Rangers Likely To Call Up Joe Palumbo This Weekend
It’s “likely” the Rangers will call up left-hander Joe Palumbo from Double-A Frisco to make his major league debut Saturday, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. Palumbo, who’s already on the Rangers’ 40-man roster, would serve as the 26th man in their doubleheader against the Athletics.
Palumbo is six years removed from joining the Rangers as a 30th-round pick in 2013. Since then, the 24-year-old has made an impressive climb up the Texas organization’s farm system. While Palumbo underwent Tommy John surgery in 2017, FanGraphs (No. 6), MLB.com (No. 7) and Baseball America (No. 8) each regard him as one of the Rangers’ 10 best prospects two years later. Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs laud Palumbo’s “timeless, rainbow curveball” and write he could develop into a No. 3-4 starter at the major league level.
So far in 2019, Palumbo has parlayed his fastball-curve-changeup mix into a 3.38 ERA/3.85 FIP with 11.55 K/9 and 4.26 BB/9 over 50 2/3 innings. It might be too optimistic to expect Palumbo to emerge as a capable big league starter right away – Grant notes he may only throw a few innings Saturday – but the need is there for playoff-contending Texas. The Rangers haven’t gotten anything out of offseason acquisition Drew Smyly, though they’re not yet willing to pull him from their starting five. However, if Palumbo shows well Saturday and Smyly’s struggles continue, the former could get a shot to join Texas’ rotation later in the season.
Rangers Outright Carlos Perez
The Rangers announced Monday that they’ve activated catcher Carlos Perez from the 10-day disabled list and sent him outright to Triple-A Round Rock. In doing so, they’re creating a roster spot that’ll go to lefty Joe Palumbo who has been activated from the 60-day DL and optioned to Class-A Advanced Down East. Palumbo had been recovering from Tommy John surgery.
Perez, 27, was claimed off waivers from the Braves back in early May and appeared in 16 games with Texas before landing on the disabled list. In that time, he posted a lowly .167/.205/.286 slash with a homer and a pair of doubles in 46 plate appearances. He’s never been much of a threat with the bat in the big leagues, hitting a combined .218/.260/.322 in 663 PAs between the Angels, Braves and Rangers.
Of course, Perez’s calling card is his glovework behind the dish. He’s successfully halted 39 percent of stolen-base attempts against him at the big league level and has drawn generally positive marks for both his pitch-framing and pitch-blocking skills, per Baseball Prospectus.
Rangers Sign Jesse Chavez
Feb. 23: The Rangers have announced the signing. Chavez does indeed go on the 40-man roster, taking the place of left-hander Joe Palumbo, who has been transferred to the 60-day DL in a corresponding move. Palumbo underwent Tommy John surgery last April and will not be ready for the start of the season.
Feb. 22: Chavez’s deal is a guaranteed, Major League contract at $1MM, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. He’ll get a 40-man roster spot, it seems, and Chavez’s base salary will elevate to $1.5MM once he is placed on the 25-man roster. Cotillo notes that there’s a very strong chance that Chavez breaks camp on the Rangers’ roster.
Feb. 21: The Rangers are in agreement on a contract with veteran right-hander Jesse Chavez, reports Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports (Twitter links). The Sosnick, Cobbe & Karon client seems to have signed a non-guaranteed deal, as Heyman notes that the pact calls for a $1MM base that’ll increase to $1.5MM if he makes the big league roster. Chavez’s contract has $500K worth of incentives based on relief appearances and $1MM based on starts, Heyman adds.
Now 34 years of age, Chavez will return to the organization that gave him his first professional opportunity. Texas selected Chavez in the 42nd round of the 2002 draft — a round that no longer even exists in modern drafts — and the righty spend parts of four seasons in their system before being traded to the Pirates in the 2006 Kip Wells swap.
Chavez went on to make his big league debut with the 2008 Pirates, and he’s spent time with six additional big league organizations since that time (primarily with Oakland). Chavez’s 2017 season was spent with the division-rival Angels, for whom he pitched to a disappointing 5.35 ERA in 138 innings. Chavez managed respectable marks of 7.8 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a 41.1 percent ground-ball rate, but like so many other pitchers throughout MLB was plagued by the long ball; in those 138 frames, he surrendered 28 big flies — good for a career-worst 1.83 HR/9 mark.
Texas has been aggressively stockpiling veteran arms on which to rely over the course of the season, adding Doug Fister on a low-cost MLB deal while also picking up Chavez, Bartolo Colon, Jon Niese and Edinson Volquez on minor league contracts. (Volquez’s deal was a two-year minor league deal, as he’ll miss 2018 recovering from August Tommy John surgery.)
The Rangers currently project to have Cole Hamels, Fister, Matt Moore, Mike Minor and Matt Bush in their rotation. There’s plenty of talent in that bunch, to be sure, as each has had big league success at various points. However, it’s a fairly uncertain group at present.
Hamels is coming off a down season in which he logged significant time on the DL, and Moore, too, is in need of a rebound after a dreadful showing with the 2017 Giants. Minor, meanwhile, will be returning to a rotation role for the first time in four years, and Bush has never worked as a starter. Fister posted promising peripherals in a tough AL East last year, but he hasn’t had a full season with above-average run prevention numbers since 2014. Given the uncertainty among that group, it makes sense for GM Jon Daniels and his staff to create a fairly large supporting cast of experienced arms to serve as insurance.
Chavez has extensive experience both as a starter and reliever, so he’ll add to that depth and can support the group either as a rotation option in the upper minors or perhaps as a swingman at the big league level. He has a career 4.69 ERA in 742 2/3 Major League innings and enjoyed a solid run from 2013-16, during which time he sported a 3.94 ERA and 3.85 FIP in 427 1/3 frames.
Players Added To The 40-Man Roster
As detailed earlier this morning at MLBTR, the deadline for Major League clubs to add players to the 40-man roster in order to protect them from next month’s Rule 5 Draft is tonight. Because of that, there will be literally dozens of moves between now and 8pm ET as teams make final determinations on who to protect and who to risk losing in next month’s Rule 5 draft. This process will lead to smaller-scale trades, waiver claims and DFAs, but for some clubs the only necessary moves will simply be to select the contracts of the prospects they wish to place on the 40-man roster. We’ll track those such moves in this post…
- Heading onto the Blue Jays‘ roster, per a club announcement, are righty Connor Greene, lefty Tom Pannone, first baseman Rowdy Tellez, and catchers Dan Jansen and Reese McGuire.
- The Rays have selected the contracts of righties Brent Honeywell, Diego Castillo, Yonny Chirinos, and Jose Mujica, lefty Ryan Yarbrough, first baseman/outfielder Jake Bauers, and outfielder Justin Williams, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.
- The Diamondbacks placed lefty Jared Miller on the MLB roster, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic reports on Twitter.
- A list of six players is heading onto the Reds‘ 40-man, per Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer (via Twitter): infielders Alex Blandino and Shed Long, outfielder Jose Siri, and righties Jose Lopez, Jesus Reyes, and Zack Weiss.
- The Padres and Brewers have joined the teams announcing their additions. For San Diego, lefties Jose Castillo and Brad Wieck are heading to the 40-man. Milwaukee has selected shortstop Mauricio Dubon, catcher Jacob Nottingham, and righties Marcos Diplan and Freddy Peralta.
- The Marlins and Yankees just struck a trade relating to their 40-man maneuvering, and each announced their selections shortly thereafter. Miami is placing outfielder Braxton Lee on the MLB roster along with righties Merandy Gonzalez, Pablo Lopez, and James Needy. New York, meanwhile, will select righties Albert Abreu, Domingo Acevedo, and Jonathan Loaisiga to the 40-man along with outfielder Billy McKinney and infielders Thairo Estrada and (last but not least) Gleyber Torres.
Click to check in on other teams that have selected players to their 40-man rosters …
Quick Hits: Cutch, Nats, Pirates, Crisp, Dodgers, Soler, Rangers
Financial reasons played a key role in the Nationals’ offseason decision to trade for then-White Sox center fielder Adam Eaton instead of the Pirates’ Andrew McCutchen, reports FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal (video link). With his $4MM salary this year, Eaton is much cheaper than McCutchen ($14MM), and acquiring the latter would have forced the Nationals to jettison left-hander Gio Gonzalez and his $12MM price tag in a separate deal, says Rosenthal. In addition to having concerns over how their payroll would have looked with McCutchen, the Nationals had no interest in meeting Pittsburgh’s lofty demands for the five-time All-Star. Washington bought high on Eaton, whose excellent 2016 helped convinced the club to give up high-end pitching prospects Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez and Dane Dunning for him. McCutchen, on the other hand, had a career-worst season last year, yet the Pirates wanted an even more impressive package for him than the Nationals sent the White Sox, according to Rosenthal. Pittsburgh held out for both pitching prospects and major leaguers, leading the Nats to go in another direction.
More from around the sport:
- Outfielder Coco Crisp said during the winter that he wasn’t ready to retire, and even though he still hasn’t landed a contract, the 37-year-old wants to continue playing, writes Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Crisp hasn’t been able to find work on the heels of a season in which he hit an underwhelming .231/.302/.397 with 13 home runs and 10 stolen bases in a combined 498 plate appearances with the Athletics and Indians. He was worse in the field, accounting for minus-10 Defensive Runs Saved and a minus-11.1 Ultimate Zone Rating.
- Dodgers left-hander Julio Urias “might” make his first big league start of 2017 in the coming week, manager Dave Roberts said Saturday (via Ken Gurnick of MLB.com). Urias would step in for Alex Wood, who Gurnick notes would return to the bullpen after making a start in place of the injured Rich Hill on Friday. The 20-year-old Urias tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings and 93 pitches Friday with Triple-A Oklahoma. As for Hill, who has dealt with chronic blister issues since last year, he has “tinkered” with a new grip during his latest DL stint, per Roberts. Hill has also tried to cure his problems with pickle juice and rice, among other methods mentioned by Gurnick. It seems the 37-year-old has made progress in his recovery. “It’s toughened up for sure,” Hill said of the blister.
- Jorge Soler is getting closer to making his Royals debut. The outfielder, on the shelf since March with an oblique injury, began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Omaha on Friday, relays Dave Sessions of MLB.com. The Royals are unsure when they’ll call up Soler, whom they acquired from the Cubs for closer Wade Davis over the winter. When Soler is healthy enough to return, his bat “could be a big boost,” manager Ned Yost said. Kansas City’s offense entered Saturday dead last in the majors in both runs and wRC+, so its lineup certainly needs a jolt.
- Rangers minor league left-hander Joe Palumbo will undergo Tommy John surgery during the upcoming week, tweets TR Sullivan of MLB.com. Palumbo, one of the Rangers’ 10 best prospects, will now lose a year of development as a result of a torn ulnar collateral ligament. The 22-year-old was extremely impressive this season at the High-A level, where he recorded a 0.66 ERA, 14.49 K/9 and 2.63 BB/9 in 13 2/3 innings.
Rangers Notes: Daniels, Palumbo, Beltre
In his latest GM Q&A, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com sits down with Rangers GM Jon Daniels and discusses a number of trade- and front-office-related topics. The interview ranges from Daniels’ entrance into the industry, to his hiring as a general manager at the age of 28 to a number of trades (both good and bad) that he’s made as the Rangers’ top decision-maker over the years. Daniels candidly admits that he was in over his head when he was first named GM. “I’m still surprised,” Daniels tells Feinsand. “Very green at the time; admittedly not ready for it. But what are you going to do, turn it down? ‘A contract to be the GM for a Major League team? No, sir, I’m not ready.'” Daniels goes on to detail the lessons he learned early in his tenure, including a vital one from his first major trade: one that sent Alfonso Soriano to the Nationals.
“The mistake we made was not in trading [Soriano], but when we made the deal for [Brad] Wilkerson, [Armando] Galarraga and [Terrmel] Sledge, no sooner had we made the deal and agreed to it at the Winter Meetings did we have 15 clubs calling on Wilkerson,” Daniels recalls. “…Had we engaged clubs on Brad Wilkerson at that point, we could have done pretty well. … [Y]ou make a deal and you have the new player, the bright shiny object, and you fall in love and don’t want to be open-minded to at least considering other things. That was the mistake we made.”
The entire Q&A is a highly recommended read. And once you’ve processed that, a bit more on the Rangers…
- Rangers minor league lefty Joe Palumbo has been diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament, and Tommy John surgery is on the table as an option, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. Palumbo rates as the club’s No. 6 prospect at MLB.com, No. 8 on Keith Law’s list at ESPN, No. 9 per Baseball America, and No. 7 per Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen. The scouting reports on Palumbo range peg his ceiling anywhere from league-average starter to late-inning lefty, with multiple mentions of a significant uptick in the southpaw’s velocity last season. Unfortunately, the injury to Palumbo could wipe out a full season of development and sideline him into next summer. The 22-year-old posted a 2.24 ERA with a 122-to-36 K/BB ratio and a 50.2 percent ground-ball rate in Class-A last season and opened the 2017 campaign strongly for the Rangers’ Class-A Advanced affiliate.
- Adrian Beltre still isn’t close to running at full speed as he rehabs a calf injury, writes MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan. While Beltre was doing light running as recently as Wednesday of this week, there’s still no firm timetable on when he’ll be able to begin a rehab assignment, let alone actually return to the Rangers’ lineup. In his absence, Joey Gallo continues to get an extended look and has impressed manager Jeff Banister. “I think he has done a stellar job handling it physically and mentally,” Banister tells Sullivan. “I haven’t seen any reaction other than he is engaged and ready to play.”