Rays Sign Evan Phillips To Minor League Deal
The Rays have signed reliever Evan Phillips to a minor league deal, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. This is a quick bounceback for Phillips, as he was one of three players released by the Orioles yesterday.
Phillips has been shuffling between Triple-A and the big leagues over the past few years. Since the start of the 2018 season, he’s pitched 54 innings at the MLB level, with a bloated 7.50 ERA, although advanced metrics are kinder. (5.33 FIP and 5.22 xFIP.) The 25.4% strikeout rate is okay, though it’s come with an unpalatable 14.9 walk rate. But his minor league numbers are much better in that timeframe: a 3.41 ERA over 116 innings, with an excellent 31.5% strikeout rate. The walk rate is better but still high at 10%.
The 26-year-old will now report to Triple-A and see if he can work his way back to the majors over the final months of the season.
Orioles Release Three Players
The Orioles released reliever Evan Phillips, reports Dan Connolly of the Athletic (Twitter link). Baltimore is also moving on from reliever Cody Carroll and first baseman/corner outfielder Chris Shaw, according to Rich Dubroff of Baltimore Baseball (on Twitter). All three players had already been outrighted off the 40-man roster, so they’ll hit the open market and presumably pursue minor league deals elsewhere.
Phillips appeared in the big leagues every season from 2018-20. He broke in with the Braves and was moved to Baltimore as part of the deadline deal that sent Kevin Gausman to Atlanta. The righty has a 7.50 ERA over 54 big league innings. The 26-year-old has punched out a solid 25.4% of opponents at the highest level but has walked an elevated 14.9% of batters faced. Phillips tossed 25 innings of 5.04 ERA ball with Triple-A Norfolk this season.
Carroll came over from the Yankees in the Zack Britton trade a week before Phillips joined the organization. He’s tossed 19 innings of 13.74 ERA/5.77 SIERA ball in the majors and posted a 5.57 ERA over 21 frames for Norfolk this year. The 28-year-old has racked up plenty of strikeouts in the minors but struggled with walks and has had trouble keeping the ball in the yard against high-level hitters.
Shaw might be the most notable name of the bunch, as he’s a former first-round draft pick of the Giants. The big left-handed hitter posted strong numbers throughout his minor league career but didn’t play well over a scattered 82 MLB plate appearances with San Francisco from 2018-19. Baltimore claimed the 27-year-old off waivers last November, but he spent a good chunk of this season on the minor league injured list and didn’t hit over a brief 50 plate appearance look with the Tides upon his return last month.
Orioles Outright Evan Phillips
The Orioles announced Wednesday that right-hander Evan Phillips has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk. Baltimore’s 40-man roster is down to 36 players.
Phillips, 26, was acquired in the 2018 trade that sent Kevin Gausman and Darren O’Day to the Braves. He’s been up and down with the O’s since that trade, pitching to a 7.36 ERA with an impressive 65 strikeouts (12.3 K/9) but an alarming 36 walks (6.8 BB/9) through 47 2/3 frames as a member of the Baltimore ‘pen.
Control issues have been a problem even in the upper minors, although Phillips does also own a 3.41 ERA and 10.8 K/9 in 121 Triple-A innings. Phillips sits a bit north of 94 mph with his heater but doesn’t possess the type of high-end spin rate or swinging-strike rates on the pitch one would expect from a pitcher with his strikeout rates.
Orioles Claim Carson Fulmer
The Orioles have claimed right-hander Carson Fulmer off waivers from the Pirates, the team announced. The Fulmer move was one of a series of transactions made this afternoon by the O’s, who also called up righty David Hess from their alternate training site, sent right-hander Evan Phillips to the alternate site, and added infield prospect Rylan Bannon to the 60-man player pool. This is all in addition to the most notable news of the day for the club, as breakout star Anthony Santander is headed to the injured list with a potentially season-ending injury.
Fulmer will be joining his fourth organization in less than two months, as the 26-year-old has already been a waiver claim for both the Pirates and Tigers since being originally designated for assignment by the White Sox back on July 23. Fulmer is out of options, which is why teams have been unable to just send him to their alternate training sites without another club pouncing on the right-hander on the waiver wire. Within this whirlwind of movement, Fulmer has amassed 6 2/3 innings pitched this season, all with Detroit, with a 6.75 ERA.
The eighth overall pick of the 2015 draft, Fulmer has yet to live up to expectations in the majors, with a career 6.57 ERA, 1.34 K/BB rate, and 8.0 K/9 over 101 1/3 career IP with the Tigers and White Sox. Given his prospect pedigree and relatively young age, it isn’t hard to see why the Orioles (and other clubs) have been interested in taking a look at Fulmer as a potential post-hype breakout player.
Bannon, 24, was an eight-round pick for the Orioles in the 2017 draft. A product of Xavier University, Bannon has a .280/.375/.481 slash line and 43 home runs over 1234 career minor league plate appearances, which included 90 PA and 20 games with Baltimore’s Triple-A affiliate in 2019. It remains to be seen if the O’s have Bannon in mind for a September call-up, though he will provide depth as both a second baseman and third baseman if he does make his MLB debut this year.
60-Man Roster Notes: Orioles, Phillies
As teams continue to get health and travel reports, many have slots left to fill on their 60-man rosters, so we’ll use this post throughout the day to track the minor changes.
LATEST
- The Giants added four names to their 60-man player pool: Will Wilson, Camilo Doval, Luis Toribio and Chad Tromp, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports. It’s a group of fairly high-end prospects for the Giants, highlighted by Wilson, whom they essentially spent $12.6MM to acquire last year by taking on Zack Cozart‘s contract, writes Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. Catcher Chadwick Tromp has the best chance to train with the major league camp, as the others are more likely to head to the alternative camp when it opens in Sacramento, per Schulman. The Giants have four empty slots remaining from their 60-player pool.
EARLIER TODAY
- The Orioles added Evan Phillips to their 60-man roster, per MASN’s Roch Kubatko. Baltimore gave themselves more leeway than most, however, and they still have 15 slots available on their 60-man roster. The Maryland native made 25 appearances out of the Orioles’ bullpen in 2019, pitching to a 6.43 ERA/3.96 FIP. Phillips joined the Baltimore organization from Atlanta as part of the Kevin Gausman/Darren O’Day trade from deadline day 2018.
- The Phillies added two catchers to their 60-man roster, per Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer. Henri Lartigue and Logan O’Hoppe will bring the Phillies’ total number of catchers to five. Lartigue, 25, hit .136/.259/.248 in 78 games in Double-A last year. O’Hoppe, 20, went to the Phillies in the 23rd round of the 2018 draft. In Low-A in 2019, the New York native hit .216/.266/.407. The pair of catchers are presumably in camp to spread the defensive workload. J.T. Realmuto, Andrew Knapp, and Deivi Grullon are far better bets to see any game time once the season opens.
AL East Notes: Red Sox, Rays, LeBlanc, Phillips, Orioles
Should the Red Sox reload or rebuild? The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham votes for the latter option, arguing that Chris Sale‘s season-ending injury should inspire the Sox to “consider trading anybody outside of Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, and Eduardo Rodriguez.” (Personally speaking, I’d also add Christian Vazquez and Andrew Benintendi to Abraham’s no-trade list.) Such a move may seem drastic, though the Red Sox already faced a tough battle to reach the playoffs in 2020 even with Sale, and that was assuming the left-hander was able to rebound from a down year in 2019. With building blocks like Bogaerts and Devers already in place and their luxury tax penalties reset to zero, Boston could look to get back into playoff contention as early as 2021 after trading veterans for the right young talent, and then adding some other higher-priced players in trades or free agency.
Some more from around the AL East…
- It all could be something of a moot point given the indeterminate delay to the 2020 season, though Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times looked at how the Rays‘ roster was shaping up in the latter days of Spring Training. Bullpen-wise, Nick Anderson was looking like the favorite for the majority of save chances, while non-roster invitee Aaron Loup was working towards winning a roster spot, which would have required Tampa to clear a space on its 40-man roster. Kevan Smith and Chris Herrmann, two other veterans in camp on non-roster invites, had seemingly fallen behind Michael Perez in the backup catcher competition. Though the Rays were preparing to deploy five regular starting pitchers, Topkin notes that the Rays were still planning to use openers every once in a while, as a way of managing injuries or giving the regular starters a break if necessary.
- Thursday was the opt-out date in Wade LeBlanc‘s minor league contract with the Orioles, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes. We’re reaching the end of the 48-hour window for the club to put LeBlanc on its 40-man roster or release him, assuming some other arrangement hasn’t been made in the wake of the shutdown. Regardless, Kubatko feels LeBlanc is a lock to make the roster, and getting selected would guaranteed an $800K salary for LeBlanc in 2020.
- In another piece from Kubatko, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters that no Orioles players are set to undergo any medical procedures. This includes right-hander Evan Phillips, who dealt with some soreness in his throwing elbow in early March and recently met with Dr. Neal ElAttrache for a second opinion about the issue.
AL East Notes: Kratz, Dolis, Orioles, Nunez
“The goal this year is to win a gold medal and win a World Series. That would be a pretty good year, right?” Erik Kratz rhetorically asked The Athletic’s Rustin Dodd (subscription required), as the veteran catcher is hoping to achieve what could be an unprecedented double in professional and Olympic baseball. Kratz was a member of the United States national baseball team’s roster last November, acting as both a player and an experienced mentor to a roster comprised mostly of minor leaguers and some of the sport’s top prospects (including Jo Adell, Andrew Vaughn, Alec Bohm and more). The U.S. team will participate in an Olympic qualifying tournament later this month, and while the roster has yet to be announced, Kratz would seem like a solid bet based on his performance last November.
If potentially participating in the Tokyo Games wasn’t enough, there is also Kratz’s role as a depth catcher for the Yankees, as the 39-year-old signed a minor league deal with New York during the offseason. Kratz is entering his 19th year of pro ball and is hopeful of getting some playing time at the MLB level, which would give him appearances in parts of 11 different Major League seasons. It might also get him a World Series ring, given how the Yankees are expected to contend for a title in 2020. A championship would be a nice milestone in Kratz’s career, though the journeyman plans to keep playing for as long as possible. “I know I appreciate every day. I’ve felt like it could be my last season for the last 12 seasons,” Kratz said.
More from around the AL East…
- Blue Jays right-hander Rafael Dolis will miss at least a week of action after having his appendix removed (MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson was among those to report the news). Dolis will be re-evaluated after that first week, and it is possible the righty might not be ready for Opening Day. After last pitching in the majors in 2013, Dolis revived his career with four impressive seasons in Japan, and signed a one-year, Major League contract with Toronto this winter.
- Orioles manager Brandon Hyde updated reporters (including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com) on a few injury situations in camp. Jose Iglesias and Ramon Urias are both day-to-day with a quad injury and shin splits, respectively. Tommy Milone has a trap injury, with Hyde hoping that Milone can throw a side session within the next day or two. Righty Evan Phillips has been dealing with some soreness in his throwing elbow and underwent an MRI that “came back as nothing serious,” Hyde said, though Phillips is getting a second opinion today out of due diligence.
- In another piece from Kubatko, he notes that Renato Nunez has been diligently working out at third base this spring. Nunez was mostly restricted to DH duties in 2019, though it should be noted that some metrics give Nunez average (0 Defensive Runs Saved) to very good (+9.5 UZR/150) grades over his 606 2/3 career innings as a third baseman. The Orioles don’t need Nunez to wield a Brooks Robinson-esque glove at the hot corner, however, as Nunez would only be deployed as a platoon partner with Rio Ruiz. That would create more DH at-bats for other members of the Baltimore roster, including potentially top prospect Ryan Mountcastle. Kubatko also observes that Nunez would gain more value to the Orioles as a potential trade chip if he shows that he handle a regular defensive position.
Orioles Select Mason Williams, Designate Jace Peterson
The Orioles announced today that they have selected the contract of outfielder Mason Williams. To create roster space, infielder Jace Peterson was designated for assignment.
Williams was expected to come onto the active roster for the month of September, but needed to be added to the 40-man. A host of other players that already held 40-man spots are also heading for the big-league dugout: lefty Ty Blach, catcher Austin Wynns, and righties David Hess, Evan Phillips, and Chandler Shepherd.
Once a well-regarded Yankees prospect, the 28-year-old Williams got his first extended chance at the majors last year with the Reds. He produced at close to the league-average rate offensively but was outrighted at season’s end. Williams has spent the entire season to this point with the Orioles’ top affiliate, slashing .308/.371/.477 with 18 home runs in 494 plate appearances.
As for Peterson, he has struggled since the O’s summoned him to help fill out the position-player mix. The six-year MLB veteran carries a .220/.269/.330 batting line in 108 trips to the plate on the season.
Orioles Designate Nate Karns, Promote Dillon Tate, Place John Means On IL
The Orioles announced multiple pitching moves this evening. One player is now likely headed out of the organization, as righty Nate Karns was reinstated from the 60-day injured list and designated for assignment.
Young hurler Dillon Tate, the former fourth overall pick, was promoted for his first attempt at the majors. Righty Evan Phillips will accompany Tate onto the active roster.
Unfortunately, the O’s also announced that southpaw starter and rookie All-Star John Means was placed on the 10-day injured list with a biceps strain. Lefty Tanner Scott was optioned down to create the other necessary roster opening.
Karns landed with the Baltimore organization over the winter. He threw 5 1/3 scoreless frames to open his tenure but hit the shelf early with a forearm strain. The 31-year-old struggled mightily on his rehab assignment, dishing out ten walks and recording only five strikeouts in 10 1/3 innings.
It’s also unwelcome news as concerns Means. It had already been a bit of a rough month, as his ERA has moved north from 2.50 to 3.12, but it’s never preferable to hear of any issues in the arm of a young pitcher. There’s no indication as of yet regarding the severity, but the club will surely hope it’s only a minor blip for the 26-year-old.
As he prepares to debut at 25 years of age, Tate won’t face the massive expectations he once did. Arm issues and inconsistencies have changed the trajectory of the twice-traded righty. He has been solid at Double-A, working to a 3.48 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 over 33 2/3 innings in 15 relief appearances and a pair of starts.
Orioles Designate Dan Straily, Place John Means On IL
The Orioles have designated right-hander Dan Straily for assignment, as per a team announcement. The move is one of a series of transactions for the O’s, as the club also placed southpaw John Means on the 10-day injured list (retroactive to June 17) with a left shoulder strain, reinstated Dwight Smith Jr. from the 10-day IL and recalled righty Evan Phillips from Triple-A.
Today’s news ends Straily’s brief time in Baltimore after 47 2/3 innings and a disappointing 9.82 ERA. After the Marlins surprisingly released Straily near the end of Spring Training, the O’s inked the righty to a $575K one-year deal to fill a hole in their shaky rotation. Unfortunately, Straily simply never got on track either as a starter or as a reliever, as his career-long flyball tendencies bit him especially hard at Camden Yards. Straily has already allowed a whopping 22 homers during his brief time on the mound this season — for perspective’s sake, Dylan Bundy allowed a league-high 41 homers in 2018, though that was over 171 2/3 innings.
There was enough interest in Straily after his release from Miami that you would figure he’d get some looks now that he is on the market again, as the veteran posted decent numbers for the Reds and Marlins from 2016-18. Another Major League contract doesn’t seem as likely, however, as Straily seems like a candidate for a minor league deal with a team that will try to iron out his flyball problems down on the farm.
In terms of pure results, Means has been the lone bright spot on the Orioles’ struggling rotation this year, with a 2.67 ERA, 2.81 K/BB rate, and 7.5 K/9 over 70 2/3 innings. ERA indicators (4.08 FIP, 5.07 xFIP, 4.67 SIERA) hint at some serious regression, though Means hasn’t allowed much in the way of hard contract, with only a .309 xwOBA and .299 wOBA.