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NL Central Notes: Nottingham, Senzel, Harrison

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The Brewers will recall catcher Jacob Nottingham from Triple-A Colorado Springs before tonight’s game, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com reports. It’ll be the first taste of the Majors for Nottingham, who was acquired by Milwaukee in the trade that sent Khris Davis to Oakland. The 23-year-old Nottingham has had two rough seasons in Milwaukee’s system, posting a sub-.700 OPS at Double-A in both 2016 and 2017. He’s off to a fast start this year, however, hitting .296/.345/.519 through a tiny sample of 29 plate appearances. The corresponding 25-man move for Milwaukee isn’t yet clear, though primary catcher Manny Pina is day-to-day at the moment, as are Eric Thames and Ryan Braun, McCalvy notes. Nottingham doesn’t figure to be a long-term add for the time being, as Pina, Jett Bandy and Stephen Vogt (who is working his way back from a shoulder injury) all come with more experience.

More from the Central…

  • The struggling Reds have received zero production from their third basemen since Eugenio Suarez hit the disabled list, but they’ve yet to call on one of baseball’s top prospects, Nick Senzel, to fill the void. As John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer notes, we’re already deep enough into the season that the Reds could promote Senzel and have delayed his free agency by a full year. Manager Bryan Price indicated that he believes Senzel could help the team right now but added that it’s a group decision and not one he can make on his own. “This is a decision that’s made by a lot of people for a lot of varying reasons,” said Price. “…I think he could help us. There’s also the argument that the people who see him and know him better than I do need to feel like he’s ready.” Senzel, the former No. 2 overall pick in the draft, is hitting just .233/.283/.349 through 46 Triple-A plate appearances, though his bat has picked up a bit after a four-game hitless slump.
  • Pirates infielder Josh Harrison is undergoing further evaluations today after being hit by a pitch in Sunday’s game against the Marlins, Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes. Harrison was hit on the forearm by a 96 mph fastball from Jose Urena and exited the game rather to stay in and run for himself. A rumored trade piece for much of the offseason, Harrison is off to a .263/.328/.351 start to the season for an 11-4 Pirates club. The Bucs would likely turn to either Adam Frazier or Sean Rodriguez if Harrison requires a trip to the disabled list.

NL Notes: Blackmon, Gyorko, Gregerson, Glasnow, Hellickson

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Though recently-extended Rockies slugger Charlie Blackmon is a star outfielder, he spent his early career trying to make it as a pitcher. Kyle Newman of the Denver Post details Blackmon’s story, beginning with his high school tenure in Atlanta. After struggling to gain any significant attention early on, Blackmon began experiencing arm troubles in his junior year at Georgia Tech. The following season, however, saw him excel as a hitter en route to being drafted by the Rockies. He’s now set to earn nine figures throughout the course of his MLB career. There are some insightful quotes and tidbits in Newman’s article, including this quote from manager Walt Weiss: “I didn’t foresee the power — he’s made some adjustments, and there’s lightning in the bat now because his power numbers are pretty amazing considering the type of player he was when he broke in.”

More from around the National League…

  • The Cardinals have a pair of players set to return soon in Jedd Gyorko and Luke Gregerson, as Joe Trezza of MLB.com reminds us. In fact, both could come off the DL as early as this coming week. Trezza adds that Gyorko’s situation will complicate the infield alignment in St. Louis, as he could sap some playing time from either Kolten Wong or Matt Carpenter (both of whom are currently ice cold at the plate). Gregerson has thrown four scoreless rehab appearances; he began the season on the DL with a hamstring strain.
  • Tyler Glasnow’s first season in relief has yielded good results so far for the Pirates, writes Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The fireballing righty has allowed just a run across six innings in his first three appearances, in part due to an increase in his spin rate. Brink notes that he’s averaged 2,859 revolutions per minute on his curveball, a mark that’s presently 12th in all of MLB. Glasnow’s also increased his average fastball velocity to 96 MPH. “He’s a little bit more free at ease out there on the mound and being himself,” said Ray Searage, renowned pitching coach for the Pirates. “When you have confidence in yourself and try to execute at the best of your ability, you’re going to be more free and easy.”
  • Jeremy Hellickson will officially start for the Nationals tomorrow, Dan Kolko of MASN reports on Twitter. That falls in line with earlier reports that suggested the possibility. Nats fans are surely glad to see anyone but A.J. Cole, who sports a 12.00 ERA through two starts so far this season. There’s a $2MM salary to gain for Hellickson if he sticks in the rotation, as the terms of his minors pact with the club dictate.

Pirates Claim Enny Romero From Nationals

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The Pirates have claimed left-hander Enny Romero off waivers from the Nationals, as per a Pittsburgh media release.  Romero will claim an open spot on the Bucs’ 40-man roster, and the release stated that he’ll join the Major League roster once a corresponding move is made.

Washington designated Romero for assignment last week in the wake of a tough start to the season that saw the lefty allow three runs over two innings pitched.  Romero was something of the victim of a roster crunch, as the Nats chose to subtract from their eight-man bullpen to add extra bench depth in the form of utilityman Matt Reynolds.  In 2017, Romero posted a 3.56 ERA, 10.5 K/9, and a 2.83 K/BB rate over 55 2/3 IP for the Nationals.

Romero will join closer Felipe Vazquez as the only other left-handed reliever on the Pirates’ 25-man roster, with Steven Brault (in the rotation) and Josh Smoker (at Triple-A) representing the only other southpaws on Pittsburgh’s 40-man.  Romero isn’t an ideal candidate, however, to provide balance to the Pirates bullpen since he has been a reverse-splits pitcher over his 138 career innings. Left-handed batters have a healthy .317/.398/.467 slash line against him while right-handed batters have hit just .232/.317/.371.

Pirates Select Contract Of Richard Rodriguez, Recall Kyle Crick

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The Pirates announced today that they’ve selected the contract of right-handed reliever Richard Rodriguez and recalled fellow righty Kyle Crick. Both players were pitching for the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis. To make room on the big league roster, right-hander Clay Holmes and left-hander Josh Smoker were optioned to Triple-A.

Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster was at a count of 38 players prior to Rodriguez’s selection, so there’ll be no 40-man move necessary to accommodate him, and the team can even make another addition without needing to open further space. The 28-year-old Rodriguez, a longtime Astros farmhand, broke into the Majors with the Orioles in 2017 but tallied just 4 2/3 frames with Baltimore at the big league level.

Rodriguez, though, has carved up Triple-A hitters dating back to 2015, working to a 2.54 ERA with a 221-to-65 K/BB ratio in in 219 2/3 innings. His strikeout rate has steadily risen on a year-over-year basis, topping out at 10.2 K/9 in 2017, and he’s already whiffed nine in five shutout innings this season. Last year with the O’s, Rodriguez’s fastball sat at 93.8 mph in his brief big league audition.

As for Crick, he was one of two pieces acquired in the trade that sent franchise icon Andrew McCutchen from the Pirates to the Giants. The former supplemental first-rounder and top prospect shifted to the bullpen with quite a bit of success in 2017, punching out 12 hitters per nine innings with a 2.76 ERA in Triple-A. That prompted a big league call-up for Crick in San Francisco, where he’d go on to log a 3.06 ERA in 32 1/3 innings — albeit with much more pedestrian marks of 7.8 K/9 against 4.8 BB/9. Crick averaged 95.5 mph on his heater, though, and was superb at limiting hard contact in his time with the Giants (20.5 percent).

The Pirates undoubtedly hope that he can be a viable bullpen weapon in Pittsburgh, as the hard-throwing 25-year-old can be controlled through the 2023 season. He’d allowed one run with five strikeouts and no walks through four innings of relief thus far in Triple-A this year.

NL Central Notes: Coghlan, Cardinals, Reynolds

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In a minor signing that flew under our radar at the time, the Cubs picked up veteran infielder/outfielder Chris Coghlan on a minor league contract just prior to Opening Day (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney). The 32-year-old Coghlan has batted just .190/.292/.307 over the past two seasons but was a productive bat for the Cubs in 2014-15, hitting .265/.346/.447 in 935 plate appearances. As Mooney noted, his late signing sent him to extended Spring Training to open the season, though Coghlan seems likely to eventually join Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate in Iowa.

Here’s more from the NL Central…

  • The Cardinals announced that they’ve placed right-hander Sam Tuivailala on the 10-day disabled list with a strain in his left knee and recalled right-hander Mike Mayers from Triple- A Memphis. Mayers isn’t required to spend the 10-day minimum in the minors following an optional assignment because he’s directly replacing a player who was placed on the big league DL. Tuivailala, 25, quietly stepped up with a nice season in St. Louis last year, pitching to a 2.55 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 48.8 percent ground-ball rate. The Cards didn’t give a timeline on Tuivailala’s return, though the DL placement is backdated to April 10, so he can return in just over a week.
  • Pirates outfield prospect Bryan Reynolds will undergo surgery to remove the fractured hook from the hamate bone in his left wrist, the team told reporters (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Adam Berry). The Pittsburgh organization didn’t provide a timeline, though prior instances of that injury in the Majors have often come with a timeline around six weeks. (Each injury, of course, comes with its own set of circumstances.) Reynolds, whom the Pirates acquired in the trade that sent Andrew McCutchen to San Francisco, incurred the injury on a swing early in the Double-A season.

Pirates Reliever Felipe Rivero Changes Name To Felipe Vázquez

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Pirates lefty Felipe Rivero will henceforth be known as Felipe Vázquez after undergoing a legal name change, Elizabeth Bloom of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports. That modification will be reflected on the back of his uniform in short order.

You’ll need to read the article for the back story, but the new surname will match that of the southpaw’s sister, Prescilla Vázquez. The siblings are very close; she is said to have played a notable role in advising her brother on his agency decisions and working out the long-term deal that he signed over the winter.

As the Bucs order up some new jerseys, they’ll hope that the newly renamed Vázquez can maintain the form he showed last year as Rivero. In 75 1/3 innings, the power lefty allowed just 14 earned runs on 47 hits while compiling an 88:20 K/BB ratio. He also racked up 21 saves after moving into the closer’s role.

That performance led to a four-year extension in January. The deal promises Vázquez $22MM for the 2018 through 2021 seasons and also leaves the club with two option years.

Pitching Notes: Lincecum, Musgrove, Wheeler

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A few pitching notes from around the majors…

  • Rangers right-hander Tim Lincecum’s ongoing blister issues forced him to postpone a bullpen session Sunday, according to TR Sullivan of MLB.com. Given that he didn’t pitch at all last season and then went without a contract until March 7, Lincecum was already behind schedule before the blister on his right middle finger cropped up last month. It’s now unclear whether he’ll be ready by the beginning of May, the Rangers’ target for him entering the season.
  • Pirates righty Joe Musgrove is eligible to come off the 10-day disabled list Monday, but that’s not going to happen, manager Clint Hurdle told Jerry Dipaola of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and other reporters Sunday. Musgrove, who’s dealing with a muscle strain in his right shoulder, will first need to make multiple rehab starts, per Hurdle. Right now, though, he’s in a “no-throw” period, the skipper revealed. Musgrove, 25, was arguably the headliner in the Pirates’ return for righty Gerrit Cole, whom they traded to the Astros over the winter. Cole’s thriving in Houston, yet the 7-2 Pirates have held their own without him thus far.
  • The Mets will recall righty Zack Wheeler for a start in Miami this upcoming Wednesday, Mike Puma of the New York Post was among those to report on Twitter. It’ll be the first time the ballyhooed quintet of Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom Steven Matz, Matt Harvey and Wheeler have taken consecutive turns through New York’s rotation, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com notes. Wheeler, whose career fell off track after undergoing Tommy John surgery in 2015, opened the year in the minors and tossed five innings of six-strikeout, one-run ball in his initial Triple-A start of 2018 on Friday. He’s likely to be a short-term fill-in for the Mets, who are awaiting the season debut of Jason Vargas. The southpaw underwent surgery on his right hand last month.

Latest On Kevin Siegrist

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April 8: Siegrist doesn’t want to pitch in the minors for the Pirates or anyone else, general manager Neal Huntington told Liz Bloom of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and other reporters Sunday. Conversations between the Pirates and Siegrist’s side have been “very respectful,” per Huntington, but: “His agent was very clear: This is not about the Pirates. This is about minor league baseball. … This is about not wanting to pitch in the minor leagues, period, so I’m not sure how that solves itself without him pitching.”

Huntington added that Siegrist could be part of the solution for the Pirates sometime this year, though that’s probably not going to happen if he doesn’t work his way back via the minors. “He’s a good pitcher, and we wanted him to go to triple-A to build up arm strength, to get back to Kevin Siegrist because that guy can help us,” Huntington said. “We would love to keep that door open and hope that there will be a change of mind at some point in time.”

April 6: The Pirates have issued another statement clarifying Siegrist’s status (Twitter links via Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic). It seems that Siegrist is not a free agent and has instead been placed on the team’s suspended list for failing to report to Triple-A.

As Biertempfel explains, the left-hander’s minor league contract allowed him to opt out at the end of Spring Training if another club was willing to place him on its MLB roster. If not, he’d be assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis. No club offered Siegrist a 25-man roster spot, but the left-hander subsequently chose not to report to Indianapolis and has been suspended by the team. Biertempfel notes that Siegrist does have a full opt-out on June 1, at which point he can become a free agent. It’d be a surprise to see Siegrist ultimately sit out until that point, but it’s not clear at this time if he intends on reporting to Indianapolis at all.

April 5: Left-handed reliever Kevin Siegrist, who was in camp with the Pirates on a minor league contract, has refused an assignment to Triple-A in favor of free agency, the team announced on Thursday (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Adam Berry). Siegrist’s deal came with a clause that allowed him to opt out if he did not make the Opening Day roster, and he’d reportedly been mulling over whether to take the assignment to Indianapolis or pursue other opportunities.

The 28-year-old Siegrist posted sub-3.00 ERAs with the Cardinals in 2015-16 before struggling to a 4.81 ERA last year in season during which he logged DL time for both a forearm issue and a spinal sprain. Siegrist averaged a career-worst 5.03 walks per nine innings pitched last season, and his 92 mph average fastball was down noticeably from his peak, when his heater averaged 93.7 mph.

That said, Siegrist has a fairly long track record of missing bats at the big league level. He’s averaged 10.5 strikeouts per nine innings since debuting with the 2013 Cardinals and has been largely effective against both left- and right-handed hitters — albeit with somewhat curious reverse splits. Lefties have batted .233/.344/.357 in 381 plate appearances against Siegrist, while righties have been stymied to the tune of a .192/.276/.349 slash. And while the five runs he allowed in 5 2/3 spring frames with the Pirates makes for an unappealing ERA, Siegrist also posted a substantially more encouraging 9-to-1 K/BB ratio in that tiny sample of appearances.

Siegrist finished out the 2017 season with four years, 116 days of big league service time, meaning that any club which signs him would have the option of controlling him through at least the 2019 season via arbitration. As we noted late last week, the free agent market is hardly flush with left-handed bullpen options — Antonio Bastardo and Eric O’Flaherty are currently the two most notable names available — so Siegrist should generate some interest elsewhere.

Pirates Claim Jesus Liranzo

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The Pirates have claimed righty Jesus Liranzo off waivers from the Dodgers, per a club announcement. He has been optioned to Double-A.

Liranzo, 23, has bounced around since being designated for assignment by the Orioles just before Opening Day. Clearly, his talent has attracted plenty of attention, though teams are wary of committing a 40-man spot to a player that isn’t ready to contribute at the MLB level.

Though he reputedly has a big arm, Liranzo has struggled to keep the ball in the zone, averaging 5.5 walks per nine in his five minor-league seasons. Liranzo pitched to a 4.85 ERA in 65 innings at Double-A last year, with 10.4 K/9 and 6.0 BB/9.

Injury Notes: Musgrove, Mercer, Wieters, Cruz, Realmuto, Yankees

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The Pirates announced today that right-hander Joe Musgrove has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a muscle strain in his right shoulder. Righty Clay Holmes, who’d previously been returned to Triple-A after serving as the 26th man for yesterday’s doubleheader, has been recalled. (Holmes’ optional assignment needn’t be for the typical 10-day minimum, as he’s replacing an injured player.) As MLB.com’s Adam Berry notes, the move seemed somewhat curious at first, as Musgrove had said he felt good physically not long before the announcement. But testing ended up revealing a strain, leading to the roster move.

Musgrove’s DL placement is retroactive three days, so he can be activated on April 9. In his place, the Pirates could turn to one of Steven Brault or Tyler Glasnow to start in Musgrove’s place on Thursday. At present, it doesn’t seem that the injury is serious. Musgrove was slowed by some shoulder troubles in Spring Training, so it seems the Bucs are just being cautious early in the season. Pittsburgh will also need to evaluate shortstop Jordy Mercer, who exited after jamming his finger into the bag when diving back to first on a pickoff attempt. The Pirates, so far, have only said that Mercer left the game with right hand/finger “discomfort.”

Some more injury news from around the league…

  • The Nationals recalled catcher Pedro Severino from Triple-A and placed Matt Wieters on the disabled list with a “mild left oblique strain.” Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post first reported today that Wieters was dealing with some type of injury and that Severino was headed to Atlanta in the event that Wieters needed a DL stint (Twitter links). Janes noted that Wieters didn’t take batting practice yesterday on his off day and “looked uncomfortable” throwing the ball back to the mound when catching warm-up pitches between innings for Nats starters. Both Wieters and Severino are coming off down seasons in 2017, as is Washington’s current backup, Miguel Montero.
  • The Mariners are leaning toward placing Nelson Cruz on the 10-day disabled list so they can have a full bench for their upcoming interleague series, manager Scott Servais said today in an appearance on Brock & Salk on 710 ESPN in Seattle (Twitter link via 710’s Brent Stecker). Cruz suffered an ankle injury when slipping on the dugout steps after a two-run homer over the weekend and had an MRI, though the results of that test haven’t been announced yet.
  • Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto has progressed to the point where he’s been cleared to resume catching drills, tweets MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. However, Frisaro cautions that Realmuto will probably still require “a few more weeks” before he’s able to return from the lower back injury that landed him on the disabled list to open the 2018 campaign. Chad Wallach, Tomas Telis and Bryan Holaday have been doing the catching in Realmuto’s absence.
  • The Yankees announced today that they’ve voided right-hander Ben Heller’s optional assignment to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and instead placed him on the Major League 10-day disabled list with a bone spur in his right elbow. There’s no immediate timetable provided for Heller’s return, though he’ll benefit from being on the MLB disabled list instead of the minor league DL, as he’ll now gain big league service time (and be paid the pro-rated portion of the league minimum) while sidelined.
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