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Athletics Designate CJ Alexander For Assignment, Reinstate Michael Kelly

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The Athletics announced a series of roster moves today, as relayed by Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. Right-hander Michael Kelly has been reinstated from the restricted list and left-hander T.J. McFarland has been reinstated from the 15-day injured list. In corresponding active moves, the A’s have optioned right-handers Elvis Alvarado and Justin Sterner. To open a 40-man spot, infielder/outfielder CJ Alexander has been designated for assignment.

Kelly was one of four players suspended by Major League Baseball for one year after a league investigation revealed that the quartet had placed small-scale bets on Major League Baseball games while playing in the minor leagues back in 2020-22. Kelly’s bets came in October of 2021, when he was pitching at the Triple-A level in the Astros’ system. He made only ten bets for a total of $99.92, with three of those bets coming on games involving the Astros’ big league club during the postseason.

The one-year suspensions have now been served and all four players are eligible for reinstatement today. The Diamondbacks have already reinstated left-hander Andrew Saalfrank. Padres lefty Jay Groome and Phillies infielder José Rodríguez should be reinstated today as well. None of the four bet more than $749 in total, and none were on the 40-man roster at the time their bets were placed.

That’s the key distinction for that quartet receiving one-year bans as opposed to former Padres/Pirates utilityman Tucupita Marcano, who received a lifetime ban (announced in conjunction with these four suspensions). Marcano wagered more than $150K on 387 bets involving MLB games while he was on a big league roster — including 25 bets on Pirates games while he was on Pittsburgh’s major league injured list (rehabbing a season-ending ACL tear).

Major League Baseball’s rules regarding gambling stipulate that “Any player, umpire, or Club or League official or employee, who shall bet any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has no duty to perform, shall be declared ineligible for one year.” Players, umpires, club officials and league officials who place bets of “any sum whatsoever upon any baseball game in connection with which the bettor has a duty to perform” are subject to permanent bans. Further details on the investigation and its findings were provided in a league-issued press release last year at the time of these suspensions.

Prior to his suspension, Kelly had managed to log 52 big league innings for the Phillies, Guardians and A’s. Most of that came just before his absence, as he logged 31 1/3 innings with Oakland last year, allowing 2.59 earned runs per nine. His 17.2% strikeout rate last year wasn’t especially strong but he kept his walks down to a 7.8% level. He’ll now get a chance to build upon all those numbers after having served his suspension.

While on the restricted list, Kelly did not count against the club’s 40-man roster tally. Now that he’s back, Alexander has been nudged off. Alexander will head into DFA limbo, which can last as long as a week. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the A’s could take as many as five days to explore trade interest.

Alexander was claimed off waivers from the Royals in September. Between those two clubs, he has a .160/.160/.160 batting line in a tiny sample of 25 big league plate appearances. His minor league work has naturally been greater in both quantity and quality. Dating back to the start of 2024, he has a .287/.357/.544 batting line and 121 wRC+ in 595 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. He has a bit of defensive versatility, with experience at all four corner spots. He can still be optioned to the minors for the rest of this campaign and one additional season. He could perhaps appeal to clubs who have roster space and want some extra position player depth.

Photo courtesy of Neville E. Guard, Imagn Images

A’s Claim Anthony Maldonado, Justin Sterner

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The A’s announced they’ve claimed righty relievers Anthony Maldonado from the Marlins and Justin Sterner from the Rays. Both players had quietly landed on waivers last week.

Maldonado and Sterner each made their debuts this past season. Maldonado, 27 in February, has slightly more experience. He pitched in 16 games for Miami and allowed 12 runs across 19 innings. He struck out 11 while issuing seven walks. Maldonado showed better strikeout stuff in the minors, fanning 26.1% of batters faced over 46 1/3 Triple-A frames. While that came with a slightly elevated 10.8% walk rate and a middling 4.66 ERA, the A’s are evidently intrigued by his arsenal. Maldonado leaned most heavily on his mid-80s slider.

Sterner, 28, has all of two games of MLB experience. The BYU product tossed four innings of two-run ball with four strikeouts. He had a strong year with the Rays’ top affiliate in Durham. Sterner turned in a 3.28 earned run average over 46 2/3 innings. He punched out more than 31% of batters faced against an 8.9% walk percentage. Sterner used a fastball-cutter combination during his limited MLB look. Both he and Maldonado sat in the 93-94 MPH range with their heaters.

This was the first option year for both pitchers. The A’s can keep them in Triple-A for the foreseeable future if they stick on the 40-man roster.

Shane Baz To Join Rays’ Rotation

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The Rays opened a rotation spot this morning by trading Aaron Civale to the Brewers. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports on X that Shane Baz will take that rotation spot, likely taking over Civale’s scheduled start on Friday. For now, the Rays have recalled reliever Justin Sterner to give the bullpen an extra arm, as Topkin suggested they would.

The recall of Baz is a fairly logical next step, as it lines up with reporting from last week. Katie Woo, Patrick Mooney and Will Sammon of The Athletic reported that the Rays could make some starting pitching available, not necessarily as deadline “sellers” but simply because of being in a position where they had a relative surplus in the rotation.

At the time of that report, the Rays had a big league rotation of Civale, Zach Eflin, Taj Bradley, Zack Littell and Ryan Pepiot, with Baz and Jeffrey Springs both nearing returns from Tommy John surgeries. The reporting indicated that the Rays could trade one of their veteran starters to bolster their system and/or upgrade another area of their roster, then backfilling the rotation with Baz or Springs while also saving some money. All that is now coming to pass this week. Civale and his $4.9MM salary were traded to the Brewers, with the Rays adding infield prospect Gregory Barrios to their system.

The club is currently 43-42 and only three games out of a playoff spot, but the hope is that subtracting Civale while adding Baz will leave the club’s competitive chances in 2024 relatively unchanged or perhaps even improved.

Baz was acquired as part of the lopsided deal that sent Chris Archer to the Pirates for Tyler Glasnow, Austin Meadows and a player to be named later, which eventually turned out to be Baz. The young righty was already a notable prospect at that time, as the Bucs drafted him 12th overall in 2017.

His first full season in the Rays’ system was very strong, as he made 17 Single-A starts with a 2.99 earned run average. His 10.8% walk rate was a bit high but he struck out 25.4% of batters faced. After the minor league were canceled in 2020, Baz was even more impressive in 2021. He had a 2.06 ERA over 78 2/3 innings pitched between Double-A and Triple-A, striking out 37.9% of batters faced while giving out walks at just a 4.4% rate. He also made his major league debut with three starts and a 2.03 ERA.

Going into 2022, Baz was considered the eighth best prospect in the entire league by Baseball America, with other outlets similarly bullish. The Rays were surely hoping for him to establish himself at the big league level that year but his health got in the way. He underwent arthroscopic elbow surgery to remove loose bodies from his pitching elbow in March and began the season on the injured list. He was reinstated in June and made six starts before being shut down with an elbow sprain which eventually led to Tommy John surgery in September.

He missed all of 2023 while rehabbing and began this year on the injured list as well. He was reinstated from the injured list in May but optioned to Triple-A to continue building up his workload there. He seemed to show a bit of rust early on, with a 7.71 ERA through his first five minor league starts this year. But he’s been quite dominant in his most recent five, with a 1.57 ERA in those outings.

Since Civale had a 5.07 ERA with the Rays prior to being dealt, it’s entirely possible that Baz will be able to upgrade the current rotation, based on the way he was pitching in 2021 and how he has looked in the past month or so. In total, the moves showcase how a club can walk a tightrope of both buying and selling, as the Rays saved some cash and netted a prospect that could help them down the line while simultaneously keeping their competitive hopes alive here in 2024.

For Baz, by spending more than a month in the minors before being recalled, his path to free agency is going to be pushed back. He came into this season with two years and 14 days of service time, thanks to his call-up late in 2021 and then two years largely spent on the injured list. But by the time he’s recalled to take the ball on Friday, it will have been more than six weeks since he was optioned on May 23, meaning he won’t be able to get to the three-year mark here in 2024.

He’ll be a lock for Super Two status at the end of this year and will therefore get four trips through arbitration instead of three, assuming he stays up with the big league club the rest of the way, but the earliest he can qualify for free agency at this point is after the 2028 campaign.

For the Rays, they could perhaps make another series of moves like this, with Springs nearing a return from his surgery as well. The lefty got up to three innings pitched in his most recent rehab start and could be ready for reinstatement shortly. Even if they trade Eflin or Littell, who can each be controlled through 2025, the long-term rotation picture looks good. Shane McClanahan should be back from his own Tommy John surgery next year and is under club control through 2027. Pepiot is under control through 2028 and Bradley one year beyond that. The Springs extension goes through 2026 with a club option for 2027. Drew Rasmussen, who is currently on the IL after last year’s internal brace surgery, can be controlled via arbitration through 2026. Tyler Alexander is on optional assignment and pitching decently in the minors, with the potential to be retained via arbitration beyond this year as well.

Rays Select Justin Sterner, Option Tyler Alexander

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The Rays have selected the contract of right-hander Justin Sterner from Triple-A Durham, per a team announcement. He’ll be making his MLB debut when he first gets into a game. Left-hander Tyler Alexander was optioned to Durham in a corresponding move to create space on the active roster. Tampa Bay already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so no additional move was necessary. Their 40-man roster is now at capacity.

Sterner, 27, is a reliever whom the Rays acquired in 2021 swap sending right-hander David Hess to the Marlins. The 2024 season marks the third in which he’s logged time in Triple-A but the first in which he’s found much success. Sterner allowed eight runs in seven Triple-A frames back in 2022 and pitched to a 5.80 ERA in 35 2/3 innings there last season.

This year in Durham, however, Sterner has notched a much-improved 3.60 ERA in 25 innings, thanks in large part to huge gains in his ability to miss bats and limit walks. Sterner has fanned one-third of his opponents in Triple-A after posting a 26.1% strikeout rate a year ago. His 8.1% walk rate in 2024 is more than three percentage points south of last year’s 11.8% mark.

For the 29-year-old Alexander, this will be his first optional assignment since way back in 2019. The Rays acquired the southpaw via a November waiver claim after he’d been designated for assignment in Detroit. He’s effectively been the Rays’ fifth starter for much of the season, though only six of his 11 outings have been true starts. Alexander has frequently followed a one- or two-inning opener, but even his relief appearances have averaged five innings apiece this season.

Alexander had a decent stretch from mid-April to mid-May, but he’s been shelled for a dozen runs in just 9 2/3 innings over his past two appearances. He’s now yielded four or more runs in three of his past four outings. That ugly stretch has left the southpaw with a 6.19 ERA on the season, although fielding-independent metrics are more bullish (particularly his 4.09 SIERA). Alexander has a below-average 19.4% strikeout rate on the season but also a very sharp 5.3% walk rate. He’s also an extreme fly-ball pitcher (48.6% fly-balls, 29.6% grounders) who’s seen a larger-than-average 15% of his fly-balls leave the yard this year — an average of 2.06 homers per nine innings.

Alexander entered the season with 4.058 years of big league service time and is up to 4.122 as of this assignment. He’ll reach five full years of service with another 50 days on the active roster or major league injured list, at which point he’d gain the right to refuse an optional assignment to the minors. For now, he’ll get a reset in Durham while the Rays go with a rotation of Zack Littell, Aaron Civale, Taj Bradley and Ryan Pepiot.

Right-hander Zach Eflin went on the injured list due a lower back issue on May 20, and the Rays are awaiting returns from injured pitchers Jeffrey Springs, Drew Rasmussen and (in 2025) Shane McClanahan. Longtime top prospect Shane Baz could be a rotation candidate at some point as well. He very recently wrapped up his rehab from 2022 Tommy John surgery and was reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A himself.

Marlins Trade Justin Sterner And Cash Considerations To Rays For David Hess

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The Marlins and Rays have agreed on a swap of right-handed arms. Miami will send Justin Sterner and cash considerations to Tampa Bay for right-hander David Hess. The Marlins have selected Hess’ contract in order to add him to the active roster. To make room, Jordan Holloway was optioned to Triple-A.

For the Rays, this is a classic case of swapping out depth to take a chance on a younger arm. Sterner, 24, moved from Single-A to High-A this season, his first in pro ball after playing three seasons at Brigham Young University. He went undrafted out of BYU, signing with the Marlins in July, 2020.

Hess appeared in the bigs with the Orioles each season from 2018 to 2020. In total, he made 47 appearances (33 starts) totaling 190 1/3 innings, earning a 5.86 ERA/6.41 FIP, 16.8 percent strikeout rate, 8.1 percent walk rate and 33.7 percent groundball rate. Surrendering fly balls as he did, Hess yielded an unsightly 6.0 percent home run rate with Baltimore, a mark he’ll need to improve upon to add much value to Miami.

He did not appear in the Majors for the Rays, but given his numbers with the Durham Bulls this year, it’s not hard to understand Miami’s interest. Hess has a 2.81 ERA/3.96 FIP over 32 innings in Triple-A. He’s still a fly ball pitcher, but a 28.9 percent strikeout rate and 3.9 percent walk rate are promising numbers nevertheless.

As for Holloway, he’ll head back to Jacksonville with a 4.35 ERA/4.13 FIP in 20 2/3 innings. Holloway was knocked around in his last outing, giving up five earned runs in three innings on Wednesday. More to the point, with Pablo Lopez getting tossed after just one pitch on Friday, the Marlins are likely to move some pieces around to reset their rotation and account for the impromptu bullpen game.

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