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Orioles Claim Logan Allen

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The Orioles have claimed left-hander Logan Allen off waivers, as announced by the Guardians.  Allen and first baseman Bobby Bradley were both designated for assignment on May 1, and the Guards announced that Bradley cleared DFA waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A.

Allen has a 4.50 ERA over six relief innings this season, and a 5.80 ERA, 15.7% strikeout rate, and 9.3% walk rate over 94 2/3 total MLB innings with the Padres and Guardians since 2019.  While not the largest of sample sizes, Allen also hasn’t pitched well at the Triple-A level, with only a 5.76 ERA over 156 1/3 frames of work at the top rung on the minor league ladder.  Allen has delivered more strikeouts in the minors than in the majors, but at both levels, keeping the ball in the park has been his most pressing issue.

More was expected from Allen at this point in his career, particularly since he drew top-100 prospect attention prior to the 2019 season.  This made him one of the key pieces involved in a noteworthy three-team swap between Cleveland, San Diego, and Cincinnati at the 2019 trade deadline, and the Guardians clearly eyed Allen as a possible future rotation piece.

With all of this in mind, Allen is still a few weeks away from his 25th birthday.  His entire prime could be ahead of him if a new club is able to harness his stuff, and it isn’t a shock that a rebuilding team like the Orioles quickly made a waiver claim.

Allen has worked mostly as a starter in the minors, while his big league appearances are an even 15-15 split between starts and relief appearances.  It seems likely that Baltimore will continue to explore Allen as a starting pitcher, and he could get some looks in the rotation in the near future given the depleted state of the O’s staff.  Ace John Means and swingman Chris Ellis have both been lost to season-ending injuries, while another swing option in Alexander Wells was also recently sidelined with a UCL injury.

Guardians Designate Logan Allen, Bobby Bradley For Assignment

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The Guardians have designated left-hander Logan Allen and first baseman Bobby Bradley for assignment.  In another roster move, righty Anthony Castro was activated from the COVID-related injured list, and then optioned to Triple-A.

In the short term, the Guardians have reduced their roster from 28 to 26 players in advance of tomorrow’s roster reduction deadline.  In the bigger picture, however, these moves could mark the organizational end of two players who (not long ago) were considered two possible building blocks.  Both Allen and Bradley were former top-100 ranked prospects, but that promise didn’t translate into consistent MLB success.  Allen and Bradley are both out of minor league options, so Cleveland had to expose them to the DFA wire in order to try and send either player to Triple-A.

Allen was an eighth-round pick for the Red Sox in 2015, and he has thus far been involved in two major trades in his young career.  Allen was one of the four prospects Boston sent to the Padres for Craig Kimbrel in November 2015, and Allen was then one of the seven names involved in the huge three-team swap between San Diego, Cincinnati, and Cleveland prior to the 2019 trade deadline.  That deal saw Cleveland end up with Franmil Reyes, Yasiel Puig, prospects Scott Moss and Victor Nova, plus Allen, who had made his Major League debut earlier that year with the Padres.

After the trade, Allen appeared in one game with his new team in 2019, then only three games in the shortened 2020 season.  Last year was Allen’s first semi-extended look at the big league level, and he posted a 6.26 ERA, 16.7% strikeout rate, and 7.7% walk rate over 50 1/3 innings.  That walk rate was a positive sign considering some of the control problems Allen had faced in the minors, but as had been the case for Allen at Triple-A, his time in the majors was hampered by the long ball.  The southpaw allowed 12 home runs over his 50 1/3 frames.

Between the lack of success in both the majors and at Triple-A Columbus, Allen became an expendable piece for a Guardians organization that is brimming with young talent.  The same could be said of Bradley, as Owen Miller and Josh Naylor have emerged as the Guards’ preferred options at first base only about a season after Bradley was seen as a first baseman of the future.

A third-round pick in the 2014 draft, Bradley displayed plenty of power in the minor leagues, even if his batting averages and on-base numbers weren’t always as impressive.  A big Triple-A season in 2019 earned him a call-up and a 15-game cup of coffee in Cleveland, but Bradley didn’t see any game action at all in 2020 — the minor league season was canceled, and the Guardians never promoted Bradley from their alternate training site.

Cleveland fans were notably impatient to see Bradley get a look in 2021, especially with Jake Bauers struggling as the team’s regular first baseman.  Once Bradley finally got his chance, however, he hit a modest .208/.294/.445 with 16 home runs in 279 PA.  His power was still apparent, but Bradley struck out 99 times, and particularly struggled against left-handed pitching.  This season, Bradley had only two hits in 17 at-bats, striking out nine times.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see either player taken via waiver claim, or for another club to work out a trade with the Guardians.  Both players are still young (both have May birthdays, with Allen turning 25 this month and Bradley 26), and they have each shown enough flashes of promise that a new team might think the flaws can be fixed.

Indians Option James Karinchak To Triple-A

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The Indians have optioned reliever James Karinchak to Triple-A, per The Athletic’s Zack Meisel (via Twitter). Bobby Bradley will be activated from the injured list to take Karinchak’s roster spot.

Karinchak was a popular breakout candidate this season because of his gaudy strikeout numbers, and for awhile, Karinchak made good on that promise. But it’s been a different story in the second half. After recording an absurd 42.5 percent strikeout rate in the first half, that number has fallen to 12.5 percent in the second half. His FIP has tumbled from 3.12 to 7.64.

Karinchak’s spin rates have plummeted all season long on both his fastball and his curve. His In Zone Swing & Miss Percentages have fallen as well, from 26% on his four-seamer in June to just 9% on that same pitch in August.

As for Bradley, the powerful first baseman slashed .213/.316/.480 over 174 plate appearances, his first real crack at regular playing time in the bigs. He’s been out since August 7 with a knee sprain.

Indians Select Francisco Perez

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The Indians announced this afternoon they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Francisco Pérez. First baseman Bobby Bradley is landing on the 10-day injured list after missing the club’s past few games with a left knee injury. Cleveland already had two vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no additional move was needed in that regard.

Pérez is in line to make his big league debut after spending seven years in the minors. He signed as an amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic during the 2014-15 international signing period and has spent his entire career in the Indians organization. Pérez began his career as a starting pitcher but has worked exclusively out of the bullpen this season.

While Pérez has never appeared on an organizational top prospects list at Baseball America or FanGraphs, he’s been nothing short of dominant in the high minors this year. The 24-year-old has worked 45 1/3 innings of 1.19 ERA ball split between Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus. Along the way, Pérez has punched out a whopping 40% of batters faced, although he has walked an elevated 11.7% of opponents. That’s a new development for Pérez, who had posted average or better walk rates at every level until this season.

Indians Designate Jake Bauers, Promote Bobby Bradley, Select Blake Parker

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The Indians have designated first baseman Jake Bauers for assignment, the team announced.  Right-hander Eli Morgan has also been optioned to Triple-A, while first baseman Bobby Bradley has been called up to Cleveland’s roster and righty Blake Parker has had his contract selected.

Today’s news could mark the end of Bauers’ star-crossed tenure in Cleveland.  A top-100 prospect during his time in the Rays’ farm system, Bauers came to the Tribe as part of a major three-team swap involving the Rays and Mariners in December 2018.  The deal brought Carlos Santana back to Cleveland as veteran reinforcement for the Indians’ lineup, and Bauers was supposed to be a young building block, though he hasn’t delivered on that promise.

Over 160 games and 536 plate appearances with the Tribe, Bauers has hit only .218/.305/.352 with 14 home runs, delivering below replacement-level (-0.8 fWAR) production.  This playing time came during the 2019 and 2021 seasons, as Bauers was at Cleveland’s alternate training site in 2020 but never received a call-up to the big league club.  Bauers is out of options, so it’s possible another team might make a waiver claim on a player who is still only 25 and not that far removed from his prospect heyday.

With Bauers struggling so mightily, Tribe fans have spent pretty much all season wondering why Bradley wasn’t being given a shot on the MLB roster.  Bradley had a big Spring Training but has not hit overly well (aside from the power department) at Triple-A this season, with a .196/.266/.485 slash line and nine homers in 109 PA.

Bradley doesn’t bring much versatility as a first base-only player, but with the Indians in desperate need of some extra offense, the decision was finally made to part ways with Bauers and give Bradley another opportunity in the Show.  Bradley received some top-100 prospect attention himself prior to the 2016-17 seasons, and he has hit .251/.339/.503 with 156 homers in 2865 minor league plate appearances since being selected in the third round of the 2014 draft.  Bradley’s only MLB exposure came in 2019, when he posted a .600 OPS over 49 PA.

Parker signed a minor league deal with the Indians in the offseason, and with just one official appearance, Parker will make it seven different teams over parts of nine MLB seasons.  The right-hander (who turns 36 on June 19) most recently pitched for the Phillies in 2020, recording a 2.81 ERA and a huge 36.2% strikeout rate over 16 innings, albeit with an also-hefty 13% walk rate.  Parker has maintained a solid 27.7% strikeout rate over his career, though home runs have been a persistent issue for the veteran.

Indians Announce Roster Decisions

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The Indians have informed first baseman Jake Bauers, lefty Oliver Perez, infielder Yu Chang and outfielder Ben Gamel that they’ve made the Opening Day roster, the club announced to reporters (Twitter links via Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon-Journal). First base prospect Bobby Bradley, outfielder Bradley Zimmer, veteran righty Blake Parker and young lefty Kyle Nelson have all been told they will not head north with the club.

The slate of decisions means that Bauers, who is out of minor league options, will get one more opportunity to fend off Bradley. Bauers didn’t show particularly well this spring, slashing just .200/.429/.280 in 35 trips to the plate. Bradley’s .303/.314/.636 output trounced that, but we’re looking at small samples of data and it’s common this time of year for clubs to be averse to losing out-of-options players on waivers.

Bauers is still just 25 years old and is a former top prospect himself, although he didn’t play in the big leagues last year and carries a rather marginal .214/.314/.377 slash in 811 career plate appearances. Bradley, 24, got an opportunity in the big leagues last season but stumbled with a .178/.245/.356 line in 49 trips to the plate.

With the Indians optioning both Zimmer and Oscar Mercado to Triple-A this week, it appears that Gamel, who’d been in camp as a non-roster invitee, will be one of their primary options in center field. He could split time with Amed Rosario there, although Cleveland’s experiments with him in the outfield thus far in Spring Training have been somewhat adventurous. Gamel has more experience there and seems likely to see plenty of opportunity despite a tepid .212/.316/.364 showing in 38 spring plate appearances.

Chang’s case for a roster spot improved earlier in camp when veteran Mike Freeman was traded over to the Reds. The 25-year-old Chang hasn’t hit much in parts of two seasons with the Indians in 2019-20, but he’s also received just 97 plate appearances in the Majors. Perez, meanwhile, has spent the past three seasons in Cleveland’s bullpen and thrown quite well, so it comes as little surprise that they’ll bring him back for a fourth year. Parker came to camp with a decent chance to grab a spot but has been clobbered for a dozen runs in 6 1/3 innings. His track record in the big leagues is obviously quite a bit better than that disastrous showing, but it’s not hard to see why Cleveland went in another direction after that audition.

Though the team has announced its decisions, the moves themselves aren’t yet formal. Both Perez and Gamel were in camp on non-roster deals, as was veteran righty Bryan Shaw, who made the club earlier in the week. All three will need to be added to the 40-man roster between now and Opening Day, so the Indians clearly have some roster tweaking on the horizon.

Indians Option Five Players To Triple-A

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The Indians announced a batch of minor league options today, as left-handers Logan Allen and Scott Moss, first baseman Bobby Bradley, infielder Yu Chang, and outfielder Daniel Johnson were all optioned to Triple-A Columbus.  Johnson and Moss are the only members of the quintet who have yet to reach the big leagues.

Allen is perhaps the headline name of the group, ranked in top-100 prospect listings prior to last season when he was still throwing in the Padres’ farm system.  The 22-year-old southpaw was one of the key pieces of the trade package Cleveland acquired from San Diego as part of the three-team deal last summer that also brought Franmil Reyes to the Tribe and sent Trevor Bauer to the Reds (Moss also came to Cleveland in that trade, from Cincinnati).

Allen got his first taste of MLB action in 2019, posting a 6.18 ERA over 27 2/3 combined innings with the Padres and Indians.  Small sample size notwithstanding, it was something of a rough year all around for Allen, as he also posted a 5.85 ERA over 80 Triple-A innings last season.  Those minor league stats, of course, come with the caveat that Triple-A pitching numbers were inflated across the board in 2019, due in large part to the adoption of the livelier Major League baseball.

There was some speculation that Allen could have begun the 2020 season in the Tribe’s rotation, as Mike Clevinger and Carlos Carrasco were both facing injured list stints for at least the opening couple of weeks.  With the schedule now pushed back indefinitely, however, it seems likely that Clevinger and Carrasco will be healthy by the time the 2020 season gets underway, so Allen is now ticketed for Columbus.

Johnson was also seen as a speculative candidate to make the team, given the uncertain nature of Cleveland’s outfield.  Johnson hit decently well (.267/.353/.400 over 17 PA) during Spring Training but be sent back to Triple-A for more regular playing time.  Acquired from the Nationals as part of the Yan Gomes trade in November 2018, Johnson hit .290/.361/.507 with 19 homers over 547 combined PA at the Double-A and Triple-A levels last season.

Indians Call Up Bobby Bradley

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The Indians have promoted first base prospect Bobby Bradley and optioned reliever Josh Smith to Triple-A Columbus, the team announced. Bradley’s already on the Indians’ 40-man roster.

The 23-year-old Bradley, an Indian since they selected him in the third round of the 2014 draft, earned his first MLB promotion by destroying Triple-A pitching this season. The lefty swinger slashed .292/.359/.638 (144 wRC+) with an eye-popping 24 home runs in 284 plate appearances prior to his call-up.

While Bradley’s 2019 numbers are great, he didn’t enter the season as a premium prospect. FanGraphs ranked him 20th among Indians farmhands at the beginning of April, though MLB.com places Bradley a more impressive sixth in the club’s system. Two-plus months ago, Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs likened Bradley to the Twins’ C.J. Cron and the Nationals’ Matt Adams.

The Indians’ offense, which has been one of the league’s worst this season, would surely welcome Cron-like production out of Bradley. First baseman Carlos Santana has been outstanding in his return to Cleveland, though primary DH Jake Bauers has disappointed in his initial season with the team. Bradley may eat into Bauers’ playing time as a result.

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