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Darwinzon Hernandez

Each MLB Team’s Players On WBC Rosters

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The World Baseball Classic is returning this year, the first time since 2017. The quadrennial event was supposed to take place in 2021 but was scuttled by the pandemic, now returning after a six-year absence. Rosters for the tournament were announced today and those can be found at this link. Here is a breakdown of which players from each MLB team are set to take participate. Quick caveat that this list is fluid and might be changed as more information becomes available.

Without further ado…

Angels

Astros

Athletics

Blue Jays

Braves

Brewers

Cardinals

Cubs

Diamondbacks

Dodgers

Giants

Guardians

Marlins

Mariners

Mets

Nationals

Orioles

Padres

Phillies

Pirates

Rangers

Rays

Red Sox

Reds

Rockies

Royals

Tigers

Twins

White Sox

Yankees

Orioles Outright Darwinzon Hernandez

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The Orioles announced on Thursday that reliever Darwinzon Hernandez has cleared waivers. He’s been sent outright to Triple-A Norfolk and will stick in the organization without occupying a 40-man roster spot. The O’s have extended him a non-roster invitation to big league Spring Training.

Hernandez, 26, changed organizations for the first time last month after being designated for assignment by the Red Sox. The southpaw had spent his entire career with Boston since signing out of Venezuela a decade ago. The O’s swung a minor trade with their division rivals, bringing in Hernandez for cash considerations. His stay on their 40-man lasted just a couple weeks, as Baltimore DFA him a week ago upon acquiring Cole Irvin from Oakland.

The pair of transactions allow the O’s to stash a hard-throwing lefty reliever as a non-roster player in the upper minors. Hernandez has pitched in each of the last four MLB seasons, flashing tantalizing stuff but too often struggling to throw strikes. He posted a 3.38 ERA through 40 innings as recently as 2021 but was lit up for 17 runs in just 6 2/3 frames last season.

Overall, Hernandez now carries a 5.06 ERA across 85 1/3 MLB innings. He has an excellent 32.3% strikeout rate and has gotten swinging strikes on a quality 12.5% of his overall offerings. His combination of a mid-90s fastball and a mid-80s breaking pitch that garnered plus or better grades from prospect evaluators is clearly capable of missing bats at the highest level. Yet no other pitcher with 50+ innings over the past four seasons has walked batters more often than Hernandez, who has dished out free passes at a 17.7% clip.

Assuming he doesn’t reestablish himself on the MLB roster during Spring Training, Hernandez will head to Norfolk to start the year. He owns 5.29 ERA with a 30.8% strikeout percentage but an 18.8% walk rate in parts of three seasons at the top minor league level. He still has one option year remaining, so the O’s could bounce him between Baltimore and Norfolk if he reclaims a 40-man spot at any point. Hernandez would reach minor league free agency at the end of the season if he’s not a part of the 40-man roster.

The Orioles have Keegan Akin and Cionel Pérez as their top left-handed relievers. Nick Vespi is also on the 40-man roster, although his specific timeline is unclear after recent sports hernia surgery. Hard-throwing pitching prospect DL Hall might be best suited for a bullpen role given his own strike-throwing concerns, while Drew Rom and Bruce Zimmermann are candidates for depth roles in either the rotation or long relief.

Orioles Designate Darwinzon Hernandez For Assignment

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The Orioles announced that they have designated left-hander Darwinzon Hernandez for assignment. His roster spot goes to fellow lefty Cole Irvin, whom the club acquired from the A’s in a trade.

Few pitchers in the game can match the 26-year-old Hernandez’s ability to miss bats — evidenced by a 32.3% strikeout rate in 85 1/3 innings at the MLB level. However, even fewer struggle with their command to the same extent as Hernandez, who’s also walked 17.7% of his opponents as a big leaguer. He nonetheless managed a sharp 3.17 ERA with the Red Sox from 2020-21, but the 2022 season was a nightmare; Hernandez was shelled for 17 runs (16 earned)  in just 6 2/3 innings with Boston this past season. The Sox designated him for assignment earlier in the winter, and the O’s picked him up in a trade sending cash back to Boston. Overall, he has a 5.06 ERA during his 85 2/3 frames in the Majors.

Even with that poor command, Hernandez could intrigue other clubs. Controllable, hard-throwing lefties who avoid hard contact and have a minor league option remaining aren’t necessarily easy to come by. The Orioles will have a week to trade Hernandez or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. In the event that he goes through waivers unclaimed, the Orioles could assign Hernandez outright to their Triple-A affiliate, thereby keeping him in the organization without the need to dedicate a 40-man roster spot to him.

Orioles Acquire Darwinzon Hernandez, Designate Lewin Diaz

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The Orioles announced Wednesday that they’ve acquired lefty Darwinzon Hernandez from the Red Sox in exchange for cash. First baseman Lewin Diaz was designated for assignment yet again in order to create a spot on the 40-man roster.

The 26-year-old Hernandez will give the O’s an arm capable of missing bats at an elite level, but he’s also been plagued by jarring command issues throughout his career. Hernandez has punched out a hefty 32.3% of his opponents in 85 1/3 Major league innings, but that’s accompanied by a disastrous 17.7% walk rate. He still managed a sharp-looking 3.17 ERA in 2020-21, but opponents shelled him for 16 runs in only 6 2/3 innings this past season, bringing his career ERA to an unsightly 5.06. Hernandez has a pair of minor league options remaining and averages better than 95 mph on his heater, however, so the Orioles will hope they can tame some of those command woes and unearth a quality bullpen arm.

For Diaz, this is incredibly his fifth DFA of the offseason. He first went from the Marlins to the Pirates by way of waivers, and the Orioles claimed him (for the first time) from the Buccos shortly thereafter. Baltimore traded Diaz to Atlanta, who designated him for assignment five days later. The O’s claimed him again on Jan. 5, but his latest stint on the Orioles’ 40-man roster will apparently last just five days.

It’s a dizzying whirlwind of transactions that have surely made for a chaotic and unsettling winter for Diaz — a 26-year-old former top prospect who’s yet to have much big league experience at the plate but is regarded as one of the sport’s best defensive first basemen. Diaz is just a .181/.227/.340 hitter in 343 trips to the plate as a big leaguer, but he’s .250/.325/.504 hitter in parts of two Triple-A seasons.

The Orioles have spent the winter trying to add some lefty-swinging depth at first base, hence their two claims of Diaz and their trade for former Royals slugger Ryan O’Hearn, whom they almost immediately designated for assignment. The goal, surely, is to be able to successfully pass players like Diaz and O’Hearn through waivers and retain them as non-roster depth options in the upper minors.

To this point, however, no team has succeeded in getting Diaz through waivers. The allure of his glove and decent power production in the upper minors has continually piqued the interest of other clubs around the league. The Orioles hold the No. 17 waiver priority in the game (determined by last year’s standings), and Diaz has yet to make it past them on the waiver wire (he landed with Atlanta by way of trade, not waiver claim). Time will tell whether the O’s can finally succeed this time around, but it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Diaz again landed with another club via waivers or a small trade. His DFA will be resolved within a week’s time.

Red Sox Designate Darwinzon Hernandez For Assignment

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The Red Sox have designated left-hander Darwinzon Hernandez for assignment, per a team announcement. He’ll be the corresponding 40-man roster move to accommodate the newly signed Justin Turner, whose previously reported contract is now official.

Hernandez, 26, both misses bats and piles up walks in droves. He’s fanned 32.3% of his opponents over the life of 85 1/3 big league innings but has also walked a whopping 17.7% of the batters he’s faced. Despite that dearth of command, he was able to notch a tidy 3.17 ERA in 48 1/3 innings from 2020-21, but Hernandez was rocked for 17 runs (16 earned) in just 6 2/3 innings at the big league level this past season. Overall, he owns a 5.06 ERA in the Majors.

Despite his struggles to locate his pitches, Hernandez is a 26-year-old lefty who’s averaged just north of 95 mph on his fastball and avoided hard contact quite nicely when opponents put the ball in play against him (with the exception of 2022’s small sample). Hernandez also has a minor league option remaining, which could further broaden his appeal to other teams.

The Red Sox will have a week to trade Hernandez or attempt to pass him through outright waivers, which would allow them to keep him in the organization without dedicating a 40-man roster spot to the hard-throwing but command-challenged southpaw.

Red Sox Activate Michael Wacha From 15-Day Injured List

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2:54PM: The Sox officially reinstated Wacha from the IL.  Left-hander Darwinzon Hernandez was optioned to Triple-A to create roster space.

9:05AM: The Red Sox will activate right-hander Michael Wacha from the 15-day injured list today, manager Alex Cora told reporters (including Julian McWilliams of The Boston Globe).  Wacha will get the start for tonight’s game against the Yankees.

Right shoulder inflammation sent Wacha to the IL on July 5, so between this absence and a previous 15-day stint in May due to left intercostal irritation, Wacha has missed a good chunk of his first season with the Red Sox.  When he has been able to pitch, the righty has been arguably Boston’s best hurler, with a 2.69 ERA over 70 1/3 innings.

This performance is tempered by a 4.56 SIERA, a .240 BABIP and a slate of unimpressive Statcast metrics, so some regression seems almost inevitable.  However, in terms of pure bottom-line numbers, 2022 represents a very nice bounce-back for Wacha after he posted a 5.11 ERA in 285 1/3 innings in 2019-21.  The Sox have already gotten a decent return on their one-year, $7MM investment in Wacha during the offseason, and if he can continue to defy the metrics, he could be a key arm for the Red Sox down the stretch.

The starting rotation has been a question mark for the Sox virtually all season, with injuries and/or inconsistency plaguing just about every pitcher on the roster.  Chris Sale’s season-ending wrist surgery means that Boston won’t ever truly have its first-choice starting five all going at the same time, but Wacha’s return at least represents one more piece of the puzzle.  Wacha joins Nathan Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta, Rich Hill, and Kutter Crawford in the rotation, with Josh Winckowski likely to return to bullpen work, and James Paxton tentatively set to make a September return after undergoing Tommy John surgery in April 2021.

Darwinzon Hernandez Undergoes Knee Surgery

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Red Sox pitcher Darwinzon Hernández recently underwent surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his right knee, the team informed reporters (including Ian Browne of MLB.com). While the club didn’t provide a specific timetable for his return, he’ll be out of action for the foreseeable future.

Hernández hasn’t appeared in the majors this season. The hard-throwing southpaw has spent the whole year on optional assignment to Triple-A Worcester, where he recently suffered the injury. Hernández had technically been working as a starting pitcher with the WooSox, opening seven of his eight appearances. He hadn’t worked more than three frames in any individual outing, though, positioning him as more of a multi-inning relief option for the MLB team.

That’ll be put on hold while he recovers from this procedure. It’s a hit to the Sox’s bullpen depth, as Hernández had been a frequently-used middle innings option for skipper Alex Cora in recent seasons. He tallied a personal-high 40 innings across 48 appearances last year, posting a 3.38 ERA. That solid run prevention mark masked control variability, as Hernández walked a far too high 17% of opposing hitters. That was also the case in 2019, when he walked 17.7% of batters faced over 30 1/3 frames as a rookie.

The 25-year-old has shown high-octane stuff alongside those strike-throwing woes. He averaged a bit north of 95 MPH on his heater and struck out 29.7% of batters faced last season. Both marks were actually down a bit from his 2019-20 numbers, but there’s little question the Venezuela native can miss bats at the MLB level if he’s around the strike zone.

Hernández has been placed on the minor league injured list for now, but he’ll continue to occupy a spot on the Red Sox’s 40-man roster. If Boston wants to remove him from the 40-man while he recovers, they could recall him and place him on the major league 60-day IL. That’d require paying him an MLB salary and allowing him to accrue major league service time, however, so the front office will presumably not make that call before the need for a roster spot becomes acute.

Pitching Notes: Kershaw, Wacha, Hernandez, Mayza

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There had been some indication that Clayton Kershaw could be cleared to throw a bullpen session today, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya) that such a session won’t take place.  Some right SI joint inflammation sent Kershaw to the 15-day injured list on May 13, and while the star left-hander has started playing catch, it appears he is still some time off from a formal bullpen.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that Kershaw will miss an overt amount of time, but as Ardaya notes, it does rule out any chance that Kershaw will miss only a 15-day minimum.  While he isn’t dealing with an arm injury this time, Kershaw has dealt with enough health issues in recent years that any sort of IL stint is a concern, though the former three-time NL Cy Young Award winner has continued to pitch very well when he has been able to take the mound.

Here’s the latest on some other pitching-related injury situations from around the league…

  • Michael Wacha is slated to return from the 15-day injured list and start Friday’s game, Red Sox manager Alex Cora told MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo and other reporters.  Friday is the first eligible day for Wacha’s activation, after being retroactively placed on the 15-day IL on May 5 due to left intercostal irritation.  After a few rough seasons, Wacha looked to be on pace for a bounce-back performance in his first five starts with Boston, with an excellent 1.38 ERA over 26 innings.
  • At the minor league level, Cora said left-hander Darwinzon Hernandez will be “down for a while” after suffering an MCL sprain in his right knee.  Hernandez has a 5.95 ERA over 19 2/3 innings with Triple-A Worcester, continuing his career-long pattern of recording plenty of strikeouts but also far too many walks.  Over 78 2/3 career big league frames with the Red Sox, Hernandez has a 3.66 ERA and 33.6% strikeout rate, but also a whopping 17.6% walk rate.
  • The Blue Jays placed Tim Mayza on the 15-day IL Monday due to left forearm inflammation, and GM Ross Atkins told MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson and other reporters today that the initial indication is that Mayza’s issue is localized within his forearm and not his elbow.  Mayza is seeing another doctor today just to be doubly safe, as the reliever underwent Tommy John surgery in September 2019 and also missed 10 days last season due to elbow inflammation.  Since returning from that TJ procedure, Mayza has a 3.14 ERA over 66 innings out of Toronto’s bullpen in 2021-22.

Red Sox Select Kaleb Ort

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The Red Sox announced a series of roster moves before this evening’s game against the White Sox. As expected, shortstop Xander Bogaerts has been reinstated from the COVID-19 injured list. Hard-throwing reliever Darwinzon Hernández has been activated from the 10-day IL, while the club selected fellow bullpen arm Kaleb Ort. In corresponding moves, starter Chris Sale was placed on the COVID-19 IL after testing positive for the virus and reliever Austin Davis was placed on the paternity list. Additionally, infielder Jonathan Araúz has been placed on the COVID IL. He’s experiencing virus-like symptoms but has continued to test negative, relays Chris Cotillo of MassLive (Twitter link).

Ort is up to make his major league debut. The right-hander went undrafted out of Aquinas College in 2016. He signed with the Diamondbacks but was released not long after and then latched on with the Yankees. Ort spent the past few seasons in the New York system, but the Red Sox added him in the minor league phase of last offseason’s Rule 5 draft.

Assigned to Worcester, Ort has pitched well at the minors’ top level to earn the call. The 29-year-old has worked 43 1/3 innings of 3.12 ERA ball with the WooSox, striking out a very strong 30.4% of batters faced. Ort has had issues with his control throughout his pro career, but his 10.3% walk rate this season is only marginally above the league average for relievers.

Hernández is back after missing a little more than five weeks with a right oblique strain. The southpaw has a 3.44 ERA in 34 frames of relief despite an elevated 16.9% walk percentage. That’s largely thanks to his quality 29.9% strikeout rate, a continuation of Hernández’s lofty punch out and walk totals throughout his big league career.

AL East Notes: Eshelman, Barnes, Darwinzon, Brasier

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The Orioles announced that Thomas Eshelman has cleared waivers and accepted an assignment to Triple-A. The righty was designated for assignment on Sunday. In 21 1/3 innings this year, he’s struggled mightily, with an ERA of 8.02, along with strikeout and walk rates of 6.9% and 9.8%.

Elsewhere in the AL East…

  • Matt Barnes was placed on the COVID-IL earlier today because he was experiencing some symptoms but had not tested positive. After the game, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reported that Barnes subsequently tested negative and could be reactivated tomorrow. This is surely a relief on multiple fronts. But in pure baseball terms, Barnes is tremendously important to the Red Sox. The 31-year-old is having his best season to date, with an ERA of 2.30 being more than a full run better than his previous low of 3.65 in 2018. He’s also pushed his strikeout rate to 41.5%, beyond his previous best of 38.6. And his walk rate has trended downwards, coming in at 6.9%, better than every previous season except for his small-sample debut in 2014.
  • Cotillo also provided updates on a handful of other Red Sox, including an unfortunate detail about Darwinzon Hernandez. “It went from something that we felt like was going to be back soon, now he’s in pain and he’s a little more sore, so we’ve got to do other testing to see where we’re at with it,” Cora is quoted as saying in the piece. Hernandez was placed on the injured list July 31st with a right oblique strain. The hope at the time was that it would be a minimum stay on the 10-day. But there’s a chance that hope may be dashed now. The lefty has been a solid contributor out of the Boston bullpen this year, chalking up 34 innings with an ERA of 3.44, racking up strikeouts at a healthy clip of 29.9% but also a lot of walks at 16.9%.
  • “As of now, I’m very surprised, to be honest with you — pleasantly surprised — that he’s doing so well and things are trending in the right direction,” is what Cora had to say about Ryan Brasier. The 33-year-old was rehabbing a calf injury in June when he was struck in the head by a comebacker. He suffered a concussion and ear laceration at the time but now seems on the verge of throwing a bullpen and starting another rehab. The righty has been a valuable member of the Red Sox bullpen over the past three seasons but has yet to pitch at the big league level this year because of the calf injury and then the scary incident in June. But it’s very encouraging that he appears to be healthy now.
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