Pitching Notes: Red Sox, Kahnle, Lorenzen
The Red Sox are on the verge of a boost to their rotation, with starters Brayan Bello and Garrett Whitlock set to return. Whitlock will be the first, with Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe reporting that Whitlock will pitch Tuesday against the Rays.
Whitlock has been taking a little extra time to prepare for the season following hip surgery in September. While he’s excelled mostly as a reliever for Boston, the team came into the year planning to use him as a starter and it appears they’re not deviating from that. Whitlock owns a 2.24 ERA in 112 2/3 relief innings, and a 4.15 ERA in nine starts and 39 innings over his two big league seasons.
It’s unclear yet who will drop out of the rotation, although Kutter Crawford‘s spot would appear most at risk. Boston doesn’t get a day off until April 27, so the boost to their struggling rotation is timely. Whitlock’s return could be closely followed by that of Bello. The youngster is scheduled to make another rehab start on Tuesday, with the hope being he’ll go for six innings. As Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe notes, manager Alex Cora wouldn’t commit to him coming of the IL after that, but if he goes that sort of length without any issues then a return can’t be far away.
Bello, 23, worked to a 4.71 ERA over 57 1/3 innings last year. It was a promising rookie season for Bello, and underlying numbers such as FIP (2.94) looked a lot more favorably on his work. Bello had been dealing with forearm tightness during spring training, forcing his delayed start to the season. Like Whitlock, he figures to be a key part of any success Boston’s rotation might have this year.
Here’s some more from around the game:
- Yankees reliever Tommy Kahnle was transferred to the 60-day IL today, meaning the earliest he’ll return will be the end of May. That’s a significant blow for a banged up Yankees bullpen that also lost Jonathan Loaisiga to the IL today. Per Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, manager Aaron Boone did not consider Kahnle to have suffered a setback as a reason for the move to the 60-day, but instead that they just anticipated he’d have a longer buildup. Boone added that he could see Kahnle appearing in minor league rehab games in early May. Kahnle re-joined the Yankees this winter on a two-year, $11.5MM deal.
- The Tiger announced (Twitter) a series of medical updates, including that right-hander Michael Lorenzen is scheduled to make a rehab start Triple-A today. Lorenzen did indeed make that start, going 2 1/3 innings (56 pitches) and giving up four earned runs. Lorenzen is returning from a left groin strain. The team also announced that right-hander Beau Brieske continues to receive further medical evaluation on his right upper arm discomfort. Meanwhile, starter Casey Mize is playing catch three times a week and Tarik Skubal is playing catch six times weekly.
Tigers Designate Edwin Uceta For Assignment
The Tigers announced Thursday that they’ve designated right-hander Edwin Uceta for assignment. That move, coupled with yesterday’s outright of Rony Garcia, will open the two roster spots necessary to select the contracts of lefty Chasen Shreve and righty Trey Wingenter. Both relievers are now formally on Detroit’s Opening Day roster.
Additionally, the Tigers optioned lefty Tyler Holton to Triple-A Toledo and placed three players on the injured list. Infielder Tyler Nevin is headed to the 10-day IL with an oblique strain, while righties Beau Brieske (right upper arm discomfort) and Michael Lorenzen (left groin strain) have been placed on the 15-day IL.
The 25-year-old Uceta was a waiver claim out of the Diamondbacks organization back in January. He’s seen big league work in each of the past two seasons, first throwing 20 1/3 frames with the Dodgers in 20221 before logging 17 frames with the D-backs in 2022. Uceta’s results have been poor, as he’s served up a 6.27 ERA with a 23% strikeout rate and an elevated 11.5% walk rate. He’s struggled to limit the damage with men on base, but Uceta has solid spin and velocity on his four-seamer and a 30% strikeout rate in Triple-A.
Uceta appeared in eight spring games with the Tigers. He yielded six earned runs on 13 hits and four walks through 11 frames (4.91 ERA) but also fanned 14 of his 48 opponents (29.2%). The Tigers will have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. Uceta does have a minor league option remaining, which could add to his appeal.
Injury Notes: Anderson, Patiño, Brieske
Tampa Bay Ray veteran reliever Nick Anderson’s 2022 season is officially over, as per Marc Topkin of Tampa Bay Times. One of the leaders of Tampa Bay’s famed relief corps will call 2022 a lost season, having dealt with a torn elbow ligament in March 2021 and, more recently, plantar fasciitis on his right foot. Anderson did make it back to Triple-A, but posted a 6.19 ERA in 16 innings and gave up 5 home runs in the small sample. This poor showing led the Rays to opt to keep him in Durham, despite their constant bullpen shuffling.
In the three prior seasons, including the 6 innings pitched in 2021, the righty has put up a dominant 2.89 ERA in 87 1/3 innings, with a high 39.6 K% and a low 6.7 BB%. The Rays still have control over Anderson for the next three years, but with his recent injury troubles, it will be interesting to see if they tender him a contract for the 2023 season.
Other injury updates from around the league…
- Rays’ former top prospect Luis Patiño was scratched from his Triple-A start due to “right shoulder discomfort,” as reported by Topkin. Patiño has had a rough 2022 season, with the starter posting a 8.10 ERA in 20 innings, giving up 6 home runs and walking 13 batters. In Triple-A Patiño has fared better, pitching to a 4.38 ERA in 37 innings, which is more in line with the 4.31 ERA in 77 1/3 innings that he posted last season in the majors. Regardless, Patiño’s injury comes at a crucial time with the Rays looking to hold onto a wildcard spot, and any further impediments may bring his season to an early close.
- Detroit Tigers’ rookie Beau Brieske, who has been on the injured list since August 10th with right forearm soreness, will look to the 2023 season. Tigers manager A.J. Hinch has announced that the starter will not pitch again this year, reported by Evan Woodbery of Michigan Live, with the club not wanting to “ramp him back up for just one start” after his first major league season. Brieske’s rookie season was largely productive, with the newcomer starting 15 games, tied for second-most among Tigers pitchers, and pitching to a 4.19 ERA in 81 2/3 innings.
Tigers To Select Kerry Carpenter
Aug. 10: The Tigers have announced Carpenter’s selection to reporters, including Woodbery, with righty Beau Brieske being transferred to the 60-day IL in a corresponding move. He will be ineligible to return until 60 days from his initial IL placement, which was due to forearm soreness on July 21. He could technically return in late September, though with the Tigers well out of contention, it seems possible that his season may be finished.
Aug. 9: The Tigers are bringing up corner outfield prospect Kerry Carpenter to make his major league debut, the team informed reporters (including Evan Woodbery of MLive.com). Daz Cameron is being optioned to Triple-A Toledo in a corresponding move. The club will need to clear a spot on the 40-man roster before tomorrow’s game to formally select Carpenter’s contract.
Carpenter, 25 next month, entered pro ball as a 19th-round draft choice back in 2019. The Virginia Tech product wasn’t regarded as a draft prospect of much note and lost his first full professional season to the pandemic cancelation of the minor leagues. He spent last year with Double-A Erie, hitting at a roughly league average level. Few would’ve anticipated he was on the verge of a breakout, but Carpenter has torn the cover off the ball in 2022.
The left-handed hitter started this season back in Erie. He played there through late June, blasting 22 home runs in 63 games. Carpenter’s strikeout and walk rates weren’t great, but his power output was so overwhelming the Tigers bumped him up to Toledo. He’s played 33 games with the Mud Hens and hit even better there than he had in Erie. Carpenter is hitting .342/.433/.667 through 134 Triple-A plate appearances, connecting on eight homers and 11 doubles with matching strikeout and walk rates (12.7% apiece).
Carpenter doesn’t offer much defensive value, so he’ll have to hit at an above-average level to be productive. Baseball America credited him with plus power in ranking him the #12 prospect in the Detroit system midseason, writing that he made some swing changes last offseason that appear to have paid off. He’d have been eligible for the Rule 5 draft if not added to the 40-man roster at the start of the offseason. As they turn their attention to 2023, the Tigers will get their first look at a player they hope can carve out a regular corner outfield role in the coming years.
AL Central Notes: Guardians, Hosmer, Kepler, Brieske
It was a quiet trade deadline for the Guardians, as Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer writes that the club “at times…felt they were close” to landing Sean Murphy from the Athletics, yet no deal was completed. Murphy was known to be a trade target for the Guards, though another somewhat surprising name was at least briefly on their radar, as Hoynes reports that Cleveland and San Diego had some talks about first baseman Eric Hosmer. However, those discussions didn’t get far, as the Guardians are one of the 10 teams on Hosmer’s no-trade list. Hosmer also used his no-trade protection to scuttle his involvement in the Padres‘ blockbuster deal with the Nationals for Juan Soto, so the Padres instead moved Hosmer to the Red Sox.
San Diego dealt Hosmer and two prospects to Boston for lefty pitching prospect Jay Groome, and the Padres also covering basically all of the $44MM remaining on Hosmer’s deal (which runs through the 2025 season). It’s fair to guess that the Guardians might have had interest in something similar, with Hosmer joining Josh Naylor and Owen Miller as part of the first base/DH mix. Hosmer might have been viewed by the Guards as just a one-season fill-in now that the team is seemingly willing to part ways with Franmil Reyes, but with the Padres footing the bill, Cleveland could have kept Hosmer around as a veteran complement to their younger players.
More from around the AL Central…
- The Twins activated outfielder Max Kepler from the 10-day injured list, and optioned outfielder Mark Contreras to Triple-A. Kepler is making a relatively quick return from a fracture in his right baby toe, after he was hit by a pitch on July 24. Kepler has generated 2.0 fWAR over his 85 games this season, thanks to solid defense and an above-average (113 wRC+) offensive line of .244/.344/.390 in 337 plate appearances.
- Tigers right-hander Beau Brieske had a Triple-A rehab start yesterday, and manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including The Detroit News’ Chris McCosky) that Brieske is perhaps on track to be activated from the 15-day injured list in time to start the Tigers’ game with the Guardians on Wednesday. Forearm soreness sent Brieske to the IL on July 18, but it appears as though the rookie has avoided any serious setback — a rare bit of good health news within an injury-plagued season for Detroit pitchers. All of these injuries open the door for Brieske to make his Major League debut, and the righty posted a respectable 4.19 ERA over his first 15 starts and 81 2/3 innings in the Show.
Tigers Promote Beau Brieske
TODAY: The Tigers officially selected Brieske’s contract in between games of today’s doubleheader with Colorado. Right-hander Angel De Jesus was optioned to Triple-A, and righty Kyle Funkhouser was moved to the 60-day IL to create 40-man roster space.
APRIL 21: The Tigers announced this afternoon that right-hander Beau Brieske will start Saturday’s game against the Rockies. The 24-year-old will be making his major league debut. Brieske is not on the 40-man roster, so Detroit will need to make another move in that regard to formally accommodate the selection of his contract.
Brieske signed for just $75K as a 27th-round pick out of Division II Colorado State-Pueblo in 2019. The Arizona native overcame that lack of draft pedigree to reach the big leagues less than three years later, a testament to his strong work in the minors. Brieske pitched well in 11 relief appearances during his post-draft summer. He didn’t appear in 2020 because of the canceled minor league season, but he traversed a pair of levels last year.
Assigned to High-A Lakeland to open the season, Brieske pitched to a 3.45 ERA with a stellar 30.2% strikeout rate over 13 starts. That earned him an August bump to Double-A Erie, where he posted a 2.66 mark in eight outings. Brieske’s strikeout rate fell to an average 23.3%, but he walked 6% of opponents or fewer at both levels.
That strong performance was paired with a better arsenal that caught the attention of prospect evaluators. Naming him the #18 prospect in the organization this past winter, Baseball America wrote that Brieske had pushed his fastball into the 92-95 MPH range with good life at the top of the strike zone. BA praised his average or better slider and changeup and above-average command and suggested he’d blossomed into a legitimate starting pitching prospect. Eric Longenhagen and Kevin Goldstein at FanGraphs largely echoed that sentiment in their write-up of the Tigers’ farm in January, slotting him #10 in the system.
Brieske opened this season with Triple-A Toledo, where he’s allowed five runs in ten innings over his first two starts. Despite his lack of experience at the minors’ highest level, the Tigers will add him to an MLB rotation that has lost Casey Mize and Matt Manning to the injured list in recent days. Manning, in particular, is expected back in fairly short order, at which point Brieske might wind up optioned back to the minors. Whether his initial call is a lengthy one, Brieske’s addition to the 40-man solidifies him as a near-term depth option for the Detroit rotation.