Luke Gregerson, Tony Sipp Hope To Pitch In 2020
Relievers Luke Gregerson and Tony Sipp sat out for large portions of the 2019 season, but that doesn’t mean either veteran is ready to call it quits. Gregerson and Sipp hope to land contracts heading into 2020, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports.
The 35-year-old Gregerson has been especially good since he debuted in the majors in 2009, as his lifetime 3.15 ERA helps illustrate. But injuries have played a key part in stalling the right-hander’s career during the past couple seasons. Gregerson signed a two-year, $11MM contract with the Cardinals entering 2018 and then combined for 18 1/3 innings of 7.36 ERA ball over parts of two seasons limited by hamstring and shoulder issues. The Cardinals released Gregerson back in May, and he hasn’t caught on elsewhere since.
Sipp, 36, had a better 2019 than Gregerson, but that may be not be saying a lot. The Nationals decided in August to cut Sipp, whom they signed to a $1.25MM guarantee going into the season. In the club’s estimation, Sipp wasn’t part of the solution in what was then a maligned bullpen. Of course, the Nats and their relief corps went on to win the World Series two-plus months later without Sipp, who turned in 21 innings of 4.71 ERA/3.55 FIP ball with 7.71 K/9 and 3.86 BB/9.
As has been the case for most of his career, the left-handed Sipp was similarly effective against same- and right-handed hitters alike in 2019. The fact that Sipp has been passable against both could help his cause in trying to secure a contract, as MLB will be going to a three-batter minimum rule in 2020 that should make it especially difficult for lefties who struggle versus righties to find work.
Cardinals Release Luke Gregerson
The Cardinals announced Monday that they’ve requested unconditional release waivers on right-hander Luke Gregerson. He’ll become a free agent once he (presumably) clears waivers in 48 hours. Gregerson was previously designated for assignment Friday evening.
Gregerson, 35, signed a two-year, $11MM contract with the Cardinals in a 2017-18 offseason during which the bullpen was a major focus. Gregerson joined Greg Holland and Dominic Leone as fresh faces brought into the St. Louis relief corps that winter, but none of the three proved to be a viable contributor for the Cards.
Gregerson is being paid $5MM in 2019 and is still owed about $3.575MM of that sum plus a $1MM buyout on an option for the 2020 season. Given that salary and his struggles since signing in St. Louis, he’ll almost certainly go unclaimed and then become a free agent who can sign with any club for the prorated league minimum through season’s end. The Cardinals would then see that sum subtracted from their own obligation to Gregerson through season’s end.
A hamstring strain and a shoulder impingement limited Gregerson to just 12 2/3 innings in 2018, and those shoulder troubles lingered into the 2019 campaign. He missed the first month-plus of the season due to that shoulder, and the effects may well have impacted him upon his return. While he’s never been a hard thrower, Gregerson found success with the Padres and Astros with a fastball that averaged around 89.5 mph; however, his heater averaged just 87.8 mph in 2018 and 86.7 mph in this season’s even more limited sample.
Gregerson was designated for assignment just 13 days after being activated from the injured list. In all, Gregerson will throw only 18 1/3 innings at the MLB level as a Cardinal. In that time, he posted a 7.36 ERA with a 14-to-7 K/BB ratio and 25 hits allowed (including a pair of homers). That said, he has a solid track record as a setup man and occasional closer. In 599 career innings prior to signing with the Cardinals, Gregerson owned a 3.02 ERA with 9.1 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 0.8 HR/9 and a 51 percent ground-ball rate.
Cardinals Designate Luke Gregerson, Option Dominic Leone
The Cardinals have designated veteran reliever Luke Gregerson for assignment, per a club announcement. Fellow right-hander Dominic Leone was optioned down to create another active roster spot.
Those moves will clear the way for two other hurlers. The club has activated righty Carlos Martinez, who was expected to be brought back in a relief capacity this weekend after opening the year on the injured list due to shoulder issues. It has also called up righty Ryan Helsley.
Gregerson, who recently turned 35, is one of several recent free-agent bullpen additions that hasn’t worked out for the Cards. He has allowed 7.36 earned runs per nine in his 18 1/3 innings with the club since the start of 2018, a disappointing turn for a long-excellent hurler.
Injuries have taken a toll, with Gregerson’s stuff suffering. Since returning this year after undergoing knee surgery in 2018, he has shown a notable velocity decline and managed only a 4.8% swinging-strike rate — less than a third his career average of 15.0%.
The Cards will eat the remainder of the money owed to Gregerson, including the balance of his $5MM salary this season and a $1MM buyout. The deal included a club/vesting option for 2020.
Leone has also been a frustrating piece for the Cards since coming over via trade in advance of the ’18 campaign. He’s carrying 11.4 K/9 in the early going but has also dished out 4.6 free passes and surrendered 2.1 home runs per nine innings. Through 21 1/3 frames, Leone has been tagged for 19 earned runs.
The Cardinals will continue to pay Leon’s $1.26MM salary. He only just tallied enough MLB service to push into the 4+ service class, so the timing of his (hopeful) return to the majors won’t impact his arb status. But it certainly will play a significant role in what he can command via arbitration and whether he’s tendered a contract this fall.
Cardinals Planning To Activate Luke Gregerson, Send Tyler O’Neill To Triple-A,
The Cardinals plan to send Tyler O’Neill to Triple-A where he can get more regular playing time. Luke Gregerson – whose rehab time ended on Friday – will join the big league club, per MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch (via Twitter).
As Gregerson’s rehab time ran out, the Cardinals had to either add him to the major league roster or risk losing him. Giovanny Gallegos has an option remaining, but he has proven a valuable piece in the Cards pen, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Through ten appearances, Gallegos, 27, struck out a whopping 15.4 batters per nine innings with a 3.86 ERA. The bullpen only figures to get more crowded moving forward as Carlos Martinez prepares to begin a rehab stint with Low-A Peoria on Sunday.
Gregerson, who turns 35-years-old on May 14th, was a stud pen arm from 2009-2016 with an even 33-33 record and 2.84 ERA across 558 games for the Padres, A’s, and Astros. But he was lit up to the tune of a 7.11 ERA over 17 appearances for the Cards in 2018 before hitting the injured list in May and undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery in June. Prior to 2018, the Cardinals signed Gregerson to a two-year, $10MM contract with a vesting option for 2020 that is all but moot at this point. He would need to appear in 60 games from here on out for his $6MM option to vest.
O’Neill, 23, has shown significant power potential, but playing time has been sparse. He has seen only five starts despite appearing in 21 games overall. Serving mostly as a pinch-hitter, O’Neill has slashed .263/.282/.395. He hasn’t yet displayed the power that is a hallmark of his game, but he also has yet to play a full game on back-to-back days. Marcell Ozuna, Harrison Bader, and Jose Martinez are off to great starts this year, as is veteran Dexter Fowler, reducing O’Neill’s role to that of fifth outfielder/pinch-hitter.
NL Notes: Rockies, Cardinals, Ozuna, Gregerson, Braves
The latest from the National League . . .
- Following Thursday’s departure of reliever Adam Ottavino to New York, the Denver Post’s Patrick Saunders spoke with GM Jeff Bridich about the state of affairs in the team’s bullpen. On the heels of last offseason’s months-long reliever binge, which saw the club devote nearly a third of its payroll space to the most fickle asset in the game, Colorado apparently couldn’t save room for dessert. The club didn’t offer Ottavino a contract, preferring instead to take its chances with the current crop: “We need last year’s decisions to pitch better than they did in 2018,” said Bridich. “It’s not a lack of talent or a sudden inability to perform well. But they need to do a better job.” Bryan Shaw, Mike Dunn, and Jake McGee, though, did exhibit a sudden inability to perform well, as the trio combined for an ugly -0.7 fWAR in 118 combined IP. Wade Davis, too, was hardly himself in ’18, stranding just 66.9% of baserunners – down from an MLB-best 87.5% from 2014-17 – en route to his lowest career output. Scott Oberg, who began the year in AAA despite being arguably being the team’s most effective pre-spree reliever, again paced the returning bunch, limiting homers at an elite rate and continuing to maintain a stellar walk rate.
- President of baseball operations John Mozeliak provided injury updates on two key Cardinals during a Saturday chat with Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Outfielder Marcell Ozuna, who was bothered all season by a nagging shoulder injury that ultimately required surgery, hasn’t yet begun throwing, and the club “isn’t sure” if he’s taken hacks in the cage, either. Ozuna has spurned treatment at the club’s spring facility in favor of offseason rehab in his native Dominican Republic, which Mozeliak deemed “not ideal,” but the 28-year-old outfielder, who heavily regressed toward his established mean last season after a breakout 2017, has expressed no reservations about his outlook for the upcoming season. Reliever Luke Gregerson, who was limited to just 12 1/3 IP last season after a shoulder injury of his own, “hasn’t felt right” in offseason workouts, and the club isn’t anticipating much from him in Spring Training. The soon-to-be 35-year-old Gregerson has endured one of the game’s heaviest reliever workloads since debuting in 2009, accruing a staggering 611 IP over that span, and appearing in an MLB-high 623 games from 2009-17.
- Per GM Alex Anthopoulos (h/t to the Atlanta Journal Constitution’s Gabe Burns on Twitter), the Braves have made an outfield acquisition their top priority at current, and a move “may be resolved soon.” The club, of course, has been linked to still-available A.J. Pollock (who would cost the team a second-round draft pick if signed) and the recently-departed Nick Markakis to fill its vacancy at one outfield spot. With an overflow of starting pitching talent in the upper minors, the team seems better positioned than almost any to fill its hole via trade, but has thus far shown little interest in doing so. The Blue Jay version of Anthopoulos was an ardent mover of minor-league assets, shuffling talent in all directions when circumstances dictated, but has been far more cautious in his short time with Atlanta. With a still-unsettled rotation mix, perhaps this strategy is prudent, but distancing his club from the ravenous NL East pack will almost surely require a return to old ways for the young Braves GM.
Cardinals Select Patrick Wisdom’s Contract
The Cardinals announced that they’ve selected third baseman Patrick Wisdom‘s contract from Triple-A Memphis. He’ll take the place of infielder Yairo Munoz on the Cardinals’ 25-man roster. Munoz landed on the 10-day disabled list with a right wrist sprain. To make room for Wisdom on its 40-man roster, St. Louis transferred reliever Luke Gregerson to the 60-day DL.
The 26-year-old Wisdom, whom the Cardinals chose in the first round (No. 52) of the 2012 draft, is finally in position to make his major league debut. Wisdom had been among the Redbirds’ top prospects in the few seasons after they drafted him, but his production and stock fell as he climbed the minor league ranks. To Wisdom’s credit, though, he mashed 31 home runs at Triple-A last season and returned this year to hit a solid .289/.363/.479 (119 wRC+) with 14 HRs in 405 trips to the plate en route to his first MLB promotion.
Cardinals Notes: Pham, Leone, Gregerson, Gomber, Martinez
The Cardinals’ decision to send Tommy Pham to the Rays caused quite some eyebrow raising among rival executives, according to Jayson Stark of The Athletic. (Stark also ran down a host of other interesting items heading out of the deadline in a subscription piece.) Some around the game see it tied to the fact that, after a lengthy run of success, the Cards are increasingly in flux. Pham had seemed a core piece as recently as this past winter, when the team dealt away other young outfielders, but is now the latest player on the move. The St. Louis club is still two games over .500, has plenty of controllable talent, and isn’t even out of the 2018 postseason picture. But one rival questions whether the organization has “a real understanding of where they are within their process.”
- One of those recent outfield swaps brought the Cardinals reliever Dominic Leone, who worked his first rehab outing for Triple-A Memphis yesterday, striking out two batters in an inning of work. That’s good news for the right-hander, who has been sidelined for much of the year with a biceps nerve problem. He’s still controllable through 2021, so the Cards have time to reap value from the 26-year-old.
- Meanwhile, it’s possible that veteran reliever Luke Gregerson won’t return to the majors this year, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch recently tweeted. Gregerson was sidelined with a shoulder injury when he suffered a torn meniscus that required surgery. The 34-year-old, who inked a two-year, $11MM pact with St. Louis over the winter, has only thrown 12 2/3 frames for the club this season. He allowed ten earned runs in that span, but more worryingly showed some other declines. Gregerson was working at about 1.5 mph less with his average heater than in 2017 while sporting a 12.6% swinging-strike rate that’s well off of his recent levels.
- In other pitching news, the organization has decided to bump rookie Austin Gomber into the rotation to take the place of Carlos Martinez, who just headed back onto the DL, per MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch (via Twitter). The 24-year-old Gomber has thrown 22 1/3 innings of 3.22 ERA ball this year in the majors, though his peripherals (7.3 K/9, 4.4 BB/9, 33.3% groundball rate) aren’t quite so promising. As Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch notes on Twitter, the organization could soon face an “innings crisis” if it can’t get lengthier outings from its young arms while several veterans work back from the DL. Fortunately, as Langosch recently reported, there is some continued optimism that Martinez won’t require a lengthy absence, though it remains concerning that he has suffered a string of problems in his shoulder and back.
Luke Gregerson Undergoes Arthroscopic Knee Surgery
Cardinals reliever Luke Gregerson is already on the disabled list due to an impingement in his right shoulder, but MLB.com’s Joe Trezza tweets that Gregerson also had arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn right meniscus yesterday. He’ll be out for at least an additional four to six weeks following that procedure.
Signed to a two-year, $11MM contract this offseason, Gregerson has been limited to just 8 1/3 innings so far in 2018. He’s been hit hard in that time, yielding eight runs on eight hits (two homers) and three walks with eight strikeouts.
While he’s never been a flamethrower, Gregerson’s average fastball was sitting at just 87.8 mph in his limited 2018 sample — a decrease of nearly two miles per hour from last season’s average of 89.5 mph. To his credit, Gregerson’s 16.7 percent swinging-strike rate was actually the second-best mark of his career, and his 60.9 percent ground-ball rate remained considerably ahead of the league average for relievers (43.3 percent).
[Related: St. Louis Cardinals depth chart]
Gregerson is one of several Cards relievers on the shelf, joining Matt Bowman, Greg Holland, Dominic Leone and Tyler Lyons. In his absence, the Cards have leaned heavily on surprise closer Bud Norris. Young flamethrower Jordan Hicks has been the most highly used piece of a largely unproven collection of arms that have been utilized in high-leverage spots, with John Brebbia, Mike Mayers and Sam Tuivailala all being asked to pick up meaningful innings (and performing quite well in the process).
Cardinals Place Luke Gregerson On DL; Carlos Martinez Headed For MRI
The Cardinals have placed righty Luke Gregerson on the 10-day DL with a right shoulder impingement, the team announced. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by John Brebbia.
Meanwhile, starter Carlos Martinez — who has been on the shelf since May 10th — is headed for an MRI to further assess the injury, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets. Martinez won’t return when he’s eligible to be activated, then, but we likely won’t learn more about his anticipated timeline until his imaging is read.
It’s not clear just how concerning the shoulder condition is. That broad description has resulted in brief DL stints or much more significant problems, so it’s hard to make much of it without more information. Notably, though, MLB.com’s Joe Trezza adds on Twitter that Gregerson has also dealt with some elbow soreness, adding to the universe of concerns.
The 34-year-old Gregerson has had some stumbles to start his tenure in St. Louis. Since returning from a hamstring injury, he has thrown only 8 1/3 innings in a dozen appearances, allowing eight earned runs on eight hits (two for home runs) and three walks. He has recorded a typically useful tally of eight strikeouts and 14 groundballs, however, and despite a bit of velocity loss is still maintaining a strong 16.7% swinging-strike rate.
All told, then, it still seems there’s reason for optimism regarding Gregerson’s ability to contribute this year — so long as he’s able to get back to full health. The Cards owe him $11MM over a two-year term, including a buyout on an option for 2020. While there’s still quite a lot of pitching talent at and near the MLB level for the St. Louis organization, the team is stretched a bit with Gregerson joining Martinez and Adam Wainwright on ice. Fortunately, high-octane youngster Alex Reyes is not only nearing a return from Tommy John surgery, but has opened eyes with his early rehab showing.
NL Notes: Blackmon, Gyorko, Gregerson, Glasnow, Hellickson
Though recently-extended Rockies slugger Charlie Blackmon is a star outfielder, he spent his early career trying to make it as a pitcher. Kyle Newman of the Denver Post details Blackmon’s story, beginning with his high school tenure in Atlanta. After struggling to gain any significant attention early on, Blackmon began experiencing arm troubles in his junior year at Georgia Tech. The following season, however, saw him excel as a hitter en route to being drafted by the Rockies. He’s now set to earn nine figures throughout the course of his MLB career. There are some insightful quotes and tidbits in Newman’s article, including this quote from manager Walt Weiss: “I didn’t foresee the power — he’s made some adjustments, and there’s lightning in the bat now because his power numbers are pretty amazing considering the type of player he was when he broke in.”
More from around the National League…
- The Cardinals have a pair of players set to return soon in Jedd Gyorko and Luke Gregerson, as Joe Trezza of MLB.com reminds us. In fact, both could come off the DL as early as this coming week. Trezza adds that Gyorko’s situation will complicate the infield alignment in St. Louis, as he could sap some playing time from either Kolten Wong or Matt Carpenter (both of whom are currently ice cold at the plate). Gregerson has thrown four scoreless rehab appearances; he began the season on the DL with a hamstring strain.
- Tyler Glasnow‘s first season in relief has yielded good results so far for the Pirates, writes Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The fireballing righty has allowed just a run across six innings in his first three appearances, in part due to an increase in his spin rate. Brink notes that he’s averaged 2,859 revolutions per minute on his curveball, a mark that’s presently 12th in all of MLB. Glasnow’s also increased his average fastball velocity to 96 MPH. “He’s a little bit more free at ease out there on the mound and being himself,” said Ray Searage, renowned pitching coach for the Pirates. “When you have confidence in yourself and try to execute at the best of your ability, you’re going to be more free and easy.”
- Jeremy Hellickson will officially start for the Nationals tomorrow, Dan Kolko of MASN reports on Twitter. That falls in line with earlier reports that suggested the possibility. Nats fans are surely glad to see anyone but A.J. Cole, who sports a 12.00 ERA through two starts so far this season. There’s a $2MM salary to gain for Hellickson if he sticks in the rotation, as the terms of his minors pact with the club dictate.