws to find the arm slot and actually felt pretty normal,” said Hendricks. “I was actually surprised by it.” A return isn’t imminent, though, with manager Joe Maddon noting, “It’s probably aggressive to think he’d be back by the All-Star break, but I don’t want to rule anything out.”
Phillies Notes: Franco, Neshek, Galvis
Here’s the latest from the City Of Brotherly Love…
- Maikel Franco is “more than available” in trade talks, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe reports. Franco is struggling through a terrible 2017 season that has seen him hit just .224/.284/.371 over 285 plate appearances — between Franco’s subpar hitting, fielding and baserunning, he has delivered below replacement-level (-0.6 fWAR) production. A trade would be surprising given that Franco was seen as a potential building block piece for the Phillies less than two years ago, though it’s worth noting that he was also a below-average hitter (92 wRC+) in 2016, his first full season in the majors. Franco’s age (24) and past status as a well-regarded prospect would net him some trade interest, though Philadelphia would definitely be selling low on the third baseman.
- The Phillies have already received a “standing offer” for Pat Neshek, CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury reports. The veteran reliever is expected to draw wide interest in the weeks leading to the trade deadline and as Salisbury notes, the Phils must believe they can do better than the current offer on the table. It’s hard to predict who the Neshek suitor is, given the widespread need for bullpen help across the league (though feel free to speculate on the #MysteryTeam in the comments section!)
- The Adeiny Hechavarria trade buzz could be of interest to the Phillies as a gauge on what Freddy Galvis could net on the open market, Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Galvis is seven months younger than Hechavarria, also a free agent after the 2018 season and is better known for his glove than his bat, though Galvis did manage 20 homers last year. Over their careers, Galvis has been worth 5.1 fWAR over 2059 PA as compared to Hechavarria’s 1.7 fWAR in 2402 PA. Gelb reasons that a team who fails to land Hechavarria could turn to Galvis as an alternate plan.
Minor MLB Transactions: 6/24/17
We’ll track the latest minor moves from around baseball in this post…
Newest Moves
- The White Sox signed Grant Green to a minor league deal on Wednesday, the team’s Triple-A affiliate announced (on Twitter). The veteran infielder signed a minors contract with the Nationals over the winter and appeared in two games for the team before being outrighted off the 40-man roster in April and released in mid-June. Picked 13th overall by the A’s in the 2009 draft, Green has played for four teams over parts of five seasons in the big leagues, posting a .248/.283/.336 slash line in 353 PA.
- The Athletics signed left-hander Patrick Schuster last week, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports. Schuster joined the A’s organization just a couple of days after being released from his minor league deal with the Dodgers. This is Schuster’s second stint in Oakland, as he made his MLB debut last July before being claimed on waivers by the Phillies in September. Still just 26 and in his ninth year as a pro, Schuster has a 3.38 ERA over 474 2/3 IP in the minors (mostly as a reliever) as well as 11 big league games with the A’s and Phillies.
- The Tigers released southpaw Mike Zagurski earlier this month, Tom Reisenweber of the Erie Times-News reports (via Twitter). Zagurski signed a minor league deal with Detroit last winter, making his return to North American baseball after spending the previous two seasons in Japan. The lefty posted a 3.29 ERA, 5.38 K/BB rate and 14.2 K/9 over 27 1/3 combined innings at the Double-A and Triple-A levels, including a 5.06 ERA in 10 2/3 IP at Toledo despite those impressive peripherals. Zagurski will now look to catch on with another team in hopes of making it back to the majors for the first time since 2013.
Earlier Today
- Veteran Phillies players Michael Saunders and Jeanmar Gomez were each released, according to the MLB.com transactions page. Both were designated at the same time recently, and the Phils evidently couldn’t find takers in trade — which isn’t terribly surprising given their pronounced struggles and big salaries. Saunders, 30, had a strong 2016 season and has mostly been a better-than-average hitter in the big leagues, so he’ll surely find a new opportunity elsewhere. The same holds for Gomez, who always seemed miscast as a closer but might provide some solid innings in a middle-relief role. Though both can now be had for the league minimum, it would perhaps be a surprise were either to sign directly only a MLB roster at this stage of the season.
- Likewise, the Royals announced that release waivers have been requested on veteran right-hander Chris Young, who was just designated. It’s not clear whether the 38-year-old will continue pitching after losing his job with Kansas City. He overcame significant arm injuries to make it back to the majors, and had a few good years upon his return, but has struggled mightily over the past two campaigns.
- The Twins have released lefty Adam Wilk, per Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press (via Twitter). He had been designated for assignment after making a few fill-in outings for Minnesota. Wilk has allowed 14 earned runs on 24 hits in his 14 MLB innings this year, while recording just eight strikeouts against nine walks. He’ll likely end up finding a new organization on a minors deal.
Nationals Among Teams With Interest In Pat Neshek
The Nationals have shown interest in Phillies righty Pat Neshek, reports FOX’s Ken Rosenthal (Twitter link). Other clubs are interested in the veteran setup man as well, he notes, which comes as little surprise given Neshek’s affordable salary and strong work thus far in 2017.
Indeed, the 36-year-old Neshek has been nothing short of exceptional for the Phillies since being acquired in an offseason swap with Houston. Through 28 innings out of manager Pete Mackanin’s bullpen, the side-armer has worked to a minuscule 0.64 ERA with 8.0 K/9, 1.3 BB/9 and a 36.8 percent ground-ball rate. Though he’s had issues against left-handed batters in recent years, Neshek has held them to a mere .163/.205/.244 slash through an admittedly small sample of 45 batters faced in 2017. He’s had some good fortune on balls in play against lefties, but he’s also significantly dipped his walk rate against hitters that hold the platoon advantage.
Neshek is earning $6.5MM in 2017, and he’s still owed roughly $3.6MM of that sum through season’s end. While trades between division rivals aren’t especially common and are often trickier to work out, Neshek’s status as a rental likely makes it a bit easier for the two sides to align. And, it should of course be noted that the Nats and Phillies have lined up on trades in the past, with Philadelphia recently trading Jonathan Papelbon to Washington in a 2015 swap that netted the Phils right-hander Nick Pivetta.
Much of the focus on the Nationals has been on their need for an established closer, but in reality the team could benefit simply from adding multiple quality relievers. While names like David Robertson, Alex Colome and AJ Ramos may well be kicked around in connection with Washington, the Nats have seen what were perhaps projected as their top four arms — Blake Treinen, Koda Glover, Shawn Kelley and Joe Blanton — each post an ERA north of 5.00 this season. Deepening the relief corps as a whole, and not merely fortifying the ninth inning, figures to be the priority for the Nationals over the summer.
Phillies Agree To Terms With First-Rounder Adam Haseley
11:01am: Philadelphia has announced the signing of Haseley and six other picks from the first ten rounds of the draft. Howard, a righty from Cal Poly, will earn a $1.15MM bonus, Callis tweets. That’s shy of the $1,523,800 allocation for the 45th overall pick with which he was taken, though most of those savings will go towards Haseley’s payout.
8:42am: The Phillies have agreed on bonus terms with first-round pick Adam Haseley, according to MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. (CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury tweeted yesterday that the draftee was in Philadelphia.) While the deal has yet to be finalized, it is likely to be inked in the coming days.
Haseley will take home a $5.1MM bonus, per MLB.com’s Jim Callis (via Twitter). He was tabbed with the eighth overall pick of the draft, which comes with a $4,780,400 bonus allocation.
It seems that the Phils have largely sorted out their pool money for this year’s amateur haul, as Zolecki also notes that the club has deals in place with the bulk of its top ten picks. That includes second-round pick Spencer Howard and third-rounder Jake Scheiner.
Haseley, an outfielder at the University of Virginia, emerged as a consensus top-ten draft prospect over the course of a huge junior season. The left-handed hitter isn’t seen as a major future power source, but did hit 14 long balls on the year and otherwise delivers strong tools across the board.
Many expect Haseley to be able to handle center field as a professional; that’s the view of ESPN.com’s Keith Law, who ranked him sixth overall. MLB.com’s prospect team isn’t so sure of that, ranking him 10th on the pre-draft board, though they note he has a solid-enough arm to profile in any of the three spots on the grass. While he featured as a two-way player at U.Va., Haseley isn’t valued nearly as highly as a pitching prospect