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Carlos Vargas

Diamondbacks Announce Several Roster Moves

By Darragh McDonald and Anthony Franco | November 15, 2022 at 6:01pm CDT

The Diamondbacks announced several roster moves in advance of tonight’s Rule 5 protection deadline. One of them was the previously reported acquisition of reliever Carlos Vargas from the Guardians. They also added infielder Blaze Alexander, outfielders Jorge Barrosa and Dominic Fletcher, as well as righty Justin Martinez to the 40-man roster. In corresponding moves, they designated four players for assignment: infielder Sergio Alcántara, left-hander Caleb Smith and outfielders Stone Garrett and Jordan Luplow.

Alcántara had two separate stints on the Arizona roster this past season, with a brief stay in San Diego intervening. He bounced around the waiver wire on the strength of his glove at shortstop. He didn’t provide much offensively, however, putting up a .220/.261/.356 line in 224 trips to the plate. That’s fairly similar to the .205/.303/.327 showing he had in 2021 as a member of the Cubs.

Garrett and Luplow each played similar roles in the desert, serving as right-handed complements to a primarily left-handed outfield. Garrett had more success, posting a .276/.309/.539 showing with four home runs and eight doubles in his first 27 MLB games. That came with a 3:27 walk-to-strikeout ratio, and Arizona’s front office clearly wasn’t bullish on his chances of replicating that kind of success. Garrett joined the organization on a minor league deal but had a decent season at Triple-A Reno and could find some interest on the waiver wire.

The Snakes acquired Luplow in a trade with the Rays last offseason. They’d hoped he could replicate his career track record of success against left-handed pitching, but the veteran outfielder didn’t meet those expectations. Through 234 plate appearances, he posted a .176/.274/.361 line, although he did connect on 11 round-trippers. That wasn’t enough to convince Arizona to keep him around on a projected $2MM arbitration salary, making today’s DFA something of an early non-tender.

That’s also true of Smith, who’d been projected for a $2.7MM salary for his final year of club control. The 31-year-old southpaw pitched 44 times and soaked up 70 innings out of the bullpen this year, posting a 4.11 ERA. He was diagnosed with a ligament tear in his throwing elbow after the season but is electing to rehab without surgery. A former starter with the Yankees and Marlins, Smith had spent the past two and a half years in Arizona.

Taking their places on the roster are Vargas, Alexander, Barrosa, Fletcher and Martinez. Alexander may be the most notable of the group. An 11th-round selection out of a Florida academy in 2018, he had an excellent season for Double-A Amarillo. In 363 plate appearances, the right-handed hitting infielder posted a .306/.388/.539 line with 17 home runs, earning a late-season bump to Reno. He’s played all throughout the infield and has an excellent arm. Baseball America considers him the #15 prospect in the Arizona system.

Fletcher went 75th overall out of the University of Arkansas in the 2019 draft. A lefty-hitting outfielder, he split the year between the D-Backs’ top two affiliates. Fletcher, the younger brother of Angels infielder David Fletcher, combined for a .312/.378/.486 showing with 35 doubles over 591 plate appearances. He can cover all three outfield spots and is the #14 prospect in the system according to BA.

Barrosa checks in 22nd on that list. He’s a switch-hitter who only struck out in 15.7% of his plate appearances with Amarillo this year. The 21-year-old from Venezuela stole 22 bases and hit .276/.374/.438 while playing primarily center field for the Sod Poodles. Martinez, a native of the Dominican Republic, returned from injury to work as a reliever this year. He traversed three minor league levels, topping out at Triple-A.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Transactions Blaze Alexander Caleb Smith Carlos Vargas Dominic Fletcher Jordan Luplow Jorge Barrosa Justin Martinez Sergio Alcantara Stone Garrett

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Diamondbacks Acquire Carlos Vargas From Guardians

By Anthony Franco and Steve Adams | November 15, 2022 at 5:21pm CDT

The D-Backs have acquired reliever Carlos Vargas from the Guardians, tweets Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Minor league pitcher Ross Carver has been dealt to Cleveland in return. Cleveland has since formally announced the move.

Vargas, 23, missed the first three-plus months of the season finishing off his rehab from a Tommy John procedure he underwent in April 2021. He’s yet to make his big league debut, and the Guards optioned him to Double-A Akron upon reinstating him from the 60-day IL this summer. The hard-throwing righty struggled through 24 1/3 innings there, pitching to a 4.81 ERA with an unsightly 21-to-12 K/BB ratio.

Cleveland still bumped Vargas to Triple-A for the final few weeks of the season, and the results were night-and-day. Vargas carved up Triple-A opposition to the tune of a 0.90 ERA in 10 innings. After fanning just 19.3% of his opponents in Double-A, he punched out a ridiculous 39% (16 of 41) of the opponents he faced in Triple-A. Scouting reports on Vargas will praise an upper-90s heater that can reach triple digits and an inconsistent slider that has the potential to be a plus offering if all breaks right.

Carver, also 23, split his time between High-A and Double-A in 2022, faring quite well in the former (3.10 ERA, 81 1/3 innings) but getting absolutely tattooed with the latter (9.50 ERA, 38 innings). The former 20th-round pick gives Cleveland a recent draftee (2021, 20th round) with a starter’s repertoire they can hope to develop through through one of the game’s top pitching development factories.

Broadly speaking, however, the move was primarily about opening a 40-man roster spot the Guardians, while the D-backs — in more need of bullpen help than Cleveland — will roll the dice on a power arm with spotty command and some recent injury troubles.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Cleveland Guardians Transactions Carlos Vargas

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Guardians Designate Tanner Tully For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | July 18, 2022 at 2:20pm CDT

The Guardians announced a couple of roster moves today, activating right-hander Carlos Vargas from the 60-day injured list and optioning him to Double-A Akron. To make room on the 40-man roster, left-hander Tanner Tully has been designated for assignment.

Tully, 27, has been on and off the Guardians roster all year. He was first selected as a COVID substitute in April, being removed from the roster five days later. (COVID substitutes can be removed from rosters without being exposed to waivers.) He was selected to the roster in the more traditional sense in June, before being designated for assignment a couple of days later. A few days ago, he was selected back to the team but has now been DFA’d for a second time this season.

With all of that roster shuffling, he’s only been able to throw six MLB innings this year, his first taste of the majors. Though those innings came in three relief appearances with the Guardians, he’s been working as a starter in the minors. In 14 Triple-A starts this year, he’s thrown 76 1/3 innings with a 4.95 ERA, 51.4% ground ball rate, 16.9% strikeout rate and 3.3% walk rate.

The Guardians will have one week to trade him, pass him through waivers or release him. If he were to clear waivers, he would be eligible to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency by virtue of having previously been outrighted in his career.

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Cleveland Guardians Transactions Carlos Vargas Tanner Tully

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Guardians Sign Luke Maile

By Mark Polishuk | March 12, 2022 at 6:55pm CDT

The Guardians have agreed to a Major League deal with catcher Luke Maile, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).  Maile will earn $900K in guaranteed money.

A veteran of six Major League seasons, Maile’s tenure was interrupted by a finger surgery that cost him the entire 2020 season.  Playing that year on a split contract with the Pirates, Maile landed with the Brewers on another big league deal last winter and ended up appearing in 15 games with the Brew Crew.

Cleveland declined their club option on longtime catcher Roberto Perez last fall, leaving a vacancy behind the plate.  Austin Hedges remains as the de facto starter, while Sandy Leon was also signed to a minor league deal back in November.  Maile’s addition will ostensibly push Leon down to Triple-A depth, though it’s probably safe to assume that the Guardians will have Maile and Leon compete for the secondary catching job during Spring Training.

Neither Maile or Leon have shown anything more than flashes of offensive production over their careers, and Hedges has likewise been a glove-first catcher.  The Guardians have traditionally prized defense, game-calling, and pitcher management over hitting when it comes to their catchers, and it should seem like Cleveland is aiming in that same direction for 2022, rather than explore picking up a bigger bat as Perez’s replacement.

In order to create space for Maile on the 40-man roster, the Guardians announced they’ve placed right-hander Carlos Vargas on the 60-day injured list. The hard-throwing pitching prospect underwent Tommy John surgery last April, and it seems that recovery timeline will keep him on the shelf for at least the first couple months of this season.

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Cleveland Guardians Transactions Carlos Vargas Luke Maile

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Indians Notes: Allen, Rotation, Vargas, Hankins, Jones

By Steve Adams | April 30, 2021 at 11:37am CDT

The Indians optioned lefty Logan Allen to Triple-A following a trio of rough starts, including this week’s six-run drubbing at the hands of the Twins. Three of that game’s first four batters homered off Allen to put Cleveland in an early hole. Manager Terry Francona told reporters, including Cleveland.com’s Paul Hoynes, that Allen’s fastball command has been off. The pitcher himself agreed, calling his location “spotty” and acknowledging that he’s regularly put himself behind in the count and tipped the advantage in the hitters’ favor. Allen was brilliant in Spring Training, allowing just one run in 14 innings with an 18-to-3 K/BB ratio, but the early results this year just haven’t been there. He’s allowed 18 runs (16 earned) on 20 hits (seven homers) and seven walks with 12 strikeouts in 15 2/3 frames.

With Allen out of the rotation for now, it’s not clear who will step into the fifth spot. Righty Cal Quantrill and lefty Sam Hentges are possible options, and Hoynes notes that Hentges was stretched out to 85 pitches at the alternate site before being recalled and plugged into the team’s bullpen. Cleveland had an off-day yesterday, but the Indians are embarking on a stretch of 10 straight days with games, so they’ll need a fifth starter this coming Tuesday.

A few more notes out of Cleveland…

  • The Indians received poor news on a pair of their top pitching prospects, Zack Meisel of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). Right-hander Carlos Vargas will miss the 2021 season after recently undergoing Tommy John surgery, while fellow righty and 2018 No. 35 overall pick Ethan Hankins has been sidelined by an elbow injury of his own that is currently being evaluated by team doctors. Vargas ranks 15th among Indians prospects at FanGraphs, 17th at MLB.com and 18th at Baseball America. Hankins respectively lands 12th, 10th, and ninth on those same rankings. Neither pitcher was likely to emerge in the Majors this season, as Vargas hadn’t pitched above short-season Class-A and Hankins hadn’t progressed beyond A-ball himself. Still, it’s a noted setback for a pair of promising arms who’ll now see their timeline to the big leagues pushed back — by at least a full season in the case of Vargas.
  • Top organizational prospect Nolan Jones will see the bulk of his time at his natural position, third base, in Triple-A to begin the season, but VP of player development James Harris tells Mandy Bell of MLB.com that Jones will also see work at first base and in the outfield in order to improve his versatility. “…[W]e just don’t know where the opportunity will be,” Harris says of working Jones at multiple positions. Both first base and the outfield have been much weaker spots in the Cleveland lineup than third base in recent seasons — in part due to Jose Ramirez’s emergence as an MVP-caliber talent but also due to a generally lackluster collection of hitters in a cobbled-together mix in the outfield and at first base. Jake Bauers has been among the game’s least-productive hitters at first base this season, and the Indians’ piecemeal approach to the outfield has again resulted in sub-par production. Indians outfielders have combined for a lowly 83 wRC+ in 2021, which ranks 23rd in MLB. Their first basemen are 29th of 30 by that same measure, checking in at just 58. Jones entered the season widely regarded as one of MLB’s top 50 overall prospects.
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Cleveland Guardians Cal Quantrill Carlos Vargas Ethan Hankins Logan Allen Nolan Jones Sam Hentges

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Indians Select Five Players To 40-Man Roster

By Anthony Franco | November 20, 2020 at 6:41pm CDT

The Indians have selected five players to their 40-man roster in advance of tonight’s deadline to protect players from the Rule 5 draft. Right-handers Carlos Vargas and Eli Morgan have been added; also joining the 40-man are infielders Nolan Jones, Gabriel Arias and Ernie Clement.

Jones, Arias and Vargas are generally regarded as among Cleveland’s top thirty prospects. Jones, in particular, is one of the top minor-leaguers in the sport. The 22-year-old third baseman has put up monster numbers throughout his time on the farm and looks like a near-term option for the Indians. José Ramírez has third base locked down in Cleveland, of course, so there’s been some speculation about Jones logging time in the corner outfield, where the MLB roster is quite a bit thinner.

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Cleveland Guardians Transactions Carlos Vargas Eli Morgan Ernie Clement Gabriel Arias Nolan Jones

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