Athletics Designate Jaff Decker
The Athletics have designated outfielder Jaff Decker for assignment, per a club announcement. Oakland has recalled infielder/outfielder Mark Canha to take his place on the active roster.
Decker, 27, had earned his most extensive MLB opportunity to open the year, receiving 62 plate appearances over 17 games of action. But he has slashed just .200/.322/.260 in that span, continuing a run of rough but brief showings in the majors.
That’s not to say that clubs can’t anticipate somewhat more out of Decker moving forward. The former top-100 prospect is a .269/.370/.410 hitter in five seasons at the Triple-A level.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/15/17
Today’s minor moves from throughout the game:
- The Rockies have signed left-hander Steve Ascher to a minor league contract. The 23-year-old was previously with the Rays, who selected him in the 17th round of the 2014 draft. Ascher has spent most of his professional career at the Single-A level, though he did ascend to Double-A last season. In 46 innings, Ascher logged a 4.30 ERA, 7.04 K/9 and 3.52 BB/9.
- The Athletics have announced that they’ve selected the contract of outfielder Jaff Decker. To clear roster space, they’ve optioned outfielder Mark Canha to Triple-A Nashville and placed outfielder Jake Smolinski (shoulder) on the 60-day DL. Canha was off to a poor .105/.150/.158 start in 2017 after missing much of 2016 to a hip injury, and Decker (who has had prior cups of coffee with the Padres, Pirates and Rays) was batting .387/.472/.452 for Nashville.
- Astros righty Lupe Chavez has retired, as Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle notes. The Astros acquired the 19-year-old Chavez last August when they traded Scott Feldman to Toronto. Chavez had never pitched above the short-season leagues but had generally been successful, with a 2.19 ERA, 8.4 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 over 107 career innings. The reason for his somewhat surprising decision to retire isn’t known.
Jerry Dipoto, David Forst On Danny Valencia Trade
The Mariners’ acquisition of utilityman Danny Valencia from the Athletics in exchange for right-hander Paul Blackburn is likely to end the Seattle tenures of two free agents – first baseman Dae-ho Lee and outfielder Franklin Gutierrez – general manager Jerry Dipoto revealed Saturday (via Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune).
“There’s very little likelihood that both (Valencia and Lee) will fit on the same roster,” Dipoto said. “I (also) don’t think we have to go out and focus on getting a right-handed-hitting outfielder just to have one.”
Valencia expects his role with the Mariners will be “to play first base, probably some right field,” which would make both Lee and Gutierrez superfluous to the club. All three are right-handed hitters, and barring more moves, Valencia is a strong candidate to complement lefty-swingers Dan Vogelbach at first base (previously Lee’s role with now-free agent Adam Lind) and Seth Smith in the outfield (fomerly Gutierrez’s job). Valencia seems likely to see most of his action at first, as Dipoto said Saturday that August acquisition Ben Gamel is slated to start in one outfield corner and Nelson Cruz and Guillermo Heredia will join Valencia in platooning with Smith. However, given that it’s so early in the offseason, Dipoto unsurprisingly isn’t ruling out further acquisitions.
“If we see a good fit, or the ability to go acquire a player who makes us better, we’re not going to hesitate. Valencia’s flexibility allows that,” he commented.
Mark Canha To Undergo Season-Ending Hip Surgery
Athletics first baseman/outfielder Mark Canha will undergo season-ending surgery to repair an impingement in his left hip, he told the media today (links to Twitter via Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle and via John Hickey of the Bay Area News Group). Canha tells reporters that his season is over, as he’ll have a recovery timeline of roughly six months following the operation.
Canha, 27, was a Rule 5 success story for Oakland last season. The Rockies were the club to actually select Canha in the 2014 Rule 5 Draft, but the Rox promptly traded him to Oakland in exchange for minor leaguer Austin House and cash considerations. The A’s carried Canha on the active roster all throughout the 2015 season and were rewarded with 485 plate appearances of a .254/.315/.426 batting line and 16 homers. However, the 2016 season has been another story entirely, due largely to the hip problems, which Canha has previously called a source of “excruciating” pain while batting. He was said late last week to be weighing this operation and made his decision after receiving a second opinion on the injury yesterday. Hickey tweets that the procedure will be performed next Tuesday.
Canha will presumably spend the bulk of the season on the 60-day disabled list for Oakland, where he’ll accrue Major League service time. Because he made his MLB debut on Opening Day last season and spent the entire year on the roster, he’ll finish the 2016 campaign with an even two years of service. That means he’ll be controllable through the 2020 season and will not be eligible for arbitration until the 2017-18 offseason.
Injury Notes: Canha, Boxberger, Norris, Cashner, Brantley, Gallardo, Travis, Chirinos
Athletics first baseman/outfielder Mark Canha is weighing surgery to repair a hip impingement, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Undergoing the procedure would keep him out the rest of the way, per the report, but he’s still undecided and will seek a second opinion. It seems that he’ll at least try out a cortisone shot before going under the knife. The 27-year-old had a strong 2015 season, sticking as a Rule 5 pick, but has come out of the gates with a meager .122/.140/.341 slash in 44 plate appearances in 2016.
Here are some more injury updates from around the game that are worthy of note:
- Rays closer Brad Boxberger, who is on the mend from core muscle surgery dating back to Spring Training, threw 22 pitches in an extended Spring Training game yesterday, writes Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. If Boxberger feels good today, he’ll likely begin a rehab assignment early next week (possibly Monday) with an eye toward returning late in the month of May. Boxberger led the American League with 41 saves in 2015 and would immediately deepen a bullpen that ranks 10th in the Majors in ERA but carries a more troubling ranking of 25th in the FIP department.
- The Padres had originally planned to carry three catchers for a short time following the claim of Hector Sanchez, but a hand injury to Derek Norris last night now makes the decision to claim Sanchez all the more critical, writes Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Norris was hit on the hand by a pitch and would ultimately leave the game, and while initial x-rays were negative, he’s undergoing further tests today. Interestingly, Lin notes that the Sanchez claim, initially, would’ve allowed the Padres to use Christian Bethancourt as a pinch-hitter, and there was even some talk of him getting some work in at third base (scouting reports have long touted his arm as an 80-grade tool). However, if Norris is found to have any kind of fracture and will miss some time, those plans will change.
- Meanwhile, the Padres decided to put righty Andrew Cashner on the 15-day DL today after determining that his hamstring wasn’t quite ready to go, as Lin tweets. It certainly doesn’t appear to be a major injury, since Cashner very nearly was allowed to pitch tonight, but it’s nonetheless notable. After all, San Diego doesn’t appear to be primed to contend this year, and Cashner could be an important trade piece — or qualifying offer recipient, if he can really turn things around. But he’s currently allowing just under five earned runs per nine, with ERA estimators not much more optimistic.
- Michael Brantley‘s surgically repaired shoulder is fatigued, reports Cleveland.com’s Zack Meisel, which prompted the Indians to rest him on Tuesday and Wednesday in advance of yesterday’s off-day. Brantley will take batting practice today and be re-evaluated. Per Meisel, Brantley’s shoulder has not been “bouncing back in ideal fashion” following an increase in playing time for the team’s star player. Brantley underwent shoulder surgery over the winter, and while earlier projections had him possibly remaining on the disabled list well into May, he instead beat that timeline by a good margin and was in the Indians’ lineup in late April.
- Orioles righty Yovani Gallardo is set to begin throwing again tomorrow, Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports on Twitter. It’s been a three-week gap since he last picked up a baseball, and Gallardo is only expected to engage in a light toss. His timeline to return to action from a shoulder injury remains uncertain, with at least a couple rehab outings seemingly in his future even if things go well.
- The Blue Jays, meanwhile, now have reason to believe that second baseman Devon Travis will soon be back. Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca tweets that Travis is heading out on a rehab assignment, which will begin a maximum twenty-day stretch in the minors. So long as Travis progresses, he ought to be back in Toronto by early June, it would appear. The 25-year-old burst onto the scene early last year, but he hasn’t played since late July after undergoing a procedure on his left shoulder.
- Likewise, Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos has been able to throw for each of the last five days, Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets. That’s certainly promising, given that he’s recovering from a broken right forearm. Chirinos won’t be eligible to come off of the 60-day DL until June 9th, but Texas would surely like to get him back as close to that date as possible.
Injury Notes: Young, Peralta, Canha, Hendriks
Royals right-hander Chris Young is leaving the team to travel back to Kansas City, where he’ll receive an MRI on his right forearm, tweets MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan. Via Flanagan (link), Young says that he’s felt some soreness in his forearm since Spring Training ended. However, he adds that the club’s medical staff has informed him that the “serious stuff checks out OK,” though it remains to be seen what the MRI will reveal. Young’s fastball velocity is actually up from previous seasons, but the increased zip hasn’t done him any favors; the 6’10” righty has been roughed up to the tune of a 6.68 ERA in 32 1/3 innings this season and has been astonishingly homer-prone, serving up 13 long balls in that time.
A couple more injury situations around the league that merit keeping an eye on…
- Diamondbacks outfielder David Peralta is meeting with hand specialist Dr. Don Sheridan in Phoenix on Thursday this week, he tell Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link). Peralta was hit by a pitch on the right wrist/forearm area last week and was out of Arizona’s lineup both Sunday and Monday, though he did pinch-hit in Sunday’s contest. He’s out of the lineup again tonight, Piecoro notes, and it seems reasonable to expect that he’ll be sidelined at least until he meets with Sheridan later this week. The 28-year-old indy league reclamation has been a revelation with the D-backs since first working his way onto the big league club in 2014, hitting a combined .295/.347/.485 in 999 plate appearances. This season, he’s batting .260/.321/.439 with three homers.
- Athletics first baseman/outfielder Mark Canha is heading back to the Bay Area tomorrow and will undergo an MRI on his left hip, reports Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. Canha says he feels fine when running, but hitting is currently “excruciating,” adding that he can’t get any rotation in his hips and as such cannot swing very hard at the moment. “You don’t want to hope for something bad like a labrum tear to come up but at the same time, I want an answer about what’s wrong so we can pinpoint the problem,” said the 27-year-old. Canha has gotten off to a dreadful start to the season, hitting .122/.140/.341 in 44 plate appearances , though the hip troubles certainly help to explain the downturn in his productivity. He was placed on the disabled list today.
- MLB.com’s Jane Lee writes that right-hander Liam Hendriks, also placed on the DL by the Athletics today, will receive an MRI on his right elbow as well. Hendriks explained that he’s having difficulty getting full extension on his arm and has periodically experienced pain in the elbow since undergoing surgery to remove bone chips a few years ago.