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Darin Ruf

Mets Notes: Senga, DH, McNeil, Extensions

By Anthony Franco | February 2, 2023 at 11:43pm CDT

One of the bigger moves of the Mets’ active offseason was the signing of starter Kodai Senga to a five-year, $75MM guarantee. The 30-year-old righty is making the jump from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, where he posted a 2.59 ERA across 11 seasons. Senga was one of the highest-upside hurlers available in free agency, though there’s naturally some amount of performance risk until he translates his production against MLB competition.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports the Mets also expressed some concern about Senga’s medical evaluations before finalizing the contract in December. Further details aren’t clear, though Heyman notes Mets personnel have expressed confidence in Senga’s health prognosis for the upcoming season. That’s hardly surprising, as whatever concerns the organization had raised didn’t deter them from agreeing to the fourth-largest deal for a free agent pitcher this offseason. That contract also affords Senga an opportunity to opt out and retest the market after the 2025 season, though the Associated Press reports that’s contingent on the righty throwing a combined 400 innings over the next three years.

In other news out of Queens:

  • The Mets never pursued a full-time designated hitter upgrade this offseason partially out of a desire to preserve a path to at-bats for their younger hitters, writes Andy Martino of SNY. Top prospects Francicso Álvarez and Brett Baty each reached the majors late in the 2022 season. Each is a polished hitter but faces questions about their defense at catcher and third base, respectively. That’s also true of corner infielder Mark Vientos, who’s not quite the same caliber of prospect as Álvarez or Baty but earned an MLB look with a .280/.358/.519 showing at Triple-A Syracuse. Martino suggests the Mets aren’t likely to give them early-season looks at DH in hopes of each continuing to show progress defensively, though there could be a path to bat-only reps later in the year — or for veteran Eduardo Escobar to slide to DH if Baty seized the third base job at some point. Lefty-swinging veteran Daniel Vogelbach earned the larger share of a DH platoon to open the year with an excellent .261/.382/.497 showing against righties anyhow. Offseason signee Tommy Pham or last summer’s deadline pickup Darin Ruf are righty bats who could shoulder the load against southpaws. Ruf’s second-half struggles give Pham the upper hand in that regard, but Martino writes the Mets are at least likely to carry Ruf on the roster into Spring Training.
  • New York locked up one of their homegrown stars last Friday, signing Jeff McNeil to a four-year, $50MM extension to potentially buy out a trio of free agent years. General manager Billy Eppler addressed the deal earlier this week, expressing broad openness to negotiations with other important players who are early in their careers (link via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). First baseman Pete Alonso is the most logical candidate for those kinds of talks as he enters his penultimate season of arbitration control, though neither Eppler nor Alonso’s representatives at Apex Baseball have indicated publicly whether discussions might take place over the coming weeks. Discussions with McNeil, at least, were a long time running before culminating in a deal. Will Sammon of the Athletic reports Eppler and McNeil’s camp at Paragon Sports International first opened extension talks in November 2021, just before the lockout froze communications between teams and 40-man roster players until March.
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New York Mets Notes Brett Baty Daniel Vogelbach Darin Ruf Eduardo Escobar Francisco Alvarez Jeff McNeil Kodai Senga Mark Vientos Pete Alonso Tommy Pham

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The Mets, Brandon Nimmo, And The Luxury Tax

By Steve Adams | December 7, 2022 at 2:39pm CDT

The Mets have remained in contact with agent Scott Boras regarding center fielder Brandon Nimmo throughout his free agency, but MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports that there’s a “general pessimism” among many in the organization about the team’s chances of re-signing him. As DiComo points out, manager Buck Showalter was effectively referring to Nimmo in the past-tense last night. Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote last night that GM Billy Eppler was using terms like “get creative” and “opportunistic” earlier in the week when discussing further transactions.

Of course, since that time, the Mets agreed to a two-year, $26MM deal with Jose Quintana and acquired lefty reliever Brooks Raley from the Rays, both of which represented rather straightforward augmentation of the team’s pitching staff. And even amid reports of pessimism and a shift toward more measured spending, SNY’s Andy Martino tweets that the Mets are at least remaining open-minded about the possibility of an all-in push for both Nimmo and righty Kodai Senga.

The Mets found themselves with a substantial array of needs to address heading into the offseason, with Nimmo, Jacob deGrom, Edwin Diaz, Chris Bassitt, Taijuan Walker, Seth Lugo and Adam Ottavino all reaching the open market. They’ve patched up the rotation by adding Justin Verlander and Jose Quintana to join Max Scherzer and Carlos Carrasco, and the Mets’ first strike was to bring Diaz back on a record-setting five-year, $102MM contract. The recent acquisition of Raley added some needed support in the bullpen.

Those moves, however, have left the Mets with a projected $306MM in terms of luxury-tax obligations. As a second-time offender, they’ll pay a 90% tax on on any expenditures north of $293MM. In other words, one or both of Nimmo and Senga would cost the Mets nearly double whatever annual salary is applied to their contracts — at least this season.

The Mets can certainly explore avenues to lower their luxury number, perhaps shopping for a taker on the remainder of James McCann’s contract or (less problematically) by gauging interest in veterans like Mark Canha or Eduardo Escobar, each of whom represents a relatively significant luxury expenditure ($13.25MM for Canha; $10MM for Escobar). To that end, Mike Puma of the New York Post suggests the Mets are shopping Darin Ruf in hopes of getting a team to absorb some or all of his $3.25MM he’s still owed, though that would amount to little more than a drop in the bucket for their enormous luxury obligations.

Nimmo is widely expected to command a nine-figure deal of at least five, if not six years in length. Senga’s price tag is a bit tougher to gauge, as while agent Joel Wolfe revealed this week that he’s received offers of five and six years in length for his client, the annual value being discussed on such deals is not publicly known. Speculatively speaking, it’s not all that difficult to imagine the pair combining for something in the $40MM range, AAV-wise, which would mean at least an additional $36MM in taxes on top of their actual contracts. At present, the Mets are tentatively looking at roughly $41MM in luxury penalties, and by being more than $40MM over the luxury line, they’re also slated to have their top pick dropped by 10 places in next year’s draft order.

Further complicating matters is that the Mets are already projected for approximately $201MM of luxury obligations as far out as the 2024 season. Scherzer has an opt-out in his contract that could greatly reduce that number, but that’s hardly a guarantee to be exercised at this time. That $201MM figure also doesn’t include arbitration raises for Pete Alonso (projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $15.9MM in 2023) or Jeff McNeil (projected for $6.2MM); that pair could combine for more than $30MM in 2024. Again using that speculative $40MM combination of AAVs for Nimmo and Senga, the Mets would be barreling toward the fourth tier of luxury penalization again in ’24, which would then come with a mammoth 110% tax rate in their third consecutive year of exceeding the tax threshold.

The ultimate decision rests in the hands of owner Steve Cohen. It bears mentioning that this type of lavish payroll bonanza is among the reasons that the league’s other owners sought to implement a fourth tier of luxury penalization — colloquially dubbed the “Cohen Tax” — in its recent wave of collective bargaining with the MLB Players Association. It doesn’t appear to be stopping the Mets from taking on upwards of $40MM in luxury penalties, but adding Nimmo and/or Senga to that pile would teeter on unprecedented with regard to the scope of the luxury penalties incurred.

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New York Mets Brandon Nimmo Darin Ruf Kodai Senga

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Mets Select Francisco Alvarez, Designate Alex Claudio For Assignment

By Steve Adams | September 30, 2022 at 2:16pm CDT

The Mets have made it official: they’ve selected the contract of top catching prospect Francisco Alvarez from Triple-A Syracuse, confirming his previously reported promotion to the big leagues. In a pair of corresponding roster moves, Darin Ruf was placed on the 10-day injured list due to a neck strain, and lefty Alex Claudio was designated for assignment. Alvarez will serve as the Mets’ designated hitter today, batting seventh in his Major League debut.

Considered by most outlets to be among baseball’s ten best prospects — and considered the top prospect in the sport at MLB.com — Alvarez will cap off a monstrous season with his first call to the Majors. Splitting his time between Double-A and Triple-A this year, the 20-year-old slugger posted a combined .260/.374/.511 batting line with 27 home runs, 22 doubles, a 14.1% walk rate and a 24.8% strikeout rate in 495 plate appearances. He’s been on an absolute tear since returning from a stint on the minor league injured list earlier this month, mashing at a .362/.483/.596 clip over his past 58 plate appearances.

That’s a stark contrast to the veteran Ruf, acquired from the Giants prior to the trade deadline. The 36-year-old has been one of the game’s most potent bats against lefties in recent years but has stumbled to a dismal .152/.216/.197 batting line in 74 plate appearances as a Met — handily being outproduced by the same right-handed slugger for which he was traded; J.D. Davis is batting .280/.375/.525 in 136 trips to the plate as a Giant. (The Mets also sent lefty Thomas Szapucki and a pair of prospects to San Francisco in that swap.)

Alvarez’s first start will come against Braves southpaw Max Fried — a tough opponent but a favorable platoon matchup at least. In 132 plate appearances against southpaws in the minors this season, he’s raked at a .315/.424/.595 clip and slugged 15 extra-base hits (eight homers, seven doubles). Fried is (obviously) more than a cut above the quality of pitchers Alvarez has been facing in Double-A and Triple-A, but he’ll still add some right-handed thump in a pivotal series that could very well decide the winner of the National League East.

Claudio, 30, tossed 3 1/3 shutout innings with the Mets earlier this month, marking his ninth consecutive season with time spent on a Major League roster. A fixture in the bullpens of the Rangers and then the Brewers from 2014-20, Claudio struggled through a poor 2021 season with the Angels and subsequently spent the bulk of the current campaign in Triple-A. He posted a combined 3.44 ERA in 311 2/3 frames in that ’14-’20 stretch between Texas and Milwaukee before serving up a grisly 5.51 ERA in 32 2/3 innings as an Angel. He’s posted a 3.91 ERA in Syracuse this year, in addition to his 3 1/3 shutout innings for the Mets’ big league roster.

The Mets will place Claudio on outright waivers or release waivers within the next couple days. He has more than six years of Major League service time, so he’d be a free agent at season’s end regardless. It’s possible he’ll accept an outright in hopes of potentially being selected back to the roster in the event of an injury, but he’ll be a free agent this offseason regardless.

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New York Mets Newsstand Transactions Alex Claudio Darin Ruf Francisco Alvarez

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Mets, Giants Swap J.D. Davis For Darin Ruf

By Tim Dierkes | August 2, 2022 at 2:41pm CDT

The Mets have acquired first baseman/left fielder Darin Ruf from the Giants for third baseman J.D. Davis according to SNY’s Andy Martino.  According to Joel Sherman of the New York Post, the Giants also picked up southpaw Thomas Szapucki and A-ball pitchers Nick Zwack and Carson Seymour in the trade.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the trade suggests the Mets think Ruf can help them more this year than Davis, as both are bat-first right-handed hitters.  Ruf, who recently turned 36, continues to serve as a lefty-masher this year.  He’s got a 155 wRC+ in 337 plate appearances against southpaws since returning from KBO in 2020, which ranks fourth in all of MLB.  Ruf actually succeeded against righties as well in 2020-21, but has struggled against them this year.  He’s earning $3MM on the season, of which about $1MM remains.  He also has a $3.5MM club option for 2022 with a $250K buyout.  Ruf and fellow new acquisition Daniel Vogelbach make for an excellent platoon at designated hitter for the Mets.

Davis, 29, is under team control as an arbitration eligible player for both the 2023 and ’24 seasons.  Though not known for his glove, unlike Ruf, Davis is capable of playing third base.  Since coming over from the Astros in a January 2019 trade, Davis has posted a 125 wRC+ for the Mets in 1,100 plate appearances.  He hasn’t shown a significant platoon split in that period, and has flashed eye-popping Statcast metrics at times.  This year, however, Davis has posted just a 102 wRC+ for the Mets in 207 plate appearances and hasn’t been drawing many starts of late.  Davis became particularly expendable with the Mets’ signing of Eduardo Escobar back in November plus the acquisition of Vogelbach.  Davis played in 140 games for the Mets in 2019, but has played in only 195 games since 2020 due to injuries.

In Szapucki, the Giants get a lefty with a pair of big league appearances to his name.  Szapucki has mostly operated as a starter in the minors, posting a strong 21.6 K-BB% in 64 Triple-A innings this year.  Prior to last season, Baseball America rated him as a 45-grade prospect, saying he can “land three pitches for strikes,” and needed to recover his velocity after spending 2020 at the Mets’ alternate site.  Szapucki has indeed done so, working at 90.9 miles per hour in his lone 2021 MLB appearance but pitching at 95.1 in a brutal May 25th outing at San Francisco in which he surrendered nine earned runs while recording only four outs.  Apparently Giants brass liked what they saw in that outing, despite their hitters beating up on Szapucki with four home runs.

Zwack, a 24-year-old southpaw, moved to High-A in May and has excelled with a 22.8 K-BB%.  A 17th round pick in 2021 out of Xavier University, it remains to be seen if Zwack can sustain his success when facing opponents closer to his own age.  Seymour, a 23-year-old righty, moved into the Brooklyn Cyclones’ rotation around the same time as Zwack.  With a 25.0 K-BB% rate, he’s been successful as well aside from the longball.  Seymour was drafted by the Mets in the sixth round in 2021 out of Kansas State.

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New York Mets Newsstand San Francisco Giants Transactions Darin Ruf J.D. Davis

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Giants, Darin Ruf Agree To Two-Year Deal

By Steve Adams | March 22, 2022 at 12:08pm CDT

The Giants have agreed to a two-year, $6.25MM deal with first baseman/outfielder Darin Ruf, tweets ESPN’s Jeff Passan. The contract contains a club option for a third season, which would be Ruf’s first potential free-agent year.

Ruf, represented by Vanguard Sports, was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn $2.6MM via arbitration. He’d have been due another raise via arbitration in 2023 before reaching free agency in the 2023-24 offseason. Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets that Ruf will earn $3MM this season and next, adding that the 2024 option is valued at $3.5MM and comes with a $250K buyout.

Originally signed by the Giants on the heels of a strong run in the Korea Baseball Organization, Ruf has emerged as a key weapon against left-handed pitching. The former Phillies slugger has decimated southpaws, hitting at a .275/.390/.579 clip with 13 home runs, 11 doubles and a triple in 205 plate appearances. The resulting 157 wRC+, which indicates that Ruf has been 57% better than a league-average hitter against southpaws, ranks 12th among 168 qualified hitters.

That’s not to say Ruf has had a difficult time with right-handers or needs to be deployed strictly as a platoon player, to be clear. He’s no slouch against same-handed opponents either, as evidenced by a robust .270/.372/.461 slash in 207 plate appearances against them. It’s not the same level of dominance he’s had over southpaws, but Ruf’s production has been strong enough that manager Gabe Kapler ought to feel good plugging him into the lineup on just about any given day. And, with the advent of the National League designated hitter, Ruf figures to get more opportunities than in the past.

It’s a highly affordable deal for the Giants — one reflective of Ruf’s atypical career arc. Ruf didn’t see his first prolonged MLB action until his age-26 season, back in 2013, and he didn’t even reach arbitration eligibility until last year — his age-34 campaign. Ruf is already 35 and will turn 36 by late July, meaning he wouldn’t have accrued the necessary six years of service time to reach free agency until after he’d already turned 37. He earned a few million overseas while slashing .313/.404/.564 across three seasons with the Samsung Lions, but given the late-blooming nature of his breakout, it’s not a surprise to see him giving up a free-agent year at a relatively modest rate. This new two-year deal effectively doubles Ruf’s career earnings, which surely makes it a particularly satisfying deal to sign at 35 years of age.

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San Francisco Giants Transactions Darin Ruf

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Giants Designate Jose Quintana For Assignment

By Anthony Franco | September 30, 2021 at 6:02pm CDT

The Giants announced they’ve reinstated first baseman Darin Ruf and right-hander Johnny Cueto from the injured list before this evening’s game against the Diamondbacks. In corresponding moves, left-hander Tony Watson landed on the 10-day injured list due to a strain in his throwing shoulder, while fellow southpaw José Quintana was designated for assignment.

The transactions series likely ends Quintana’s time in San Francisco after just a few weeks. The Giants claimed Quintana off waivers from the Angels at the end of August, absorbing the approximate $1.5MM remaining on his contract to add him just before the deadline for players to be eligible for teams’ postseason rosters.

Picking up Quintana didn’t work out quite as planned. He made five relief appearances with San Francisco, working 9 2/3 innings of five-run ball. The 32-year-old punched out twelve batters in that limited time, but also issued six walks and was tagged for three home runs. Evidently, the front office determined they were content with their other lefty bullpen options — even as Watson lands on the IL — to let Quintana go before the start of the postseason.

Quintana will almost certainly wind up hitting free agency in the next couple days, either via release or rejection of an outright assignment. He’ll hit the open market coming off a disappointing season. Signed by Los Angeles to a one-year, $8MM deal in free agency, he was bumped from the rotation after posting a 7.22 ERA through his first nine starts. He didn’t find much more success in relief, posting a 5.52 ERA from that point forward between the Angels and Giants.

It was an atypical season for Quintana, who has offered quality production over the course of his career. He was quietly one of the game’s better starters for a few seasons with the White Sox, leading to a blockbuster crosstown deal that sent him to the Cubs in 2017. That trade — which sent Eloy Jiménez and Dylan Cease to the South Siders — quickly proved regrettable for the Cubs, but Quintana did at least offer consistent innings and useful production for much of his time in Wrigleyville.

He lost most of last season due to injury, though, and his 6.43 ERA this year is by far the highest of his career. That’s been driven by personal-worst walk and home run rates, but Quintana has curiously been better than ever before at missing bats. He’s punched out 28.6% of opposing hitters on the strength of an 11.9% swinging strike rate; both marks are career-highs and above the league average. That extreme production came into play even before Quintana was moved to the pen, as he’d fanned 30.1% of batters faced over his first nine starts.

With Quintana and Watson out of the picture, the Giants look likely to enter the playoffs with Jarlin García and José Álvarez as lefty relief options. Manager Gabe Kapler didn’t rule Watson out for the entire postseason when speaking with reporters (including Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area), but it at least seems he’d miss the Division Series if the club advanced to that point. Acquired from the Angels at the trade deadline, Waston has posted a 2.96 ERA over 24 1/3 frames with San Francisco.

Ruf looks likely to assume the bulk of the playing time at first base moving forward. Brandon Belt fractured his left thumb after being hit by a pitch over the weekend, and that injury could cost him most or all of the team’s playoffs. Like so much of the roster, Ruf has excelled when given the opportunity this year. Through 300 plate appearances, he owns a .268/.387/.512 line with fifteen home runs. Belt’s injury could force the Giants to deploy Ruf more against right-handed pitching than they have so far, but he’s more than held his own in limited action against righties while absolutely mashing southpaws.

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San Francisco Giants Transactions Darin Ruf Johnny Cueto Jose Quintana Tony Watson

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Brandon Belt To Undergo Additional Tests On Thumb Injury

By Mark Polishuk | September 26, 2021 at 11:21pm CDT

Giants first baseman Brandon Belt was hit on the left thumb by a Lucas Gilbreath pitch during the seventh inning of San Francisco’s 6-2 win over the Rockies today.  Belt took his base, but was replaced at first base for the bottom half of the inning.

Manager Gabe Kapler told The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser and other reporters that Belt will be examined tomorrow when the Giants return home, as an initial round of x-rays were inconclusive.  Belt didn’t speak to the media himself following the game, but teammate Brandon Crawford noted that “talking to him, he seems like he should be all right and hopefully not miss too much time.”

The Giants have already clinched at least a wild card berth, and they hold a two-game lead over the Dodgers in the NL West with six games remaining in the regular season.  Since San Francisco doesn’t play on Monday, Belt will get an extra day to recuperate, though even if he has escaped the worst and his thumb is only sore or bruised, it seems like Belt might be a limited factor at best in this critical final week.

Belt’s revival at the plate began in 2020, and he carried that big performance in the shortened season through to 2021. With two more hits in today’s win over Colorado, Belt is now hitting .274/.378/.597 with 29 home runs over 381 plate appearances.  This is despite missing close to eight weeks on the injured list due to an oblique strain and then a knee injury — much of Belt’s best work has come since returning from that second IL trip, as he has a whopping 1.071 OPS over 176 PA from August 5 to September 25.

Depth has been a key part of the Giants’ success this year, and since Belt has missed so much time, such players as LaMonte Wade Jr., Wilmer Flores, and Darin Ruf have all gotten considerable action at first base.  Wade and Flores figure to work a first base platoon until Belt is healthy, and Ruf figures to join the mix when he returns from the IL.  Ruf told Slusser that he expects to be ready to be activated on Thursday, which represents the minimum 10 days after he was sidelined due to an oblique strain.

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San Francisco Giants Brandon Belt Darin Ruf

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Giants Place Darin Ruf On 10-Day IL, Activate Alex Dickerson

By Mark Polishuk | September 23, 2021 at 2:27pm CDT

The Giants have placed first baseman/outfielder Darin Ruf on the 10-day injured list due to a right oblique strain.  The placement is retroactive to September 20.  Alex Dickerson has been activated from his own 10-day IL stint to replacement Ruf on San Francisco’s active roster.

This is the second time Ruf has been on the injured list this season, as he missed just under a month earlier in the year due to a right hamstring strain.  If Ruf’s has a low-level oblique strain, he might very well be able to return to action in the minimum 10 days.  However, if Ruf has a Grade 2 strain or worse, or if he simply has a setback in his recovery from a mild strain, it could impact his availability for the Giants’ postseason roster.

Missing Ruf for even 10 days will be a blow for the Giants as they try to hold off the Dodgers for the NL West lead.  One of many unheralded players who have emerged as huge contributors for San Francisco, Ruf has hit .270/.383/.513 with 20 home runs over an even 400 plate appearances since the start of the 2020 season.  Ruf saw a lot of action at first base in Brandon Belt’s absence, and in left field as the right-handed hitting side of the Giants’ ever-shifting outfield platoons.

It has been quite a return to Major League Baseball for Ruf, who broke into the Show in impressive fashion with the Phillies in 2012-13, but his production trailed off over the next three years.  Ruf then went to the Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization and revitalized his career, hitting .313/.404/.564 with 86 homers over his 404 games in Daegu.

San Francisco will look to replace Ruf’s right-handed bat with a lefty swinger in Dickerson, though Dickerson is looking to re-establish his own status as a hidden gem on the Giants’ roster.  After some big numbers in his first two seasons in the Bay Area, Dickerson has hit a more modest .235/.303/.426 over 304 PA in 2021, though he has hit a career-best 13 homers.  Dickerson’s performance has surely been hampered by injuries, as he previously spent time on the IL with a right shoulder impingement and back tightness this year prior to this current absence for a right hamstring strain.  Dickerson will return after just shy of three weeks on the injured list with this latest problem.

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San Francisco Giants Transactions Alex Dickerson Darin Ruf

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Giants Notes: Wade, Outfield, Deadline, DeSclafani

By Steve Adams | June 21, 2021 at 4:21pm CDT

The Giants announced Monday afternoon that they’ve reinstated outfielders Alex Dickerson and Darin Ruf from the injured list. Infielder Jason Vosler and, more surprisingly, outfielder LaMonte Wade Jr. were optioned to Triple-A Sacramento to open space on the 26-man roster. It’s a tough break for Wade, who has hit quite well in his first season with San Francisco — albeit in a tiny sample of 94 plate appearances. Acquired in a lopsided deal that sent righty Shaun Anderson to Minnesota — the Twins already lost Anderson on waivers — Wade is hitting .265/.344/.470 with four homers, three doubles, a triple and a pair of steals in his limited time as a Giant.

That’s a far cry from anything Wade has done previously in the Majors or in Triple-A, particularly in the power department, and it’s worth noting that Wade has batted a tepid .220/.273/.390 over his past 11 games. Still, the overall numbers are solid and ought to earn the 27-year-old another look before too long. The Giants are quite active when it comes to roster turnover, and Wade only needs to be down for 10 days (or less, if recalled in place of someone going on the injured  list) before he can return.

More on the Giants…

  • Many Giants fans expressed immediate frustration to see Wade optioned out when hitting so well — particularly with veteran outfielder Mike Tauchman struggling so much at the plate. Tauchman hasn’t started a game since June 14, and he hasn’t tallied a multi-hit game since collecting three knocks in his Giants debut back on April 28 after he was acquired from the Yankees. He’s also out of minor league options, however, meaning he’d need to be designated for assignment and passed through waivers if the team hopes to send him down. Given Tauchman’s .171/.287/.271 slash through 150 plate appearances with San Francisco, there’s a straightforward argument that that’s the route the team should’ve taken, but clearly the front office isn’t quite yet to that point. As Kerry Crowley of the San Jose Mercury News points out, the Giants also have several left-handed opponents on the horizon, and the left-handed-hitting Wade’s production thus far has come entirely against righties.
  • Giants CEO Larry Baer discussed the trade deadline on this week’s Giants Talk podcast (link via Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area). As one would expect from most MLB execs, Baer was a bit guarded and rather vague, so as not to reveal too much, but he made clear that ownership is prepared to greenlight the front office to make some additions to bolster the roster. Baer effused praise for president of baseball ops Farhan Zaidi, GM Scott Harris and the rest of the recently reworked front office, stating that the group has quickly garnered “so much credibility” with ownership and expressed a desire to “do what’s right by the club and [the front office’s] recommendations.” While Baer didn’t foreshadow any potential target areas for the front office, it’s no doubt encouraging for the fanbase to hear ownership state that the “number one factor” at this year’s trade deadline will be: “how are we best set up to win this year?”
  • Right-hander Anthony DeSclafani spoke with John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle about the league’s forthcoming crackdown on foreign substance usage. “I’m not a user, so they can come check me whenever they want,” the righty said. DeSclafani noted the extremely low spin on his curveball and said he’s tried in the past to increase the spin and do so legally, but without much success. It’s been interesting to hear various players around the league weigh in on the foreign substance policy, and DeSclafani had several quotes on the matter in his chat with Shea for those who are interested. Lack of spin notwithstanding, the 31-year-old DeSclafani has been nothing short of excellent for the Giants. Since signing a one-year pact over the winter, he’s started 14 games and pitched to a 3.01 ERA with a 22.1 percent strikeout rate and 6.9 percent walk rate in 80 2/3 frames. Like many of his rotation-mates — Kevin Gausman, Alex Wood, Johnny Cueto and the currently injured Aaron Sanchez — DeSclafani is slated to become a free agent at season’s end. (San Francisco holds a $22MM option on Cueto, though the accompanying $5MM buyout looks likelier at present.)
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Notes San Francisco Giants Alex Dickerson Anthony DeSclafani Darin Ruf Jason Vosler LaMonte Wade Jr. Mike Tauchman

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NL West Notes: Muncy, Bellinger, Seager, Gray, Dickerson, Ruf, Rockies, Weil

By Mark Polishuk and TC Zencka | June 19, 2021 at 9:23pm CDT

The Dodgers are aiming to put much of their lineup back together in time for a big three-game series with the Padres beginning on Monday.  As of now, the hope is that Max Muncy and Cody Bellinger could both come off the injured list in time for at least part of that series, L.A. manager Dave Roberts told The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya (all Twitter links) and other reporters.  Muncy (oblique strain) and Bellinger (hamstring tightness) both haven’t played since June 11 and are eligible to be activated off the 10-day IL on June 22.  The duo each took part in a simulated game at the Dodgers’ Spring Training facility today, Roberts said.  Corey Seager (fractured hand) might not be too far behind them, as he is tentatively to begin a rehab assignment next week after being sidelined since May 15 due to a fractured hand.

The news isn’t as positive for Dodgers pitching prospect Josiah Gray, as Roberts said Gray is “a ways down the road” in being ready to return from a shoulder impingement.  A consensus top-100 prospect in baseball, Gray made his Triple-A debut this season but pitched in only one game before getting injured.  The 23-year-old right-hander had been projected to make his Major League debut later this year assuming things went well at Triple-A, but Gray might not have too long to get healthy and then make a good impression on the mound if he is going to factor into the Dodgers’ September call-up plans.

More from the NL West…

  • Giants manager Gabe Kapler told reporters (including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle) that Alex Dickerson and Darin Ruf are beginning minor league rehab assignments today.  Ruf was placed on the 10-day IL with a right hamstring strain on May 27, while an upper back strain sent Dickerson to the IL on June 9.  With so many members of the first-place Giants playing well, Slusser thinks the impending returns of Dickerson and Ruf could create a bit of a roster crunch.  Someone like Mike Tauchman, for instance, couldn’t be easily moved off the roster since he is out of minor league options, so the Giants would have to first expose him to waivers if they wanted to send him to Triple-A.
  • The Rockies parted ways with assistant GM Jon Weil earlier this week, with The Athletic’s Nick Groke adding some more details about the front office situation.  Weil was told that the team wouldn’t be renewing his contract, which ended Weil’s 16-year run in the organization.  Between Weil leaving and VP of scouting Bill Schmidt being promoted to the interim GM job, both Weil’s and Schmidt’s former roles haven’t been filled, as the team has instead moved their responsibilities around to other current employees.  In addition, the baseball operations department is being overseen by Rockies president of business operations Greg Feasel.  This doesn’t seem like an ideal situation for a Rockies club that looks to be approaching a critical trade deadline and potential rebuilding period, — as Groke puts it, “a potential trade of [Trevor] Story and [Jon] Gray will be left to a business-minded president with no baseball experience, an interim GM with only two remaining lieutenants, and no true research department.”
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Colorado Rockies Los Angeles Dodgers Notes San Francisco Giants Alex Dickerson Cody Bellinger Corey Seager Darin Ruf Josiah Gray Max Muncy

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