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Devin Mesoraco

NL Notes: Mets, Reds, Giants, Dodgers

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Mets right-hander Matt Harvey continued to allay concerns regarding his early spring velocity dip on Sunday. For the second straight outing, Harvey’s fastball sat in the 92 to 94 mph range and topped out at 97 mph, per Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News. “I couldn’t be happier than where I am now and ready to start the season,” Harvey said after throwing six innings against the Braves and allowing two runs on five hits (via MetsBlog). Harvey’s progress is obviously a positive development for the Mets, who found out Sunday that they could begin the season without the injured Steven Matz. If they do, either Seth Lugo or Zack Wheeler will open the year as their fifth starter. The club has already decided that Robert Gsellman will get a rotation spot, reports FanRag’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).

More from the National League:

  • Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco will likely begin the season on the disabled list as he works his way back from the left shoulder and right hip surgeries he underwent last year, writes Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. Consequently, the team is “leaning toward” retaining fellow backstop Stuart Turner, whom it took from the Twins in the Rule 5 draft, per Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link). Turner would join Tucker Barnhart to comprise the Reds’ top two catchers, and they’d try to pass the out-of-options Rob Brantly through waivers.
  • Despite his $20MM salary, Giants righty Matt Cain isn’t a shoo-in to win the last spot in their rotation, according to Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link). The 30-year-old combined for a 5.70 ERA over 150 innings in the previous two seasons, and he has pitched to an even uglier 8.10 ERA in 20 spring frames. Southpaw Ty Blach will take the role if Cain doesn’t. Blach, 26, debuted in the majors last season and gave up a mere two earned runs on eight hits in 17 innings.
  • Dodgers reliever Pedro Baez, who has been dealing with a right hand contusion this spring, will probably start the season on the disabled list, tweets Andy McCullough of the Los Angeles Times. Baez is the Dodgers’ top righty setup man, having tossed a career-high 74 innings and logged a 3.04 ERA and 10.09 K/9 against 2.68 BB/9 last season. Sergio Romo figures to serve as the main right-handed bridge to closer Kenley Jansen until Baez returns.

NL Central Notes: Uehara, Gyorko, Reds

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Cubs reliever Koji Uehara told reporters on Tuesday that after spending 10 seasons as a pro in Japan, he hopes to pitch a total of 10 years in America as well (via Paul Skrbina of the Chicago Tribune). That’d mean another two years for Uehara in the Majors, as he’s currently spent the past eight seasons pitching in Major League Baseball. Considering Uehara’s recent track record, there’s little reason to consider that goal unrealistic. While the 2016 season was a down year by his standards, Uehara still managed a 3.45 ERA with 12.1 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9 across 47 innings with the Red Sox. It should be noted that the 41-year-old Uehara (42 in April) didn’t expressly rule out pitching beyond a 10th Major League season.

Elsewhere in the NL Central…

  • Jedd Gyorko isn’t certain where he’ll be playing on a day to day basis in 2017, but Cardinals manager Mike Matheny tells Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the slugging utility infielder will have the opportunity to pick up plenty of at-bats. “I think right now it’s compete for lots of playing time,” said the skipper. “So we’re still in that same mode, and we’ll decide when we break with our club what roles look like.” Gyorko, who started 25+ games at second base, shortstop and third base last year, tells Goold that he dropped some weight in an effort to improve his range and increase the value of his newfound versatility. He also notes that so long as the Cardinals are winning, his own placement on the diamond/in the lineup is secondary. “I could be selfish and demand that I play every day and if I don’t then say I want to be traded,” says Gyorko. “That’s not who I am. That’s not who I want to be.” Gyorko will compete with Jhonny Peralta for at-bats at third base and can also play each other infield slot.
  • Bronson Arroyo and Devin Mesoraco appeared in an intrasquad game for the Reds on Tuesday, writes MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon. While Arroyo’s velocity in his one-inning, 15-pitch outing was around 83 mph, the 40-year-old is a bit behind after missing a week due to a stomach virus. Arroyo said he’s relieved, as his arm was already in “severe pain” around this stage last season (when a shoulder injury cut his spring short). His next outing will be a two-inning stint in a Cactus League game, per Sheldon, while manager Bryan Price said that Mesoraco could be in a Cactus League lineup by Sunday. Mesoraco admitted to feeling a bit rusty from a baseball standpoint but said that he felt good from a health perspective.

Reds Notes: Cozart, Votto, Rotation, Mesoraco

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The Reds look to be in for a relatively quiet offseason, writes C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer, though GM Dick Williams did acknowledge that he’ll remain open to trade scenarios involving Zack Cozart at this week’s GM Meetings. “He can be a part of grooming players and he can be a part of a winning clubhouse,” said Williams of his veteran shortstop. “But if there’s something that really puts the franchise in a better position for ’18 and ’19 that works, it’s something we’d have to consider. We’ve shown the willingness to trade guys who have been with us if it helps us get better.” Williams also said that both Jose Peraza and Dilson Herrera will get opportunities next year, though the timing of those opportunities is tied to what the Reds accomplish this offseason. Rosecrans adds that solidifying the bench with a right-handed-hitting outfielder and adding to the team’s bullpen are on the to-do list this winter.

A few more notes on the Reds…

  • Cincinnati has “no intention” of trading Joey Votto, tweets USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. Votto’s name has come up a bit over the past few months due to reports of some prior trade talks with the Blue Jays, but a trade has never seemed especially likely due to the fact that Votto is owed $179MM over the next seven seasons and has full no-trade rights. The star first baseman has previously said he hopes to remain in Cincinnati despite the team’s rebuilding status at the moment, and Nightengale notes that the Reds value his leadership with a wave of young players on the horizon.
  • While the Reds’ rotation is largely set for next season — Anthony DeSclafani, Brandon Finnegan, Dan Straily and Homer Bailey are all penciled in at the moment — Williams wouldn’t rule out the possibility of signing a veteran starter this winter, writes MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon. The Reds have a number of young options lined up to compete for that fifth spot already, including Cody Reed, Amir Garrett and Robert Stephenson, but Williams sounded open to adding to that mix. “There’s certainly a chance we could sign starting pitchers,” he said. “Whether they’ll be targeted with a Minor League deal to serve as a Triple-A starter or whether we’ll go after a starting pitcher remains to be seen. We have good competition there, but it’s young guys. We have a bunch of young guys for that last spot.”
  • Also via Sheldon, Williams said that the team expects Devin Mesoraco to be ready for Opening Day of the 2017 season, but the team is looking at contingency plans this winter after seeing Mesoraco play in just 38 games over the past two seasons. Mesoraco signed a four-year, $28MM contract extension prior to the 2015 campaign, but he’s had two hip surgeries and a shoulder surgery since that time, which has kept him from delivering any on-field value to the Reds over that time. “I think it’s important to prepare a contingency plan,” said Williams. “…We probably have to do some of that now. You can’t wait until after mid-January to come up with a plan. The fact that we’re optimistic that he’ll be back means you’re not going to try to go big on catching. … We’re optimistic he’ll open the season ready for catch, but probably on some sort of schedule.” As Sheldon notes, adding a veteran backstop on a low-cost or minor league deal makes sense for the Reds. Mesoraco will begin catching in mid- or late January, and he’ll share time behind the dish with Tucker Barnhart once again in 2017.

NL Central Notes: Thornburg, Mesoraco, Pirates, Cardinals

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The Brewers may hold the most interesting chips on the market for relievers, Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron writes. That includes not only Jeremy Jeffress and Will Smith, each of whom have served as the club’s closer in recent years, but also 27-year-old righty Tyler Thornburg, who owns a 2.45 ERA with 12.3 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 on the year. In fact, Cameron argues that Thornburg is the pick of the litter from the Milwaukee pen, documenting the advances in his offerings this year. Entering his first season of arbitration in the offseason to come, Thornburg won’t be an easy asset to acquire, but he could make for an interesting target over the next two weeks.

Here’s more from the NL Central:

  • The Reds are expressing optimism over the most recent surgery for catcher Devin Mesoraco, as MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon writes. Manager Bryan Price called it “preventative surgery,” with team and player taking advantage of his absence the rest of the way to do the work on his right hip that was previously performed on his left. Notably, Cincinnati expects that Mesoraco will be ready for catching drills in early 2017, and there’s clearly hope that he’ll be able to return to his duties behind the plate. Team medical director Dr. Timothy Kremcheck also discussed the procedure, as C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. There’s plenty of detail on the issue to digest, but the net of it seems to be that Mesoraco had begun to experience some signs of trouble and this proved a good time to get out ahead of the matter.
  • Pirates GM Neal Huntington says that he’s working hard to upgrade the club’s pitching staff, as Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports. He didn’t specify whether the rotation or the pen was the priority, and suggested that a move wasn’t a foregone conclusion, but it’s easy to imagine the club looking into opportunities in both areas. “We’re doing due diligence on all fronts, but the pitching is what seems to need the most help at this point unless we’re willing to go with what we’ve got internally,” said Huntington. Biertempfel takes a closer look at how the Bucs’ pitching is shaping up heading out of the break.
  • The Cardinals will no longer give high-leverage innings to deposed closer Trevor Rosenthal, ESPN.com’s Mark Saxon reports (Twitter link). St. Louis skipper Mike Matheny says he’ll lean on Jonathan Broxton in the seventh inning for the time being. The Cards have long been said to be seeking pen reinforcements, with Rosenthal’s continued struggles heightening the need.

Devin Mesoraco Undergoes Right Hip Surgery

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Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco, already out for the season due to shoulder surgery, underwent surgery to repair the labrum in his right hip, the team announced today (Twitter link). Per the Reds, Mesoraco is targeting a mid- or late-January return to catching drills. This marks the second significant hip surgery for Mesoraco in the past year, as the 28-year-old underwent surgery to repair his other hip last season, cutting his 2015 campaign short.

Injuries have limited Mesoraco to a mere 39 games over the past two seasons, during which he’s batted just .158/.245/.200. Mesoraco’s inability to stay on the field has been one of a litany of factors in the Reds’ fall in the National League Central, and his shortened 2016 campaign deprives the club of what could have been a highly appealing trade candidate had he enjoyed a rebound from last season’s hip operation.

From a bigger-picture standpoint, a pair of hip surgeries is troubling for any player’s long-term health outlook but especially for a catcher, as Mesoraco’s position is the most physically demanding in the game. That his non-throwing shoulder was the shoulder that required surgery earlier this season is a small silver lining, but suffice it to say there will be ongoing questions about Mesoraco’s durability until he proves capable of handling a catcher’s workload in the wake of these operations. Cincinnati had already begun to experiment with deploying Mesoraco in left field last season in reaction to his initial hip injury, so perhaps they’ll be open to mixing in some outfield time for Mesoraco in the future in an effort to keep him healthy.

The timing of Mesoraco’s injury-plagued seasons couldn’t have been any worse for Cincinnati. Mesoraco enjoyed a breakout campaign in 2014, fulfilling his status as a long-heralded top prospect with a .273/.359/.534 batting line and 25 home runs. That led the Reds to lock him up with a well-deserved four-year, $28MM contract extension, but he’s scarcely been able to take the field since putting pen to paper on that deal.

Devin Mesoraco Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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MAY 10: Surgery revealed more significant damage than had been anticipated, manager Bryan Price told C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link). Expectations now are that Mesoraco will require a six-month recovery timeline.

MAY 6, 2:54pm: Mesoraco says he expects to be out for a minimum of four months, which essentially means he’l be down for the rest of the year, C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports on Twitter.

2:36pm: The Reds announced this afternoon that catcher Devin Mesoraco, who was placed on the DL earlier this week, will undergo surgery next Tuesday to repair a torn labrum in his left shoulder (Twitter link). While Cincinnati did not give a definitive timeline for Mesoraco’s recovery, there would seem to be a chance that the injury ends up costing him the remainder of the season. Pablo Sandoval, for instance, underwent the same procedure just last week and has been announced as out for the duration of the season.

This marks the second consecutive season in which Mesoraco will lose most of the year to an injury that ultimately requires surgery. Last year it was a balky hip that ultimately needed surgical repair. The Reds briefly experimented with using Mesoraco in the outfield before conceding to the surgery, but that didn’t last long, and he was ultimately limited 23 games and 51 plate appearances. The 2016 campaign will be even more brief for Mesoraco, who has appeared in just 16 contests this season and collected just 43 plate appearances.

Suffice it to say, this isn’t what the Reds had in mind when signing Mesoraco to a four-year, $28MM contract on the heels of a 2014 breakout, though there weren’t any signs that he’d suffer through a breakdown of this magnitude. Mesoraco hit .273/.359/.534 with 25 home runs in that breakout ’14 season, and as a former first-round pick and widely regarded Top 100 prospect in his age-26 season, it seemed like he’d finally tapped into the potential scouts always saw in him. Now, he’ll hope to once again work his way back to health and give the Reds a healthy, productive season in 2017. Mesoraco earned $2.4MM last season and is earning $4.9MM in 2016. He’ll take home another $7.2MM next season and $13MM in 2018 before hitting the open market as a free agent.

Reds Option J.J. Hoover To Minors, Promote Steve Delabar

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The Reds have announced a variety of roster moves, among them the demotion of righty J.J. Hoover, who started the season as their closer, to Triple-A Louisville. They also recalled righty Drew Hayes from Louisville, selected the contract of veteran righty Steve Delabar, placed righty Jon Moscot (shoulder) on the 15-day DL, and transferred catcher Devin Mesoraco (shoulder) to the 60-day DL.

Hoover had a disastrous beginning to his season, allowing 18 runs (17 earned), six home runs and six walks in 10 2/3 innings. He was expected to work the ninth inning for a Reds team that traded Aroldis Chapman over the winter, but that arrangement did not work out, to put it mildly.

The rest of the Reds’ moves reflect the considerable uncertainty that surrounds the rest of the team’s pitching staff as well. Perhaps the most notable move is the promotion of Delabar, who agreed to a minor-league deal with the Reds late in Spring Training after the Blue Jays released him. Delabar had posted a 2.19 ERA for Louisville, but with an alarming 11 walks in 12 1/3 innings. The 2013 All-Star has fallen on hard times in recent seasons, and posted a 5.22 ERA, 9.2 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9 in 29 2/3 innings with the Jays last year. The Reds bullpen’s 6.28 ERA for the season is by far the worst in the Majors, however, so they have little to lose in giving Delabar a shot.

Moscot missed a start with shoulder discomfort earlier this week, although, via MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon (on Twitter), an MRI showed no structural damage. Mesoraco is set to have shoulder surgery and will miss the rest of the season.

Devin Mesoraco To DL With Torn Labrum In Left Shoulder

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10:22pm: Mesoraco says he’s “going to definitely have to get surgery at some point,” as Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets. But he’s still considering whether to try playing through the injury.

5:40pm: The Reds announced today that catcher Devin Mesoraco has suffered a torn labrum in his left shoulder. He’ll go on the 15-day DL for now. It certainly seems likely that he’ll require an extended absence, though it remains to be seen whether surgery will be required.

This injury constitutes the latest setback for the 27-year-old, who missed most of last season after undergoing hip surgery. Mesoraco signed a four-year, $28MM extension before the 2015 season, with the club buying out all of his arbitration eligibility and buying up one free agent-eligible campaign.

That deal came together after Mesoraco’s breakout 2014, in which he slashed .273/.359/.534 with 25 home runs in 440 plate appearances. It’s been mostly downhill from there, as the former top prospect has struggled at the plate while battling his various ailments. In just 106 plate appearances since the start of 2015, he’s carrying a .158/.245/.200 batting line without a single long ball.

Walt Jocketty On Reds’ Offseason, Rebuild

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Reds president of baseball operations Walt Jocketty sat down with Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports this weekend to discuss his club’s rebuild. The entire column is well worth checking out, but perhaps the most interesting component of the interview is that Jocketty said the Reds aren’t necessarily entering a full tear-down of the organization and are instead aiming for more of a short-term retooling. Jocketty explained that he feels the team will be more competitive in 2016 than most pundits expect, and he implied that the club isn’t necessarily going to ship out all of its big league assets this summer as the trade deadline nears.

“We didn’t want to take it too far back,” Jocketty told Rosenthal. “[Devin] Mesoraco is still young (27) and under control. Same with [Billy] Hamilton. We didn’t want to do a complete teardown and rebuild. This was more of a transition and an attempt to retool and add to what we have.”

That line of thinking, said Jocketty, is what prompted the Reds to target players at the upper levels of the minor leagues as opposed to lower-level players with higher ceilings. Regarding the 2016 roster, Jocketty offered high praise for Eugenio Suarez and expressed confidence that returns to health from both Mesoraco and Zack Cozart will be a boon for the club’s offense. Relief pitching is Jocketty’s biggest concern at this stage, but the club will take a look at what’s available late in Spring Training to make some moves to fortify the ’pen, according to Jocketty (presumably referring to potential waiver pick-ups or veterans on minor league deals that will inevitably opt out of their current situation).

Jocketty is entering his final year as the club’s president of baseball operations, after which newly minted GM Dick Williams is in line to take over as the top decision-maker in the baseball ops department. It’s possible that a worse-than-expected performance in 2016 or differing views from Williams will lead to a change in the club’s approach, but Rosenthal notes that owner Bob Castellini has been averse to rebuilding in the past.

While the club does have a host of intriguing upper-level arms (e.g. Brandon Finnegan, John Lamb, Cody Reed, Michael Lorenzen, Robert Stephenson) to fill in the rotation behind Anthony DeSclafani, Raisel Iglesias and a hopefully healthy Homer Bailey, the pitching staff as a whole is rife with uncertainty. The outfield, too, is filled with question marks (Hamilton’s OBP struggles, Jay Bruce’s production and future with the club). That, on paper, would seem to point to further trades, but the most obvious candidates (e.g. Bruce, Brandon Phillips) come with roadblocks. Phillips vetoed a pair of trades this offseason with his 10-and-5 rights, and Bruce’s value was said to be low when the Reds nearly sent him to Toronto in a since-collapsed three-team deal. Williams recently went on-record stating that he doesn’t plan to trade Joey Votto, either (though his own no-trade clause would be an impediment anyhow), so don’t expect to see his name pop up on the rumor circuit.

Considering the division in which they play — the Cubs, Pirates and Cardinals each won 97 or more games last year — the Reds have an uphill battle should they seek to return to contention in the near term. That is Jocketty’s plainly stated goal, however, so it’ll be interesting to see how the team operates come July and next year in free agency. The Reds have just $67MM committed to the 2017 payroll — nearly $50MM less than their 2015 Opening Day payroll — so there would certainly be room to take on some salary via trades or free agency. The 2016 season, then, could be a test run to see what young players like Stephenson, Finnegan, Lamb, Reed, Scott Schebler, Jose Peraza and Jesse Winker bring to the table so the Reds know precisely where they need to fill in the remainder of the roster to take a shot at contending in 2017. They’ll need a few gems to emerge from that group in order to do so, because as it stands right now, the Reds seem further than just a year away from a return to prominence in their top-heavy division.

Central Notes: Mesoraco, Maybin, Sano

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Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco’s spring debut will come later than expected due to a groin injury, MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon writes. Mesoraco missed most of last season due to hip trouble, and he characterizes his current injury as a minor and expected result of the rehabilitation process. “We had a very small minimal amount of groin and hip flexor tightness, soreness,” he says. “The doctor kind of said this was something that would probably happen once I got back into it. We just slowed things down but everything is feeling fine. I feel good now. It shouldn’t be too much longer.” The absence of Mesoraco, who batted .273/.359/.534 in his 2014 breakout, was one of many disappointments for the Reds last season. Here’s more from the Central divisions.

  • The Tigers are hopeful Cameron Maybin will return by Opening Day and won’t be looking outside the organization for extra outfield help, tweets Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press. It was reported earlier this week that Maybin would miss four to six weeks due to a hairline fracture in his left hand. Of course, even the full six weeks would only cause Maybin to miss the first couple weeks of the season, hardly the kind of devastating blow that might require the Tigers to pursue an outfielder with any sort of urgency.
  • Twins slugger Miguel Sano got to the big leagues and thrived in 2015 despite the loss of his daughter the previous offseason, Tyler Kepner of the New York Times writes. Sano’s daughter Angelica died in December 2014 due to a heart defect. “Last year in Double-A, I cried a lot,” says Sano. “I was really sad. I don’t concentrate too much on playing because I think a lot about my baby.” Sano struggled badly through April at Double-A Chattanooga, batting just .159/.303/.381. He turned his season around from there before his promotion to the bigs, culminating in a 20 at-bat stretch following the All-Star break in which he had seven extra-base hits. “He came back after the All-Star break, and it was just completely different,” says his Double-A manager, Doug Mientkiewicz. “He embarrassed Double-A baseball. I called Terry [Ryan], and I was like, ’I don’t know where he can go, but he needs to go somewhere, because it’s not normal what he’s doing to this league.'” The Twins, of course, promoted Sano to the Majors, where he hit 18 home runs in 80 games and finished third in AL Rookie of the Year balloting.
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