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Reds Select Michael Mariot

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The Reds announced that they have recalled right-hander Casey Legumina and selected the contract of righty Michael Mariot. In corresponding moves, righty Brett Kennedy was optioned to Triple-A while righty Lyon Richardson was returned to Triple-A. The club already had a vacancy on its 40-man roster.

Mariot, 34, hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2016. The Reds signed him to a minor league deal in June and selected him to the big league roster in July, though he was designated for assignment a day later without getting into a game. He cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment at that time, which now leads to his contract being selected a second time this year.

The Reds were already dealing with a large number of injuries but a recent COVID outbreak has exacerbated the issue, sending multiple pitchers to the injured list. That has required an almost-daily roster churn as they keep cycling fresh arms into the mix, with Mariot the latest to get the call.

He made 44 appearances in the big leagues back in the 2014 to 2016 period but hasn’t been back since, bouncing around on various minor league deals while also spending time in the Mexican League and Chinese Professional Baseball in Taiwan. He began 2023 with the Cleburne Railroaders of the independent American Association of Professional Baseball, posting a 5.06 ERA there but with 29 strikeouts and just five walks in 26 2/3 innings.

That led to a minor league deal with the Reds and he has since thrown 37 2/3 innings over nine appearances for Louisville with a 6.93 ERA and 14.3% strikeout rate. The Reds are going the opener route today, with reliever Tejay Antone scheduled to start, but Mariot could perhaps log some bulk innings in the middle of the game.

As for Richardson, the fact that he has been “returned” to Triple-A and not optioned is worth noting. He was called up as a COVID replacement player recently and has now been sent back down. Optioned pitchers normally cannot be recalled for another 15 days but that won’t apply in this unique situation. He is listed as Wednesday’s starter and should be added back to the roster in short order.

Reds Designate Ricky Karcher For Assignment

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The Reds announced Thursday that they’ve designated right-hander Ricky Karcher for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to right-hander Tony Santillan, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list. Righty Brett Kennedy was optioned to Triple-A Louisville to open a spot for Santillan on the active roster.

Karcher, 25, made his big league debut last month when he worked a scoreless inning out of the Cincinnati bullpen. The former 13th-round pick has struggled for the majority of the season in Triple-A Louisville, however, pitching to a dismal 7.18 ERA with more walks (44) than strikeouts (36) in 31 1/3 innings. He’s never had many problems missing bats, but command issues have plagued him throughout his career, evidenced by his 172 walks (and 225 strikeouts) in 174 1/3 total innings as a professional.

The Reds will have a week to trade Karcher or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He’s in the first of three minor league option seasons and can reach triple digits with his heater, in addition to a slider that grades as an above-average offering, but his location issues are an obvious red flag for other clubs.

Santillan, 26, has yet to pitch in 2023 due to a pair of injuries. Lower back issues derailed his 2022 season, and he was eventually diagnosed with a stress fracture. While still rehabbing his back earlier this season, Santillan was shut down after incurring a knee strain.

In 2021, Santillan looked like an intriguing long-term piece in the bullpen, pitching 43 1/3 innings of 2.91 ERA ball with a 29.5% strikeout rate and 11.1% walk rate as a rookie. The previously mentioned back issues limited him to just 19 1/3 innings last year, however, and he was hit hard during that time. While Santillan saw his velocity tick up to an average of 96.3 mph, he was also torched for a 5.49 ERA with a greatly reduced 21.9% strikeout rate and even higher 12.5% walk rate. Santillan was a starter earlier in his minor league career, and the Reds are in need of rotation help, but he’s been working in short relief during his rehab assignment and figures to once again occupy a bullpen spot moving forward.

Reds To Select Brett Kennedy

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July 4: The Reds have now officially selected Kennedy’s contract, optioning outfielder Stuart Fairchild in a corresponding move.

July 3, 9:05pm: Cincinnati confirmed that Kennedy will get the start tomorrow morning against the Nationals (via Sheldon).

5:25pm: The Reds announced today that right-hander Brett Kennedy has been added to their taxi squad. Manager David Bell tells Mark Sheldon of MLB.com that Kennedy is likely to either start tomorrow’s game or enter after an opener. The righty isn’t currently on the club’s roster, meaning he will have to be selected prior to that game. They already have a vacancy on their 40-man roster but a corresponding move will be required to open a spot on the active roster.

Kennedy, 28, will be pitching in the big leagues for the first time since 2018. He made his major league debut with the Padres that year, making six starts with a 6.75 ERA in 26 2/3 innings. He began the 2019 season on the injured list due to a lat strain and ended up staying there all year, getting outrighted off the roster at season’s end. With the minor leagues being canceled by the pandemic in 2020, he wasn’t able to pitch in any official capacity. He then spent 2021 stuck in the minors and reached free agency at the conclusion of that campaign.

Kennedy began both 2022 and 2023 with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. Last year, he made six starts as a Duck with a 3.03 ERA before his contract was selected by the Red Sox. He then posted a 3.94 ERA in 75 1/3 Double-A innings but never got the call to the big leagues. He returned to the Ducks this year and had a 3.09 ERA through three starts before the Reds purchased his contract.

Since joining the Reds organization, he’s made eight Triple-A starts and thrown 43 2/3 innings. He has a 3.71 ERA in those, striking out 19.8% of batters faced while walking 6.4% of them and getting grounders on 39.6% of balls in play.

There’s been much uncertainty in the rotation in Cincinnati of late, with injuries taking a significant toll on the staff. Vladimir Gutierrez and Justin Dunn have each been on the IL all season so far. Nick Lodolo and Connor Overton each landed there in May with Hunter Greene and Ben Lively joining them in June.

Graham Ashcraft recently returned from his own IL stint but has an ERA of 6.66 on the year. Each of Brandon Williamson, Luke Weaver and Levi Stoudt has an ERA above 5.55. Andrew Abbott has a 1.21 ERA but some regression will have to be expected since he won’t be able to maintain a 100% strand rate or .190 batting average on balls in play. Their starters have collective 5.72 ERA on the year, better than just the Athletics and Rockies.

Those challenges will push the club to give Kennedy a try, his first major league action in five years. He has a full slate of options and between one and two years of service time, which could allow the club to keep him as a depth option for the foreseeable future, as long as he continues to hang onto a 40-man roster spot.

Padres Outright Brett Kennedy

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The Padres have outrighted righty Brett Kennedy, per the Pacific Coast League transactions page. That’ll clear another 40-man spot for the Friars to utilize in the coming months.

Now 25, Kennedy debuted in 2018 after a promising run through the San Diego farm system. He struggled in his initial MLB showing but seemingly had a good shot at a second chance and a useful big-league career.

That all may still come to pass, but Kennedy will first need to get back to health. He was sidelined early with lat/shoulder issues and ended up on the 60-day injured list. Kennedy attempted a rehab stint but made just one appearance.

Rather than adding Kennedy back to the 40-man, the Pads elected to run him through waivers. The club will still control the rights to the Fordham product.

Padres Select Alex Dickerson

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The Padres announced today that they have selected the contract of Alex Dickerson. He’ll take the active roster spot of righty Luis Perdomo, who was optioned. A 40-man opening was created by moving right-hander Brett Kennedy to the 60-day IL.

Dickerson returns to the majors just before his 29th birthday. He was dropped from the San Diego 40-man roster after the 2018 season but re-signed on a minors pact.

A former third-round pick, Dickerson has more or less always produced when healthy. He consistently drubbed minor-league pitching and turned in a strong .257/.333/.455 slash in his first full look at the majors in 2016.

Unfortunately, that’s the last we had seen of Dickerson in regular-season action. Back and elbow injuries robbed him of two consecutive campaigns.

Dickerson has picked up right where he left off at Triple-A, making this an interesting promotion to watch. Through 104 plate appearances in 2019, he’s slashing .360/.462/.593 with five home runs and a confidence-inspiring 17:13 K/BB ratio.

NL Roster/Health Notes: Taylor, Verdugo, Cecil, Romano, Kennedy

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The Nationals are suddenly facing a potential roster gap in the outfield, as Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com reports. Michael Taylor tweaked his knee today and is slated to be looked at more closely tomorrow. With Howie Kendrick also in limbo, both of the club’s right-handed-hitting reserve outfield pieces could be out of commission to open the season. Lefty hitter Andrew Stevenson is the only other 40-man outfielder. Perhaps there’s a chance that the Nats will look to the free agent market — Austin Jackson seems the closest match to Taylor as a right-handed-hitting center fielder — or consider claiming a late-spring roster casualty to boost their depth.

Here are a few more roster notes from around the game:

  • The Dodgers expect to carry Alex Verdugo on the MLB roster to open the year, manager Dave Roberts says (via Pedro Moura of The Athletic, on Twitter). After spending two seasons at Triple-A, where he owns a healthy .321/.389/.452 slash, Verdugo certainly deserves a shot. It remains to be seen how he and others will actually be utilized. As things stand, Joc Pederson and Cody Bellinger are also available as left-handed-hitting outfield options, though perhaps some roster tweaking could still occur.
  • Cardinals lefty Brett Cecil pitched in an instrasquad game today and threw more balls (15) than strikes (12) in his latest shaky outing, according to Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. This spring has been a trial for the veteran reliever, who’s still trying to find himself on the mound after losing a bunch of weight following a brutal 2018 season. Command and velocity are both problems at the moment, as Frederickson’s colleague Derrick Goold recently explored.
  • Right-hander Sal Romano, who has spent the vast majority of his career as a starter, will be converted into a relief role for the Reds moving forward, Bobby Nightengale Jr. of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. He’ll still be stretched out to the point where he can be relied upon for two- and three-inning relief appearances if needed, though. Unlike some other Reds roster hopefuls, Romano has a minor league option remaining, so it’s possible he’ll continue to acclimate to his new role at the Triple-A level before getting a look the big league ’pen. Romano, who turned 25 this offseason, has long rated as one of the more intriguing arms in the Cincinnati system but hasn’t found MLB success yet. In 232 2/3 innings, he’s mustered just a 4.99 ERA with 6.9 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 — including a 5.31 ERA in 145 2/3 innings of work last year. Making it into the Reds’ rotation would’ve been challenging anyhow, as offseason acquisitions Sonny Gray, Alex Wood and Tanner Roark are expected to join holdovers Luis Castillo and Anthony DeSclafani to round out the starting five.
  • Padres right-hander Brett Kennedy has been diagnosed with a lat strain, per James Clark of the East Village Times (Twitter link). The expectation is that he’ll be sidelined for about a month. Kennedy, 24, scuffled last year in his first six MLB appearances and wasn’t expected to command a big league job out of camp. But he posted impressive results in 2018 at Triple-A, with 89 1/3 innings of 2.72 ERA ball over 16 starts, and is certainly part of the depth picture in San Diego.

NL Notes: Kang, Kennedy, Giants, Wainwright

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The Pirates will be faced with a decision on Jung Ho Kang’s 2019 option this offseason, but GM Neal Huntington tells Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic that Kang’s performance in this weekend series won’t have an impact on the outcome (subscription required). “Truth be told, there’s not going to be a whole lot of value in the evaluation process of a one-game or a one-plus-game look,” said Huntington. Biertempfel notes, though, that the late promotion could earn a bit of good will with Kang’s camp in the event that the team elects to buy out his $5.5MM option and try to bring him back into the fold for a few million less than that. There’s been no indication one way or another as to how the Pirates plan on proceeding, though the very fact that he was brought up to the Majors at all indicates that they’re not totally closed off to the possibility of continuing the relationship in spite of Kang’s legal troubles over the past few seasons.

Here’s more from the National League…

  • Padres right-hander Brett Kennedy underwent knee surgery that will sideline him for the first six weeks of the offseason, tweets AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. However, Kennedy is still expected to be able to have a largely normal offseason program, and the operation isn’t expected to impact his availability for the 2019 campaign. Kennedy, 24, didn’t impress in six starts with the Friars this season, working to a 6.75 ERA in 26 2/3 innings. However, the 2015 11th-rounder fired off 89 1/3 innings of 2.72 ERA ball with 8.1 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 52.6 percent ground-ball rate in an extremely hitter-friendly setting with the Padres’ El Paso affiliate in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League. He posted solid numbers at Double-A in 2017 and at Class-A Advanced in 2016, and with multiple minor league options remaining beyond 2018, he’ll have ample opportunity to cement himself as part of the San Diego pitching staff in come capacity over the next few seasons.
  • The Giants’ search for a new general manager and/or president of baseball operations isn’t expected to be a quick one, tweets Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. The process could take several weeks as Giants leadership interviews a wide range of candidates with varying backgrounds. Notably, Schulman adds that the Giants aren’t set on hiring any one specific type of executive (e.g. analytically inclined, traditional scouting background, etc.) and seem to be embarking on this process with an open-minded approach.
  • With the Cardinals on the brink of elimination, Derrick Gould of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes the uncertain future of Adam Wainwright, who may have made his final start yesterday for the only MLB team he’s ever known. Wainwright’s a free agent at season’s end, and while he spent most of the season sidelined by elbow soreness, he’s rebounded in September to pitch admirably for St. Louis. His 4.84 ERA across his past four starts may not look pretty, but his 3.20 FIP and stunning 6.25 K/BB ratio points to a much more effective pitcher than the version of Wainwright the world had seen across the rest of the past three seasons. Teammate Yadier Molina, for what it’s worth, doesn’t seem to think it’s the last time the two will be batterymates, saying he’s “confident” about that. “It may have been,” Wainwright himself said. “It doesn’t feel like it is. For whatever reason. I haven’t had those emotions. The way I’m feeling now, if that is my last start here it would be kind of hard to walk away knowing the way I’m feeling right now.”

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/8/18

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We’ll track the latest minor moves in this post:

  • The Royals have released right-hander Michael Mariot, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com tweets. The 29-year-old Mariot had been in his second stint as a member of the Royals, with whom he initially pitched from 2014-15 after they chose him in the eighth round of the 2010 draft. Mariot, who was with the Phillies from 2016-17 and the Padres earlier in 2018, threw 37 2/3 innings between the Royals’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates this year. The majority of that work came with the latter club, as Mariot recorded a 3.81 ERA with 9.85 K/9 and 2.22 BB/9 in 28 1/3 innings (18 appearances, two starts).

Earlier updates:

  • The Indians announced that they have released righty Zach McAllister, who had recently been designated for assignment. Though he cleared waivers, due in no small part to his $2.45MM salary, the 30-year-old ought to draw interest on the open market. After all, he had been quite a useful reliever for the Indians over the prior three seasons before hitting some bumps this year. McAllister is throwing strikes and getting swings and misses at the same levels as before. Though he’s giving up a fair bit of hard contact, he did that in 2017 as well. Of course, he had been outperforming ERA estimators in recent years. With a 68.5% strand rate and 1.51 homers per nine in 2018, some of the prior issues have finally shown up on the earned-run ledger. McAllister will qualify for free agency at season’s end, having already exceeded six full years of MLB service.
  • Per the MLB transactions page, the Padres have selected the contract of righty Brett Kennedy. His forthcoming promotion was reported a few days back by Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune (via Twitter). Though he isn’t generally cited among the organization’s best prospects, the 24-year-old Kennedy turned in strong results over 16 Triple-A starts this year, pitching to a 2.72 ERA with 8.1 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9 along with a 52.6% groundball rate.
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