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Jandel Gustave

Brewers Select Jandel Gustave

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The Brewers selected right-hander Jandel Gustave to the 40-man roster before the second game of today’s doubleheader against the Mets. Milwaukee acquired the 28-year-old from the division-rival Pirates last month. Gustave is active for tonight’s game in New York as the designated “27th man” for the doubleheader. The Brewers already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so no additional move was necessary.

If he makes an appearance, Gustave will return to the big leagues for the first time since 2019. He’s appeared in parts of three major league seasons, tossing 44 2/3 innings of 3.43 ERA ball with the Astros and Giants. While Gustave’s run prevention numbers have been solid, he has struck out just 17.4% of opposing hitters in the big leagues while walking a slightly elevated 10.9% of batters faced.

Before tonight, Gustave had spent the entire 2021 season in Triple-A. Split between the Pirates and Brewers affiliates, he’s tossed 17 innings at the minors’ highest level over as many appearances, working to a 3.71 ERA with a strong 21:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Pirates Trade Troy Stokes Jr., Jandel Gustave To Brewers

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The Pirates and Brewers have agreed to a trade sending outfielder Troy Stokes Jr. and righty Jandel Gustave from Pittsburgh to Milwaukee in exchange for 17-year-old catcher Samuel Escudero, according to a team announcement out of Milwaukee. Stokes and Gustave have both been assigned to Triple-A Nashville for the time being.

It’s a bit of an oddball trade between two division rivals, as neither Stokes nor Gustave are on the 40-man roster for the rebuilding Pirates. Stokes, 25, was originally a fourth-round pick by the Brewers back in 2014 but made his way to the Pirates via a pair of waiver claims over the past couple seasons. He made his MLB debut earlier this season with Pittsburgh, appearing in eight games and 2-for-18, but he’s since been outrighted off the 40-man roster.

Stokes hasn’t been hitting particularly well in Triple-A Indianapolis since being removed from the 40-man roster. He’s logged 29 games and 84 plate appearances with a tepid .169/.298/.310 slash, dropping his career slash at the Triple-A level to .221/.333/.372 in 465 plate appearances. He’ll give some upper-level outfield depth to a team that traded Billy McKinney to the Mets last month and currently has Lorenzo Cain on the injured list. Milwaukee also recently designated outfielder Derek Fisher for assignment, and if he ends up elsewhere that’d only further deplete their outfield depth.

For the Brewers, the acquisition of Gustave could be the greater focus. Milwaukee’s acquisition of Willy Adames from the Rays bolstered its defense and lineup, but the Brewers had to part with righties J.P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen in order to get that deal done. Righty Trevor Richards came to Milwaukee in that deal and has thrown well, but they’re down a reliever on their depth chart following that swap.

President of baseball ops David Stearns suggested in an interview with The Athletic’s Will Sammon this week that looking for some complementary bullpen arms might be on the to-do list as the deadline approaches. “Where we’ve struggled is finding those complementary players who can round out a pitching staff and provide consistent performance,” Stearns told Sammon.

Acquiring Gustave certainly seems to mesh with Stearns’ comments. The former Astros and Giants righty was once a prospect of some note, going with the top pick in the 2014 Rule 5 Draft. Tommy John surgery limited him to five innings with the ’Stros in 2017 and wiped out his entire 2018 campaign. He made it back to the big leagues with the Giants in 2019 and tossed 24 1/3 innings of 2.96 ERA ball, albeit with a lowly 14.1 percent strikeout rate and a 9.1 percent walk rate.

Gustave didn’t pitch in the Majors last year. Though he started the season on the Giants’ 40-man roster, he wasn’t added to their initial 60-man player pool and was designated for assignment in early August. He inked a minor league deal with Pittsburgh over the winter and has thrown well in Indianapolis, holding opponents to six runs on a dozen hits and five walks with 18 punchouts through 15 frames (3.60 ERA).

While Gustave hasn’t missed too many bats in the big leagues, he’s whiffed 29 percent of his opponents in Triple-A this season and 23 percent in parts of three career campaigns there. The right-hander carries a 3.43 ERA in 44 2/3 innings at the MLB level and a 4.39 mark in 98 1/3 innings of Triple-A work. At the very least, he gives the Brewers another depth arm with some experience should they need to tap further into the minor league reservoir.

As for the Pirates’ return, there’s not much publicly available data on the young backstop. The Brewers signed him as an amateur out of Venezuela back in January, and the Pirates have assigned him to their affiliate in the Dominican Summer League. Given that the Bucs are trading away a player who cleared waivers a month ago and a second non-roster player who was acquired on a minor league contract, getting even a far-off lottery ticket who’s just setting out on his pro career is a nice pickup.

Pirates, Jandel Gustave Agree To Deal

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The Pirates have agreed to a contract with free-agent righty Jandel Gustave, Robert Murray reports (via Twitter). The agreement is still pending a physical. The Giants outrighted Gustave off the 40-man roster last weekend, but as a player who’d been previously outrighted at least once in the past — the Astros outrighted Gustave following the 2018 season — he had the right to decline the assignment in favor of free agency.

Gustave, 27, didn’t pitch in the big leagues for the Giants in 2020 but logged 24 1/3 frames with them last season. He’s tallied a total of 44 1/3 innings in the Majors between Houston and San Francisco, logging a 3.43 ERA and 3.97 FIP — albeit with a lackluster 32-to-20 K/BB ratio.

Gustave has found success due in no small part to limiting home runs in the big leagues (just three allowed). A 0.60 HR/9 mark is difficult to sustain in any environment but seems particularly tough to continue at a time when 15 percent of fly-balls are clearing the outfield fence, league-wide, for a second straight season. Gustave, by contrast, has seen just seven percent of his fly-balls in the Majors turn into home runs. To his credit, he’s also been quite adept at avoiding the long ball in the minors (0.39 HR/9), so perhaps he can continue the trend.

Last season, Gustave averaged a healthy 96.1 mph on his fastball and paired that with a well above-average spin rate. Gustave has generally posted average or better ground-ball rates in the minors and averaged a bit shy of a strikeout per inning. Details of his arrangement with Pittsburgh aren’t clear yet, and the club hasn’t formally announced the move. Given that Gustave went unclaimed on waivers a week ago, it seems likely to be a minor league pact that adds him to the 60-man player pool and sends him to the Pirates’ alternate training site.

Giants Designate Jandel Gustave For Assignment

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Prior to today’s game, the Giants designated right-handed reliever Jandel Gustave for assignment, per Maria Guardado of MLB.com (Twitter link). The move cleared roster space for the addition of fellow right-hander Andrew Triggs, whose contract was selected. Additionally, Rule V draftee Dany Jiménez cleared waivers and was returned to the Blue Jays organization after being designated earlier in the week, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter link).

The hard-throwing Gustave was once a relief prospect of note in the Astros’ system, but his most extensive MLB action came last season with the Giants. He tossed 24.1 innings of 2.96 ERA ball, but mediocre strikeout (14.1%) and walk (9.1%) rates suggested that strong run prevention was unlikely to continue. He hadn’t been on the Giants’ active roster this season.

Triggs got off to an inauspicious start to his SF tenure this afternoon, allowing three runs on three walks while recording just one out in a loss to the Rangers. Nevertheless, the 31-year-old once looked like a solid back-end starter, flashing solid strikeout and ground ball tendencies across the bay with the A’s between 2016 and 2018.

Jiménez’s time as a Giant comes to an end after just two appearances (in which he walked three of eight batters faced). The 26-year-old returns to the Toronto organization, where he needn’t occupy a 40-man roster spot.

Pitcher Notes: Braves, Stroman, Mets, Wheeler, Fulmer, Giants

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The Braves were among the teams present to scout Marcus Stroman’s latest outing, per David O’Brien of The Athletic (via Twitter). The Braves are in many ways the perfect partner for a team with a moveable asset like the Blue Jays, as Atlanta is flush with near-ready major league arms, but lacking the consistency it desires as a team positioned for the playoffs. The asking price for Stroman is said to be high – in the area of what the Pirates surrendered for Chris Archer – but Toronto is likely taking the call even if Atlanta starts with one of its ready-but-struggling arms, depending on whom the Blue Jays favor from the group of Max Fried, Bryse Wilson, Sean Newcomb, Touki Toussaint and Kyle Wright. Landing in Atlanta would reunite Stroman with Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos, who was the Jays’ GM when they drafted the hurler 22nd overall in 2012.

More on a few other noteworthy pitchers…

  • Mets righty and prime trade candidate Zack Wheeler went on the injured list with a shoulder impingement on July 15, but it doesn’t appear that’s going to stand in the way of a possible deadline deal. Wheeler could throw a full bullpen session Sunday, Mike Puma of the New York Post reports. If that goes well, there’s potential for Wheeler to return in time to make two starts by the July 31 cutoff for trades, Puma observes. As things stand, the Mets are still optimistic Wheeler would net “a solid return” in a deal, according to Puma.
  • Tigers righty Michael Fulmer provided an update Saturday on his recovery from the Tommy John surgery he underwent in March, Chris McCosky of the Detroit News relays. “Everything is going according to plan,” said Fulmer, who added he probably won’t pick up a baseball until October or November. The hope is that Fulmer will make it back to the Tigers’ rotation sometime next summer. While lefty Matthew Boyd is Detroit’s top trade chip nowadays, that honor belonged to Fulmer a couple years ago. However, thanks to the former Rookie of the Year’s recent downturn in performance, multiple injuries and his TJ procedure, Fulmer’s trade value is nil at the moment. Still just 26, Fulmer has another three years of arbitration eligibility left, so he could yet reemerge as a valuable starter for the Tigers.
  • The Giants added righty Jandel Gustave to their 40-man roster Thursday, in part because he has an opt-out in his minors deal and was drawing interest from other teams, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets (sorry, Henry, but Gustave’s placement on the Giants’ 40-man is not the most obscure transaction MLBTR has covered thus far). As Schulman notes, Gustave possesses an enticing high-90s fastball. The 26-year-old hasn’t been able to harness his stuff into positive results with the San Francisco organization yet, however. Gustave has pitched to a 6.56 ERA/6.08 FIP with 9.26 K/9, 4.24 BB/9 and a 48.6 percent groundball in 23 1/3 Triple-A innings this season.

Giants Add Jandel Gustave To 40-Man Roster

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The Giants announced a set of roster moves today, including the news that right-hander Jandel Gustave has been added to their 40-man roster and assigned to Triple-A.  Travis Bergen was moved to the 60-day injured list to create a 40-man spot for Gustave.  In other news, the Giants sent left-hander Andrew Suarez to Triple-A and called up southpaw Williams Jerez.

Gustave signed a minor league deal with San Francisco last winter, and has already spent much of his season at Triple-A Sacramento.  The 40-man roster placement does put Gustave a bit closer, at least on paper, to making his first MLB appearance since 2017 when he was a member of the Astros.  Gustave tossed 20 1/3 innings for Houston from 2016-17, though Tommy John surgery in June 2017 brought things to a halt.  After missing all of 2018 rehabbing, Gustave has looked shaky in his return to the mound this year, with a 6.85 ERA over 22 1/3 IP for Sacramento.

Suarez burst onto the big league scene with a solid 2018 rookie season, posting a 4.49 ERA, 2.89 K/BB rate, and 7.3 K/9 over 160 1/3 innings out of the Giants’ rotation.  Thus far in 2019, however, Suarez hasn’t followed up whatsoever, as he has appeared in only three games (two starts) and has been hit hard to the tune of a 10.03 ERA over 11 2/3 frames.

Astros Decline Option On Brian McCann, Outright Jandel Gustave

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The Astros announced that they’ve declined their $15MM option on catcher Brian McCann and sent right-hander Jandel Gustave outright to Triple-A after he cleared waivers. Both players will become free agents. Their 40-man roster currently has seven open spots.

McCann, 34, gave the Astros a much-needed quality option behind the plate in 2017 following an offseason trade from the Yankees. But after hitting .241/.323/.436 with 18 home runs in his first season with Houston, his production fell off in 2018. This past season saw the seven-time All-Star and 14-year veteran bat just .212/.301/.339 with seven homers in 216 trips to the dish. McCann spent significant time on the disabled list in ’18 as well, logging more than two months on the shelf due to knee issues that required surgical repair.

Gustave, 26, missed the 2018 season recovering from Tommy John surgery performed back in late June of 2017. Certainly, the Astros were hoping that he’d be able to return to the club late in the 2018 campaign — hence rostering him all last offseason — but he’ll now hit free agency and have the ability to sign with any team of his choosing. Of course, he could very well opt to re-sign a minor league deal in Houston, which is the only organization he’s known outside of brief spells with the Royals and Padres following his selection in the 2014 Rule 5 Draft.

The hard-throwing Gustave has a 3.98 ERA in 20 1/3 big league innings and worked to a 3.79 ERA with a 55-to-23 K/BB ratio as a 23-year-old in his lone Triple-A campaign (2016).

Astros Select Myles Straw’s Contract

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The Astros have selected the contract of outfielder Myles Straw from Triple-A Fresno, as the team announced via Twitter.  Right-hander Jandel Gustave (who is still recovering from Tommy John surgery) was moved to the 60-day DL in order to create space for Straw on the 40-man roster.

A 12th-round pick in the 2015 draft, Straw will be making his Major League debut as a specialist on the Astros roster, as The Athletic’s Jake Kaplan (Twitter link) suggests that Straw will be primarily used as a pinch-running specialist.  Straw’s base-stealing ability has been his calling card over his brief pro career, particularly this season, as he has a whopping 70 steals (out of 79 chances) over a combined 131 games at the Double-A and Triple-A levels.  All told, Straw has been successful in 151 of his 190 stolen base chances in his minor league career.

Beyond his speed, Straw also has a .302/.394/.376 slash line over 1830 PA in the minors, though he has only managed to hit .257/.349/.317 over 304 plate appearances for Fresno this season, which represents his first taste of Triple-A action.  MLB.com ranks Straw as the 14th-best prospect in the deep Astros system, citing a strong throwing arm and good center field defense to go along with his “plus-plus speed.”  His lack of power and “an extreme opposite field approach” make Straw’s future as a consistent big league hitter questionable, though for now, his bat won’t be much of a concern to a Houston team eyeing him as a potential base-stealing threat for the postseason roster.

Astros’ Jandel Gustave Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Astros righty Jandel Gustave underwent Tommy John surgery today, writes Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle. The hard-throwing reliever had been on the disabled list since April 19 with what was announced as a flexor strain. It’s not clear when the diagnosis of a torn ulnar collateral ligament was made, but regardless, Gustave will be out for the rest of the 2017 campaign and likely most of the 2018 season as well.

[Related: Houston Astros depth chart]

Gustave, 24, was picked out of the Astros’ organization in the 2014 Rule 5 Draft by the Red Sox and bounced around the waiver circuit during Spring Training 2015 before being returned to Houston in early April. He made his MLB debut a year later in 2016, tossing 15 1/3 innings of 3.52 ERA ball with a 16-to-4 K/BB ratio and a 40 percent ground-ball rate. This year, Gustave made the Opening Day roster out of Spring Training for the first time in his career and tossed five innings with the ’Stros before falling to injury. In that brief time, he issued seven walks and fanned just two men.

The Astros have solid bullpen depth as it is, and currently rank 11th, third, and first in the league, respectively, in bullpen ERA (3.85), FIP (3.27) and xFIP (3.43). The loss of Gustave and departure of Luke Gregerson as a free agent this offseason will thin that depth out a bit, though the combination of Ken Giles, Chris Devenski, Will Harris and Michael Feliz make for a formidable top four in the relief corps.

Injury Notes: Peralta, Price, Iglesias, Jays, Astros

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The Cardinals have placed Jhonny Peralta on the 10-day disabled list, retroactive to April 16, due to an upper respiratory infection and activated lefty Tyler Lyons from the disabled list, the club announced. Ben Frederickson of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes that Greg Garcia and Jedd Gyorko will combine for playing time at the hot corner in Peralta’s absence. However, as Frederickson’s colleague Derrick Goold wrote earlier today, that might’ve been in the cards anyhow; Peralta is off to a dreadful .120/.185/.120 start to the season. Manager Mike Matheny tells Goold that the team is even opening to sliding Matt Carpenter back across the diamond to play over at third base if needed. In particular, though, Matheny spoke highly of Garcia’s glovework at third base. “It’s been fun watching Greg over there,” said Matheny. “He’s making great plays. You can see the amount of ground that he’s covering and just the electricity that comes with that style of play. Jhonny has that capacity. We just have to get him in a better place.”

  • There’s another update on Red Sox lefty David Price, whose increasingly lengthy layoff has left the club without one of its best pitchers. Skipper John Farrell acknowledged that Price has dealt with some soreness that led to a bit of a slow-down in his effort to ramp things up, as Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald reports on Twitter. But Price was able to long toss “with some intensity” today, per the report, and will throw a pen session tomorrow. Still, there’s no timetable at this point for Price to return.
  • Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes that the Tigers are expected to place shortstop Jose Iglesias on the 7-day disabled list due to a concussion sustained when he took a knee to the jaw in the final play of Wednesday’s night contest. Detroit is slated to recall prized relief prospect Joe Jimenez from Triple-A Toledo. Jimenez was sent down fewer than 10 days ago, but he can return sooner than the typical 10-day minimum due to the fact that he is replacing an injured player.
  • Blue Jays southpaw J.A. Happ picked up a ball for the first time since he went on the DL, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca tweets. It was just a light throwing session, and there’s no further update at this time, but it’s good news that Happ was deemed ready to resume throwing in short order. He has been dealing with elbow inflammation, but it doesn’t seem to be related to any more significant injury.
  • Meanwhile, the Blue Jays got a look at former top prospect Max Pentecost behind the dish on Tuesday for the first time since way back in 2014, as Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca notes on Twitter. Shoulder issues have plagued the 24-year-old, who was taken 11th overall in the 2011 draft. But he’s still trying to gain traction in the Toronto system. Currently, Penecost is hitting .258/.303/.387 through 33 plate appearances at the High-A level.
  • Astros righty Jandel Gustave is headed to the 10-day DL with forearm tightness, per Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle (via Twitter). The 24-year-old had struggled in the early going, issuing seven walks while recording just a pair of strikeouts over his five frames of action. Replacing him will be fellow righty James Hoyt, who narrowly missed out on a roster spot in Spring Training. The 29-year-old Hoyt has been absolutely brilliant in Triple-A since last year, tossing 60 innings with just 10 earned runs and 101 strikeouts against 21 walks.
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