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Twins Claim Jordan Luplow

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The Twins have claimed outfielder Jordan Luplow off waivers from the Blue Jays, reports Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. Toronto designated Luplow for assignment prior to the trade deadline. To clear a spot on the 40-man roster, the Twins moved Brock Stewart from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list.

Luplow adds some balance to a lefty-heavy Minnesota outfield. A right-handed hitter, he’s been a solid power threat against left-handed pitching throughout his career. Luplow owns a .226/.337/.497 slash in 520 MLB plate appearances versus southpaws. He’s been leveraged in a platoon capacity throughout his big league time, only picking up 467 trips to the dish against same-handed arms (and hitting .199/.289/.354).

The bulk of Luplow’s production has come in previous seasons, however. The 29-year-old has barely played at the big league level this year. He’s made seven appearances around a pair of DFAs with the Blue Jays, who’d claimed him from Atlanta during the first week of the year. He’s posted roughly average numbers at Triple-A Buffalo, hitting .239/.341/.438 over 208 plate appearances.

Stewart had been amidst a breakout season that was interrupted by elbow soreness. He went for an MRI this week after experiencing renewed discomfort (relayed by Dan Hayes of the Athletic). It’s unclear how long he’ll be out, though the transfer officially puts him on the shelf until the final week of August.

Twins Eyeing Bullpen Help, Right-Handed Bats

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The Twins are the only team in the AL Central above .500, and president of baseball operations Derek Falvey unsurprisingly tells Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic that they’ll accordingly operate as buyers at this year’s deadline. Bullpen help and right-handed bats are the primary areas of focus for Minnesota between now and next Tuesday’s deadline.

One club the Twins have spoken to has both to offer. Darren Wolfson of SKOR North Radio and 5 Eyewitness News tweets that the Twins have talked with the Nationals, who have been scouting Minnesota’s Triple-A affiliate in St. Paul. The Nats are just one of many teams the Twins have spoken too, of course, but the presence of outfielder Lane Thomas and surely available relievers like Kyle Finnegan present some obvious fits.

Falvey suggested that the Twins will be in the market for more “complementary” pieces, which might take someone like Thomas off the table, though as a lefty-mashing outfielder with multiple seasons of club control remaining beyond the current year, he’s an on-paper fit at the very least.

Falvey noted, however, that he’s amenable to trading for rental players. The trade market figures to have plenty of righty-swinging options who fit that bill — Randal Grichuk, Tommy Pham, Mark Canha and Adam Duvall potentially among them. (Canha has a 2024 option.)

The Twins are hitting just .219/.293/.369 against left-handed pitching this season, thanks in no small part to a glut of left-handed-hitting outfielders that at one point looked likely to lead to an offseason trade. That never materialized, however.

[Related: Twins’ Outfielders Drawing Trade Attention]

Many of the Twins’ offseason acquisitions who were added with an eye toward bolstering the lineup against southpaws have fallen shy of expectation in that regard. Christian Vazquez, Donovan Solano and Michael A. Taylor all have some past success against lefties, but none has been more than average against southpaws in 2023. Kyle Farmer has hit lefties well but not up to his prior standards.

Incumbent righty bats like Byron Buxton and the previously optioned (and now injured) Jose Miranda, meanwhile, have struggled against southpaws. Royce Lewis and Jorge Polanco have hit lefties well, but both are on sitting alongside Miranda on the injured list. Polanco has been out since early June. Lewis hit the IL in early July and isn’t expected back until next month.

Similarly, the Twins are missing some key contributors in the bullpen. Left-hander Caleb Thielbar has quietly become an excellent setup man since his 2020 return to the big leagues after a five-year absence. The 36-year-old has pitched to a 3.10 ERA with a 30% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate since 2020 but has just 10 1/3 innings this year due to a pair of oblique injuries.

Brock Stewart, another diamond-in-the-rough find for the Twins, returned to the Majors for the first time since 2019 this year and has posted a 0.70 ERA and 35.4% strikeout rate for the Twins. However, he’s been out since late July with an elbow issue. Stewart threw his first bullpen session today and will throw another Saturday, per Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com (Twitter link), but it’s not yet clear just when he’ll be back in the Twins’ bullpen. The absence of both Thielbar and Stewart was felt last night when the Twins’ relief corps squandered a four-run lead and strong start from Pablo Lopez in a game they eventually dropped to the Mariners by a score of 9-7.

Injury Notes: Wilson, Rucinski, Stewart

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Brewers left-hander Justin Wilson began a rehab assignment yesterday, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com. The lefty required Tommy John surgery in June of last year and Milwaukee signed him knowing that he would miss the first half of 2023 even in a best-case scenario. He’s making $850K this year and the club has a $2.5MM option for next season with a $150K buyout.

The 35-year-old has plenty of experience as a solid left-handed reliever, having appeared in 527 career games with an ERA of 3.41. He’s struck out 25.9% of batters faced, walked 10.7% of them and kept the ball on the ground at a 46.8% rate. If he’s able to get healthy and back to his old self, he could give the club a second lefty in the bullpen alongside Hoby Milner.

Wilson will likely need some time to get into game shape, but the fact that he’s beginning a rehab assignment barely a year after going under the knife is an encouraging sign that things are progressing well. His health and performance down the stretch will undoubtedly impact how much interest the Brewers have in picking up that option.

Some other health notes from around the league…

  • Athletics right-hander Drew Rucinski has had a frustrating season in the health department and those frustrations seem to be continuing. He landed on the injured list in late May due to a stomach illness but that was followed by a low-grade MCL sprain in his right knee suffered during a bullpen session. Now Martín Gallegos of MLB.com relays that Rucinski will be undergoing MRIs on his left hip and lower back due to some apparent degenerative changes. That testing will hopefully shed some light on what’s ahead for the righty, whose return to North America isn’t going as hoped. He parlayed a strong performance in the KBO into a $3MM deal with the A’s plus a $5MM club option for 2024. He began the year on the IL due to a hamstring strain then got healthy enough to make four starts, allowing 18 earned runs in 18 innings before this recent cascade of setbacks. He’s already been transferred to the 60-day injured list and isn’t eligible to return until late July.
  • Twins right-hander Brock Stewart was placed on the 15-day injured list yesterday, retroactive to June 26, with right elbow soreness. His agent Joe Speed told Darren Wolfson of Skor North that it wasn’t a big issue and expressed confidence that Stewart would be able to contribute in the second half of the season. Manager Rocco Baldelli also seemed to think it wouldn’t be a huge problem, telling Bobby Nightengale of the Star Tribune that it appeared to be a minor bout of tendinitis. If it ultimately proves to be true that it’s no big deal, that’s a tremendous break for the Twins. Stewart has been utterly dominant this year, with an ERA of 0.70 through 25 2/3 innings, striking out 35.4% of opponents against an 11.1% walk rate. It’s been an incredible comeback story for a guy who is in the big leagues for the first time since 2019 and the club would undoubtedly be thrilled if he could make a quick return after the All-Star break.

Twins Designate Trevor Megill For Assignment

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The Twins announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Brock Stewart, a move that was reported earlier today. To open a spot for Stewart on the active roster, righty Bailey Ober was optioned to Triple-A St. Paul yesterday. To get Stewart onto the 40-man roster, righty Trevor Megill was designated for assignment.

Megill, 29, made his major league debut with the Cubs in 2021. He posted an 8.37 ERA in 28 appearances, though he struck out 26.1% of batters faced and walked just 7%. He was claimed off waivers by the Twins at season’s end, though they quickly non-tendered him and re-signed him on a minor league deal. He got selected to the roster in May and made 39 appearances for the Twins last year, registering a 4.80 ERA. It’s possible that he deserved even better, given his .368 batting average on balls in play and 62.5% strand rate. Decent peripherals like a 25% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate and 45% ground ball rate led to a 3.29 FIP and 3.38 SIERA.

The righty was optioned to Triple-A to start this season but has gotten out to an atrocious start. He’s tossed 9 2/3 innings over seven outings, walking 25.5% of batters faced, which has contributed to an unsightly 13.03 ERA. He struck out 31.4% of batters faced and got grounders at a 50% clip, but the overall results were clearly not great.

The Twins will now have a week to trade Megill or pass him through waivers. Despite his rough start to the year, other clubs may overlook that small sample and take a flier on the righty based on past results, as he still has a couple of options and has yet to qualify for arbitration.

Twins To Select Brock Stewart

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The Twins are set to select the contract of right-hander Brock Stewart, MLBTR has confirmed. Jeremy Maschino first suggested that Stewart could be on his way to join the Twins’ big league club today. They’ll need to make a 40-man roster move to accommodate Stewart’s addition, though they have at least one on-paper candidate for the 60-day injured list, as right-hander Ronny Henriquez has spent the entire season on the 15-day injured list due to an elbow issue and has yet to throw a pitch.

This will be the first MLB stint for the 31-year-old Stewart since 2019, when he tossed 25 2/3 innings between the Dodgers and the Blue Jays. He didn’t pitch in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season, and Tommy John surgery plus a second procedure to remove a bone spur from his elbow wiped out most of his 2021-22 seasons. Stewart made it back to a minor league mound with the Twins late in the ’22 season but struggled across three levels, allowing 10 earned runs in 14 innings.

The 2023 season has been a much different story thus far. He’s blitzed out of the gate with a 2.08 ERA and gaudy 48.6% strikeout rate in 8 2/3 innings, walking just 5.7% of his opponents. Stewart’s raw 17-to-2 K/BB ratio is intriguing, even in a small sample at the Triple-A level, particularly since he’s added considerable velocity in recent years. Stewart averaged 92.8 mph on his four-seamer during his 2016-19 run with Los Angeles and Toronto but has since moved to short relief stints and ramped that velocity into the upper 90s. In addition to that massive strikeout rate, he’s also sporting an enormous 22.1% swinging-strike rate in St. Paul.

The back end of the Twins’ bullpen has been outstanding thus far, as closer Jhoan Duran and setup men Jorge Lopez, Griffin Jax and Caleb Thielbar are all out to strong starts. It’s been far shakier after that quartet, with righty Emilio Pagan and lefty Jovani Moran both sporting early ERAs that begin with a seven. Twins starters rank second in the Majors in innings pitched so far — a remarkable change of course from the 2022 season — so they haven’t had to lean too heavily on the arms in their middle relief corps. Still, the front office and manager Rocco Baldelli would surely prefer a deeper supply of reliable arms, and at least based on his early output in St. Paul, Stewart could potentially give them another hard-throwing, bat-missing arm to help stabilize the group. Stewart is out of minor league options, so he’ll need to stick on the Twins’ big league roster or else be passed through waivers before he can return to Triple-A.

Twins Sign Ryan LaMarre, Chance Sisco, Grayson Greiner To Minor League Deals

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The Twins announced a slate of non-roster invitees to Major League Spring Training on Friday, with new additions including outfielder Ryan LaMarre, catchers Chance Sisco and Grayson Greiner, and righty Brock Stewart.

LaMarre, 34, has appeared in parts of six big league seasons, including a 14-game stint with the Twins back in 2019. He’s been a reserve outfielder for most of that time, hitting .232/.286/.350 over the life of 270 Major League plate appearances. Most recently, LaMarre had a strong showing with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate in 2022, batting .297/.409/.458 in 186 plate appearances. That was a continuation of a lengthy track record of strong performance at the top minor league level, as LaMarre is now a career .282/.359/.432 hitter in parts of nine Triple-A seasons.

The Twins are deep in left-handed-hitting outfielders but are lacking in righty-swinging options such as LaMarre — particularly after this week’s DFA of Kyle Garlick. Center fielder Byron Buxton and backup outfielder Gilberto Celestino are the only right-handed-hitting outfielders on the 40-man roster, while Minnesota has five lefty-hitting outfielders in the form of Max Kepler, Alex Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach, Matt Wallner and offseason signee Joey Gallo. LaMarre will give the Twins a potential right-handed-hitting option off the bench to complement that group.

Sisco, 28 next month, returns for a second straight season in the Twins organization. He’ll join recently signed veteran Tony Wolters to give the organization some experienced catching options in Triple-A. Sisco signed a minor league deal with the Twins last offseason and began the year in St. Paul, but a knee injury sustained in late April wound up limiting him to only 10 games, during which he batted .194/.297/.355 in 37 plate appearances.

Sisco once rated as one of the top catching prospects in baseball but, with the exception of a brilliant 10-game debut late in the 2017 season (.333/.455/.778), Sisco hasn’t had much extended success at the plate. He’s a career .197/.317/.337 hitter in 608 big league plate appearances but has a more solid .253/.343/.418 batting line in 964 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.

Greiner spent several seasons with the division-rival Tigers but was with the D-backs organization in 2022. The 30-year-old is a career .201/.275/.307 hitter in the Majors (485 plate appearances). A third-round pick in 2014, Greiner has a career .233/.315/.360 line in Triple-A and will give the Twins some further catching depth.

Stewart, 31, hasn’t pitched in the Majors since 2019. He’s tallied 105 2/3 innings at the big league level but struggled to a 6.05 ERA. Like Sisco, he was with the Twins in 2022 but hampered by injuries, which limited him to only 14 minor league innings. Coincidentally, he and fellow Twins non-roster invitee Jose De Leon were both once well-regarded pitching prospects in the Dodgers organization. The Twins reportedly targeted both De Leon and Stewart when discussing a trade of Brian Dozier with the Dodgers in the 2016-17 offseason. That deal never came to fruition, but Dozier wound up going to the Dodgers in a midseason trade a year and a half later.

Dodgers Agree To Minor League Deals With Morrow, Nelson, Stewart, Pazos

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6:37pm: The Dodgers also have minors deals with righties Jimmy Nelson and Brock Stewart and lefty James Pazos (along with the previously reported Carlos Asuaje), per Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times. They’re all invited to big league camp, according to Gurnick.

The oft-injured Nelson didn’t pitch at all last season after undergoing back surgery, and the Dodgers then declined his $2MM club option for 2021. Stewart was a 2014 Dodgers sixth-rounder who appeared in the majors with the team from 2016-19, but it lost him to the Blue Jays via waivers in the last of those seasons. He struggled in Toronto that year and hasn’t pitched in the majors since then. The 29-year-old Pazos was terrific with Seattle and Colorado from 2018-19, but the Rockies designated him for assignment after a disastrous 2020.

6:00pm: The Dodgers and right-handed reliever Brandon Morrow have agreed to a minor league contract, according to Jeff Passan of ESPN. He’ll be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee, Ken Gurnick of MLB.com tweets.

This will be the second Dodgers stint for Morrow, who resurrected his career during his previous run in Los Angeles. After dealing with a slew of injuries with a few different teams, Morrow joined the Dodgers on a minors pact heading into the 2017 season. It proved to be a brilliant decision by the Dodgers, as Morrow made his way to the majors and fired 43 2/3 innings of 2.06 ERA/1.55 FIP ball with 10.31 K/9 and 1.85 BB/9. His performance helped the team to a National League pennant.

After the Dodgers bowed out in the World Series to the Astros, Morrow left Los Angeles in favor of a two-year, $21MM contract with the Cubs during free agency. While Morrow did give the Cubs excellent production as their closer in the first season of the deal, back problems held him to 30 2/3 frames and prevented him from pitching beyond July 15, 2018.

The 36-year-old Morrow, unfortunately, still has not returned to a big league mound since then. He missed all of 2019 with elbow troubles and didn’t make it back to the Cubs last year after inking a minors deal.

Cubs Release Brock Stewart, Carlos Asuaje

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FRIDAY: J.J. Cooper of Baseball America tweets the full list of players the Cubs have released.

THURSDAY, 10:11pm: The Cubs have let go of 30 minor leaguers, according to Maddie Lee and Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago. However, aside from Stewart and Asuaje, the identities of the players aren’t yet known.

7:16pm: There are minor league cuts happening across baseball, and though the Cubs’ full list isn’t out yet, right-hander Brock Stewart and utilityman Carlos Asuaje are among the players they have released. Stewart announced his fate on Twitter, while Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic reported on Asuaje’s exit (via Patrick Mooney of The Athletic). Those two and the rest of the minor leaguers the Cubs have parted with will be paid through the end of June.

Stewart, 28, is an Illinois native who attended Illinois State and was then a sixth-round pick of the Dodgers in the 2014 amateur draft. He went on to pitch for the Dodgers from 2016-19, but the club lost him on waivers to the Blue Jays last July. Stewart didn’t last long with the Jays, who lost him to the Cubs as a Rule 5 pick last winter. Between Los Angeles and Toronto, Stewart has pitched to a 6.05 ERA/6.25 FIP with 7.41 K/9 and 4.09 BB/9 during his 105 2/3-inning major league career.

Success at the game’s highest level has also been hard to come by for Asuaje. The 28-year-old amassed 586 plate appearances as a Padre from 2016-18, but he only managed a .240/.312/.329 line with six home runs with San Diego. Asuaje joined the Lotte Giants of the Korea Baseball Organization last year, and he hit .252/.356/.368 with a pair of homers in 194 PA before the club released him. He finished 2019 with the Diamondbacks’ Triple-A affiliate.

Blue Jays Outright Brock Stewart, Buddy Boshers

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The Blue Jays have outrighted relief pitchers Brock Stewart and Buddy Boshers, per the International League transactions page. Fellow reliever Ryan Dull was also outrighted; he had been designated for assignment recently.

Stewart, 28, had spent his entire career with the Dodgers until he moved via waiver claim at the trade deadline. Utilized in a multi-inning capacity in Toronto, Stewart was tuned up for twenty earned runs (and nine homers) in 21 2/3 frames over ten appearances.

The 31-year-old Boshers took part in his fourth MLB campaign, with quite a different usage pattern. He threw twenty innings in 28 appearances, sporting a 26:10 K/BB ratio and 4.05 ERA but allowing a .257/.366/.486 batting line to opposing left-handed hitters.

As for what’s next, all three hurlers will be looking to bounce back and open a new opportunity at the game’s highest level. But where that’ll take place remains to be seen. Dull likely accrued just enough service time this year to pass three full seasons of MLB time, which would give him the right to reject the assignment, though that has not yet been officially tabulated. Boshers has the right to take to the open market since he has previously been outrighted. Stewart is in a different situation, as he cannot reject the assignment upon either of the above grounds. Neither will he qualify as a minor-league free agent. It seems, then, that he will remain in the Toronto organization unless the club decides to cut him loose.

Blue Jays Announce Flurry Of Roster Moves

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The Blue Jays made a series of roster moves on Sunday, according to Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. The club has optioned pitchers Brock Stewart and Justin Shafer, allowing for the activation of Clay Buchholz from the injured list and Ken Giles from the paternity list. In addition, right-hander Nick Kingham has been designated for assignment.

Buchholz last pitched for the Jays on May 5, before a shoulder strain forced him onto the 60-day injured list and kept him out of commission for more more than three months. After completing a rehab assignment in which he made three starts, the veteran will rejoin the Toronto rotation in time to start Sunday’s game. He’ll certainly face some restrictions in his workload as he works back into Major League action; his pitch count maxed out at 67 during his rehab.

After a resurgent season in Arizona last year, Buchholz hasn’t gotten much of a chance to ingratiate himself to the Toronto organization, having made just five starts with his new club. However, that five-game sample hasn’t given the Blue Jays much to be optimistic about, as Buchholz has managed to strike out just 4.4 batters per nine innings, fueling an unimpressive 5.67 FIP. Regardless, he’ll have just over a month to straighten things out and make good on the $3MM contract he earned last winter.

Giles, meanwhile, will return to the Toronto bullpen after a few days away from the game. He’s been far and away the Jays’ most reliable pitcher, enjoying his best season since he was traded out of Philadelphia. In 40 innings this year, he’s posted a 1.80 ERA while striking out batters at a career-best rate. While the 29-year-old, who can be a free agent after next season, may not be a part of the promising Blue Jays’ future plans, he certainly provides a boon to a club that has turned some heads with its young core.

27-year-old Kingham has been on the injured list since early August owing to a strained oblique, and will now be removed from Toronto’s 40-man in favor of Buchholz. While he could remain in the organization, he’ll first need to pass through waivers. He’s already done that once this year, when the Pirates designated him and later traded him to the Blue Jays. Despite his outwardly impressive 3.00 ERA in Toronto, most indicators suggest that Kingham’s performance is roughly in line with the poor numbers that earned him a ticket out of Pittsburgh.

After more than three seasons bouncing between the ranks of the Dodgers organization, Stewart now finds himself doing more of the same, only now with Toronto. Since joining the Jays, he’s already been optioned several times, though he’s shown himself to be a serviceable long-man for the starter-thin Blue Jays. Shafer, for his part, has been a solid bullpen choice for a Toronto organization that has shuttled seemingly dozens of relievers into and out of the Major League bullpen. The 26-year-old has struck out 29 batters in 31 innings, though he has had trouble keeping the walks in check, surrendering 22 free passes for an average of 6.4 per nine innings pitched.

 

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