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Kent Emanuel

Pirates Sign Kent Emanuel To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates have signed left-hander Kent Emanuel to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He will presumably be invited to major league Spring Training.

Emanuel, 31 in June, was a third round pick of the Astros back in 2013. Though he came up as a starter, he was gradually shifted into spending more time in the bullpen, which led to a solid 3.90 ERA in Triple-A in 2019. He was given a spot on the 40-man roster at the end of that season to prevent him from reaching minor league free agency.

The few seasons since getting that roster spot have been tumultuous, however. He received an 80-game suspension in 2020 after testing positive for the banned substance Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone, though he expressed bewilderment at that fact. In 2021, he was able to make his major league debut by tossing 17 2/3 innings over 10 appearances with a 2.55 ERA, but then was diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament.

Though he required the internal brace procedure instead of the more common Tommy John surgery, he was still facing an extended absence. He was put on waivers at the end of the season and claimed by the Phillies. He spent all of 2022 in the minors, first on a rehab assignment and then an optional assignment. The Phillies tried converting him back to starting, as he made 13 starts in the minors last year, tossing 58 innings with a 2.64 ERA. But he was placed on the IL in September with a shoulder strain and then outrighted in November.

It’s unclear if the Pirates plan to deploy Emanuel as a starter or move him back to the bullpen. Either way, he’ll provide some non-roster depth to a pitching staff with some uncertainty. The rotation will likely consist of Mitch Keller, Roansy Contreras, JT Brubaker, Rich Hill and Vince Velasquez, but the latter two are on one-year deals and could become midsummer trade candidates if the Bucs are out of contention. In terms of left-handed relief, the only two options on the 40-man roster are Jarlín García and Rule 5 draftee Jose Hernandez.

Emanuel will look to work his way onto the roster alongside other invitees like Caleb Smith, Ángel Perdomo, Rob Zastryzny and Daniel Zamora. If he does earn a spot, he still has an option year and plenty of affordable control, with still between one and two years of service time.

Phillies Claim Luis Ortiz, Andrew Vasquez From Giants

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The Phillies announced that they have claimed two relievers off waivers from the Giants. Right-hander Luis Ortiz and left-hander Andrew Vasquez will jump to Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the Phillies also outrighted five players: right-handers Mark Appel and Hans Crouse, lefties Kent Emanuel and Damon Jones, along with infielder Yairo Munoz.

Ortiz, 27, spent a few years with the Orioles but signed a minor league deal with the Giants for 2022. A highly-touted prospect from his time with the O’s, he’s dealt with some injuries and been pushed from starting to relieving as time has gone on. He spent most of 2022 in Triple-A, throwing 67 1/3 innings with a 4.54 ERA in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. His peripherals were quite strong, as he struck out 25.4% of batters faced, walking just 4.6% of them and getting grounders on 42.4% of balls in play. He also got 8 2/3 innings of MLB action, with a 1.04 ERA in that small sample. He still has options remaining, meaning the Phillies will have the ability to keep him in the minors as a depth arm.

Vasquez set a career high with 10 MLB games this year, splitting that time between the Blue Jays and Giants. He allowed six runs in 8 2/3 innings but he posted a 2.23 ERA over 32 1/3 Triple-A innings. The southpaw struck out almost 35% of opponents at the minors’ highest level, making him of appeal to a number of teams on the waiver wire.

Appel made his big league debut almost a decade after being selected first overall in the 2013 draft. He worked 10 1/3 innings over six relief appearances but ended the year on the injured list with elbow inflammation. Crouse was a former highly-regarded pitching prospect who came over from the Rangers in the Kyle Gibson/Spencer Howard trade. He debuted with two appearances last year but only pitched five times in Triple-A in 2022.

Jones is a former 18th-rounder who has five appearances in the last two years. Emanuel joined the organization off waivers from the Astros last winter but never pitched with Philadelphia. Munoz played in 29 games this year, hitting .221/.250/.404.

Munoz, Emanuel and Appel can become minor league free agents. Crouse and Jones will remain in the system without occupying a 40-man roster spot.

Phillies Claim Tayler Scott From Padres

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The Phillies announced that they have claimed right-hander Tayler Scott off waivers from the Padres and optioned him to Triple-A. To create room on their 40-man roster, the Phillies recalled left-hander Kent Emanuel from Lehigh Valley and placed him on the 60-day IL with a shoulder strain.

Scott, 30, spent 2020 and 2021 with the Hiroshima Carp of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He came back to North America for 2022, signing a minor league deal with the Padres. He had his contract selected in July and has thrown 12 innings for the big league club, though with a disappointing 6.75 ERA. He’s been much better in Triple-A, however, with a 3.76 ERA through 40 2/3 innings. That’s come with strong strikeout and walk rates of 30.4% and 6.4%, respectively. He’ll provide the Phils with an optionable depth arm, though he won’t be eligible for the postseason since he wasn’t in the organization prior to September 1.

In order to clear a roster spot for Scott, the Phillies have officially ended the season of Emanuel, who hasn’t pitched since the end of August. By recalling him and placing him on the 60-day IL, the club opens up a roster spot for Scott, though they will now be paying Emanuel a major league salary for the final three weeks of the season. Emanuel will also collect service time during that stretch. Claimed from the Astros in November, the lefty was also placed on the 60-day IL to begin the year due to an elbow impingement. Though he eventually returned to the hill in the minors, he was only able to make 13 starts in between his ailments. He registered a 2.55 ERA in that time with a 19.1% strikeout rate and 5.9% walk rate.

Phillies Designate Sam Clay For Assignment

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The Phillies announced that left-hander Kent Emanuel has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. To create room on the 40-man roster, fellow lefty Sam Clay has been designated for assignment.

Drafted by the Twins in the fourth round in 2014, Clay eventually reached minor league free agency at the end of the 2020 season without ever getting selected to the big league team. However, the Nationals liked him enough that they gave him a major league deal a couple of weeks later.

The Nats were likely hoping for better results than they got, as Clay put up a 5.60 ERA over 45 MLB innings last year. That came with a 15.9% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate, both of those numbers being worse than typical averages and Clay’s own track record in the minors. He did continue inducing ground balls, though, getting them at a 60.1% rate.

This year, it’s been a mixed bag for the 29-year-old, as he has a bloated 10.38 ERA in the big leagues, but in a tiny sample of just 4 1/3 innings. In 20 1/3 Triple-A frames, it’s a 3.10 ERA with a 64.5% ground ball rate, 21.7% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate.

This is the second DFA for Clay in the past week, as he was just cut from Washington’s roster and claimed by the Phillies in recent days. The Phillies likely knew that Emanuel was nearing a return from the injured list, making it possible that they claimed Clay with the express purpose of trying to pass him through waivers and retaining his services but without him taking up a roster spot. Regardless of their intentions, they will have one week to work out a trade, pass Clay through waivers or release him.

Phillies To Sign Kyle Schwarber

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March 20: The Phillies have announced the signing, placing Kent Emanuel on the 60-day IL as a corresponding move. Emanuel went on the IL in June of last year with left elbow while with the Astros and never returned. Claimed by the Phillies in November, it seems he’s not close to being recovered, as the Phils announced that he has a left elbow impingement.

March 16, 11:06am: It’s a four-year, $79MM contract, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.

8:54am: Schwarber and the Phillies have agreed to a four-year deal with an annual value just shy of $20MM, tweets Jayson Stark of The Athletic.

8:31am: The Phillies have reached an agreement with Schwarber, pending a physical, tweets Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia.

8:21am: The Phillies are “making progress” on a deal with free-agent slugger Kyle Schwarber, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Schwarber had recently been linked to the Blue Jays, but Shi Davidi and Hazel Mae of Sportsnet reported a few minutes ago that the team had become “pessimistic” about its chances of signing Schwarber, believing he was likely to sign elsewhere.

Kyle Schwarber | Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Schwarber, 29, has been one of the most sought-after free agents on the market in the days since MLB’s lockout was lifted — thanks in no small part to the implementation of the universal designated hitter. The longtime Cubs left fielder was non-tendered by Chicago after the 2020 season but parlayed a one-year deal with the Nationals (and a subsequent trade to the Red Sox) into a surefire multi-year deal in his second foray into free agency.

While Schwarber got out to a lukewarm start with the Nats in 2021, he erupted with one of the most prodigious hot streaks in big league history in mid-June. From June 12-29, a span of just 18 games, Schwarber launched a staggering 16 home runs through just 77 plate appearances. That astonishing run was cut short by a hamstring strain that sidelined him for more than a month, but the Red Sox had no qualms about trading for Schwarber even while he was on the injured list.

The Boston front office was surely glad it did so, as Schwarber returned with that same thunder the moment he was activated from the injured list. In 168 plate appearances with the Red Sox down the stretch, he turned in a huge .291/.435/.522 slash with seven homers and 10 doubles as the Red Sox surged to an AL East division title. Schwarber clocked three more home runs during the postseason, including a now-iconic grand slam that keyed a Game 3 ALCS romp over the Astros, but his bat fell quiet thereafter, as he finished out the series in an 0-for-15 funk while the ’Stros came back to topple the Sox.

Slow start to the year notwithstanding, Schwarber hit .266/.374/.554 with a whopping 32 home runs in just 471 plate appearances during the regular season. Add in his postseason efforts, and Schwarber carries a .260/.365/.542 with 35 home runs in 520 plate appearances since the Cubs non-tendered him.

Signing with the Phillies will reunite Schwarber with former Nationals hitting coach Kevin Long, who left the Nats’ staff at season’s end and signed on for a reunion with manager Joe Girardi, under whom he’d previously coached with the Yankees. Long’s presence certainly couldn’t have hurt the Phillies’ efforts to sign Schwarber, and it’s of some note that he’ll now continue working with the same hitting coach who helped coax that career-altering run from him during the ’21 season.

Schwarber’s role with the Phillies depends, to an extent, on the remainder of the team’s moves. While he’ll probably spend some time in left field and at designated hitter regardless, the division of his workload between those two spots hinges on whether the Phils make another clear upgrade in the outfield. At the moment, the Phillies don’t have a clear, everyday option in left field. Bryce Harper is, of course, locked into right field, but the rest of the outfield remains in a state of flux. The Phils brought Odubel Herrera back on a one-year, $1.75MM deal, and he’s joined by Adam Haseley, Mickey Moniak and Luke Williams as outfield options on the roster. Suffice it to say, at least one more newly acquired bat seems likely to join Schwarber in the Opening Day lineup by the time all is said and done.

The scope of any further additions seems likely to be driven by the luxury tax. Phillies owner John Middleton has staunchly resisted exceeding the tax line in the past two seasons, and today’s addition of Schwarber will push the Phils to roughly $216-217MM in luxury obligations, depending on the specifics (hat tip to Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez). That’ll leave the Phils with somewhere in the vicinity of $13-14MM of breathing room to add at least one more outfielder and any other supplemental pieces the front office desires. Teams generally want to leave at least a few million dollars for in-season dealings, so it could be that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is dealing with a bit less than that projected $13-14MM.

Of course, additional trades or a simple change of heart with regard to Middleton’s luxury-tax aversion could change the calculus. Dombrowski made clear early in the offseason that shortstop Didi Gregorius would have to earn a starting job after a dismal showing in 2021, and he’s been listed as a speculative candidate to be moved in a change-of-scenery swap. The Phils could also try to dump the contract of outrighted utilityman Scott Kingery on another club as well, which would free up another $4MM in luxury space.

Barring any such trades or philosophical changes in ownership thinking, Dombrowski will be working with some notable financial limitations from here on out. That might mean a shift to the trade market or pursuing some smaller-scale free agents in hopes of securing a bargain. Time will tell just how the front office will proceed, but the addition of Schwarber to a lineup that ranked 15th in the Majors in home runs and 13th in runs scored will provide a notable jolt in production.

Phillies Claim Kent Emanuel From Astros, Select Three Players

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The Phillies announced Friday that they’ve claimed lefty Kent Emanuel off waivers from the Astros and selected the contracts of three minor leaguers: infielder Luis Garcia, outfielder Jhailyn Ortiz and righty James McArthur. The Phils now have 36 players on their 40-man roster, and all of today’s additions are protected from the Rule 5 Draft.

Emanuel, 29, is a 2013 third-rounder who’d pitched to a 2.55 ERA with a 13-to-4K / BB ratio through his first 17 2/3 MLB innings. However, I have underwent a primary repair surgery on his left elbow back in June and missed the remainder of the season. Based on past primary repair cases, Emanuel could be reacy early in the 2022 season. That Emanuel’s debut campaign came at age 28 is in part due to the fact that a previous Tommy John surgery wiped out a good chunk of his 2015-16 campaigns.

Emanuel has also missed time with an 80-game PED suspension, though he’s among the growing number of players to raise issue following a positive test of trace amounts of DHCMT (seven picograms, in his case). The Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond explored  the issue at length last year, and Emanuel himself posted an 11-minute video  on Instagram  discussing his bewilderment over the positive test. Many fans will be skeptical of any player claiming innocence following a positive PED test, but it’s certainly worth reading Diamond’s column and watching Emanuel’s video for those who didn’t track the story at the time.

Garcia, 21, ranked on the back end of Baseball America’s Top 100 list in the 2018-19 offseason but saw his stock crater after he posted a .516 OPS in 2019. After a lost minor league season in 2020, the switch-hitter bounced back to some extent in 2021, slashing .243/.353/.414 across two Class-A levels.

Ortiz was a headlining international signing by the Phillies back in 2015, landing a $4MM bonus on the strength of his plus raw power. Now 23 years of age, Ortiz slugged 19 long balls in just 303 plate appearances with Class-A Advanced before scuffling mightily in a tiny sample of 88 Double-A plate appearances. The Phils, not wanting to lose a slugger who’s received 70 grades on his raw power (on the 20-80 scale), will dedicate a 40-man spot to keep him.

McArthur, a 2018 12th-rounder, spent most of the season in Double-A, where he pitched to a 4.48 ERA with a 24.4% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 48.3% ground-ball rate. FanGraphs gives him a chance at three above-average pitches but feels there’s a good bit of work left to be done in terms of his command. With 78 innings of respectable Double-A work under his belt, McArthur could be in the mix for a big league look at some point in 2022, should injuries necessitate a dip into the upper levels of the farm system.

Astros Reinstate Kyle Tucker From Injured List

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The Astros announced they’ve activated outfielder Kyle Tucker from the COVID-19 injured list. Catcher Garrett Stubbs has been optioned to Triple-A Sugar Land in a corresponding move. To create 40-man roster space, Houston transferred left-hander Kent Emanuel from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.

Tucker went on the IL last week as a precautionary measure after feeling flu-like symptoms. Losing one of their top hitters could’ve been a blow to the Astros, but the team rolled along without him. Houston went 7-0 in Tucker’s absence (they’ve won nine straight overall). That’s not to say he isn’t an important part of the team. The 24-year-old has hit a very strong .268/.326/.506 with 13 home runs across 265 plate appearances, his third straight year of quality offensive production.

Emanuel underwent surgery to repair a torn UCL in his throwing elbow earlier this month. It wasn’t clear before he went under the knife if Emanuel would need a second career Tommy John surgery. It turns out he did not, as Brian McTaggart of MLB.com reported shortly after the procedure that Emanuel had undergone an “internal bracing surgical procedure” that carries a projected recovery timeline of nine months. He’ll miss the remainder of the 2021 season regardless, but the fact that he avoided Tommy John surgery obviously bodes well for him moving forward. The nine-month recovery timetable would seem to suggest Emanuel could be ready to participate in Spring Training next year, barring any setbacks.

Astros’ Kent Emanuel To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery

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Astros lefty Kent Emanuel announced on Instagram today that he’ll undergo season-ending surgery to repair an injury to the ulnar collateral ligament in his left elbow. The southpaw is not yet certain whether he’ll be undergoing Tommy John surgery or a primary repair procedure that comes with a shorter recovery period (but is only possible with a certain extent of tearing at a specific location on the ligament). As FOX 26’s Mark Berman explains (Twitter link), that’s because the determination won’t be made until the surgery is underway and the surgeons can get a closer look at the ligament.

Regardless of the exact nature of the surgery, Emanuel, who turns 29 tomorrow, won’t pitch again in 2021. It’s an abrupt end to a promising rookie campaign for the 2013 third-rounder, who’d pitched to a 2.55 ERA with a 13-to-4 K/BB ratio through his first 17 2/3 MLB innings.

That Emanuel’s debut campaign came at age 28 is in part due to the fact that’s he’s already endured one Tommy John procedure earlier in his career. That injury limited him to just 14 2/3 innings in 2015 and 84 2/3 frames the following season.

Emanuel has also missed time with an 80-game PED suspension, though he’s among the growing number of players to raise issue following a positive test of trace amounts of DHCMT (seven picograms, in his case). The Wall Street Journal’s Jared Diamond explored the issue at length back in August, and Emanuel himself posted an 11-minute video on Instagram discussing his bewilderment over the positive test. Many fans will be skeptical of any player claiming innocence following a positive PED test, but it’s certainly worth reading Diamond’s column and watching Emanuel’s video for those who didn’t track the story at the time.

Turning back to the present-day ramifications of the injury, Emanuel figures to eventually be moved to the 60-day injured list, where he’ll accrue a year of service time as he goes through the rehabilitation process. If he indeed requires a second Tommy John procedure, he’ll likely miss at least half of the 2022 season as well; a primary repair could potentially have him ready for 2022, though that is again dependent on the extent of the damage in his elbow. An exact timeline for rehabbing from that procedure is tougher to pin down, given the general lack of successful instances. Rich Hill is the most recent example of a pitcher to return after a primary repair, as he had the procedure in the 2019-20 offseason before eventually signing with the Twins.

For the Astros, they’ll be reduced to two left-handed bullpen options: Brooks Raley and Blake Taylor. To this point, neither has pitched well in 2021, with Raley sitting on a 6.95 ERA in 22 2/3 innings and Taylor having yielded five runs (four earned) in 5 1/3 frames of his own. Both southpaws played key roles in Houston’s 2020 bullpen and should have decent leashes as a result. Raley has punched out 30.6 of his opponents this year against just an 8.2 percent walk rate, but he’s been plagued by a historically fluky strand rate. That’s not an exaggeration, either; per FanGraphs, Raley’s 39 percent strand rate is the seventh-lowest single-season mark of any pitcher (min. 20 innings) since 1900.

Should Raley and/or Taylor continue to struggle, left-handed relief figures to be an area of focus for the ’Stros this summer on the trade market as they seek another postseason berth.

Astros’ Kent Emanuel Receives 80-Game PED Suspension

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Astros left-hander Kent Emanuel has been suspended 80 games after testing positive for the banned substance Dehydrochlormethyltestosterone (DHCMT), Major League Baseball announced today. Emanuel has yet to make his Major League debut but is on Houston’s 40-man roster. He’ll be placed on the restricted list for the remainder of the season, opening a 40-man spot for the ’Stros, who already had a rather depleted bullpen. The suspension goes into effect today.

Kent, via an MLBPA statement, claims that he does not know how “7 picograms of the long-term metabolite of DHCMT” got into his system, adding that he’s never knowingly taken the substance in question.

The 28-year-old Kent spent the 2019 season with Houston’s Triple-A club in Round Rock, where he tallied 101 2/3 innings of 3.90 ERA ball with 7.2 K/9, 2.0 BB/9, 0.80 HR/9 and a 57 percent ground-ball rate. He was not in the club’s 60-man player pool — perhaps due to the fact that he was in the process of appealing this suspension. (Most positive tests come well before the league announces a suspension, and the appeals process can be rather lengthy.) The Astros now have 39 players on their 40-man roster.

Astros Select Kent Emanuel, Decline Option Over Chris Devenski

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The Astros announced today that they have selected the contract of lefty Kent Emanuel. That move will prevent him from reaching minor-league free agency.

The Houston organization also declined a $2.825MM club option over righty Chris Devenski. But that does not mean he’ll necessarily be lost to the open market. Devenski remains eligible for arbitration and projects to earn $2.0MM through that process.

Set to turn 29 later this month, Devenski’s not far removed from a tremendous run in Houston’s bullpen. He looked like an elite reliever at times from 2017-18, the first of which was a championship season for the Astros, but has come to earth over the past two years. Devenski’s now coming off a season in which he logged a pedestrian 4.83 ERA/4.62 FIP with 9.39 K/9, 2.74 BB/9 and a 32.7 percent groundball rate over 69 innings. He then wasn’t much of a factor in the Astros’ run to a World Series berth, as they left him off their ALDS and ALCS rosters. While Devenski did pitch in the team’s World Series loss to Washington, he allowed three earned runs in as many innings.

Emanuel, 27, is a former North Carolina Tar Heel who joined the Astros as a third-round pick back in 2013. The left-hander has grades as one of Baseball America’s top 30 Astros prospects on multiple occasions in the past, though he hasn’t gotten to the bigs yet. Emmanuel is on the heels of his best Triple-A campaign, however, as he notched a 3.90 ERA/4.09 FIP with 7.17 K/9, 2.04 BB/9 and a terrific 57 percent grounder rate over 101 2/3 innings.

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