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Matt Adams Signs With American Association’s Kansas City Monarchs

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The Kansas City Monarchs of the independent American Association announced yesterday they’ve signed first baseman Matt Adams. “We are very excited to have Matt as a part of our ball club for the 2022 season,” Monarchs manager Joe Calfapietra said as part of the team’s press release. “His ability, experience and presence is going to be extremely valuable to our organization.  We are anxious to get started toward taking the steps to reach our 2022 goals.”

Adams released a statement of his own, via the team. “I am very excited to play in Kansas City – what drew my interest in the Monarchs was that Kansas City is a great sports town close to my home with great fans and the level of baseball the Monarchs play is top level. …  I wanted to continue to play the game I love and show that I can still be an impactful big-league player and get back to a major league club.”

Now 33 years old, Adams has appeared at the MLB level in each of the past ten seasons. The bulk of that time was spent with the Cardinals, where he emerged as a fairly regular option at first base between 2013-16. Adams had an excellent .284/.335/.503 showing in 319 plate appearances in 2013, and he topped 20 homers as a part-time player every year between 2017-19 with the Cards, Braves and Nationals.

Adams has seen sporadic big league time with Atlanta in 2020 and the Rockies last season. He didn’t produce in very brief looks with either team, and he didn’t catch on with an affiliated club after being released by Colorado in July. Nevertheless, Adams owns a slightly above-average .258/.306/.463 slash in more than 2500 MLB plate appearances, serving primarily as a power bat against right-handed pitching. He’ll try to earn a return to the affiliated ranks with a strong showing in the American Association.

Rockies Release Matt Adams

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The Rockies announced Tuesday that they’ve released veteran first baseman Matt Adams. His spot on the roster will go to infielder Rio Ruiz, who has been recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque.

Adams, 32, appeared in 22 games with the Rox but was deployed largely as a pinch-hitter. He’s posted a .167/.250/.194 batting line in 40 plate appearances this season and had accumulated just five plate appearances since coming off the injured list 17 days ago.

Adams slugged 20 home runs with the 2019 Nationals but did so with a .226 batting average and a .276 on-base percentage. His last season of above-average overall production came back in 2018, when he slashed .239/.309/.477 with a career-high 21 homers. Overall, Adams is a .258/.306/.463 hitter in more than 2600 Major League plate appearances. Nearly all the damage he’s done has come against right-handed pitching, as lefties have carved him up to the tune of a .210/.241/.378 slash line.

Ruiz, 27, was a waiver pickup out of the Orioles organization in late May. Baltimore designated him for assignment after he’d struggled to a .220/.292/.380 batting line across multiple auditions from 2019-21. While he obviously wasn’t able to establish himself with the O’s, Ruiz has batted .314/.375/.523 (118 wRC+) in a hitter-friendly Albuquerque setting. The Rockies are surely encouraged by a tiny 14.1 percent strikeout rate in that time and will give him a look moving forward.

Adams’ release figures to be the first of multiple personnel changes on the Rockies’ roster this week. Colorado is widely expected to trade away some impending free agents, with Jon Gray, Trevor Story, Mychal Givens, C.J. Cron and Daniel Bard among the possible trade candidates on the roster.

Rockies Place Trevor Story On 10-Day Injured List, Reinstate Matt Adams

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The Rockies have placed shortstop Trevor Story on the 10-day injured list with right elbow inflammation, retroactive to yesterday. Matt Adams has been reinstated from the injured list to take his roster spot, per the team.

Story’s health will now be a top article for the Rockies moving forward. This is an injury he dealt with back in 2018, notes Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. There’s plenty of time to get him back into the lineup to prove his health before peak trade season, however. The Rockies, of course, have to consider their trade options for Story, a free agent at the end of the season. His numbers are down a touch thus far with a triple slash line of .255/.322/.424 through 205 plate appearances, though there would still be plenty of interest should the Rockies ultimately decide to deal their franchise player. In the meantime, Brendan Rodgers steps in at short in what could prove to be an audition for the role in the long-term.

Adams, 32, returns to his role primarily as a bopper off the bench. “Big City” hasn’t had much opportunity since slugging 20 home runs for the World Champion Nationals in 2019. He has stepped to the plate just 72 times between this year and last for the Braves and Rockies, respectively. In total, Adams has just two long balls in that span with a .162/.208/.279 slash line.

Lucas Gilbreath has also been recalled to serve as the 27th man for today’s doubleheader, notes Fangraphs’ Roster Resource architect Jason Martinez. The 25-year-old southpaw has an 8.59 ERA over 7 1/3 innings this season, the first Major League action of his career.

Rockies Select Matt Adams, Designate Ashton Goudeau

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The Rockies announced that they have selected first baseman Matt Adams, designated right-hander Ashton Goudeau for assignment and optioned outfielder Sam Hilliard.

The 32-year-old Adams joined the Rockies on a minor league last month, which came after he posted career-worst production with the Braves in 2020. Adams hit .184/.216/.347 over 51 plate appearances with Atlanta, causing the team to release him in early September. It was the second straight down year for Adams, who struggled with the Nationals in 2019.

While his most recent output has been poor, the well-traveled Adams has enjoyed a few solid seasons in the majors. The left-hander has logged four seasons with a wRC+ north of 100, including a personal-high 135 (.284/.335/.503) in 2017 with the Cardinals, and has hit 20 or more home runs on three occasions. Overall, Adams has batted .259/.367/.467 (106 wRC+) in 2,574 trips to the plate in the majors.

Now that he’s returning to the bigs, Adams will serve as a bench bat for Colorado, whose offense ranks dead last in the majors in wRC+ (77). He’ll give the team some depth at first base behind C.J. Cron, the Rockies’ most productive hitter this year.

The past several months have been quite an adventure for Goudeau, whom the Rockies previously designated for assignment last November. The Pirates then claimed Goudeau before losing him on waivers to the Orioles. The O’s later lost Goudeau to the Giants, who lost him to the Dodgers, who lost him to the Rockies less than two weeks ago. If that trend continues, someone will claim Goudeau in the next week.

The soon-to-be 29-year-old Goudeau made his MLB debut with Colorado last season, but opposing offenses crushed him for 15 hits and seven earned runs in 8 1/3 innings, and he issued as many walks as strikeouts (two). Goudeau was, however, highly effective at the Double-A level in 2019, when he notched a 2.07 ERA with fantastic strikeout and walk percentages of 30.1 and 4.0, respectively, across 78 1/3 frames.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/7/21

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The latest minor moves from around baseball, all courtesy of Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America:

  • The Rockies recently signed first baseman Matt Adams to a minor-league deal. The slugging lefty has been assigned to Colorado’s alternate training site, per Kyle Newman of The Denver Post. Adams has played for the Cardinals, Nationals and Braves over the past nine seasons. He was a fairly significant part of Washington’s big league roster as recently as 2019, although he only picked up 51 plate appearances with Atlanta last year before being cut loose. The Rockies have tabbed C.J. Cron as their regular first baseman to start the year.
  • The Cubs signed Andrew Romine to a minors contract. The veteran utilityman has played with the Angels, Tigers, Rangers and Mariners over a big league career that began in 2010. Romine was in camp with the Twins in Spring Training but opted out after Minnesota declined to add the 35-year-old to the MLB roster. Romine’s younger brother Austin Romine is a catcher on the Cubs’ major league team, although the backstop is currently on the 10-day injured list.
  • The White Sox signed outfielder Zack Granite and right-hander Keyvius Sampson to minor-league deals. Granite is a speedy outfielder who picked up 107 MLB plate appearances with the 2017 Twins. He has since spent time in the Rangers’ and Yankees’ systems but hasn’t made it back to the big leagues. Sampson pitched in the majors with the Reds from 2015-16 and with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization in 2018. He returned to the U.S. on a minors deal with the Giants in 2019 but didn’t get back to the majors.

Braves Release Matt Adams

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The Braves announced Thursday that they’ve released veteran first baseman Matt Adams. He was designated for assignment over the weekend when Atlanta acquired left-hander Tommy Milone from the Orioles.

Adams, 32, had a solid showing with the Braves in 2017 but returned with an ugly .184/.216/.347 slash in 51 plate appearances this season. The big slugger has long been a thorn in the side of right-handed pitching and long struggled against lefties. Between that and a defensive profile that limits him to first base (plus the occasional adventure in left field), Adams’ role has been that of a bench player for much of his time in the big leagues. He did provide some pop off the bench for the World Champion Nationals in 2019, slugging 20 big flies, but he also posted a lowly .276 on-base percentage.

Overall, Adams is a career .259/.307/.467 hitter in 2574 trips to the plate. Those numbers improve to .270/.322/.486 when you subtract his 452 unsightly plate appearances against lefties. A team looking for some thump off the bench could certainly pick Adams up and give him a look over the season’s final few weeks.

NL East Notes: Nationals, Mets, Braves

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Nationals star Stephen Strasburg missed the beginning of the season with a nerve issue in his right hand, but it didn’t shelve him for long. The reigning World Series MVP made his season debut last Sunday, though the Orioles roughed him up for five earned runs on seven hits in 4 1/3 innings. It turns out that Strasburg may not have been at full strength during that outing, as manager Dave Martinez revealed Wednesday (via Byron Kerr of MASNsports.com) that the 32-year-old is still dealing with tingling in his hand. “I was a little bit concerned,” admitted Martinez, who added that “we will definitely have to keep an eye on it.” Strasburg’s scheduled to face Baltimore again on Friday, at least for now.

  • Oft-injured Mets infielder Jed Lowrie will undergo injections in his ailing left knee, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets. The Mets won’t have a timeline for a potential 2020 debut for Lowrie until they see how those injections affect him. At this point, though, it’s clear the Mets can’t count on Lowrie to emerge as a late-season reinforcement. The club’s decision to sign him to a two-year, $20MM contract before 2019 has been an abject failure, as Lowrie has appeared in just nine games since.
  • The Braves aren’t expecting either second baseman Ozzie Albies or first baseman Matt Adams to return next week, manager Brian Snitker said Wednesday (via David O’Brien of The Athletic). Both players have been on the injured list since Aug. 5 (Albies for a wrist issue, Adams for a hamstring problem), though Albies is obviously the more important member of the club. After all, Albies turned in terrific seasons in 2018 and ’19 as a full-timer in the Braves’ lineup. They’ve primarily gone to Johan Camargo and Adeiny Hechavarria at the keystone in Albies’ absence.
  • Southpaw reliever Sam Freeman left the Nationals’ loss to the Mets on Wednesday with a flexor strain, Britt Ghiroli of The Athletic relays. There’s “a level of concern” over the injury, per Martinez, especially because Freeman underwent Tommy John surgery in the past. Freeman, whom the Nats signed to a minor league contract in free agency, has tossed five scoreless innings for them this year.

Braves Place Albies, Adams On Injured List; Markakis Activated

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The Braves announced this morning that they’ve placed second baseman Ozzie Albies and first baseman Matt Adams on the 10-day injured list. Albies is dealing with a bone contusion in his right wrist, while Adams is hobbled by a hamstring strain. In a pair of corresponding moves, Atlanta reinstated outfielder Nick Markakis from the restricted list and recalled catcher Alex Jackson from their alternate training site.

Albies, 23, has gotten out to a slow start this season, hitting at just a .159/.196/.273 clip through his first 46 plate appearances. That, and the fact that he batted left-handed against a left-handed pitcher in last night’s game, seem like clear evidence that the issue has been hampering him of late. Jeff Schultz of The Athletic tweets that the Braves expect Albies’ wrist troubles to be a season-long issue; that’s not to say they expect him on the IL all year, of course, but rather that the issue likely won’t fully heal until he can rest it in the offseason. For now, there’s no timetable on Albies’ return to the active roster. Charlie Culberson and Johan Camargo can handle second base in his absence.

Adams strained his hamstring on the basepaths in last night’s game. He’s gotten out to a slow start as well, hitting just .212/.234/.425 with a pair of home runs. One of those long balls came against a lefty, but the Braves have unsurprisingly limited Adams to just three plate appearances against southpaws. He is, after all, a lifetime .211/.239/.381 hitter against same-handed opponents.

As for Markakis, he’ll return in rapid fashion after an unexpected about-face on his decision to opt out of the 2020 season. He’d previously cited the absence of fans and teammate Freddie Freeman’s struggles with Covid-19 symptoms in his decision to sit the current season out. He only just returned to the club a week ago, so there’s likely some rust that’ll need to be shaken off. Thankfully for the Braves, they have a relatively deep outfield mix that features Marcell Ozuna, Ender Inciarte, Ronald Acuna Jr., Adam Duvall, Scott Schebler, the aforementioned Culberson and now Markakis. That’ll give manager Brian Snitker ample time to ease Markakis back into the fold as he ramps back up with the big league club.

By recalling Jackson, the Braves give themselves not only a third catcher behind Travis d’Arnaud and Tyler Flowers, but also a potential backup at first base and in the outfield corners. Jackson opened the season as the club’s catcher after both d’Arnaud and Flowers exhibited Covid-19 symptoms and went 2-for-7 with a double and four strikeouts. He was optioned back to the team’s alternate site after d’Arnaud and Flowers ultimately tested negative.

Braves Select Matt Adams, Outright Yonder Alonso

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The Braves announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran first baseman Matt Adams and outrighted fellow veteran Yonder Alonso off the 40-man roster. Alonso has the service time to reject that outright assignment, though it’s not yet clear he’ll do so. Atlanta also included southpaw Tyler Matzek on its Opening Day roster, which means his contract has been selected to the 40-man roster as well.

Atlanta only just added Alonso to the 40-man roster this past weekend, though they hadn’t yet worked out a deal to bring Adams into the organization at that point. With Adams now on board, the club clearly views him as a better option to back up Freddie Freeman. Freeman has previously missed time due to Covid-19 but was cleared to return and included on the Braves’ Opening Day roster. The 31-year-old Adams hit .226/.276/.465 with 20 homers in 333 plate appearances for the division-rival Nationals a year ago, but also had a productive run with the Braves in 2017.

Matzek, 29, represents a fairly remarkable comeback story. The southpaw was the No. 11 overall pick by the Rockies back in 2009 and for a few years was considered to be one of the game’s premier pitching prospects. Injuries and poor performances caused him to fade from the radar, and he was out of baseball entirely in 2017 before latching on with the Texas AirHogs of the independent American Assocation in 2018-19. He parlayed that into a look with the Braves and struggled in 15 minor league innings, but his summer showing helped him to land a spot on an MLB roster for the first time since 2015.

Braves Sign Matt Adams

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The Braves announced today that they have signed first baseman Matt Adams. It’s a minor-league arrangement.

Adams had recently opted out of his deal with the division-rival Mets. Though there just wasn’t room for him on the New York roster, it seems the left-handed hitter showed enough to earn a spot in the Atlanta 60-man player pool.

This isn’t the first go-round for Adams with the Braves. He had a productive part-season stint with the team in 2017 — so much so that Freddie Freeman lined up at third base to keep Adams in the lineup. While he was also effective at the plate in 2018, Adams limped to a .226/.276/.465 slash line in 333 plate appearances last year with the Nationals.

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