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Asher Wojciechowski

Orioles’ Josh Rogers Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Orioles left-hander Josh Rogers underwent his second Tommy John surgery today, manager Brandon Hyde announced to reporters (Twitter links via Joe Trezza of MLB.com). He’ll miss the remainder of the 2019 season and, in all likelihood, the bulk of the 2020 campaign as well. Rogers also underwent Tommy John surgery in high school back in 2013.

Rogers, 24, came to the Orioles as part of the trade that sent Zack Britton to the division-rival Yankees prior to last year’s non-waiver trade deadline. At the time, he looked like a near-MLB-ready arm that could occupy a spot at the back of the rotation or in the bullpen. Last year saw Rogers pitch to a combined 3.54 ERA in 139 2/3 innings between the Triple-A affiliates for the two organizations. Given his proximity to the Majors, he was viewed as a candidate to log a fair share of innings for the Orioles in the first full season of their rebuild.

However, Rogers has struggled immensely both in the Majors and in Triple-A this season, logging an ERA north of 8.00 in a combined 69 1/3 innings. It’s certainly possible that issues in his elbow contributed to his poor results in 2019, though. While he’s not considered a premium prospect, Rogers ranked 28th among Baltimore farmhands heading into the season, according to Baseball America, who tabbed him as a potential fifth starter. For an Orioles club that is desperately thin on arms behind John Means, Andrew Cashner and Dylan Bundy, that would’ve been a most welcome outcome. Rogers is the second pitching prospect acquired in last summer’s fire sale to undergo Tommy John surgery this year, joining fellow righty Zach Pop, whom the Orioles acquired as part of their return for Manny Machado.

Instead, the Orioles have looked to a pair of minor trades to try to help stop the bleeding in the final two spots of the rotation. Baltimore acquired right-hander Tom Eshelman from the Phillies in exchange for international bonus money last month and acquired righty Asher Wojciechowski from the Indians in exchange for cash on Monday this week. Eshelman made his big league debut Monday, and the well-traveled Wojciechowski followed him in the rotation last night. There will likely be plenty of fluctuation in the composition of the team’s rotation between now and season’s end, but Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com tweets that the out-of-options Wojciechowski will remain in the starting five for now.

Orioles Select Asher Wojciechowski, Designate Matt Wotherspoon

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The Orioles announced today that they have selected the contract of just-acquired hurler Asher Wojciechowski. He’ll take the roster spot of fellow right-hander Matt Wotherspoon, who was designated for assignment.

In other roster machinations, the Baltimore organization reinstated righty reliever Josh Lucas from the 10-day injured list. To create space, the team optioned Tom Eshelman, who took a spot start for the club yesterday.

The O’s had selected Wotherspoon to the roster in late June, but he was tagged for eight earned in just 4 2/3 innings over two appearances. He’s through 34 1/3 innings of 4.93 ERA ball at Triple-A, where he carries 10.8 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9.

Orioles Acquire Asher Wojciechowski

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The Orioles have acquired right-hander Asher Wojciechowski from the Indians in exchange for cash, per announcements from both teams. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Norfolk for the time being, although the O’s are listing a TBD for tomorrow night’s game, which would align with Wojciechowski’s schedule. He last started for Cleveland’s Triple-A club on June 26. MLB.com’s Joqe Trezza tweets that Dylan Bundy had been slated to pitch tomorrow night, and no reason has been given as to his apparent scratch from that start.

Wojciechowski, 30, has pitched to a 3.61 ERA with 8.7 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 in 84 2/3 innings of Triple-A ball so far in 2019. Like many other pitchers in Triple-A this season, he’s been exceptionally home-run prone after the league switched the baseball. Wojciechowski has averaged two long balls per nine innings pitched, prompting fielding-independent metrics like FIP (5.80) and xFIP (5.50) to paint an uglier picture. It should be noted that homers have been a longstanding issue for Wojciechowski, but he’s never struggled with them to this extent in the minors.

Wojciechowski isn’t a stranger to the big leagues, having pitched 78 2/3 innings in the Majors between the Astros in 2015 and the Reds in 2017. Like recently acquired Tom Eshelman, who’ll start tonight for the O’s, Wojciechowski is something of a familiar face for Baltimore GM Mike Elias, whose time in the Houston front office overlapped with Wojciechowski’s four years in the Astros organization. The 6’4″ righty has yet to find much big league success (6.44 ERA), but he’s averaged better than a strikeout per inning in the Majors. In 635 career innings of Triple-A ball, Wojciechowski has a 4.27 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9.

Indians Sign Asher Wojciechowski, Tim Federowicz To Minor League Deals

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The Indians announced Thursday that they’ve signed right-hander Asher Wojciechowski and catcher Tim Federowicz to minor league contracts with invites to Major League Spring Training.

Wojciechowski, 30, will give Cleveland some depth in both the rotation and the bullpen. He’s struggled to a 6.64 ERA with 9.2 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 in 78 2/3 MLB innings, most of which came with the 2017 Reds, but he has plenty of experience at the Triple-A level. In 550 1/3 innings at the top minor league level, Wojciechowski has a 4.37 ERA with 7.6 K/9, 3.1 BB/9 and 1.2 HR/9, with all but 15 of his 108 appearances there coming as a starter. He split last season between the Triple-A affiliates for the White Sox and Orioles, working to a combined 4.53 ERA in 119 1/3 frames but with a 126-to-37 K/BB ratio. Wojciechowski’s ability to miss bats has jumped considerably in the past two seasons, and his walk rate has dropped along with that spike, which likely piqued Cleveland’s interest.

As for Federowicz, the 31-year-old has appeared in parts of seven MLB seasons split between the Dodgers, Giants, Reds, Cubs and Astros. He’s never hit much as a big leaguer, managing just a .199/.247/.323 line in 360 plate appearances. That said, he’s an accomplished (and then some) hitter in Triple-A, where he owns a terrific .303/.374/.501 line in nearly 1900 plate appearances.

With Yan Gomes traded to the Nationals, Cleveland is relying on some combination of Roberto Perez, Eric Haase and trade acquisition Kevin Plawecki to shoulder the bulk of the workload behing the plate in 2019. Federowicz will add another depth option to the equation, though it’s unlikely that he’ll emerge as a viable candidate to crack the Opening Day roster with his new organization.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/25/18

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Here are some minor moves from around the league, with the newest transactions at the top of the post…

  • The White Sox have signed right-hander Asher Wojciechowski to a minor league deal, as announced by the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte (Twitter link).  The 29-year-old opted out of his minors contract with the Orioles last week in order to test free agency, and he has quickly caught on with another organization.  Wojciechowski received his first significant amount of MLB experience last season, tossing 62 1/3 innings over 25 appearances (eight of them starts) with the Reds, posting a 6.50 ERA, 9.2 K/9, and 3.37 K/BB rate.  The inflated ERA was due in large part to 14 homers allowed, as the righty has continually been plagued by the long ball from the Triple-A level and upwards.
  • The Red Sox released right-hander Kyle Martin so he could pursue an opportunity to play in Japan, the Boston Globe’s Pete Abraham reports (via Twitter).  The 27-year-old made his Major League debut last season, appearing in two games for the Sox, but he hasn’t since made a return trip to the Show.  A ninth-round pick in the 2013 draft, Martin has a 3.55 ERA, 9.4 K/9, and 2.98 K/BB rate over 334 1/3 career innings in the minors, all as a reliever.

Asher Wojciechowski Exercises Opt-Out Clause In Orioles Contract

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2:16pm: Wojciechowski has been released by the organization, according to the International League transactions page.

1:04pm: Right-hander Asher Wojciechowski has exercised an opt-out clause in his contract with the Orioles, Robert Murray of The Athletic reports on Twitter. It is not entirely clear whether the organization still has an opportunity to add him to the MLB roster, though Murray suggests that the righty is set to return to the open market.

Wojciechowski joined the Baltimore organization on a minors deal over the winter after he elected free agency from the Reds. The 29-year-old, who was selected by the Blue Jays with the 41st overall pick of the 2010 draft and eventually debuted with the Astros, has compiled a 6.64 ERA in 78 2/3 MLB innings to this point in his career.

As Murray notes, Wojciechowski has turned in a pair of impressive starts of late. And he has generally succeeded at Triple-A, posting a 3.51 ERA in 84 2/3 innings (over a dozen starts and seven relief appearances) while carrying 9.5 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9. He’s also allowing quite a few long balls, a problem that plagued him last year in Cincinnati.

If Wojciechowski is indeed already headed for the open market, he’ll be looking to find an organization that can offer him a path to the majors. If the O’s still have a chance to add him to their own roster — a frequent aspect of such contractual provisions — then the team will surely at least give it serious thought, particularly since Wojciechowski can still be controlled for the league-minimum salary for future seasons.

Orioles Sign Asher Wojciechowski, Four Others To Minors Deals

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The Orioles have signed righty Asher Wojciechowski and four other hurlers to minor-league pacts, according to a club announcement. Wojciechowski’s signing was first reported by Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun, via Twitter. Also joining the Baltimore organization are lefties Jason Gurka and Luis Lugo and righties Christian Binford and Perci Garner.

Wojciechowski, who’s nearing his 29th birthday, got his first full shot at the majors last year with the Reds. But he scuffled to a 6.50 ERA in 62 1/3 innings while coughing up 14 long balls. On the positive side, Wojciechowski did manage to record 64 strikeouts against 19 walks, and was much more effective in limited minor-league action. Needless to say, getting the dingers under control will be a key if Wojciechowski is to have any success pitching in Camden Yards, though he’ll have to earn his way there first.

As for the others, Lugo topped out at Double-A with the Indians, where he pitched to a 4.35 ERA with 6.2 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 over 134 1/3 innings in 2017. Binford, a former Royals prospect, has failed to succeed at the highest level of the minors despite making it there in each of the past four seasons. Most recently, he allowed 7.24 earned per nine over 115 2/3 frames. We covered Garner’s addition yesterday.

Then there’s Gurka, who is now 29 and broke into the professional ranks as a 15th round pick by the Orioles back in 2008. He has seen minimal MLB time but has mostly thrown at Triple-A of late. In 2017, he compiled 50 2/3 innings of 3.20 ERA ball, with 9.9 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9, with the Angels’ and Yankees’ top affiliates.

Elected Free Agency: Siegrist, Edgin, Hutchison, Locke, Bolsinger, Van Slyke, Maness

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The indispensable Matt Eddy of Baseball America provides an overview of a vast number of players electing free agency following the 2017 season in his latest Minor Transactions roundup. Eddy largely focuses on players with big league service time (significant service time, in some cases) that were outrighted off the roster that are now hitting the open market for the first time. (Players with three-plus years of service that are not on the 40-man roster at season’s end can elect free agency, as can any player that has been outrighted on multiple occasions in his career.)

While the vast majority of these players seem likely to sign minor league pacts this winter — they did, after all, go unclaimed by 29 other teams on waivers — a number of them are still intriguing with recent success in their past and/or multiple years of arbitration eligibility remaining. Eddy’s rundown also contains a number of re-signed minor leaguers and released minor leaguers without big league experience as well as Arizona Fall League assignments on a per-team basis, so it’s well worth a full look.

We’ve updated our list of 2017-18 MLB free agents accordingly, and here are some of the new names now checking in on the list…

Depth options in the rotation

Josh Collmenter, Asher Wojciechowski, Drew Hutchison, Jeff Locke, Kyle Kendrick, Mike Bolsinger, Christian Bergman, David Holmberg

Collmenter is just two seasons removed from being the D-backs Opening Day starter but hasn’t had much success of late. Hutchison had solid Triple-A numbers and once looked like a long-term rotation piece in Toronto before Tommy John surgery. He can be controlled for another three seasons in arbitration. Locke was injured for most of an ugly first (and likely only) season in Miami, and Kendrick made just two starts for the Red Sox.

Wojciechowski (6.50 ERA in 62 1/3 innings with the Reds), Bolsinger (6.31 ERA in 41 1/3 innings with the Jays), Bergman (5.00 ERA in 54 innings with the Mariners) and Holmberg (4.68 ERA in 57 2/3 innings with the White Sox) all soaked up innings for injury-plagued pitching staffs. Bolsinger has had the most MLB experience of the bunch.

Corner Bats

Scott Van Slyke, Tyler Moore, Cody Asche, Conor Gillaspie, Jaff Decker

Van Slyke has long been a solid bat against left-handed pitching but appeared in just 29 games with the Dodgers and didn’t hit well with their Triple-A affiliate or with the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate. (He was included in the Tony Cingrani trade to balance out the financial side of the deal.) Moore, also a right-handed bat, showed power but struggled to get on base.

Once one of the Phillies’ top prospects, Asche hit well in Triple-A Charlotte but flopped in a brief stint with the ChiSox. Gillaspie was unable to replicate his 2016 rebound with the Giants, while Decker showed some on-base skills in the Majors and minors but didn’t hit much overall. (He can play center but hasn’t graded well there in the Majors.)

Utility Infielders

Ruben Tejada, Phil Gosselin, Dusty Coleman, Chase d’Arnaud

Each of the four can play all over the diamond, but none provided offensive value in 2017. Tejada has the most big league experience but hasn’t received much playing time since 2015 (and hasn’t performed well when he has gotten opportunities). Gosselin has a solid defensive reputation but a light bat through 551 MLB PAs. Coleman hit four homers in 71 PAs in his MLB debut this year but logged a .268 OBP. d’Arnaud saw his fair share of 2016 action with the Braves but has never produced much at the plate.

Bullpen options

Kevin Siegrist (L), Josh Edgin (L), Seth Maness, Kevin Quackenbush

Siegrist and Edgin are intriguing names for clubs in need of left-handed bullpen help. Both have recent success on their track records, though Edgin wasn’t as sharp in 2017 as he was prior to 2015 Tommy John surgery. Siegrist’s control eroded in 2017 as he missed time due to a back/spinal injury and tendinitis in his left forearm, but he was one of the Cardinals’ top setup options in both 2015 and 2016. Both lefties are controllable through 2019.

Maness drew headlines for returning from a torn UCL in roughly seven months thanks to an experimental new “primary repair” procedure, but while he stayed healthy in 2017, the results weren’t great in the Majors and especially not in Triple-A (6.13 ERA in 47 innings). Quackenbush was excellent as a rookie in 2014 and solid in 2015-16 before imploding in 2017 (7.86 ERA in 26 1/3 innings). He was better but not great in Triple-A (3.90 ERA, 7.8 K/9, 2.9 BB/9). Maness could be controlled through 2019, while Quackenbush would have three more years of control.

Reds Outright Asher Wojciechowski, Alejandro Chacin, Nick Travieso

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The Reds announced that they’ve outrighted right-handers Asher Wojciechowski, Alejandro Chacin and Nick Travieso off the 40-man roster after each of the three cleared waivers. Cincinnati also announced that righty Luke Farrell failed to clear waivers and was claimed by the division-rival Cubs. The cuts drop Cincinnati’s 40-man roster to a total of 36 players.

Wojciechowski, 28, logged the most time with the Reds this season, soaking up 62 1/3 innings for an injury-marred Reds staff that was one of the worst collective units in all of baseball. In his 25 appearances (eight of them starts), Wojciechowski was hit hard, logging a 6.50 earned run average. While his 9.2 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 marks were solid, Wojciechowski was one of the more extreme fly-ball pitchers in baseball, inducing grounders at just a 29.1 percent clip as compared to a 51.1 percent fly-ball rate. While the 15.1 percent of Wojciechowski’s fly-balls that turned into homers is certainly an above-average rate, it’s not exorbitant by 2017 standards (league average was 13.7 percent). However, the sheer volume of fly-balls surrendered by Wojciechowski led to far too many long balls.

Chacin, 24, only pitched six innings for the Reds after having his contract selected in late August. The 24-year-old did post a 2.60 ERA through 69 1/3 innings of Triple-A ball this year, though, averaging 8.2 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 with a 42.1 percent ground-ball clip in Louisville. That solid but not dominant performance apparently wasn’t enough to get him a look on another club’s 40-man roster, though, and he’ll now be able to explore other opportunities in minor league free agency.

The outright of Travieso is an unfortunate outcome for a player whom the Reds selected with the 14th overall pick of the 2012 draft. Travieso entered the year as a candidate to make his MLB debut at some point in 2017, but as Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer reported back in June, he required shoulder surgery that will sideline him for nine months. Travieso didn’t throw a pitch in the minors this year, though he did log a 3.84 ERA in 117 1/3 innings in Double-A as a 22-year-old last season.

Minor MLB Transactions: 7/2/17

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Here are the latest minor moves from around baseball, with the newest transactions at the top of the post…

  • The Braves have released outfielder Sanders Commings, tweets Robert Murray of FanRag. Commings joined the Braves for a $100K bonus in February, which came after a short career in the NFL as a defensive back with the Kansas City Chiefs. A fifth-round pick out of Georgia in 2013, Commings saw action in two games that year. Those proved to be Commings’ only NFL appearances, as he broke his ankle during training camp in 2014 and was waived with an injury settlement a year later. Commings played high school baseball before turning to football, and he was so promising that the Diamondbacks drafted him in 2008 (in the 37th round). In his return to baseball this year, Commings, 27, has played at the rookie level and hit .154/.267/.231 in a meager sample size (15 PA).
  • The Reds purchased the contract of right-hander Asher Wojciechowski, as per a team announcement.  In corresponding moves, Brandon Finnegan was moved to the 60-day DL and righty Jackson Stephens was optioned to Triple-A.  This is Wojciechowski’s second stint with the big league team this season, having been DFA’ed and outrighted off Cincinnati’s roster last month.  Wojciechowski posted a 6.75 ERA, 7.6 K/9 and 4.5 K/BB rate over 21 1/3 IP, and he allowed six homers over that brief stay in the majors.
  • The Cardinals acquired outfielder Lane Thomas from the Blue Jays in exchange for international bonus pool money, as announced by the Cards’ Twitter feed.  Thomas, 21, was a fifth-round pick for Toronto in 2014 who has a .242/.321/.379 slash line over 1109 career PA, none above the high-A level.  The Jays entered the July 2 int’l signing period with $4.75MM bonus pool and they have already reportedly spent $2.15MM of that total on two notable prospects.
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