Red Sox Designate Mike Shawaryn For Assignment
The Red Sox announced Wednesday that righty Mike Shawaryn has been designated for assignment in order to open a 40-man roster spot for newly claimed infielder Christian Arroyo. Righty Marcus Walden was optioned to the alternate training site to open a spot on the 28-man roster.
A fifth-rounder back in 2016, Shawaryn was considered one of the better arms in a thin Boston system from 2017-19, but he struggled in both Triple-A and particularly in the big leagues in 2019. Last season saw Shawaryn pitch to a 4.52 ERA with a lackluster 76-to-49 K/BB ratio in 89 2/3 frames with Triple-A Pawtucket. He was crushed for 22 runs on 26 hits (five homers) and 13 walks with 29 strikeouts in 20 1/3 innings in his first taste of the Majors.
Prior to a forgettable 2019 campaign, Shawaryn had a solid minor league track record. He’d never posted an ERA higher than 3.93 at any given level, and he turned in an impressive showing in a brief tour through the 2018 Arizona Fall League (three runs, 11 hits, four walks, 15 strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings). Shawaryn has worked primarily as a starter in the minors but did make a dozen relief outings with Pawtucket last season. Shawaryn has a minor league option remaining beyond 2020, which could enhance his appeal to other teams.
For the Red Sox, this only further distances the organization from the crop of prospects inherited by new chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom — a relatively common trend when a new regime takes over a baseball ops department. The Sox have moved on from Sam Travis (outrighted, traded), Brian Johnson (released) and Shawaryn in the past nine months — all former top-10 prospects within the organization.
Red Sox To Reportedly Add Triston Casas To Player Pool
The Red Sox are set to add first base prospect Triston Casas to their 60-man player pool, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reports. He’ll head to their alternate site. As Cotillo notes, Boston’s pool is at capacity, so it’ll have to make a corresponding move once Casas is officially part of it.
Now 20 years old, Casas became a member of the Red Sox when they drafted him 26th overall in 2018. Last season, his first full campaign in the minors, Casas held his own with a .256/.350/.480 line and 20 home runs between Single-A and High-A (all but seven of his 500 plate appearances came at Single-A). Once he joins Boston’s player pool, Casas will be eligible for a trade before the Aug. 31 deadline, but that’s a moot point here, as Cotillo writes that the team’s goal in calling him up is to aid in his development.
In other Red Sox moves Monday, they activated lefty reliever Josh Taylor from the injured list, optioned righty Chris Mazza and placed infielder Christian Arroyo on the IL, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe tweets. Taylor, who was strong as a rookie in 2019 but hasn’t pitched this year because of a positive coronavirus test, should be a welcome addition for a struggling club with a deeply flawed pitching staff. As for Arroyo, whom the Red Sox claimed via waivers from the Indians on Aug. 13, his IL placement (retroactive to the 14th) was done to give him more time to join his new club as he goes through coronavirus protocols.
Red Sox Claim Christian Arroyo
The Red Sox announced that they’ve claimed infielder Christian Arroyo off waivers from the Indians, who’d designated him for assignment last week. Boston’s 40-man roster and 60-man player pool are now full.
Still just 25 years of age, Arroyo was a 2013 first-round pick by the Giants who is now joining his fourth big league club. San Francisco initially traded him to Tampa Bay — when current chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom was a senior VP of baseball ops with the Rays — in the Evan Longoria swap. Arroyo went to Cleveland alongside righty Hunter Wood in a 2019 deadline deal.
The right-handed-hitting Arroyo has appeared in 71 big league games and tallied 251 plate appearances, though he has only a .215/.280/.342 slash to show for it. Arroyo, however, is a career .298/.359/.487 hitter in 418 Triple-A plate appearances, and he comes to the BoSox with experience at shortstop (2574 innings), third base (1257 innings) and second base (519 innings).
At his prospect peak, Arroyo was known as a hit-over-power player at the plate with a strong throwing arm but questionable range at shortstop. That’s not an issue for the Red Sox, who have Xander Bogaerts entrenched at short with Rafael Devers similarly locked in at third base.
The outlook at second base is far murkier, though, given Dustin Pedroia‘s now years-long knee troubles. Jose Peraza was signed to a cheap one-year deal this winter and has paired with Rule 5 pick Jonathan Arauz and Tzu-Wei Lin to handle the workload at second base. That trio, though, has combined for a disastrous .224/.235/.299 slash. Arroyo adds another option to the pile, and it’s hard to imagine he’d offer much of a downgrade from that collective output. He’s out of minor league options, so he’ll need to remain on Boston’s active roster or else be designated for assignment once again.
Indians Designate Christian Arroyo For Assignment
The Indians announced today that they have designated infielder Christian Arroyo for assignment. That cleared one of two roster spots the club needs to trim its active roster down to 28 men.
To open another, the Indians optioned outfielders Greg Allen and Daniel Johnson while activating fellow outfielder Delino DeShields. He had been sidelined on the COVID-19 injured list.
Arroyo, 25, was a first-round pick of the Giants back in 2013, he cracked Top 100 prospect rankings from 2016-18. The Giants, though, flipped him to the Rays in the 2017 Evan Longoria deal, and he never got much of a look on a deep Rays roster. Tampa Bay traded him to Cleveland last summer in a deal that primarily netted international bonus money. Arroyo is a .215/.280/.342 hitter in 251 plate appearances spread over the past four seasons but has a career .298/.359/.487 slash in 418 Triple-A plate appearances. Arroyo has logged time at second base, third base and shortstop, so he has some versatility, but he’s also out of minor league options.
Dominic Leone, Mike Freeman, Cam Hill Make Indians’ Opening Day Roster
The Indians have informed several players, including three who aren’t currently on the 40-man roster, that they’ve made the Opening Day club, Ryan Lewis of the Akron Beacon-Journal tweets. Right-handers Dominic Leone, Cam Hill, James Karinchak and Phil Maton; infielders Mike Freeman, Yu Chang and Christian Arroyo; and outfielders Greg Allen and Bradley Zimmer have all made the roster to begin the year. Leone, Hill and Freeman will each need to be added to the 40-man roster.
The team has also informed a quartet of players that they won’t open the year on the 30-man roster. That includes first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers and righties Jefry Rodriguez, James Hoyt and Hunter Wood. That Wood won’t be on the Opening Day roster is of particular note, as he is out of minor league options and thus cannot be sent down to alternate camp without first being run through outright waivers.
It seems likely, then, that some form of 40-man move involving Wood will help to pave the way for the three non-roster players who’ve made the squad. Cleveland currently has 39 players on the 40-man roster, and Delino DeShields isn’t counting against the group either while on the Covid-19 injured list.
The 28-year-old Leone has the most big league experience of the bunch, having logged 243 1/3 innings of relief dating back to his MLB debut with the Mariners in 2014. Leone’s past two seasons with the Cardinals went poorly, as he worked to a combined 5.15 ERA and 4.77 FIP in 64 2/3 frames, but the righty was excellent for the Jays as recently as 2017, when he pitched 70 2/3 innings with a 2.56 ERA and better than 10 punchouts per nine frames. In all, Leone joins the Indians’ bullpen with a career 3.92 ERA, 9.4 K/9, 3.7 BB/9, 1.15 HR/9 and a 43.6 percent grounder rate.
Freeman, who’ll turn 33 early next month, should be a familiar face for Cleveland fans after suiting up for 75 games there in 2019. Last year with the Indians, Freeman played second base, shortstop, third base, left field and even pitched two innings. Along the way, Freeman hit .272/.362/.390 with four homers and eight doubles — good for a 97 OPS+. That’s a solid showing from a part-time player, and although he had to work his way back on another minor league deal, Freeman clearly impressed the club enough to stick around as a depth piece.
Hill, meanwhile, has never pitched in the Majors, so this’ll mark the 26-year-old’s debut season. A 17th-round pick by the Indians back in 2014, Hill has just a 4.81 ERA in 43 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level but impressed the club with a strong effort this spring (five innings, one run) and summer. He ranked near the back of the organization’s top prospect list at FanGraphs this year, where Eric Longenhagen wrote that Hill has “nasty” stuff but sub-par control that causes some concern.
Wood, 26, has plenty of success with the Rays in his first season-plus at the MLB level before being traded to Cleveland alongside Arroyo last summer. He posted decent numbers with the Indians following the trade and carries a career 3.32 ERA and 4.04 FIP in 86 2/3 MLB frames, so it’s a bit of a surprise to see him on the outside looking in. It’s quite possible that another club with more questionable bullpen depth would have interest in swinging a deal for Wood, who has high-end spin and above-average velocity on his four-seamer. Barring that, he could generate interest on the waiver wire.
Indians Acquire Hunter Wood, Christian Arroyo
6:41PM: The two teams have officially announced the trade. Jefry Rodriguez will move to the Indians’ 60-day injured list to create roster space. The Rays will get $250K in international bonus funds, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets.
5:16PM: The Indians have acquired right-hander Hunter Wood and infielder Christian Arroyo from the Rays in exchange for minor league outfielder Ruben Cardenas and some international signing money. Yahoo Sports’ Tim Brown (Twitter link) was the first to report that Wood was being dealt to Cleveland, while Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter) added the other particulars of the swap.
Wood, who turns 26 next month, has a 2.48 ERA, 7.4 K/9, and 3.43 K/BB rate over 29 innings for the Rays this season. ERA predictors such as FIP (4.19), xFIP (5.10) and SIERA (4.52) are much less impressed with Wood’s work, perhaps due to his lack of strikeouts and large amount of fly balls generated, as Wood has only a 29.4% grounder rate. On the plus side, Wood is allowing less hard contract and issuing fewer walks than he did in his 2018 rookie season. While not a premium reliever, he’ll add even more depth to a Tribe bullpen that is already one of the game’s best.
As a young arm controlled through the 2024 season, Wood isn’t an insubstantial piece for the Rays to be giving up, particularly to a Cleveland team who is currently battling Tampa for a wild card position. Still, the Rays had to open up a 40-man roster spot for the newly-acquired Eric Sogard, and Wood wasn’t a critical member of the relief corps. The righty was one of several members of the Tampa-to-Durham taxi squad over the last two seasons, as the Rays frequently shuffled pitchers back and forth between the majors and Triple-A.
Sogard’s arrival makes Arroyo even more expendable, as Arroyo already wasn’t going to be a factor for Tampa until mid-August due to a 60-day injured list placement due to forearm tendinitis. It wasn’t long ago that Arroyo was ranked as one of the more highly-touted prospects in the sport — MLB.com ranked Arroyo within their top-90 prospect list every year from 2016-18, topping out at 81st prior to the 2018 season.
Originally drafted 25th overall by the Giants in 2013, Arroyo was the centerpiece of the prospect package sent from San Francisco to Tampa in the 2017-18 offseason for Evan Longoria. Unfortunately for Arroyo and the Rays, his two seasons at Tropicana Field have been plagued with injuries, and he has appeared in just 16 games in a Rays uniform. Arroyo is still only 24, and with only 251 career MLB plate appearances to go on, there’s still plenty of time for him to realize his potential.
Arroyo has played mostly second and third base in recent seasons after beginning his pro career as a shortstop, so the Indians have some flexibility in how they choose to deploy Arroyo at the big league level. It could be that the Tribe simply uses Arroyo as a multi-position player, or they could direct him more specifically towards second base (if Jason Kipnis‘ club option isn’t exercised for 2020, as expected), third base (if Jose Ramirez is moved back to second base to replace Kipnis) or potentially even shortstop, if Cleveland explores the big splash that would be a Francisco Lindor trade in the offseason.
Cardenas was a 16th-round pick for the Tribe in the 2018 draft. The Cal State Fullerton product wasn’t ranked by MLB.com as a top-30 prospect in Cleveland’s system, though Cardenas is off to a nice start in his pro career, hitting .292/.366/.469 with 10 homers over 524 plate appearances. He has spent all of this season at the Indians’ A-ball affiliate in Lake County.
Rays Place Christian Arroyo On 10-Day IL; Will Activate Joey Wendle
10:29pm: The Rays will activate Wendle on Friday and option Wood, Juan Toribio of MLB.com tweets.
2:56pm: Arroyo is actually headed to the 10-day injured list with tendinitis in his right forearm, the team announced. Hunter Wood is coming up from Triple-A to take Arroyo’s roster spot, so Wendle won’t yet be activated.
12:21pm: The Rays have optioned infielder Christian Arroyo to Triple-A Durham, and Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times writes that the move likely clears a path for the return of Joey Wendle, who has been out since late April due to a fractured wrist.
The broken wrist was Wendle’s second notable injury of the 2019 campaign, as he missed three weeks early in the year due to a hamstring strain. In all, the fourth-place finisher in last season’s American League Rookie of the Year voting has appeared in just eight games in 2019.
Wendle isn’t a household name, but his absence has been a significant one for Tampa Bay. He’s fresh off a strong .300/.354/.435 slash through 139 games a season ago, and Wendle’s versatile defensive skill set allows him to move around the diamond quite a bit. While he was the team’s primary second baseman in 2018, Wendle also saw time at third base, in the outfield corners and at shortstop. Wendle’s return will give skipper Kevin Cash a left-handed bat off what had been an all-right-handed bench; Arroyo had been joined there by Daniel Robertson, Guillermo Heredia and Travis d’Arnaud.
There may not be everyday at-bats for Wendle upon his return, given Brandon Lowe‘s strong production at second base and the excellent play from corner outfielders Austin Meadows and Tommy Pham. But Wendle is hardly alone in his ability to move around the diamond, so Cash should be able to creatively deploy matchup-based combinations to get Wendle into the lineup.
As for Arroyo, he’ll head back to Durham — a setting where he has raked this season despite lackluster numbers in the minors. A key player acquired by the Rays in the trade that sent Evan Longoria to San Francisco, Arroyo has hit .314/.381/.603 with eight homers in 134 Triple-A plate appearances, but he’s managed just a .220/.204/.380 line in 57 big league trips to the plate. That’s been somewhat of a trend for Arroyo, who has consistently hit Triple-A pitching but has yet to find prolonged MLB success. Of course, he also hasn’t gotten much in the way of a long-term look since his debut with the Giants in 2017. This is Arroyo’s final option year, so the Rays will need to make a decision on him at some point in the not-too-distant future.
Injury Notes: Wendle, Blue Jays, Braves
The Rays announced Monday that they’ve placed second baseman Joey Wendle on the 10-day injured list due to a strained left hamstring and recalled Christian Arroyo from Triple-A Durham in his place. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times, who first reported the moves, tweets that Wendle has a “moderate” strain that the player himself described as “not too, too bad.” Wendle won’t know how long he’s going to be shelved until he tests the injured leg in a few days’ time, though. The 28-year-old Wendle finished fourth in AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2018 after hitting .300/.354/.435 with seven homers, 33 doubles, six triples and 16 stolen bases. The Tampa Bay infield has plenty of depth between Brandon Lowe, Daniel Robertson and the newly recalled Arroyo, though Wendle was quietly one of the team’s better all-around players in 2018.
A bit more from the division…
- The Blue Jays announced that they’ve put lefty Clayton Richard on the 10-day IL due to a stress reaction in his left knee. In a corresponding move, right-hander Sean Reid-Foley has been recalled from Triple-A and will start tonight’s game for Toronto. The Jays didn’t provide a timeline for Richard’s return, but a stress reaction has the potential to keep him sidelined for a substantial period. In Reid-Foley, Toronto will be getting another look at one of its more promising young arms; the 23-year-old was the team’s second-round pick back in 2014 and pitched to a combined 3.26 ERA with 10.5 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9 in 129 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A last season.
- Beyond that move, the Jays revealed a wide-ranging series of medical updates Monday afternoon. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. began taking some at-bats in extended Spring Training games this weekend, tweets Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. He’ll still need to get back into his routine at third base and play in some rehab games before he emerges as an option at the MLB level. TSN’s Scott Mitchell tweets that Clay Buchholz will throw tomorrow and could start for Triple-A Buffalo on April 7, which signals that the veteran righty is on track to join his new club sooner rather than later. Ryan Tepera and Ryan Borucki are throwing ‘pen sessions, meanwhile, and could return by month’s end. Bud Norris‘ timeline is less concrete, per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. Norris is still throwing in the 90-91 mph range — well south of his usual mid-90s heat. He did get a late start by signing in mid-March, so he’ll continue to build up arm strength without a set return date in focus just yet.
- David O’Brien of The Athletic tweets that the Braves plan to active southpaw A.J. Minter on Thursday — the first day he’s eligible. (Minter’s IL stint was backdated the maximum three days at the start of the season.) Mike Foltynewicz could join the rotation as soon as April 14 after making a pair of rehab outings, O’Brien adds. Right-hander Darren O’Day, unfortunately, is shutting down for a “couple weeks” due to ongoing forearm issues. Given that update, it seems as though it’ll be tough for the veteran O’Day to be ready before month’s end. O’Day missed the majority of the 2018 season due to a hyperextended elbow.
AL East Notes: Red Sox, Bleier, Gurriel, Rays
The Red Sox have been surprisingly silent on the bullpen market this winter despite the fact that Joe Kelly has left for the Dodgers and Craig Kimbrel remains unsigned — seemingly likely to land with another organization as well, based on comments from Boston president of baseball ops Dave Dombrowski. ESPN.com’s Buster Olney writes (subscription required), however, that the Sox are confident in a number of internal options. Recent draftees Travis Lakins (sixth round, 2015) and Durbin Feltman (third round, 2018) could both emerge at the MLB level in 2019, while many in the Red Sox’ analytics department are intrigued by trade pickup Colten Brewer (whom the Sox tried to acquire last summer as well, Olney notes). Tyler Thornburg represents a notable bounceback option, as well. It’s nonetheless jarring to see the Sox take a passive approach to rounding out the ‘pen on the heels of a World Series championship. Perhaps there’s yet another move in store with several relievers still available (MLBTR Free Agent Tracker link), but it seems likely that the Boston ‘pen will have to prove its share of naysayers wrong in 2019.
Here’s more from the division…
- Orioles southpaw Richard Bleier tells Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com that he believes he’ll be ready to roll for the start of the 2019 season. That’s great news for the O’s, as Bleier had been a revelatory hurler before suffering a major injury to his lat. Already 31 years of age, Bleier certainly qualifies as a late bloomer. He’s also an outlier, having now made it through 119 MLB innings with a sub-2.00 ERA despite averaging just 4.1 strikeouts per nine. A big 63.3% groundball rate and low 1.6 BB/9 walk rate go a long way toward explaining the results. Before he can get back to disproving those who question the sustainability of that success, Bleier will need to show he’s back to full health. For the O’s, it would help quite a bit if he can do so. After all, Bleier could be quite a nice trade asset this summer or in the winter to come, especially since he’s still shy of reaching arbitration eligibility.
- The Blue Jays‘ signing of Freddy Galvis this week was tied to the club’s uncertainty about the glovework of Lourdes Gurriel Jr., writes Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. As Davidi explores at length, the Jays are wary of poor infield defense at a time when they’re developing numerous young pitchers and when rotation holdovers Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez are heavy ground-ball pitchers. Gurriel has more offensive upside than Galvis but could be squeezed for playing time with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Brandon Drury and Devon Travis all still factoring into the infield mix. There have been suggestions that Gurriel could land in the outfield eventually, but as Davidi outlines, that already crowded mix is further muddied with the now-out-of-options Dalton Pompey surprisingly still on the roster. It’s a comprehensive look at a crowded roster, though surely injuries and Spring Training roster moves could eventually impact how things play out. It’s also worth noting that Gurriel still has a minor league option remaining.
- Juan Toribio of MLB.com tackles a number of questions on the Rays‘ roster in his latest Inbox column, highlighting several battles for Opening Day roster spots while also writing that the Rays look unlikely to add another free-agent reliever this offseason. That, he notes, could open the door for Triple-A standout Colin Poche to crack the big league roster either out of camp or early in the season. The Rays, as Toribio notes, are rife with infield depth both on the 25-man roster and in the upper minors but are also cognizant that their projected group of 2019 infielders is lacking experience. So while players such as Christian Arroyo and Kean Wong don’t have clear paths to the Majors at the moment, Tampa Bay is likely to hang onto its depth. Arroyo, once a top prospect with the Giants and the key player received in last winter’s Evan Longoria trade, struggled through a lost season in 2018 and still has a minor league option remaining.
Quick Hits: Brewers, Mariners, Ichiro, Mets, R. Hill, Rays
Rival executives expect the Brewers to be aggressive in targeting starting pitching help this summer, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports (video link). The Brewers’ rotation has been a middle-of-the-pack group to this point, as it entered Saturday 13th in the majors in ERA (3.92) and 19th in fWAR (3.8). Of course, the unit has been without its top starter from 2017, Jimmy Nelson, who’s working back from the right shoulder surgery he underwent last September and should return sometime this season. He and another starter acquired from elsewhere could help the Brewers hold on to a playoff spot, which they were unable to do a year ago during an 86-win campaign. Rosenthal also points to catcher and shortstop as positions the Brewers could upgrade, though he notes they’re “unlikely” to be in play for Manny Machado at the latter spot.
More from around baseball…
- Although he shifted from the diamond to a front office role with the Mariners last month, Ichiro Suzuki intends to earn a roster spot with the team in 2019, Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe reports. Given that the future Hall of Famer has struggled in recent seasons (a productive 2016 with Miami notwithstanding) and will be 45 when next spring rolls around, accomplishing his goal seems like a long shot. But with the Mariners scheduled to open next season with a series against the A’s in Ichiro’s homeland of Japan, it’s worth a try.
- Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes is slated to resume his rehab on Monday, Tim Healey of Newsday tweets. Cespedes, out since mid-May with a hip strain, had been nearing a return until suffering a setback last weekend. It remains unclear when he’ll be healthy enough to rejoin the nosediving Mets, and the same goes for ace Noah Syndergaard. The righty is getting “better and better,” though, manager Mickey Callaway told Anthony DiComo of MLB.com and other reporters Saturday (Twitter links). Syndergaard has been out for three weeks because of a finger injury. In better news for New York, closer Jeurys Familia will come off the DL on Sunday, DiComo relays. Familia will end up missing the minimum of 10 days after going on the shelf June 8 with right shoulder soreness.
- Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill is set to come off the DL on Tuesday to start against the Cubs, per Kaelen Jones of MLB.com. Blister issues have bogged down Hill, who last took the mound in the majors May 19, when he exited a start after two pitches. The 38-year-old has combined for just 24 2/3 innings across six starts this season, and has managed a disappointing 6.20 ERA/6.33 FIP along the way.
- The Rays activated shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria from the disabled list on Saturday and sent infielder Christian Arroyo to the DL with a left oblique strain, Bill Ladson of MLB.com reports. Hechavarria had been out since May 17 with a right hamstring strain, while Arroyo may be in for a long absence of his own, as is often the case with oblique injuries. The 23-year-old Arroyo, whom the Rays acquired from the Giants over the winter in the teams’ Evan Longoria trade, hit .264/.339/.396 in 59 PAs before going on the DL.