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Curt Casali

Reds Designate Mike Moustakas, Sign Curt Casali

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The Reds announced that they have signed catcher Curt Casali to a one-year deal with a mutual option for 2024. In a corresponding move, infielder Mike Moustakas was designated for assignment. Mark Sheldon of MLB.com reports that Casali will be guaranteed $3.25MM, which takes the form of a $2.5MM salary and a $750K buyout on the option. There’s also a $250K assignment bonus to be paid to him in the event he’s traded. Casali is represented by the Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Moustakas, 34, signed a four-year, $64MM deal with the Reds going into the 2020 season. At the time, he was coming off a five-year stretch with the Royals and Brewers where he hit 130 home runs and produced a batting line of .264/.325/.491. That amounted to a 111 wRC+, indicating he was 11% better than league average in that time. He had also diversified his defensive abilities, playing 47 games at second base with the Brewers in 2019 after being a primary third baseman prior to that.

The first season of the deal went fine enough, as Moustakas hit .230/.331/.468 for a wRC+ of 105. However, the past two seasons have been disappointing, with Moustakas battling various injuries, including a heel contusion and a calf strain, and struggling to produce when on the field. He played just 62 games in 2021 and 78 in 2022, hitting .211/.289/.356 for a wRC+ of 73.

Though Moustakas has one year remaining on his deal, it seems the Reds weren’t interested in letting him play it out. Over the past few years, they’ve seen Jonathan India take over the second base job and prospect Spencer Steer seems ready for an extended audition at third. Moustakas has also played a bit of first base, but the Reds have Joey Votto there and also added Wil Myers into the mix by signing him today. Catcher Tyler Stephenson could also factor in with the club now having three backstops. More on that below.

The Reds will now have a week to work out a trade or pass Moustakas through waivers but it’s unlikely they will find a deal. Moustakas is still owed $22MM in the form of an $18MM salary and a $4MM buyout on a club option for 2024. Given that he’s been injured and/or underperforming for a couple of years now, no team will want to take that on. The Reds could theoretically offer a prospect in a trade to sweeten the deal, but it wouldn’t make much sense to do that as it would merely subtract young talent from the rebuilding club. The most likely scenario is that Moustakas is released and becomes a free agent. Any team could then be able to sign him and pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on their active roster, with that amount being subtracted from what the Reds pay.

As for Casali, 34, he’s a perfectly serviceable big league catcher, though he’s never really been a club’s primary option. Though he has 462 career games played, he’s never tallied more than 84 in any individual season. He’s generally been a strong defender behind the plate, having tallied 16 Defensive Runs Saved in his career and a slightly above-average mark in terms of framing. He’s not a liability at the plate either, with a career batting line of .223/.316/.392. That amounts to a wRC+ of 92, which is 8% below league average overall but roughly average for a catcher. His 27.8% strikeout rate is definitely on the high side but he also has drawn walks at a strong 10.7% rate. He’s also drawn interest from the Giants and Cubs this winter but will instead go to Cincinnati, where he spent the 2018-2020 seasons.

Casali is the second catcher signed by the Reds this offseason, as they’ve also added Luke Maile earlier. Those two will join Tyler Stephenson to give the club a three-headed catching corps. Stephenson seemed to emerge as the club’s catcher of the future with a 2021 breakout that saw him hit .286/.366/.431 for a wRC+ of 110 along with solid defensive numbers. However, he was limited to just 50 games in 2022 due to a concussion, a broken thumb and a broken clavicle. He’s also seen some time at first base and could theoretically do that more this year, yielding some of the catching time to Casali and Maile while keeping his bat in the lineup.

The club’s payroll is now up to $81MM, per the calculations of Roster Resource. That’s still well shy of their $114MM figure from Opening Day 2022, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, though the rebuilding club might not add much more. C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic relays word from general manager Nick Krall, who says they’d “have to great creative” to add more money.

Images courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Latest On The Cubs’ Catching Targets: Casali, Barnhart, Pérez

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The Chicago Cubs are looking for a “defense-first catcher,” reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic, with Mooney linking the team to free agents Curt Casali, Tucker Barnhart, and Roberto Perez. Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation has also recently connected the club to Barnhart in a platoon role with incumbent Yan Gomes.

The Cubs currently only have two catchers on their 40-man roster, prospect Miguel Amaya, who reached Double-A Tennessee in 2022 and is projected to debut during the 2023 season, and 11-year veteran Gomes. Gomes, who signed a two-year, $13MM deal during the 2021 offseason, with a $6MM player option for the 2024 season, hit .235/.260/.365 in a complementary role to All-Star Willson Contreras during his first season in Chicago. P.J. Higgins also saw time behind the dish during the 2022 season, hitting .229/.310/.383 in 229 plate appearances, and has the ability to plan all around the infield.

Nevertheless, the recent additions of Dansby Swanson, Jameson Taillon, Brad Boxberger, and Cody Bellinger, along with their reported re-signing of Drew Smyly, signal an intent to compete in 2023 after finishing third in their division last season. With the free agent catcher market rapidly shrinking, Casali, Barnhart, and Perez profile as veteran regulars that won’t command long-term contracts and delay Amaya’s promotion.

Casali was limited to only 57 games during the 2022 season, spending time on the injured list with a concussion and right oblique strain. Over 176 plate appearances, the 34-year-old hit a weak .203/.318/.331 with a high 28.4% strikeout rate but a strong 13.6% walk rate. Casali is a career .223/.316/.392 hitter over parts of nine seasons and is credited with 16 defensive runs saved since 2014, in addition to throwing out 32% of runners and drawing positive marks for his framing ability.

Barnhart joined the Tigers via trade after the 2021 season and struggled to a .221/.287/.267 slash line with a 24% strikeout rate and 8.1% walk rate in 2022. It’s a sharp drop off from his career numbers of .245/.320/.360, and his strong 2017 showing (.270/.347/.403) is slowly becoming a distant memory. Like Casali, Barnhart is typically viewed positively for his defensive ability, earning a total of 12 DRS over nine seasons, despite being credited -8 DRS during the 2022 season, while throwing out 32% of runners. Barnhart also ranks highly for his framing ability.

Perez suffered a left hamstring strain in early May and was forced to undergo season-ending surgery later in the month. It marks the second consecutive injury-ravaged year for Perez, who was limited to only 44 games with Cleveland during the 2021 season due to a pair of IL stints (a fractured right finger and shoulder inflammation). Like Casali and Barnhart, Perez is a glove-first catcher, with a meager career slash line of .207/.298/.360, but he has accumulated a whopping 79 DRS since 2014 while throwing out 39% of would-be runners and possesses a highly regarded framing ability.

The Cubs’ will likely struggle to fill Contreras’s offensive production from the catching position, but the franchise will hope that recent additions of Swanson and Bellinger, as well as prospects Brennen Davis and Matt Mervis settling in at the Major League level, will help fill the All-Star size hole behind the dish at Wrigley Field.

Giants, Curt Casali Have Discussed Reunion

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The Giants have made big splashes to their infield and outfield this offseason with the signing of Carlos Correa and Mitch Haniger. They upgraded their rotation by signing Sean Manaea and Ross Stripling. One thing still on the to-do list is addressing their catching corps, with Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reporting the club has been in contact with Curt Casali about him returning to the club.

When Buster Posey retired after the 2021 season, it was hoped that prospect Joey Bart could step up and take over as the club’s everyday backstop. Unfortunately, that hasn’t come to fruition just yet. At the plate, he’s got some power but undercuts his value with strikeouts. He’s been punched out in 38% of his plate appearances thus far in his career and has a batting line of .215/.296/.364 for a wRC+ of 90. He was also given negative marks by Defensive Runs Saved and FanGraphs’ framing metric in 2022. As Slusser notes in her piece, Bart was nudged out of working with either Carlos Rodón or Logan Webb down the stretch last year.

Veteran Austin Wynns, who is still on the roster, ended up getting into 57 games behind the plate for the club last year. His defensive numbers were around league average, better than Bart, but he’s unlikely to provide much with the bat. The 32-year-old has a career batting line of .231/.275/.337 for a wRC+ of 68. There’s a third catcher on the 40-man roster in Blake Sabol. The Giants just acquired him from the Reds, who grabbed him from the Pirates in the Rule 5 draft. He has great batting numbers in the minors but no major league experience. He also plays the outfield, making him perhaps best suited for a third catcher/utility role.

Given those options, it’s unsurprising that the club would be open to finding more certainty behind the plate. They were connected to both Sean Murphy and Christian Vázquez in recent weeks, but those players are each now off the board, having been traded to Atlanta and signed with Minnesota, respectively.

Casali, 34, is a perfectly serviceable big league catcher, though he’s never really been a club’s primary option. Though he has 462 career games played, he’s never tallied more than 84 in any individual season. He’s generally been a strong defender behind the plate, having tallied 16 Defensive Runs Saved in his career and a slightly above-average mark in terms of framing. He’s not a liability at the plate either, with a career batting line of .223/.316/.392. That amounts to a wRC+ of 92, which is 8% below league average overall but roughly average for a catcher. His 27.8% strikeout rate is definitely on the high side but he also has drawn walks at a strong 10.7% rate. The Giants are surely familiar with him as he played for them in 2021 and the first half of 2022, getting dealt to the Mariners at the deadline.

Casali would be a perfectly defensible addition, but the Giants will have other options. The trade market is now headlined by the Blue Jays and their trio of backstops: Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk and Gabriel Moreno. The free agent market doesn’t have many super exciting options now that Vázquez and Willson Contreras have signed, with Austin Hedges, Roberto Pérez, Omar Narváez and Gary Sánchez some of those still out there.

None of these options are likely to break the bank from a financial perspective. Roster Resource currently pegs the Giants’ payroll at $190MM and their CBT figure at $206MM. They are getting near their franchise high payroll of $201MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, though that was back in 2018. They also have plenty of room under the luxury tax, though if they succeed in their continued attempts to retain Rodón, that would significantly change the picture.

Mariners To Select Brian O’Keefe

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The Seattle Mariners have selected the contract of catcher Brian O’Keefe from Triple-A Tacoma, reports Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (Twitter link). In a corresponding move, M’s catcher Curt Casali has been placed on the paternity list.

This will be the first major league action for O’Keefe, age 29, who was drafted in the seventh round by the Cardinals in 2014. After spending five seasons in St. Louis’s system, O’Keefe was picked by Seattle in the 2019 Rule 5 minor league draft. He spent two years in the Mariners farm system before electing free agency at the conclusion of the 2021 season, where he eventually agreed to stay with the M’s on a minor league deal. With Casali out of action for at least 24, but no more than 72 hours, O’Keefe will join the big league club for the first time in his nine seasons as a pro.

O’Keefe has spent all of his 2022 campaign at Triple-A Tacoma, where he has had one of his finest minor league seasons. Thus far, he has hit 13 home runs and posted a productive .253/.330/.449 slash in 352 plate appearances. More than seventy-five percent of O’Keefe’s 2022 appearances for Tacoma have been at catcher, where Baseball Prospectus rates him as an excellent framer, with the rest coming as a designated hitter.

Casali is all but assured to rejoin the Mariners as soon as his time on the paternity list ends. If Seattle is going to keep O’Keefe on the active roster beyond Casali’s return, they will have to make room for him. The M’s 40-man roster is currently full, and the only obvious 60-day IL candidate is lefty reliever Ryan Borucki, who has already been out since August 8th.

Mariners Reinstate Julio Rodriguez, Designate Luis Torrens

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The Mariners announced a handful of roster moves during tonight’s off day. Center fielder Julio Rodríguez is back from the injured list, while catcher Curt Casali has been reinstated from his own IL stint. To create active roster space, Seattle optioned outfielder Jarred Kelenic back to Triple-A Tacoma and designated catcher Luis Torrens for assignment. Torrens’ DFA drops the 40-man roster tally to 39.

Rodríguez returns after not much more than a minimal IL stint. He last played on July 30 before a right wrist contusion cost him around two weeks. The 21-year-old star is back to add to a Rookie of the Year-caliber resume, owner of a .271/.334/.482 line with 18 home runs and 21 stolen bases. He’s already the best player on a 61-52 team that currently holds the second American League Wild Card spot. The Mariners are 1 1/2 games in front of the Orioles and Rays, the clubs tied for the AL’s final postseason berth at the moment.

Kelenic and Sam Haggerty have platooned in center field over the past week and a half. Kelenic collected just two hits in 26 at-bats, continuing his struggles at the big league level. He’s hitting .124/.187/.265 over 123 MLB plate appearances on the season. The 23-year-old has a quality .288/.353/.550 showing over 252 trips to the dish with the Rainiers, and he’ll continue to get everyday run in the minors. He’s joined in Tacoma by former Rookie of the Year Kyle Lewis, who was optioned out yesterday, while the Mariners roll with an outfield of Jesse Winker, Rodríguez, Mitch Haniger and Haggerty, with Jake Lamb working as a corner bat off the bench.

In addition to the outfield shakeup, the M’s make a switch behind the plate. Seattle acquired Casali from the Giants in the hours leading up to last Tuesday’s trade deadline. The veteran backstop was on a minor league rehab assignment at the time, working his way back from an oblique strain suffered on July 4. He’d hit .231/.325/.370 through 41 games in San Francisco and will get an opportunity to back up Cal Raleigh for the remainder of the season. Casali is slated to hit free agency at the end of the year.

The timing of the designation has to smart for Torrens, who’s only two days removed from a walk-off single to cap a dramatic win over the Yankees. The acquisition of Casali seemed to suggest the writing was on the wall for Torrens with the big league club, though. He’s out of minor league option years, meaning he had to stick on the MLB roster or be designated for assignment. With Raleigh and Casali in the fold, there’d no longer be room for Torrens unless the team wanted to carry three catchers.

Of course, Torrens’ struggles were a driving factor for the club’s acquisition of Casali in the first place. He’s mustered just a .214/.262/.252 line across 141 plate appearances, striking out at an elevated 31.9% clip. He’s also consistently rated as a well below-average defensive catcher throughout his MLB career, annually posting subpar pitch framing metrics and being behind the dish for 17 wild pitches in only 267 1/3 innings this season. Those certainly don’t all fall on Torrens, but Defensive Runs Saved has pegged him as 24 runs below average in 1067 2/3 career frames as a catcher.

Manager Scott Servais got Torrens a fair bit of time as a designated hitter last season, when he popped 15 home runs and 16 doubles in 108 games. That’s solid production for a #2 catcher, even a bat-first option, but Torrens’ offensive struggles mounted this year. Coupled with his defensive shortcomings, they eventually pushed him off the roster.

With the trade deadline having passed, the only option is to place Torrens on outright or release waivers within the next couple days. He’s playing this season on a $1.2MM salary after qualifying for early arbitration as a Super Two player last winter. He’s due around $369K through year’s end. Any claiming team would assume the remainder of that money and could control Torrens through 2024. As a player with more than three years of big league service time, he would have the right to refuse an outright assignment in favor of minor league free agency if he goes unclaimed on waivers. Doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of his guaranteed salary, however, as he has less than five years of service. It therefore seems likely he’d accept an assignment to Tacoma if he clears.

Mariners Acquire Curt Casali, Matthew Boyd From Giants

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The Mariners added a backup catcher and strengthened their pitching depth just prior to Tuesday’s deadline, acquiring catcher Curt Casali and lefty Matthew Boyd from the Giants in exchange for minor league righty Michael Stryffeler and catcher Andy Thomas. The Casali and Boyd were initially reported separately but were announced by the teams as part of the same swap. Seattle announced that left-hander Tommy Milone has been released to make room on the 40-man roster for Casali. Boyd is on the 60-day injured list and does not yet require a roster spot.

Casali adds some depth behind Seattle starter Cal Raleigh. The 33-year-old backstop has had a nice showing in limited playing time with the Giants this season. Through 102 plate appearances, Casali is hitting .231/.325/.370, connecting on four homers and a trio of doubles. That’s a nice blend of power and patience from a depth catcher, even when paired with Casali’s typically lofty level of swing-and-miss. He’s also plenty familiar with newly acquired ace Luis Castillo from the pair’s days together in Cincinnati.

Seattle’s No. 2 backstop Luis Torrens has underwhelmed this year, hitting .208/.262/.225 in 42 games. Torrens can’t be optioned to the minor leagues, so Casali’s addition could conceivably squeeze him off the 40-man roster entirely. Raleigh will continue to play most days amidst a breakout season, and the M’s may not want to carry three backstops on the active roster. Casali is currently on the injured list after suffering an oblique strain last month, but he’s on a rehab assignment and should be reinstated to the majors shortly. Casali is making $2.6MM this season, around $928K of which has still to be paid. He’ll be a free agent at season’s end.

Boyd, 31, inked a one-year, $5.2MM deal with the Giants after a mostly solid four-year run with the Tigers. A brutal showing in 2020 skewed his numbers in his final few seasons with Detroit, but Boyd often flashed quality bat-missing ability and typically posted low walk rates throughout his time in the Detroit rotation. He twice looked as though he may be among the more appealing arms available at a trade deadline — first in 2019 when he was sitting on a 3.95 ERA and 152 strikeouts in 114 innings and again in 2021 when he’d posted a similar ERA and reduced home-run rate (albeit with a diminished strikeout rate).

The Tigers held onto Boyd both times, however, declining to move him in ’19 because they (justifiably) set a huge asking price given Boyd’s three-plus remaining seasons of club control. The 2020 season brought little opportunity to move Boyd, thanks to the aforementioned struggles (6.71 ERA in 12 starts), and by the time last year’s deadline rolled around, Boyd’s season was in jeopardy due to that forearm issue.

It’s unlikely that Boyd will be able to return and build up to a starter’s workload this season — but the Mariners, particularly after landing Castillo, don’t really need Boyd to step into the rotation anyhow. He could, however, provide them with an experienced left-hander to plug into the bullpen. Seattle hasn’t had much luck with its left-handed bullpen arms this season, so taking what’s surely a low-cost flier on Boyd is a sensible enough peripheral move at this stage of deadline season.

Stryffeler is a 26-year-old reliever who’s spent the 2022 campaign in Double-A. A right-hander, he owns an excellent 2.27 ERA through 35 2/3 frames. Stryffeler has fanned an elite 37.7% of batters faced but walked an elevated 12.6% of opponents. The Lake Erie college product will be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter if he’s not added to San Francisco’s 40-man roster.

Thomas, meanwhile, was the Mariners’ fifth-round draft pick just last summer. He’s had a nice start to the season in High-A, where he’s posted a strong .264/.400/.444 with nine homers, a dozen doubles and a huge 16.2% walk rate. Thomas was a senior sign out of Baylor University, it should be noted, so he’s already 23 and is playing against notably younger competition. Time will tell how he fares against more advanced opponents, but the early results are promising. From a defensive perspective, he’s caught a roughly average 27% of attempted base thieves, but Baseball America questioned his overall receiving skills at the time of the draft.

Milone, 35, had been in his second stint with the Mariners. The journeyman southpaw has carved out a 12-year big league career, at times enjoying solid runs as a starter (2012-15, in particular) and as a reliever. The past several seasons have been a struggle for the soft-tosser, however, as evidenced by a 6.33 ERA in 69 2/3 frames. Milone was on the 15-day injured list due to a cervical sprain, but if he’s healthy in the season’s final couple months, he could latch on as a depth arm with another club.

In 944 1/3 innings at the big league level, Milone has a 4.60 ERA with a below-average 17.5% strikeout rate but an excellent 5.6% walk rate.

Robert Murray of FanSided first reported that Casali was headed to Seattle in exchange for Stryffeler (Twitter link). Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that Boyd was going to Seattle as well.

Giants’ Curt Casali Suffers Oblique Strain

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JULY 5: Casali told reporters (including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle) he’s been diagnosed with a Grade 2 oblique strain. As Slusser notes, that’s an injury that often sidelines players for upwards of a month. Bart has reported to the major league team, as expected, but has not yet been officially recalled onto the active roster.

JULY 4: Giants catcher Curt Casali suffered an oblique strain during an at-bat in tonight’s game.  During the sixth inning, Casali was in discomfort after taking a swing, and had to leave the game before finishing his plate appearance.

Casali will undergo an MRI to determine the extent of the damage, though a trip to the injured list is a certainty.  NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic noted that Joey Bart was scratched from a Triple-A lineup tonight after word of Casali’s injury spread, and thus Bart is likely on his way back to the majors once Casali is placed on the IL.

Now in his second season with the Giants, Casali has been the constant behind the plate, first in a timeshare with Bart behind the plate, and then splitting time with Austin Wynns after Bart was optioned back to Triple-A.  While any Giants catcher had a tough act to follow in Buster Posey, Casali has provided roughly league-average (104 wRC+, 99 OPS+) offense with his .236/.331/.377 slash line.  Almost all of the damage has come against southpaws — Casali has a mammoth 1.232 OPS over 33 PA against left-handed pitching, and only a .526 OPS in 91 PA against righties.

Between his solid offense and defense, Casali has helped stabilize the catching position in the wake of struggles from Bart and Wynns.  San Francisco was hoping that former top-prospect Bart was ready for regular work in the big leagues, yet Bart has hit only .156/.296/.300 in 108 PA this season.  With only seven games under his belt at Triple-A, the Giants surely would’ve preferred to see Bart get more reset time and start to dominate (he has a .748 OPS in 31 Triple-A plate appearances) in the minors before bringing him back to the Show.

If and when Bart is recalled, the Giants will retain what is technically a three-catcher depth chart on the active roster, as Yermin Mercedes is also active.  However, it seems like the Giants are more apt to give Bart another look than to rely on Wynns and Mercedes as their full-time catching tandem while Casali recovers from what might be a lengthy absence.  Should Casali have the type of oblique strain that lingers for weeks or even months, the Giants could even opt to add another catcher prior to the August 2 trade deadline.

Giants Option Joey Bart To Triple-A, Acquire Austin Wynns From Phillies

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12:30pm: Wynns is indeed being selected to the 40-man roster, MLBTR has learned.

11:40am: The Giants announced Wednesday that they’ve optioned catcher Joey Bart to Triple-A Sacramento. They’ve also acquired catcher Austin Wynns from the Phillies organization in exchange for lefty Michael Plassmeyer and cash, according to announcements from both teams.

Wynns wasn’t on the Phillies’ 40-man roster, and the Giants have yet to indicate that he’ll be selected to their own 40-man. Curt Casali is now the only catcher on San Francisco’s big league roster, so they’ll either need to make a move to formally select Wynns’ contract or else call up another catcher from their minor league system. Michael Papierski is the only other catcher on the Giants’ 40-man roster.

The decision to option Bart comes on the heels of some prolonged offensive struggles for the former No. 2 overall draft pick. The now-25-year-old Bart had a fast start to the season, going 6-for-18 with a pair of homers and four walks through his first six games, but he’s fallen into a dreadful slump. Over his past 30 games (24 of them starts), Bart is hitting just .111/.256/.194 with a staggering 45.3% strikeout rate.

Given the magnitude of those struggles, it’s not a huge surprise to see Bart sent down. The Giants will hope that a return trip to Sacramento can prove to be the catalyst for a turnaround. Bart has long ranked not only as one of the Giants’ best prospects but as one of the very best prospects in all of baseball, and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has been quick to voice confidence in Bart’s long-term outlook. Zaidi tells Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link) that the Giants “still think Joey is an everyday catcher” but felt it prudent to give him “a little bit of a reset” following such a difficult stretch at the plate.

Bart entered the season with 112 days of Major League service time, meaning he needed another 60 days on the active roster or big league injured list to reach one full year of service and remain on his same arbitration (post-2024) and free agency (post-2027). He’s already accrued 62 days, so even if he were to stick in the minors for the remainder of the season, he’s still logged enough time to cross into that one-plus service bracket.

As for the 31-year-old Wynns, he’ll give the Giants an experienced backup option. Wynns, the Orioles’ 10th-round pick back in 2013, spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues with the O’s, batting a combined .216/.255/.326 in 331 plate appearances. He’s thrown out 32% of attempted base thieves in his big league career, and while his pitch-framing marks are below average, he’s been solid in terms of blocking balls in the dirt, per Baseball Prospectus.

Wynns inked a minor league contract with the Phillies over the winter and opened the season with their Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley. Despite his lackluster big league numbers and a pedestrian Triple-A track record, he’s been one of the best hitters in the Triple-A International League so far, hitting at a ridiculous .365/.504/.500 clip. Wynns has hit three homers, five doubles and drawn a walk in just under 21% of his 134 plate appearances thus far. It’s not a huge sample of playing time, but it’s hard not to be impressed by any player reaching base at greater than a 50% clip in a span of 33 games.

Wynns obviously can’t be expected to sustain that pace, but there’s little else he can do to earn himself a big league promotion. That probably wasn’t going to happen in Philadelphia, where J.T. Realmuto is entrenched as the main catcher, but Wynns has a more clear path to playing time with the Giants, even if Casali is likely to function as the starter moving forward.

In exchange for Wynns, the Phillies will pick up the 25-year-old Plassmeyer — a 2018 fourth-rounder (Mariners) who went to the Rays as part of the Mike Zunino trade and has since gone to the Giants in return for righty Matt Wisler. Plassmeyer opened the 2022 season with the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate and has been hit hard, logging a 7.38 ERA in through 46 1/3 innings. He’s been extremely homer-prone this year in that hitter-friendly setting (2.91 HR/9) and has quite uncharacteristically walked 11.3% of his opponents.

Prior to the 2022 season, Plassmeyer looked the part of an upper-minors strike thrower who could be on the cusp of a look in the big leagues. Kevin Goldstein and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs listed him near the back of their Top 39 prospects in the Giants’ system this winter, noting that the 6’2″ southpaw has an average changeup and breaking ball to go along with outstanding command. The lack of a true plus offering and a pedestrian 89-91 mph fastball give Plassmeyer a back-of-the-rotation outlook, but if the Phils can get his once-plus command back on track, he could be a depth option in the near future.

Injured List Transactions: Perez, Perdomo, McGee, Casali

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The Royals reinstated catcher Salvador Perez from the 10-day injured list, and optioned catcher Sebastian Rivero to Triple-A in the corresponding move.  Perez missed only 11 days while recovering from a sprained left thumb suffered in the first game of a doubleheader on May 17, and the short turnaround time led the Royals to place Perez on the IL in between the two games.  Speaking with The Kansas City Star’s Lynn Worthy and other reporters, Perez said that he could be ready to resume catching duties tomorrow, as Perez will be in the DH role for today’s game with the Twins.

Following his huge 48-homer season in 2021, Perez has six homers and an underwhelming .206/.239/.397 slash line over 142 plate appearances to begin the 2022 campaign.  Perez has been making some hard contact but with little to show for it, and the longtime Royals backstop hasn’t been helping his cause with one of the lowest walk rates of any hitter in the league.

More on other players coming and going from the injured list…

  • The Brewers placed right-hander Luis Perdomo on the 15-day injured list with a right elbow effusion.  Righty Miguel Sanchez was recalled from Triple-A to take Perdomo’s spot on the active roster.  Milwaukee selected Perdomo’s contract earlier this month and he delivered a 1.74 ERA over 10 1/3 relief innings, but now faces another IL stint.  Since Perdomo missed the entire 2021 season recovering from Tommy John surgery, another elbow problem seems ominous, but Brewers manager Craig Counsell told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Todd Rosiak and other reporters that the injury doesn’t appear to be too serious.
  • The Giants reinstated left-hander Jake McGee from the 15-day injured list on Friday, though his actual return to the field was delayed by a clerical error.  McGee was called into yesterday’s game during the eighth inning, except he couldn’t pitch after the Reds told the umpiring crew that McGee wasn’t listed on the Giants’ official pregame lineup card.  As a result, Jose Alvarez was instead brought in to pitch, and Alvarez allowed two runs (one earned) to put the Giants into a deeper hole in an eventual 5-1 loss.  While not the wildest thing to happen to the Reds and Giants on Friday, it was the latest odd twist in what has been a rough season for McGee, who posted a 9.58 ERA in 10 1/3 innings out of San Francisco’s bullpen before back tightness sidelined him on May 11.
  • In another Giants move from today, the club reinstated catcher Curt Casali from the seven-day concussion IL and optioned Michael Papierski to Triple-A.  Casali was thankfully able to return in a minimal amount of time after taking a foul tip off his mask during a May 20 game.  This opened the door for Papierski to make his MLB debut, as the catcher appeared in five games while filling in for Casali.

Giants Place Curt Casali On Concussion IL, Select Michael Papierski, Designate Luke Williams

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2:18pm: The Giants announced the moves, with utility player Luke Williams being designated for assignment to create space for Papierski on the 40-man roster. Acquired from the Phillies in March, Williams has played eight games and hit .250/.250/.333, 67 wRC+, though he’s hit much better in ten Triple-A games. The 25-year-old still has options and has played everywhere on the diamond except in the battery, meaning he should garner plenty of interest around the league. The Giants will have a week to trade him or put him on waivers.

2:10pm: The Giants have placed catcher Curt Casali on the seven-day concussion injured list, reports John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle. Fellow catcher Mike Papierski has had his contract selected and will start behind the plate in tonight’s game. Papierski was not previously on the 40-man roster, meaning a corresponding move will be required to make room for him.

Casali, 33, came out of last night’s game, with Shea relaying that the reason was because of a foul tip that he took off the mask, leading to some concussion symptoms. Manager Gabe Kapler said that Casali felt better after the game but would be re-evaluated today. It seems there must have been something lingering, as Casali will now be out of action for at least a week.

This is Casali’s second year with the Giants. Last season, playing backup to Buster Posey, Casali got into 77 games and hit .210/.313/.350 for a wRC+ of 82. In the wake of Posey’s retirement, Casali and Joey Bart have been splitting the catching time almost evenly, with Bart getting 22 starts to Casali’s 16. Bart’s 102 wRC+ indicates he’s been 2% better than league average at the plate so far this year, though that’s come about in a very uneven fashion. His four home runs and 14% walk rate are excellent, but he’s also hitting .169 and striking out 45.3% of the time. Casali, on the other hand, was off to a great start in a more straightforward manner. In 61 plate appearances so far, he’s hitting .264/.344/.472 for a wRC+ of 134. Unfortunately, that hot start has now been stalled by this unfortunate injury.

As for Papierski, he was just acquired from the Astros in last week’s Mauricio Dubon trade and will be quickly called up to make his major league debut. A ninth round selection in the 2017 draft, he has played in 29 Triple-A games this year between the two organizations. His batting line for the season is .200/.303/.260.

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