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Pirates To Select Domingo German

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The Pirates will select the contract of right-hander Domingo German from Triple-A Indianapolis prior to tomorrow’s game with the Dodgers, according to reporter Mike Rodriguez (X link).  The move comes a day before German’s opt-out date in his most recent minor league contract with Pittsburgh.

It was just over a year ago that German began treatment for alcohol abuse, following a reported incident of an intoxicated German entering the Yankees’ clubhouse and arguing with teammates.  The Yankees placed German on the restricted list and outrighted him off the roster following the season, with German opting to become a free agent.  The trip to the open market led to his first minor league deal with the Pirates, and after his exercised an opt-out clause in mid-July, he re-signed with the Bucs a few days later.

German’s results in Indianapolis have been mixed, as he has a 5.29 ERA, 21.9% strikeout rate, and 10.3% walk rate in 68 Triple-A innings.  Some of the heavier damage did occur earlier in his Triple-A tenure, though it could be that the Pirates’ hand is being somewhat forced by the pending opt-out date.  It isn’t clear if German will start tomorrow’s game against Los Angeles, or if the Pirates might view him as something of a piggyback starter or long man behind an opener.

Mitch Keller, Paul Skenes, and Bailey Falter are lined up to start during the three-game series, so if German does get the start, he could push everyone back a day just to provide the regular rotation members with some extra rest.  Pittsburgh doesn’t play on August 15 and then embarks on a string of 13 games in as many days, so a de facto six-man rotation could help keep everyone fresh for that stretch.  Skenes’ workload has been a big subplot of his incredible rookie season and Jared Jones just started a rehab assignment and could be back from the IL in a couple of weeks, further shaking up the Pirates’ pitching plans as the club also tries to contend for a wild card berth.

German’s first appearance with the Pirates will mark his first Major League game with a team besides the Yankees, as the righty posted a 4.41 ERA over 522 1/3 innings with New York from 2017-23.  German missed the 2019 postseason and the entire 2020 season due to an 81-game suspension for a violation of the MLB/MLBPA domestic violence policy, and his checkered resume also includes a 10-game suspension in 2023 for using foreign substances on the ball, as well as the aforementioned stint on the restricted list.  In between those two absences last season, German entered the record books by throwing a perfect game against the A’s on June 28, 2023.

Pirates Designate Edward Olivares For Assignment

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The Pirates announced Thursday that they’ve placed right-hander Colin Holderman on the 15-day IL with a right wrist sprain, selected the contract of righty Ben Heller from Triple-A Indianapolis and opened a spot on the 40-man roster by designating outfielder Edward Olivares for assignment.

Olivares, 28, was acquired from the Royals in the offseason when Kansas City needed to open a roster spot after signing right-hander Chris Stratton. Olivares had qualified for arbitration for the first time and he agreed avoid arbitration by accepting a $1.35MM salary from the Pirates.

Unfortunately, his tenure in Pittsburgh was a bit less than what the club was expecting. He had slashed .270/.322/.439 with the Royals over 2022 and 2023 for a combined wRC+ of 106 in that time but he hit .224/.291/.333 with the Pirates this year, with that production leading to a wRC+ of 75. He was optioned to Triple-A about a month ago and is hitting .245/.305/.321 at that level for a wRC+ of just 64.

He is in his final option season and will be out of options next year. Between that and his performance, it seems he was getting pushed out of the club’s plans. They fortified their outfield mix by acquiring Bryan De La Cruz and utility player Isiah Kiner-Falefa prior to the deadline.

With the trade deadline now in the past, the Pirates will have to put Olivares on waivers in the coming days. It’s possible that a club could view this year’s downturn as simply bad luck, as his batting average on balls in play is just .250 this year. That’s a drop from the .306 BABIP he had over the two prior seasons and this year’s .290 league average. His 8.2% walk rate this year was actually a noticeable increase from the 5.7% rate he had in the two preceding campaigns. His exit velocity and hard hit rate are down a bit but not drastically so. His speed and arm strength are above average but he’s received poor defensive grades overall.

If some team does put in a claim, Olivares can be optioned for the rest of this year and then retained beyond this season via arbitration. But as mentioned, he will be out of options by next year. If he clears waivers in the coming days, he will have the right to elect free agency as a player with more than three years of service time. But since he is below the five-year mark, heading to the open market would mean forfeiting what’s left of this year’s salary. With roughly $375K still to be paid out, he would likely accept an outright assignment and stick with the Bucs in a non-roster capacity.

As for Heller, this is the second time this year the Pirates have selected him to the roster. The last time resulted in him being designated for assignment and outrighted after allowing 11 earned runs in two innings. His time in the minors has gone far better as he has a 3.55 earned run average in 33 Triple-A innings pitched this year while striking out 40.7% of batters faced. He’s out of options but can be retained via arbitration beyond this season if he manages to hold onto his roster spot.

Several Veterans Who Could Be Available On Waivers This Month

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Now that the trade deadline has come and gone, it's harder for contending clubs to upgrade their respective rosters. There are still a few ways to do so, as MLBTR's Steve Adams recently laid out, but most of those methods involve adding guys not currently rostered who are naturally depth pieces at best.

To add a solid, usable big leaguer, the best remaining path is waivers. The old August waiver trade system ended in 2019, but many veteran players found themselves on waivers last August anyway, which started with the Angels.

The Halos fell out of contention in August and their priority shifted from winning to ducking under the competitive balance tax. Since trades were no longer possible, they put a whole bunch of guys on waivers and just hoped that other clubs would take them, the baseball equivalent of putting a "for free" box by the curb. Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo López, Randal Grichuk, Matt Moore, Hunter Renfroe, Dominic Leone and Tyler Anderson were put on waivers and then other clubs followed suit, though to a less significant degree. The Yankees had no hope of avoiding the CBT but were slipping in the standings and had no use for an impending free agent like Harrison Bader. It was a similar situation with the Mets and Carlos Carrasco. The Tigers and White Sox weren't going to be CBT payors but made José Cisnero and Mike Clevinger available, simply hoping to cut costs.

Because the waiver priority order goes in reverse order of standings, the clubs best positioned to benefit were those just on the fringes of contention. The teams buried in the standings would have no motivation to grab such players and take on salary while the teams at the top of the standings would get last dibs in the waiver process. The Guardians claimed Giolito, López and Moore while the Reds grabbed Bader and Renfroe.

It doesn't seem like this trend will stop here in 2024. This year, Kevin Kiermaier, Ty France and Josh Bell have already been on waivers at some point. All three players cleared and were ultimately traded prior to the deadline, with some money changing hands in each of those deals. Others will surely follow them in the weeks to come, but clubs won't be able to work out trades involving cash considerations. The claiming club will have to take on all that's left of the contract from the waiving club.

Logically, these players will be available on waivers before the end of August. Players acquired after that time are not postseason eligible, which limits the attraction, though it could still happen. After the Guards fell from contention, they put Moore back on waivers just a few weeks after claiming him, and the Marlins nabbed him at that time. He made four scoreless appearances for Miami, helping them squeak into the playoffs, but wasn't eligible to join the club in the postseason.

So who could be available this time around? The most likely players are those making a notable salary on a club that could fall back in the playoff race, particularly one with CBT concerns. But an underwater contract won't be terribly appealing, so the player should still have some utility that makes it at least vaguely justifiable for the claiming club to take on some money. Many of these will require the team to really perform poorly in the next few weeks, making them long-shot possibilities, but let's take a look at some of the most interesting guys who could plausibly fit the bill.

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MLBTR Podcast: Fallout From The Trade Deadline And Mike Trout Injured Again

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The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.

This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss…

Check out our past episodes!

The podcast intro and outro song “So Long” is provided courtesy of the band Showoff.  Check out their Facebook page here!

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/6/24

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The frenzy of moves before the trade deadline always has ripple effects of players being nudged out of their roster spots. 15 players were designated for assignment on deadline day and several in the days leading up to it as well. That has led to many recent waiver claims, with the Marlins claiming seven different players in the past two weeks. But they can’t claim them all, so here’s a round-up of some guys who passed through unclaimed recently.

As a reminder, players can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency if they have a previous career outright or at least three years of major league service time. Players need at least five years of service to both elect free agency and keep their salary intact.

  • The Diamondbacks released Miguel Castro, according to his transactions tracker on MLB.com. The righty signed with the Snakes heading into 2023 on a one-year deal with a vesting option for 2024. He reached 60 appearances last year and locked in a $5MM salary for himself in 2024. Unfortunately, his results have tailed off as he has a 5.93 ERA this year. That has come in just 11 appearances as he missed close to three months with a shoulder strain. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and keep all of his money. Another club could now sign him and pay him just the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the roster with that amount subtracted from what Arizona pays. He has a career 4.20 ERA in 419 appearances with the Blue Jays, Rockies, Orioles, Mets, Yankees and Diamondbacks.
  • The Pirates sent Ryder Ryan outright to Triple-A Indianapolis, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. This is his second career outright and he therefore has the right to elect free agency, though it’s not yet clear if he’s chosen to do so. The righty has an ERA of 5.00 in his 18 major league innings. He has thrown 27 1/3 Triple-A innings this year with a 4.61 ERA, 15.5% strikeout rate, 8.6% walk rate and 48.8% ground ball rate.
  • The Mets sent catcher Logan Porter outright to Triple-A Syracuse, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. It’s his first career outright and he has just a few days of service time, so he’ll have to accept the assignment. The backstop was signed just a couple of weeks prior to the deadline after opting out of his minor league deal with the Giants, which had been acquired from the Royals. He was hitting .319/.428/.575 for the Royals’ Triple-A club before the Giants acquired him, but then his results tapered off. The Mets were still intrigued enough to give him a 40-man spot but the other 29 clubs passed on the chance to grab him off waivers.
  • The Dodgers sent left-hander Nick Ramirez outright to Triple-A Oklahoma City, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He has previous career outrights and therefore has the right to elect free agency. Acquired from the Yankees in early April, he spent most of the year on optional assignment. He logged 11 1/3 big league innings over seven appearances with a 6.35 ERA. In his 23 Triple-A innings since the trade, he had a 2.35 ERA, 20.9% strikeout rate, 3.3% walk rate and 54.5% ground ball rate.
  • The Braves have sent right-hander Darius Vines outright to Double-A Mississippi, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. This is his first career outright and he doesn’t have the necessary service time to elect free agency. He has a 5.82 ERA in 34 big league innings between last year and this year. His 2024 output at Triple-A includes 77 innings over 14 starts with a 5.14 ERA, 16.6% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 40.3% ground ball rate.
  • The Cardinals sent right-hander Jacob Bosiokovic outright to Triple-A Memphis, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The righty had his contract selected at the end of June, his first time added to a big league roster, but was optioned a few days later without getting into a game. That means this is his first outright and he doesn’t have the necessary service time to elect free agency. He has 43 1/3 innings at Triple-A this year with a 4.15 ERA, 28.9% strikeout rate, 13.4% walk rate and 45.3% ground ball rate.

Pirates Notes: Skenes, Jones, McCutchen, Rodriguez

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As noted by Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Pirates GM Ben Cherington made his weekly radio appearance on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh earlier today. In that appearance, Cherington suggested that right-hander Paul Skenes is in “good shape” in regards to his innings workload to this point in the season. The star rookie has thrown 108 innings so far this year between the major and minor leagues, just below his career high of 129 1/3 between LSU and the minor leagues last year. Cherington went on to suggest that while the club could consider lowering Skenes’s pitch counts at some point but didn’t commit to that path, instead noting that the right-hander’s intense preparation between starts puts him in a good position to handle volume, and that the club’s focus is on how well he recovers between starts rather than his pitch counts or total innings of work.

That’s surely a relief for Pirates fans, as Pittsburgh will need every inning they can get from their young ace as they look to work their way into the playoff conversation. The Pirates currently sit at a decent 56-54 record after buying at the trade deadline. While they’re six games back of the Brewers for the NL Central crown as things stand, Pittsburgh sits just 2.5 games back in a crowded NL Wild Card picture that also features the Braves, Diamondbacks, Padres, Mets, and Cardinals. Skenes has been a huge part of the club’s resurgence this year, as the club has won nine of the 13 games he’s started for them since debuting in mid-May. Team record during a pitcher’s starts is an imperfect measure of that pitcher’s effectiveness, but it’s obvious that Skenes has helped the Pirates in a big way by posting a sparkling 1.90 ERA in 80 2/3 innings of work in the majors while striking out exactly one third of batters faced entering play today.

Skenes isn’t the only young arm that Cherington commented on, as he indicated that right-hander Jared Jones is “real close” to a rehab assignment at Triple-A following a 45-pitch live bullpen session. Cherington suggested that Jones’s first rehab outing is likely to be of a similar pitch count before moving up from there. Pittsburgh’s other front-of-the-rotation rookie has been on the 15-day IL since Independence Day due to a lat strain, but prior to that injury had looked excellent in his first season as a big leaguer with a 3.56 ERA and a 26.4% strikeout rate in 91 innings of work. Jones’s return to action should not only provide the club with a boost down the stretch, but would offer them a daunting and entirely homegrown playoff rotation alongside Skenes and Mitch Keller should the club manage to make the postseason for the first time since 2015.

While the news regarding Jones and Skenes is undoubtedly positive, a turn towards the lineup yields more mixed results. Veteran slugger Andrew McCutchen is out of today’s lineup after being pulled from yesterday’s game due what the team announced as tightness in his left quad muscle. It’s unclear as of yet whether or not the 37-year-old veteran will require a trip to the injured list due to the issue or not, but a lengthy absence for McCutchen would be a frustrating turn of events for a Pirates club that had just begun to fire on all cylinders in the lineup after adding Bryan De La Cruz and Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the trade deadline. The veteran, who has slashed a decent .228/.328/.383 with a 102 wRC+ as the club’s primary DH this year, could be replaced by Connor Joe or a youngster currently at Triple-A like Edward Olivares in the starting lineup if an IL stint is required. Catcher Joey Bart is DH’ing in today’s game, making room for Yasmani Grandal behind the plate.

Speaking of catchers, Cherington offered some positive positional news today when he indicated that there’s a “chance” that longtime catching prospect Endy Rodriguez could play in minor league games before the end of the year despite undergoing what was thought to be season-ending UCL surgery back in December. Cherington cautioned that any such rehab games would first come at DH and then first base due to the excessive pressure put on a player’s arm by the catcher position, though he didn’t completely shut the door on the possibility of Rodriguez getting time behind the plate before the year comes to a close. The 24-year-old switch hitter hit just .220/.284/.328 in his first taste of the majors last year but is a career .282/.361/.442 hitter at Triple-A who was a consensus top-50 prospect in the game prior to his debut and subsequent injury last year.

Pirates Sign Second-Round Pick Wyatt Sanford To Overslot Deal

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  • The Pirates went above slot to ink second-rounder Wyatt Sanford away from a commitment to Texas A&M. Callis reports (on X) that the high school agreed to a $2.5MM bonus that’s above the approximate $1.98MM value for the 47th pick. FanGraphs writes that Sanford could be the best defensive player in the high school class, while Law calls him a potential plus gloveman at shortstop. He’ll need to fill out a 6’1″ frame to provide much punch offensively, but his glove had him as fringe first-round talent in the eyes of most evaluators.

Pirates Agree To Terms With First-Round Pick Konnor Griffin

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The Pirates have agreed on a contract with first-round draft selection Konnor Griffin, as first reported by Andrew Destin of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The team chose Griffin with the ninth overall pick, which came with a slot value slightly under $6.22MM. He signed for a bonus of just over $6.53MM, retracting his prior commitment to LSU.

After celebrating his 18th birthday in April, Griffin was the youngest player (and the only high schooler) taken with one of this year’s top 10 picks. Baseball America and MLB Pipeline ranked him as the No. 9 prospect entering the draft, while Keith Law of The Athletic had him at No. 10 and FanGraphs had him at No. 12.

Griffin excelled as both a hitter and a pitcher at Jackson Preparatory School, but he will begin his professional career as a position player. However, the evaluators at Baseball America suggest he has “a real fallback option as a pitcher.” That should tell you just how strong his tools are as a hitter and defender. Nearly every source agrees he has plus power, terrific speed, a strong arm, and the skills to be a valuable defender at shortstop or in center field. With so many tools at his disposal, it’s easy to see plenty of All-Star appearances in his future. That said, most evaluators have Griffin in the high (or even extreme) risk category given his youth and questions about how his hit tool will hold up against tougher competition.

Baseball America has Griffin immediately slotting in as the top position player and the second-best prospect in the Pirates’ system.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/30/24

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Catching up on some minor transactions from around the league…

  • Guardians right-hander Spencer Howard has elected free agency after being designated for assignment last week. The right-hander was acquired by Cleveland in a trade with the Giants earlier this month after he had been DFA’d in San Francisco. A second-round pick by the Phillies in the 2017 draft and a former consensus top-40 prospect in the game, Howard has struggled badly at the big league level throughout his career. In parts of five seasons with the Phillies, Rangers, Giants, and Guardians, the righty sports a 7.00 ERA in 144 innings of work with a 5.63 FIP and a 19.9% strikeout rate. In recent seasons, his struggles in the majors have extended to his time at Triple-A, where he now sports a career 4.83 ERA in 143 1/3 frames.
  • Pirates left-hander Josh Fleming elected free agency after being designated for assignment last week. Fleming signed a split contract with the club back in February and was outrighted off the club’s roster in May, though he was selected back to the roster last month. Though he struggled in his first stint with the Pirates, he’s looked quite good in 12 1/3 innings of work since returning to the big leagues with a 1.46 ERA, though he’s only notched four strikeouts in that time. Still, teams on the hunt for lefty bullpen depth could consider turning to Fleming on the back of that solid recent work and his strong 58.4% career groundball rate.
  • Red Sox right-hander Alex Speas was outrighted to Triple-A after being designated for assignment to make room for catcher Danny Jansen on the club’s 40-man roster. Speas, 26, never appeared at the big league level for Boston after being claimed off waivers from the Astros late last month. Since making his MLB debut with the Rangers last year, the right-hander has just four big league appearances under his belt over which he owns a 9.00 ERA and matching 30% strikeout and walk rates. He’s struggled badly at the Triple-A level for four different organizations this year with a collective 11.47 ERA in 24 1/3 innings of work between the Astros, A’s, White Sox, and Red Sox affiliates.
  • Mets right-hander Shintaro Fujinami was outrighted to Triple-A after being designated for assignment to make room for the return of Kodai Senga from the injured list last week. Fujinami boasted impressive strikeout rates in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball but paired that high-octane stuff with control issues. He signed with the A’s during the 2022-23 offseason but struggled badly with them as he pitched to an 8.57 ERA with a 13% walk rate. His 4.85 ERA and 4.13 FIP with the Orioles were more palatable, leading the Mets to sign him to a one-year deal, but he’s struggled to a 10.95 ERA at the Triple-A level this year without pitching in the majors.

Pirates Select Jake Woodford

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The Pirates announced several roster moves today in the aftermath of the trade deadline. The club selected the contract of right-hander Jake Woodford and added left-hander Jalen Beeks to the roster after acquiring him from the Rockies yesterday. In addition, the club placed right-hander Carmen Mlodzinski on the 15-day injured list, transferred right-hander Daulton Jefferies to the 60-day IL, and designated right-hander Ryder Ryan for assignment.

Woodford, 27, signed with Pittsburgh on a minor league deal last month after being designated for assignment by the White Sox following two spot starts with the club where he surrendered a combined ten runs on fifteen hits while striking out seven and walking five in 8 1/3 innings of work. The right-hander’s two difficult appearances in Chicago come on the heels of an up-and-down tenure with the Cardinals. Selected by the club in the first round of the 2015 draft, Woodford made his debut in the 2020 season and after struggling in a cup of coffee that year proved to be a solid swingman and multi-inning reliever for St. Louis in 2021 and ’22. Over those two seasons, Woodford posted a 3.26 ERA and 3.93 FIP in 116 innings of work.

Those strong numbers came in spite of a paltry 15.4% strikeout rate that paired with a decent but unspectacular 7.5% walk rate. A strong 45.8% groundball rate helped to explain Woodford’s success to some extent, but the main reason he was able to post such strong numbers was that a microscopic 6.9% of his fly balls left the yard for home runs during those two seasons. That allowed him to float an above-average 76.3% strand rate while allowing a slightly below average .285 BABIP. Unfortunately, the right-hander’s production seemed to regress to his performance in 2023 as he struggled badly to a 6.23 ERA and 6.61 FIP as his walk rate climbed to 9.9% while his luck in avoiding the long ball reversed, leaving him with 11 homers allowed in just 47 2/3 innings of work.

Now Woodford figures to get another shot at the big league level with Pittsburgh after looking good in seven starts with the club at the Triple-A level. He’s allowed an ERA of just 2.29 in those 35 1/3 frames and his strikeout rate has ticked up to a respectable 26% against a 3.5% walk rate, offering some optimism that he may be able to post stronger results going forward. Woodford appears unlikely to return to the spot starter role he held with the White Sox, instead serving as a multi-inning reliever in a Pittsburgh bullpen that just lost Mlodzinski. A first round pick by the Pirates in the 2020 draft, Mlodzinski has looked good in a swing role for the club this year with a 3.18 ERA and 3.16 FIP in 34 innings but now figures to be sidelined for some time due to a right shoulder strain.

Clearing up a pair of spots on the club’s 40-man roster are Jefferies and Ryan. Jefferies has been on the shelf due to inflammation in his throwing elbow since early this month but now will be out until at least early September. As for Ryan, the right-hander was a minor league signing by the club back in December who made the club’s Opening Day roster and has been riding the shuttle between Triple-A and the majors ever since. In 17 innings of work for the club at the big league level, Ryan sports a lackluster 5.29 ERA, although his solid 21% strikeout rate and a 3.80 FIP both suggest his underlying performance may have been better than that production would suggest. That said, his numbers at Triple-A inspire little confidence, as he’s struggled to a 4.61 ERA in 27 1/3 innings at the level this year. The Pirates will have one week to attempt to pass Ryan through waivers. The Pirates would be able to outright him to the minors if he clears waivers, but the righty has already been outrighted previously and could opt to reject that assignment in favor of free agency if he so chose.

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