DJ LeMahieu

Anthony Rizzo Won’t Be Available For ALDS

By Anthony Franco | October 4, 2024 at 7:34pm CDT

The Yankees will not carry Anthony Rizzo on their roster for the Division Series against the Royals, the first baseman told reporters (X link via Chris Kirschner of the Athletic). Rizzo broke two fingers on his right hand when he was hit by a pitch late in the regular season. The veteran said he was hopeful of being available for the AL Championship Series if the Yankees get past Kansas City.

This has been a frustrating year for Rizzo, who missed a couple months during the summer with a broken right arm. He hasn’t performed well even when healthy, hitting .228/.301/.335 over 375 plate appearances. Those are his worst numbers since his 2011 rookie campaign. It’s the second straight season in which Rizzo has struggled to make a significant offensive impact. He hit only .244/.328/.378 a year ago, in large part because he was apparently playing through post-concussion syndrome for a good portion of the season.

While Rizzo hasn’t played at anywhere near his peak level, he’s still an upgrade on New York’s other options at first base. Rookie Ben Rice primarily handled the job while Rizzo was out with the arm fracture. The 25-year-old has hit .171/.264/.349 through his first 50 MLB games, with almost all of his positive production concentrated in one three-homer game against the Red Sox. Rice’s fantastic numbers in the upper minors hint at a higher offensive ceiling that he has yet to show against MLB pitching.

Rice will probably again be the choice at first base, at least against right-handed pitching. The only other players to take any at-bats at first base this season are DJ LeMahieu, Oswaldo Cabrera and J.D. Davis. LeMahieu, who worked in the short side of a platoon with Rice, has been on the injured list for nearly a month because of a hip impingement.

Bryan Hoch of MLB.com tweeted this evening that LeMahieu was taking batting practice and hopes to be on the ALDS roster. Even if he does make it back, the Yanks probably won’t give him a ton of playing time. LeMahieu had a dismal season (.204/.269/.259 in 67 games) and won’t have the luxury of game reps to get up to speed. Cabrera is a light-hitting utility player, while Davis was released in August.

Yankees Notes: Cousins, Trivino, LeMahieu

By Mark Polishuk | September 22, 2024 at 4:01pm CDT

The Yankees placed right-hander Jake Cousins on the 15-day injured list today, and called up righty Clayton Beeter from Triple-A to fill Cousins’ spot in the bullpen. Cousins’ placement is retroactive to September 20, which is the day after Cousins last pitched, and was pulled after facing two batters due to what was eventually diagnosed as a right pec strain.

The IL trip ends Cousins’ regular season, but potentially not his 2024 campaign as a whole, depending on his recovery and how far the Yankees might advance in the playoffs. As per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (X link), Cousins will visit with doctors tomorrow in New York and he could potentially start throwing within a week’s time. Since the Yankees are on the verge of clinching the AL East and earning a first-round bye, that gives Cousins some extra time to heal up and get back to game fitness, provided that his strain isn’t too serious.

This is Cousins’ second IL stint of the season but his first on the Major League injured list, as he missed over two months of action when playing with Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barres earlier this year. The Yankees recalled Cousins back to the Show shortly after he returned from the Triple-A IL, and the results have been largely tremendous.

Cousins has a 2.37 ERA and a 34.2% strikeout rate over 38 relief innings for New York. While a .208 BABIP has helped paper over a subpar 12.9% walk rate, Cousins’ ability to miss bats and limit hard contact has made him a very useful member of the Yankees relief corps.

It has essentially been a return to the form Cousins showed with the Brewers in 2021-22, before a UCL injury and shoulder problems cut short his 2022 season and perhaps contributed to a 2023 season that saw him toss only 9 1/3 MLB innings. After going to the Astros on a waiver claim last summer and then to the White Sox on a minor league deal during the offseason, Cousins was traded from Chicago to New York just after Opening Day, sparking Cousins’ career revival.

While Cousins had a successful return from an injury-plagued stretch of his career, the same unfortunately can’t be said of Lou Trivino, whose 2024 season now looks to be over. Yankees manager Aaron Boone told Hoch (X link) and other reporters that Trivino is dealing with “shoulder stuff” and has been shut down. Trivino will finish his season with 11 minor league innings pitched, in the form of five innings in as many appearances with Double-A Somerset and then six innings in six appearances at the Triple-A level.

Trivino hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2022, as he missed all of last season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in May 2023. Some elbow inflammation delayed the start of his minor league rehab assignment until this past August, and now this shoulder issue has ended any chance Trivino had of getting any sort of MLB action under his belt before the regular season was over.

The Yankees chose to non-tender Trivino last November, but then re-signed him to a guaranteed Major League contract worth $1.5MM in 2024 with a $5MM club option for 2025. That option seems like a lock to be declined, though it is possible New York again re-signs Trivino at a lower price tag.

In other injury news out of the Bronx, Boone told reporters yesterday that DJ LeMahieu has started to hit off a tee as he continues his recovery from a hip impingement. LeMahieu isn’t expected to return before the regular season is over, but he could potentially be a roster option for the postseason depending on his health or New York’s roster needs. LeMahieu has been out since the start of September with his hip injury and also missed the first two months of the season with a foot issue — in between, the veteran infielder struggled to a .204/.269/.259 slash line over 228 plate appearances.

AL East Notes: Jansen, Yankees, LeMahieu, Webb, Mountcastle

By Mark Polishuk | September 14, 2024 at 1:29pm CDT

Kenley Jansen enjoyed ten straight years of playoff baseball before signing a two-year, $32MM free agent contract with the Red Sox during the 2022-23 offseason, and barring a late surge from Boston in the last two weeks of play, Jansen is now on pace for back-to-back without any postseason action. As he heads into free agency this winter, it therefore isn’t surprising that Jansen is “always gonna look for winning. Contending,” the closer told MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. “That’s going to be my priority…I want to be in a situation where we can contend for a title. That’s it.” This doesn’t necessarily mean Jansen wouldn’t consider a return to the Sox, as Jansen praised the team’s young talent and said he “had a blast wearing this uniform, playing for these fans.”

Even as he approaches his 37th birthday, Jansen has no plans to retire, suggesting that he’d like to pitch “at least until I’m 40-42.” There isn’t much on-field evidence that Jansen is running out of steam, as he remains an effective late-game weapon with a 3.48 ERA in 51 2/3 innings and 26 saves in 30 chances for Boston in 2024. Jansen figures to get a lot of attention in free agency this winter, and Cotillo suggests that the Yankees could look at Jansen as a potential replacement for Clay Holmes. The Red Sox and Giants were the only teams publicly linked to Jansen’s market in his prior stint as a free agent, but Cotillo writes that New York “made a serious run at Jansen before he” joined the Red Sox.

Kevin Smith Accepts Outright Assignment With Yankees

By Anthony Franco | May 29, 2024 at 6:34pm CDT

May 29: The Yankees clarified on Wednesday that Smith has decided to accept the outright assignment. He’ll head back to Scranton and await another opportunity in the Bronx.

May 28: DJ LeMahieu is set to make his season debut, as the Yankees reinstated him from the 60-day injured list before tonight’s game in Anaheim. New York outrighted infielder Kevin Smith off the 40-man roster in a corresponding move; Smith has already elected minor league free agency in lieu of an assignment back to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. New York also activated reliever Ian Hamilton from the COVID-19 list after optioning Yoendrys Gómez on Sunday.

LeMahieu is at third base and hitting ninth against Griffin Canning. He should take over more or less every day at the hot corner now that he’s back from the foot injuries that cost him the first two months of the season. LeMahieu broke a bone in his right foot on a foul ball at the tail end of camp. The team tried to get him back in late April, but he felt renewed soreness immediately after embarking on a rehab stint. That shut him down again for another couple weeks, but LeMahieu has gotten through six minor league games dating back to May 17.

Third base has been a rare question mark amidst one of the game’s most potent offenses. While Oswaldo Cabrera got out to a strong start to the season, he’s hitting .230/.273/.295 in 66 plate appearances over the past month. Spring Training trade acquisition Jon Berti has been limited to 17 games around a pair of injured list stints. The speedy utilityman went on the 10-day IL over the weekend with a left calf strain. He’ll be out well beyond the minimum, telling reporters this evening that he could miss between six and eight weeks (X link via Greg Joyce of the New York Post).

LeMahieu is coming off a league average offensive performance in 2023. He hit .243/.327/.390 across 562 plate appearances. His performance improved over the course of the year. LeMahieu carried a meager .220/.285/.357 line into the All-Star Break before posting a .273/.377/.432 slash in the second half. He’s unlikely to recapture his 2019-20 form as he approaches his 36th birthday, though he should still be an upgrade over Cabrera, who fits better in a multi-positional role off the bench.

Smith, a New York-area native, signed a minor league contract with the Yankees over the offseason. He played in 29 games with the RailRiders, hitting .204/.270/.286 while striking out 41 times in 111 trips to the plate (a 36.9% rate). The Yanks called him up twice as utility depth. He appeared in two games as a pinch runner and didn’t take an at-bat at the major league level.

The Yankees had already outrighted the 27-year-old once this season, sending him through waivers in April. That gave him the right to test free agency this time around, as is the case for all players with a previous career outright. It’s not uncommon to see players circle back to their previous organization on a minor league contract after electing free agency, but Smith and his camp could look for a non-roster deal elsewhere now that LeMahieu is healthy. One of four players whom the A’s acquired from the Blue Jays in the Matt Chapman deal, Smith is a .173/.215/.301 hitter in 333 MLB plate appearances.

Yankees Select Kevin Smith

By Nick Deeds | May 25, 2024 at 3:19pm CDT

The Yankees announced this afternoon that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Kevin Smith. Smith will take the roster spot of Jon Berti, who the club placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left calf strain. Making room for Smith on the 40-man roster is DJ LeMahieu, who was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Smith, 27, was a 4th-round pick by the Blue Jays back in 2017 and made his big league debut with the club in 2021, though he hit just .094/.194/.188 in 36 plate appearances with Toronto that season. Smith is perhaps most notable for being part of the four-player package the Blue Jays sent to Oakland in exchange for then-A’s third baseman Matt Chapman prior to the 2022 season. Smith would go on to appear in 96 games for the A’s over the 2022 and ’23 campaigns but again struggled to hit at the big league level as he posted a paltry .183/.218/.314 slash line in 297 trips to the plate as a member of the Athletics.

That meager offensive performance was enough to convince the A’s to non-tender Smith back in November, though he eventually joined the Yankees on a minor league deal back in January. This is actually Smith’s second stint with the big league club this year, as he was already called up once earlier this year the first time the club placed Berti on the shelf back in mid-April. Unfortunately for Smith, he ultimately made just one appearance in a Yankees uniform during that stint with the club and failed to record even one plate appearance before being designated for assignment and outrighted to Triple-A.

It’s possible this stint in the majors could be a similarly brief one as well. After all, the Yankees also announced earlier this afternoon that LeMahieu’s rehab assignment has been transferred to Triple-A and MLB.com’s Injury Tracker notes that manager Aaron Boone expects LeMahieu to rejoin the club at some point during their three-game set against the Angels that begins on May 28. LeMahieu’s initial IL placement was retroactive to March 25, meaning that today’s transfer to the 60-day IL is a purely procedural move that has no bearing on when the Yankees can activate him.

LeMahieu’s return from the shelf will be a huge relief for the Yankees, as they’ve struggled to get much production from much of their infield mix this year. Anthony Volpe has been excellent at shortstop this season while veteran first baseman Anthony Rizzo has held his own with a roughly league average slash line, but Gleyber Torres has struggled badly at the plate while acting as the club’s regular second baseman with a .221/.298/.318 slash line in 219 trip to the plate so far this year. It can be argued that Torres’s overall track record an above-average bat should earn him the opportunity to bust out of his slump, but the same can’t be said for Oswaldo Cabrera, who got off to a blazing start at the hot corner this year but has struggled badly over the past month with a .208/.253/.260 slash line in his last 25 games.

The club’s struggles to get offensive production from their infield mix are compounded by the loss of Berti, who was ice cold in six games with the club prior to being placed on the injured list in April but has heated up considerably in the month of May with a .306/.359/.389 slash line in 11 games. That production in conjunction with Berti’s experience all over the diamond except for first base and behind the plate made Berti a strong bench contributor to the Yankees’ scuffling infield, but now they’ll be without him for the foreseeable future. The Yankees have not yet announced a timeline for Berti’s return, although the utility man was seemingly unable to put weight on his leg while exiting last night’s game in the ninth inning, as noted by MLB.com.

Jasson Dominguez Begins Rehab Assignment

By Steve Adams and Anthony Franco | May 14, 2024 at 6:32pm CDT

Yankees outfielder Jasson Dominguez began a minor league rehab assignment Tuesday, per a team announcement. That effectively presses the start button on a 20-day rehab window before he must either be optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre or reinstated to the MLB roster. He’s starting out in Class-A Tampa, though he’ll very likely move up the ladder over the next couple weeks.

Dominguez underwent Tommy John surgery last summer, so it’s fairly natural that Yankees skipper Aaron Boone indicated over the weekend that the 21-year-old will be limited to DH work in the early stages of rehab. This will be the first game action for Dominguez since early September, when he burst onto the big league scene with a promising .258/.303/.677 batting line in 33 plate appearances. Dominguez homered off notable big leaguers like Justin Verlander and Cristian Javier, ultimately popping four round-trippers in his brief debut before being diagnosed with a ligament tear in his elbow.

Prior to that debut, Dominguez had split the season between Double-A and Triple-A, recording 507 plate appearances at the former level and 37 at the latter. He batted a combined .265/.377/.425 despite being just 20 years old. He was about four years younger than his average opponent in Double-A and more than six years younger than the average Triple-A player.

Had Dominguez been healthy, the Yankees’ offseason could well have looked different. They’d still quite likely have made an aggressive push to land Juan Soto from the Padres, but it’s fair to wonder whether Alex Verdugo would’ve still been a prominent trade target with both Dominguez and Aaron Judge projected to be healthy. It seems likely that would not have been the case.

Now, with Verdugo, Soto and Judge all hitting well and Giancarlo Stanton still providing thump from the DH spot (despite a .283 OBP), it’s not as clear how Dominguez might fit onto the roster. He’d certainly be expected to outproduce the surprisingly anemic .069/.270/.172 line that Trent Grisham has mustered thus far, but that’s come in a sample of only 38 plate appearances. There’s likely some merit to the idea that a longtime starter like Grisham has struggled mightily with the move to such a limited role, but the minimal playing time he’s received is the primary reason why Dominguez likely wouldn’t be considered for such a role.

Even if the Yankees felt Dominguez could outperform that pace (which they surely do), putting a touted 21-year-old in a position to get seven or eight plate appearances per week would be a poor move for his development. Whenever Dominguez is deemed healthy enough to be reinstated from the injured list, the Yankees presumably want him to be ticketed for regular at-bats. The current construction of the big league roster doesn’t look ideal for that setup, though all it would take would be one injury to Verdugo, Judge, Soto or Stanton to open up some more substantial playing time.

Of the current outfielders, only Verdugo seems even remotely plausible as a trade candidate, but he’s produced a respectable .243/.329/.397 batting line (111 wRC+) while drawing more walks (11.4%) than strikeouts (10.8%). There’d be ample risk (to put it mildly) in moving a steady veteran enjoying that type of performance to free up playing time for a 21-year-old with eight games of big league experience, regardless of his prospect status. There’s been some speculation about a potential Verdugo trade among fans and pundits alike, but such a scenario seems decidedly unlikely.

Barring an injury in the big league outfield, an eventual minor league assignment for Dominguez feels almost inevitable. He’s still only played in 17 total games above the Double-A level. But with Verdugo and Soto both set to become free agents at season’s end and Grisham playing his way into a non-tender candidate, there’s still a clear path to a prominent role for Dominguez in the long-term — it just might not happen this season.

DJ LeMahieu will follow Dominguez in beginning a minor league rehab stint later this week, tweets Greg Joyce of the New York Post. It’s the second time he’ll start a rehab assignment as he returns from a season-opening injured list stay. LeMahieu joined Double-A Somerset on April 23 but was removed in the first inning after experiencing renewed soreness in his right foot. The veteran infielder was diagnosed with a non-displaced fracture in his foot at the end of Spring Training.

Oswaldo Cabrera and Jon Berti have split the third base work in LeMahieu’s absence. Cabrera started the season well before a recent slump dropped his batting line to .252/.295/.390 in 132 plate appearances. The speedster Berti is hitting .263 without an extra-base hit and only two walks in 41 trips.

Yankees Notes: Cole, Dominguez, LeMahieu

By Nick Deeds | May 11, 2024 at 4:48pm CDT

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole spoke to reporters (including MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch) about his rehab from right elbow inflammation, which has kept him from making his 2024 debut to this point. Cole indicated to reporters that he threw a 29-pitch bullpen session prior to the club’s game against the Rays this afternoon.

“The fastball profiles were good, and the location was good,” Cole said of the session. He added that his velocity, which averaged 89 mph, was “where we wanted it” at this point in his rehab.

In terms of next steps, Hoch indicates that Cole is scheduled for another session on the mound later this week but that, according to Cole, he does not yet have a set date for facing live hitters. Even so, Cole emphasized that he’s made “good progress” since he first resumed throwing off a mound at the beginning of the month, when reporting suggested that the veteran could be eying the middle of June for his return to the big leagues.

As a six-time All Star the reigning AL Cy Young award winner, Cole’s return to the Yankees rotation would obviously provide a massive boost for the club. With that being said, New York’s starting staff has handled itself well in the absence of its ace. Yankees starters rank seventh in the majors with a 3.36 ERA this season, thanks in part to strong performances from youngsters Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt.

Cole isn’t the only key player for the Yankees whose rehab is progressing, as Hoch also notes that manager Aaron Boone told reporters this afternoon that young center fielder Jasson Dominguez is set to begin a rehab assignment at Single-A on May 14. Dominguez, who underwent Tommy John surgery back in September, is set to spend the first two weeks of his rehab as a pure designated hitter before returning to work in the outfield. Boone told reporters (including Hoch) that Dominguez’s recovery has been “smooth” with “very few hiccups” since he went under the knife.

A longtime consensus top-50 prospect in the sport, Dominguez made his debut last season to plenty of fanfare and slashed .258/.303/.677 with four home runs in just eight games before having his season cut short by surgery. The 21-year-old seems sure to impact the Yankees in some capacity this year once healthy, though with Juan Soto and Aaron Judge locked into everyday outfield roles and both Alex Verdugo and Giancarlo Stanton hitting well to this point in the season, the club’s top prospect could have a hard time breaking into the lineup on a regular basis.

Also making progress toward a return is veteran infielder DJ LeMahieu, who fouled a ball off his foot during Spring Training and has been sidelined by a bone bruise ever since. LeMahieu began a rehab assignment back in late April as he seemingly neared a return to action but was almost immediately sidelined by right foot soreness and returned from the assignment. The veteran has worked back up to the point of facing live pitching in the weeks since then, with Boone telling reporters that live batting practice against rehabbing righty JT Brubaker “went well” for the veteran.

There still appears to be no clear timeline for the veteran’s return to action, but the fact that he’s once again participating in field work and hitting against live arms is a positive sign for the club nonetheless. It’s been difficult for the Yankees to replace LeMahieu’s production in the lineup this season even has he’s posted roughly league average numbers in recent years. New York has relied on Oswaldo Cabrera and Jon Berti at the hot corner in the veteran’s absence, but Berti has slashed just .300/.344/.300 in ten games while Cabrera has fallen back to Earth after a hot start with a paltry .212/.257/.273 line in his past 20 games.

Latest On DJ LeMahieu

By Darragh McDonald | April 23, 2024 at 6:23pm CDT

6:23pm: LeMahieu experienced right foot soreness and was removed after one inning, the Yankees announced (X link via Joyce). He’ll return to New York for further evaluation tomorrow.

5:31pm: The Yankees announced that infielder DJ LeMahieu has been sent to Double-A Somerset to start a rehab assignment. LeMahieu is leading off tonight’s game and playing third base, per the X account of the Patriots.

LeMahieu, 35, was supposed to be the club’s everyday third baseman here in 2024 but a Spring Training injury scuttled those plans. The veteran fouled a ball of his foot and was initially diagnosed with a bone bruise. After the swelling didn’t go down, he went for a second MRI, which revealed a non-displaced fracture. He was set to begin a rehab assignment this past weekend but his foot still wasn’t healing enough and the rehab assignment was pushed back by a few days.

Manager Aaron Boone told reporters, including Bryan Hoch of MLB.com, that the plan is for LeMahieu to play four games and possibly rejoin the Yanks in time for their series against the Orioles next week.

The club is surely excited to welcome LeMahieu back but they will have a bit of a tricky decision to make in terms of distributing playing time. The veteran has hit .258/.345/.375 since the start of 2021 while battling various injuries. That’s still amounts to a 106 wRC+, indicating he was six percent better than league average in that time. But the Yankees were surely hoping for more, especially since he hit .336/.386/.536 for a 146 wRC+ over 2019 and 2020, before they re-signed him to a six-year, $90MM contract.

To start this year, Oswaldo Cabrera has taken over at the hot corner and is out to a great start. He’s hitting .290/.324/.478 so far on the young season, production that leads to a wRC+ of 133. That’s a small sample of 74 plate appearances, which means it likely doesn’t carry as much weight as LeMahieu’s career numbers, but the Yanks probably want to keep riding the hot hand.

Each of Cabrera and LeMahieu are capable of playing different positions, so the club will have some flexibility. First baseman Anthony Rizzo and second baseman Gleyber Torres are both out to slow starts, so perhaps they could get some breathers when LeMahieu and Cabrera are both healthy and looking for playing time.

Elsewhere in Yankee news, Gerrit Cole threw 50 pitches from a distance of 120 feet today, per Chris Kirschner of The Athletic. It hasn’t yet been decided when he’ll move to mound work, but Boone said it could be as soon as next week, per Greg Joyce of The New York Post.

Needless to say, any progress from Cole is a good development for the Yankees. The reigning American League Cy Young made just one official appearance during Spring Training before some elbow issues popped up. Since he wasn’t recovering as expected between throwing sessions, the club shut him down and sent him for testing. He was eventually recommended for non-surgical rehab and has been on that path for the past month or so.

Cole is on the 60-day injured list and won’t be eligible to return until late May at the earliest. Even if he begins throwing off a mound soon, he’ll likely need to redo Spring Training from scratch, meaning he’ll be out beyond that timeframe anyhow. His eventual return date will naturally be determined by how his arm holds up as he continues building up in the weeks to come.

AL East Notes: Pivetta, LeMahieu, Tiedemann

By Mark Polishuk | April 20, 2024 at 3:01pm CDT

Nick Pivetta threw a bullpen session today, and Red Sox manager Alex Cora gave reporters (including MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo) a rough timeline of when the righty might return from the right flexor strain that sent Pivetta to the 15-day injured list on April 6. Cora outlined that Pivetta is around 10 days away from facing live hitters and then will get probably two minor league rehab starts, so if all goes well, Pivetta should be back in Boston’s rotation by around the middle of May.

There was some initial hope that Pivetta could miss just the minimum 15 days when he first went on the IL, yet it isn’t surprising that Pivetta and the Sox are showing extra precaution with a flexor injury. Cora said that Pivetta “felt good today” after the bullpen, which is a nice first step in the recovery process. The IL stint interrupted a great start to the season for the righty, who looked flat out dominant in posting an 0.82 ERA over his first two outings and 11 innings of the 2024 campaign.

Some items from around the AL East…

DJ LeMahieu was set to begin a minor league rehab assignment yesterday, but an MRI revealed that his right foot fracture hadn’t entirely healed. The infielder could still begin his assignment as early as Tuesday, though “we’re just being conservative with this thing,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone told ESPN News Services and other media. “He’s doing really well and I know he feels ready to go, but the foot specialist has weighed in. We want to make sure this thing’s 100 percent.” LeMahieu suffered the injury about a month ago after fouling a ball off his foot in Spring Training, and is healthy enough to partake in such baseball activities as batting practice and fielding drills, even if he hasn’t gotten the green light for rehab games just yet.
Blue Jays pitching prospect Ricky Tiedemann underwent an MRI on Thursday to explore discomfort in his throwing elbow, Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi reports (X link). Tiedemann was already placed on the Triple-A injured list earlier this week, and perhaps ominously, there haven’t yet been any updates over the MRI results. Shoulder and biceps problems limited Tiedemann to only 44 total minor league innings in 2023, and while a potential Major League debut is seemingly on the horizon for the southpaw this season, the Jays’ first priority is just rebuilding Tiedemann’s arm strength and getting him back in the groove of regular starting assignments. Tiedemann is ranked as both Toronto’s top prospect and one of the better pitching prospects in all of baseball, though he has been shaky in posting a 5.63 ERA over three starts and eight innings for Triple-A Buffalo this season, with more walks (nine) than innings pitched.

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Paxton, LeMahieu, Blue Jays

By Nick Deeds | April 7, 2024 at 8:49am CDT

The Red Sox largely failed in their pursuit of starting pitching this winter, swapping lefty Chris Sale out for Lucas Giolito only for the latter to miss the entire 2024 season due to a UCL injury, making right-handed depth options Chase Anderson and Cooper Criswell the club’s only starters added this winter with a chance to impact the 2024 club. The club coming up empty is not an indication they weren’t involved in the pitching market at all, however, with Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe reporting that the club was a finalist for southpaw James Paxton, per the lefty himself.

Paxton, 35, spent the past two seasons in the Red Sox organization but only pitched in 2023. He made 19 starts for the club last year, pitching to a 4.50 ERA (101 ERA+) and 4.68 FIP overall. While he posted a strong 2.73 ERA and 3.63 FIP in ten starts prior to the All Star break, Paxton’s brutal final three starts in August and September caused his numbers to balloon as he allowed a whopping 17 runs in 9 2/3 innings of work before being shut down for the season due to knee inflammation.

Abraham relays that, according to the left-hander, there was mutual interest in a reunion between his camp and the Red Sox before he ultimately settled on pitching closer to his West Coast home in Seattle. Adding the veteran southpaw to Boston’s heavily young and right-handed rotation mix would have made plenty of sense for the club, but instead the team is set to rely on internal youngsters like Kutter Crawford, Garrett Whitlock, and Tanner Houck to round out the rotation alongside Brayan Bello and Nick Pivetta.

More from around the AL East…

Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu spoke to reporters (including those at MLB.com) yesterday regarding his rehab from a non-displaced fracture in his right foot and provided a positive update, suggesting that he could be nearing a return to action. LeMahieu indicated that he’s “making progress” after running at roughly 90 percent effort and taking batting practice on the field at Yankee Stadium over the weekend. Per manager Aaron Boone, the next step for LeMahieu is further imaging later in the week before a potential minor league rehab assignment. If the veteran can avoid further setbacks, it’s possible he could return before the end of the month. In the meantime, the club figures to continue relying on Jon Berti and Oswaldo Cabrera at the hot corner.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider spoke to reporters (including Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi) yesterday to provide an update on right-hander Erik Swanson, who started the season on the injured list due to a bout of forearm tightness last month. Per Schneider, Swanson is scheduled to be evaluated today after throwing a rehab inning at the Double-A level last night to decide if he’s ready to be activated when first eligible on Tuesday, though Davidi adds that Schneider indicated an additional rehab appearance is possible. If Swanson is to make another appearance in the minors before returning to the big league roster, it likely won’t come for a few days, as the right-hander is scheduled to be in Toronto for the club’s home opener tomorrow evening. Swanson joined the club during the 2022-23 offseason as part of the return in the Teoscar Hernandez trade and quickly established himself as the top set-up option for closer Jordan Romano, pitching to a 2.97 ERA with a 3.51 FIP in 69 appearances last year.

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