Pirates Place Jung Ho Kang On IL, Select Jake Elmore
The Pirates have announced that infielder Jung Ho Kang has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left side strain. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by Jake Elmore, whose contract was selected.
In order to open a 40-man roster spot, the Bucs shifted righty Jameson Taillon to the 60-day injured list. Taillon, who is sidelined with a flexor strain, won’t be eligible to return to the active roster until early July.
Kang is struggling in his first full season since 2016 — a layoff that occurred because of his troubling history of drinking and driving. He’s hitting just .133/.204/.300 in 98 trips to the plate this year. Kang is swinging and missing far more often than he used to. He’ll be shut down for three days and then reevaluated, per club director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk (via MLB.com’s Adam Berry, on Twitter).
It’s the first MLB action since 2016 for Elmore. The 33-year-old has a .215/.297/.280 slash in 478 career plate appearances at the game’s highest level. He has been off to rather a strong start to the year at Triple-A, though, with a .380/.444/.546 slash in 124 plate appearances.
Minor MLB Transactions: 2/9/18
We’ll keep track of some today’s minor moves around the league here…
- The White Sox announced yesterday that they’ve inked infielder/outfielder Jake Elmore to a minor league contract and invited him to Spring Training. The versatile 30-year-old didn’t appear in the Majors in 2017, instead spending the year with the Triple-A affiliates for the Blue Jays and Marlins, where he struggled to a .236/.324/.281 in 416 plate appearances. Those unsightly rate stats aside, Elmore is a lifetime .289/.388/.369 hitter in nearly 2000 Triple-A plate appearances and comes with 197 games of MLB experience as well. In parts of five seasons with the D-backs, Astros, Reds, Brewers and Rays, Elmore is a .215/.297/.280 hitter that has appeared at every position on the field (including two innings of relief work).
Minor MLB Transactions: 8/23/17
Here are some of the latest minor moves from around the game, as reported by Baseball America’s Matt Eddy, unless otherwise noted:
- The Tigers announced tonight that they’ve optioned lefty Chad Bell to Triple-A Toledo and will select the contract of right-hander Zac Reininger prior to Thursday’s contest. The 24-year-old Reininger was Detroit’s eight-round pick back in 2013 and has had a strong season across three minor league levels in 2017, rising from Class-A Advanced to Triple-A. In 63 2/3 total innings, Reininger has posted a 2.54 ERA with 8.5 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9. His ground-ball rate was a strong 53.4 percent in 28 Class-A frames but has fallen to the 39 percent range in the upper minors.
Blue Jays Sign Jake Elmore To Minor League Deal
The Blue Jays announced that they’ve signed utility infielder Jake Elmore to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training.
The 29-year-old Elmore logged 99 plate appearances with the Brewers in 2016, hitting .218/.371/.244. Elmore boast a solid 10 percent walk rate in his big league career (some, but not all of which is attributable to batting eighth in front of the pitcher at times in the National League), but he’s just a .215/.297/.280 hitter in 478 Major League plate appearances. His greatest asset is his defensive versatility, as Elmore has played every position on the diamond — including pitching — in his big league career.
Most of Elmore’s work has come at shortstop (352 innings), but he has 100+ innings at first base, second base and in left field, as well as 84 innings at the hot corner in the Majors. He’s bounced all over the diamond in the minors as well and can function as a safety net for the Blue Jays at a number of positions as a result.
Minor MLB Transactions: 10/31/16
Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Brewers announced that utilityman Jake Elmore has elected free agency after rejecting an outright assignment last week. The 29-year-old Elmore logged 99 plate appearances with the Brew Crew this past season, hitting .218/.371/.244. While five of Elmore’s free passes drawn did come when he was hitting eighth in front of the pitcher, he does have a solid 10 percent walk rate for his career and has shown discipline even with another position player hitting behind him in the order. Despite that fact, though, he’s just a .215/.297/.280 hitter in 478 Major League plate appearances. His greatest asset may be his defensive versatility, as Elmore has played every position on the diamond — including pitching — in his big league career.
- According to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy, veteran outfielder Matt Tuiasosopo has re-upped with the Braves on a minor league contract. The 30-year-old Tuiasosopo made a brief appearance on Atlanta’s big league roster this season and picked up three hitless plate appearances before being designated for assignment and landing back in Triple-A Gwinnett. In 248 plate appearances with Gwinnett this season, Tuiasosopo batted .246/.351/.483 with 11 homers and 17 doubles. That padded his career .247/.353/.418 line at the Triple-A level, which he’s amassed over parts of nine seasons. However, the former third-rounder (Mariners, 2004) has managed just a .206/.288/.353 line in 404 PAs across parts of five Major League seasons.
Brewers Outright Garin Cecchini, Jake Elmore, Andy Wilkins, Sean Nolin
The Brewers have outrighted four players, per a club announcement, leaving the team’s 40-man roster with three openings. Milwaukee has dropped infielders Garin Cecchini and Jake Elmore, infielder/outfielder Andy Wilkins, and lefty Sean Nolin from the major league slate.
None of the moves are particularly surprising. Milwaukee is preparing for another winter in which the club figures not only to protect some of its own Rule 5 draft-eligible players, but also to seek undervalued assets that don’t stick with other organizations. The club lost outfielder Rymer Liriano via waivers earlier today as well.
Of course, some of the players now leaving the 40-man were brought in with hopes they’d thrive in a new environment. That is most apparent, perhaps, in the case of Cecchini, who was once a fairly highly regarded Red Sox prospect. He never earned a major league shot in Milwaukee after hitting .271/.325/.380 over 469 plate appearances at Triple-A, with 13 stolen bases and five home runs.
The 29-year-old Elmore is no stranger to this process. He has appeared in the majors in each of the last five years, every time with a different team. All said, he has produced a miserly .215/.297/.280 batting line in 478 trips to the plate, but continues to be seen around the league as a useful depth piece given his defensive versatility.
Wilkins, 28, has also bounced around a fair bit of late. He’s still looking for his first real shot at major league playing time, but hasn’t impressed at the Triple-A level since a strong 2014 campaign with the White Sox’ top affiliate. In 2016, he posted a .235/.321/.419 batting line with a dozen home runs in 374 plate appearances in the highest level of the minors.
As for Nolin, health problems have derailed his career. He had been acquired by the A’s as part of the deal that sent Josh Donaldson to the Blue Jays, but Oakland gave up on him after one year and he was claimed by Milwaukee. The 26-year-old never ended up pitching competitively for the Brewers; after trying to stave off Tommy John surgery, he wound up going under the knife late in the summer. Nolin will likely miss most or all of the ensuing campaign.