Cubs Designate Max Schrock
The Cubs have designated infielder Max Schrock for assignment, Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets. The DFA helps clear room for Joc Pederson, Trevor Williams and Andrew Chafin, whom the Cubs recently agreed to sign.
Schrock had a short stay on the Cubs’ 40-man roster, as they claimed him off waivers from the Cardinals at the end of October. The 26-year-old has limited major league experience (17 plate appearances, all of which came in 2o20) and hasn’t posted impressive production at the Triple-A level. Over 760 PA there, Schrock has batted .260/.324/.350 with six home runs.
Minor MLB Transactions: 10/30/20
Rounding up some minor moves around the game:
- Royals left-hander Mike Montgomery and right-hander Kevin McCarthy cleared outright waivers and have elected free agency, reports Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com (Twitter link). Montgomery, 31, was limited to 5.1 innings in 2020 due to a lat injury, derailing his chance of cementing himself in the Kansas City rotation. McCarthy was an oft-used bullpen piece in 2019 but only got into five games last season. Additionally, Kansas City claimed righty Carlos Sanabria off waivers from the Astros, per Flanagan (Twitter link). The 23-year-old reliever performed well in the high minors in 2019 and made his MLB debut in this year.
- The Twins claimed right-hander Ian Gibaut off waivers from the Rangers, per an announcement from Texas. The 26-year-old pitched to just a 6.57 ERA in 12.1 innings this year but was once a well-regarded relief prospect. He comes with one option year remaining. Fellow Texas righty Luke Farrell cleared outright waivers.
- The Twins also claimed left-hander Brandon Waddell off waivers from the Pirates, per Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com (Twitter link). Additionally, Pirates’ catchers John Ryan Murphy and Luke Maile, utilityman Kevin Kramer, right-hander Yacksel Rios and outfielder Jason Martin all cleared outright waivers, per an announcement from Pittsburgh.
- The Mets claimed right-hander Nick Tropeano off waivers from the Pirates, per an announcement from Pittsburgh. The 30-year-old pitched in seven games with a 1.15 ERA for the Pirates in 2020. He’s projected for a salary just under $1MM in arbitration.
- The Nationals announced they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Steven Fuentes. The 23-year-old pitched to a 2.69 ERA/2.24 FIP in 63.2 Double-A innings in 2019 and would’ve been eligible for the Rule 5 draft this winter. Baseball America ranks Fuentes the #27 prospect in the Washington system.
- The Cubs announced that they have claimed infielder Max Schrock via waivers from the rival Cardinals. Chicago also outrighted lefty Rex Brothers to Triple-A Iowa. Schrock picked up just 17 plate appearances for St. Louis in 2020 and collected three hits (two singles and a homer). Brothers, 32, threw only 3.1 innings with the Cubs and allowed three earned runs.
- Speaking of the Cardinals, they announced outright assignments for righty Nabil Crismatt and lefty Ricardo Sanchez. Crismatt was successful for the Cardinals in 2020, notching 8.1 frames of three-run ball with eight strikeouts and one walk. Sanchez had some difficulty across 5.1 innings, though, as he gave up four earned runs and issued five walks.
Cardinals Make Several Roster Moves
The Cardinals have made four call-ups from their alternate training site, as left-hander Rob Kaminsky, first baseman John Nogowski, and right-handers Ryan Meisinger and Seth Elledge are all joining the active roster. They will take the roster spots left open by infielder Max Schrock and righties Daniel Ponce de Leon and Junior Fernandez, who are all headed to the alternate site. In addition, left-hander Ricardo Sanchez has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to pain in his throwing elbow.
Ponce de Leon, Fernandez, Sanchez, and even Schrock (in mop-up duty) pitched in last night’s 14-2 loss to the Indians. Ponce de Leon started and lasted only two-thirds of an inning, allowing four runs on four walks and two hits.
This demotion won’t last long, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that Ponce De Leon will be back as the 29th man for next weekend’s doubleheader against the Cubs. As for Ponce De Leon’s normal starting spot, however, Johan Oviedo will now take a regular turn in the rotation. Oviedo has made two starts already for the Cards this season, looking solid in posting a 3.60 ERA over 10 innings.
Sanchez’s ominous-sounding injury continues what has already been a difficult year for the 23-year-old, as he missed two weeks in July recovering from a COVID-19 diagnosis. The southpaw did make his big league debut this season, posting a 6.75 ERA over 5 1/3 IP (three games).
Cardinals Purchase Contracts Of Max Schrock, Roel Ramirez
The Cardinals announced four new additions to the active roster. Two of those players, infielder Max Schrock and righty Roel Ramirez, first had to be selected to the 40-man roster. Also coming up are righty Alex Reyes and southpaw Genesis Cabrera.
Each of these moves, excepting that of Ramirez, was already known to be in the works. Some had hoped the team was also plotting the arrival of top prospect Dylan Carlson, but it seems that’ll have to wait a while longer.
Ramirez, 25, came to the Cards with Cabrera in the Tommy Pham swap. He worked to a 4.78 ERA in 75 1/3 upper-minors innings last year, carrying 10.2 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9. Ramirez went on to have a nice run in the Arizona Fall League, allowing only three earned runs with a 16:3 K/BB ratio over 13 1/3 frames.
Latest On Cardinals’ Potential Roster Additions
The Cardinals placed six players on the injured list yesterday following the team’s Covid-19 outbreak, and they’ll likely be adding infielder Rangel Ravelo to the IL as well. The team confirmed yesterday that he is also among the current players to have tested positive (but did not formally place him on the injured list).
That drops the Cardinals’ roster to 23 players, meaning they’ll still need to make five additions between now and Friday. (Rosters reduce from 30 to 28 players for the remainder of the season tomorrow.) To this point, only one spot has been formally filled: infielder/outfielder Brad Miller was activated from the injured list yesterday. Four more players will still need to be added to the roster between now and Friday.
Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch runs through many of the possibilities, reporting within his morning column that infielder Max Schrock will likely be selected to the active roster. Jeff Jones of the Belleville News points out on Twitter that lefty Genesis Cabrera has already revealed via Instagram that he’s in St. Louis, so he’ll fill another of the spots. Alex Reyes will also be called up, per Goold. Jones adds that Cabrera and Reyes are likely to be the only two pitchers added to the roster. Those additions have not yet been announced by the club.
The Cards’ final open roster spot figures to be of particular intrigue among fans — and with good reason. Top prospect Dylan Carlson is among the names available within the 60-man player pool for St. Louis, and at this point in the season, the Cardinals have already delayed his path to free agency by a year. He’d need to be added to the 40-man roster, but the team can easily accommodate some additions due to the fact that players on the Covid-19 injured list don’t count against the 40-man.
Carlson has been widely expected to debut at some point in 2020, and considering that the Cardinals were struggling to score runs even before losing Paul DeJong and Yadier Molina, there is (on paper, at least) some extra incentive to get his bat into the lineup. It’s a small sample, clearly, but St. Louis has batted just .217/.281/.382 as a team through five games. Carlson, meanwhile, raked at a .292/.372/.542 clip with 26 homers, 28 doubles, eight triples and 20 steals in 562 plate appearances between Double-A and Triple-A last year.
Jones tweets that the final spot could well come down to Carlson, fellow outfielder Justin Williams and infield prospect Elehuris Montero. Both Williams and Montero have been ranked among the organization’s top 20 or so farmhands for the past couple seasons, though neither has generated the expectations associated with Carlson, who entered the season as a consensus Top 25 league-wide prospect. It’d be the first real look in the Majors for any of that trio, and all three would be controllable all the way through the 2026 season should the stick in the Majors following their promotion. Carlson and Montero have yet to appear in the big leagues, while Williams received just a single plate appearance with the 2018 Rays.