Angels Select Mike Mayers
The Angels selected the contract of right-hander Mike Mayers, the team announced today. To make room for Mayers on their 40-man roster, the club transferred right-hander Michael Lorenzen to the 60-day IL. A spot on the active roster had been cleared last night, when the team optioned righty Janson Junk to Triple-A Salt Lake.
Though he’s had some success in an Angels uniform, 2022 has been a struggle for Mayers. The 30-year-old logged a 5.40 ERA (5.81 FIP) in 16 2/3 innings before accepting an assignment to Triple-A Salt Lake after he went unclaimed following a late-May designation. Things didn’t go much better for him in the minors, though he was stretched out as a starter. The righty notched a 6.27 ERA in 33 innings across 8 Triple-A appearances (all starts).
While he’ll be given another chance to establish himself in the majors, Mayers remains a strong non-tender candidate in the offseason, as he’d be in line for a raise from this year’s $2.15MM salary. Regardless, he should get an opportunity to latch on somewhere, as he’s pitched quite effectively in the fairly recent past, including a combined 105 innings of 3.34 ERA ball between 2020 and 2021. Across parts of seven seasons between the Cardinals and Angels, Mayers has struck out 24.5% and walked 8.4% of the batters he’s faced (both a tick better than league average) and owns a 4.98 ERA (4.30 FIP) in 202 1/3 innings.
Outrights: Mayers, O’Brien
We’ll kick off the morning here with a pair of recently DFA’ed players who’ve cleared waivers and remained with their prior clubs…
- Right-hander Mike Mayers went unclaimed on outright waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake by the Angels. While he has enough service time to reject that assignment in favor of free agency, Sam Blum of The Athletic tweets that Mayers has accepted the assignment. That’s entirely unsurprising, because although Mayers has sufficient service time to reject the outright, he does not have the requisite five years of service time needed to also retain the remainder of his salary upon rejection. In other words, rejecting the assignment would’ve meant forfeiting the remainder of this year’s $2.15MM salary. Mayers, 30, posted a 3.34 ERA, a 30.5% strikeout rate and an 8.0% walk rate in 105 innings with the Angels from 2020-21, leading to that $2.15MM payday in arbitration. The 2022 season has been a struggle, however. In 16 2/3 frames, he’s allowed four home runs and seen his strikeout rate plummet to 18.7% — all en route to a 5.40 ERA. The Angels designated him for assignment last week.
- The Mariners announced that right-hander Riley O’Brien cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Triple-A Tacoma. Seattle picked O’Brien up in an April trade that promised a PTBNL to the Reds, and the two parties completed that swap this week when Seattle sent 20-year-old Rookie-ball infielder Luis Chevalier to Cincinnati. O’Brien, 27, threw one scoreless inning for the Mariners and has a 2.70 ERA with 14 punchouts in 10 Triple-A frames so far, but he’s also walked 11 hitters in that time. Seattle moved him to the bullpen after he’d spent the bulk of his pro career as a starter in the Rays’ and Reds’ systems. He’ll continue to work on his adjustment to a relief role in Tacoma but will no longer occupy a spot on the Mariners’ 40-man roster.
Angels Select Juan Lagares, Designate Mike Mayers
The Angels announced that they have selected the contract of outfielder Juan Lagares. In a corresponding move, right-hander Mike Mayers has been designated for assignment.
After spending his entire big league career with the Mets, Lagaras joined a new organization for the first time last year, signing a minor league deal with the Angels. He ended up getting into 112 games for the Halos last year, hitting .236/.266/.372 for a 71 wRC+. Generally regarded as a glove-first player, that production was just a bit below his career batting line of .252/.293/.363, 80 wRC+. The 33-year-old signed another minors deal with the Angels just over two weeks ago and has played seven games for Triple-A Salt Lake Bees, hitting .308/.379/.462 in that time.
The club has a strong regular outfield mix of Mike Trout, Brandon Marsh and Taylor Ward. However, Ward has been sidelined recently after colliding with the outfield wall while making a catch. Over his first 30 games, he was hitting out of his mind to the tune of .370/.481/.713 for an absurd 245 wRC+. But he hasn’t played since May 20 because of soreness in his neck/shoulder area that resulted from that collision. Tyler Wade has been getting some starts in right field recently to cover for Ward, though he’s far more experienced on the infield in his career and hasn’t hit much this season. The Angels will hope that Lagares can provide better coverage until Ward can return to regular action. Manager Joe Maddon tells reporters, including Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com, that Ward still can’t play the outfield but isn’t going on the IL because he could still come into a game as a pinch hitter.
As for Mayers, 30, he was drafted by the Cardinals and ended up seeing big league action with them in four seasons, from 2016 to 2019. However, he never got much of an extended look, logging more than 20 innings in only one of those campaigns. After being claimed by the Angels, he had an excellent showing in the shortened 2020 season, throwing 30 innings with a 2.10 ERA, 35.5% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate and 32.8% ground ball rate. Last year, he wasn’t able to sustain that over a full season but still had a good year, throwing 75 innings with a 3.84 ERA, 28.6% ERA, 8.3% walk rate and 37% grounder rate. Unfortunately, things have gotten worse this year, with Mayers sitting on an ERA of 5.40 through his first 16 2/3 innings and his strikeout rate collapsing to 18.7%.
Despite those poor results on the season so far, opposing teams could be interested in his services based on his success in prior seasons. He also came into this year with four years and twenty days of service time, meaning a team that adds him to their roster could retain him for next season via arbitration. Mayers and the Angels avoided arbitration for 2022 by agreeing to a $2.15MM salary.
Angels Place Anthony Rendon On Injured List, Designate Ben Rowen
The Angels announced a series of roster moves in advance of this evening’s game against the Rays. Star third baseman Anthony Rendon is headed back to the 10-day injured list with a left knee contusion. Reliever Mike Mayers has been reinstated from the COVID IL, while fellow right-hander Ben Rowen was designated for assignment. Outfielders Juan Lagares and Taylor Ward have been recalled from Triple-A Salt Lake, while righty James Hoyt was optioned.
This will be Rendon’s second trip to the IL this season. The 30-year-old missed about two weeks in April due to a left groin strain. After returning for seven games, Rendon is knocked out of action again, this time by a balky knee. On the plus side, the team says an MRI today revealed no issues (via Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times), so it seems there’s reason to hope Rendon can return in relatively short order.
While the pair of injuries has made for a frustrating start to the season for Rendon, he’s again been very productive when healthy. Over his first 66 plate appearances, the two-time Silver Slugger award winner has hit .276/.348/.466 with three homers. That’s not quite the star-level offense he put up from 2017-20, but it’s still well above average. During Rendon’s last IL stint, Los Angeles leaned mostly on José Rojas and Jack Mayfield at the hot corner. The latter has since been lost on waivers to the Mariners, but Rojas looks primed for another shot after struggling the first time.
Ward also has some experience at third base, although he worked exclusively in the outfield last season. The former catcher hit .214/.283/.351 from 2019-20. He’s now in line for his first MLB work this year. Infielder Phil Gosselin was also selected to the MLB roster this week and could be an option. Lagares, who can play anywhere in the outfield, is back after going hitless in seven plate appearances early in the season.
The Angels also shuffled up the bullpen. Mayers went on the COVID IL Monday but was always expected back quickly. His return will bump Rowen from the 40-man roster. The latter, who returned to the majors this season for the first time since 2016, pitched in eight games for the Halos. Over 11 1/3 innings, he was tagged for eight runs (seven earned) on 12 hits. He struck out only eight and issued a pair of walks.
COVID Notes: 5/3/21
The latest cronavirus updates from around the majors…
- The Angels announced that they have placed right-hander Mike Mayers on the injured list and recalled lefty Patrick Sandoval. No reason was given for Mayers’ IL placement, but the team expects him to return in the next few days, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register was among those to report. That information implies Mayers’ absence is related to COVID-19. The 29-year-old Mayers broke out as part of the Angels’ bullpen in 2020 and has continued his effectiveness this season with 14 1/3 innings of 2.51 ERA/3.63 SIERA pitching and 18 strikeouts against six walks.
Players Avoiding Arbitration: 1/15/21
The deadline to exchange arbitration figures is today at 1pm ET. As of this morning, there were 125 arbitration-eligible players who’d yet to agree to terms on their contract for the upcoming 2021 season. Arbitration is muddier than ever before thanks to the shortened 2020 schedule, which most believe will lead to record number of arb hearings this winter. Be that as it may, it’s still reasonable to expect dozens of contractual agreements to filter in over the next couple of hours.
We’ll highlight some of the more high-profile cases in separate posts with more in-depth breakdowns, but the majority of today’s dealings will be smaller-scale increases that don’t radically alter a team’s payroll or a player’s trade candidacy. As such, we’ll just run through most of today’s agreements in this post.
I’ve embedded MLBTR’s 2021 Arbitration Tracker in the post (those in the mobile app or viewing on mobile web will want to turn their phones sideways). Our tracker can be sorted by team, by service time and/or by Super Two status, allowing users to check the status on whichever groups of players they like. You can also check out Matt Swartz’s projected arbitration salaries for this year’s class, and we’ll do a quick sentence on each player’s agreement at the bottom of this post as well, with the most recent agreements sitting atop the list.
Today’s Agreements (chronologically, newest to oldest)
- Rockies outfielder Raimel Tapia avoided arbitration with a $1.95MM deal, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. The team also reached an agreement for $805K with reliever Robert Stephenson, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post.
- The Tigers have deals with infielder Jeimer Candelario ($2.85MM), outfielder JaCoby Jones ($2.65MM) and righty Jose Cisnero ($970K), Chris McCosky of the Detroit News relays.
- The Yankees and reliever Chad Green settled for $2.15MM, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com reports.
- The Marlins and lefty Richard Bleier have a deal for $1.425MM, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets.
- The Dodgers reached a $3.6MM settlement with lefty Julio Urias, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times reports.
- The Angels announced a deal with righty Dylan Bundy for $8.325MM.
- The Tigers and southpaw Matthew Boyd have settled for $6.5MM, Chris McCosky of the Detroit News tweets.
- The Yankees have deals with catcher Gary Sanchez ($6.35MM), first baseman Luke Voit ($4.7MM), third baseman Gio Urshela ($4.65MM), shortstop Gleyber Torres ($4MM) and outfielder Clint Frazier ($2.1MM), per Jon Heyman of MLB Network and Ken Davidoff of the New York Post.
- The Rays and outfielder Manuel Margot avoided arbitration with a $3.4MM agreement, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.
- The Padres and outfielder Tommy Pham have a deal for $8.9MM, according to Robert Murray of FanSided. Reliever Dan Altavilla settled for $850K, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com tweets.
- The Angels and righty Felix Pena have come to terms for $1.1MM, Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times reports.
- The Red Sox and third baseman Rafael Devers have reached a $4.575MM agreement, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network.
- The Mets and outfielder Brandon Nimmo have come to a $4.7MM agreement, Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets.
- The Reds and righty Luis Castillo have settled for $4.2MM, Robert Murray of FanSided relays.
- The Rays reached a $2.25MM agreement with infielder Joey Wendle and a $1.175MM settlement with righty Yonny Chirinos, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets.
- The Cardinals and flamethrowing reliever Jordan Hicks have an agreement for $862,500, according to Heyman.
- The White Sox and ace Lucas Giolito avoided arbitration with a $4.15MM agreement, James Fegan of The Athletic reports.
- The Pirates and righty Joe Musgrove have reached an agreement for $4.45MM, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. They also made deals with second/baseman outfielder Adam Frazier ($4.3MM), third baseman Colin Moran ($2.8MM) righty Chad Kuhl ($2.13MM) and lefty Steven Brault ($2.05MM), per reports from Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Adam Berry of MLB.com.
- Hard-throwing right-hander Reyes Moronta agreed to a $695K deal with the Giants after missing the 2020 season due to shoulder surgery, tweets Robert Murray of Fansided.
- The Tigers agreed to a $2.1MM deal with infielder Niko Goodrum, tweets Robert Murray of Fansided. They also inked lefty Daniel Norris for a $3.475MM salary, tweets Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press.
- The Pirates agreed to a $1.3MM deal with catcher Jacob Stallings and a $1.1MM deal with righty Chris Stratton, per Robert Murray of Fansided (Twitter links).
- Athletics right-hander Lou Trivino agreed to a $912,500 salary for the 2021 season, tweets Robert Murray of Fansided.
- Right-hander Richard Rodriguez and the Pirates agreed to a $1.7MM deal, tweets Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
- Catcher Jorge Alfaro and the Marlins agreed to a $2.05MM deal, tweets Craig Mish of SportsGrid.
- The Reds agreed to a $2.2MM deal with right-hander Tyler Mahle, tweets Fansided’s Robert Murray. Cincinnati also signed lefty Amir Garrett for $1.5MM, tweets Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.
- The Indians agreed to a $2.4MM deal with newly acquired shortstop Amed Rosario and a $975K deal with righty Phil Maton, tweets Zack Meisel of The Athletic.
- The Tigers and righty Buck Farmer settled at $1.85MM, tweets Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press.
- The Marlins agreed to a $1.9MM deal with right-handed reliever Yimi Garcia, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.
Angels Claim Mike Mayers
The Angels announced that they have claimed righty Mike Mayers off waivers from the Cardinals. The out of options hurler will compete for a pen job in camp if he can stick on the Los Angeles 40-man roster the rest of the winter.
Mayers, 27, is coming off of a forgettable campaign in St. Louis. He was given just 19 innings, over which he allowed 14 earned runs with a 16:11 K/BB ratio. In his 80 2/3 total frames at the game’s highest level, Mayers has worked to a 7.03 ERA.
Though the results clearly haven’t been there at the game’s highest level, Mayers has shown a mid-nineties fastball. He has also been quite effective at Triple-A. This past year, he turned in twenty frames of 3.15 ERA pitching there with 24 strikeouts and seven walks.
Cardinals Designate Adalberto Mejia, Select Junior Fernandez
The Cardinals announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Junior Fernandez from Triple-A Memphis and designated left-hander Adalberto Mejia for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man and 25-man rosters. St. Louis also announced that right-hander Mike Mayers cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Memphis.
Mejia, 26, was claimed by the Cardinals just last week and made only three appearances before being cut loose by his third team this season. He allowed three runs on eight hits and a walk with two strikeouts over three innings in his short-lived St. Louis stint.
A former top 100 prospect who profiled as a fourth starter, Mejia never established himself with the Twins and has now bounced from Minnesota to Anaheim to St. Louis this season. He’s posted a 7.54 ERA in 22 2/3 innings, though he’s only a season removed from solid numbers as a starter with Minnesota’s Triple-A affiliate a season ago. Mejia, though, is out of minor league options, so any club to claim him would need to allow him to try to sort things out at the MLB level, as he can’t be sent down without first clearing waivers. He’s missed time due to blister, wrist, biceps and calf injuries dating back to 2017, so durability could be an issue as well.
As for the 22-year-old Fernandez, he’s soared through three minor league levels in 2019, posting an ERA of 1.55 or better at each stop. In all, he’s totaled 61 1/3 innings with a 1.47 ERA, 11.2 K/9, 4.3 BB/9 and, incredibly, no home runs allowed. He’s unlikely to have that type of success in limiting long balls in the Majors — particularly given the apparent changes to the ball in 2019 — but he’ll nonetheless give the Cards an intriguing jolt of youth in their relief corps.
Cardinals DFA Mike Mayers
The Cardinals have designated right-hander Mike Mayers for assignment, tweets Mark Saxon of the Athletic. The club has since announced the move. Additionally, infielder Matt Carpenter has been activated from the 10-day injured list, pitching prospect Ryan Helsley has been recalled, while corner infielder Rangel Ravelo was optioned to Triple-A Memphis.
Mayers, 27, was out of options, so St. Louis had to keep him on the 25-man roster or cut bait. Ultimately, Mayers’ continued big league struggles did him in. He’s logged 13.2 innings in 12 appearances since coming off the 60-day injured list over a month ago, but his numbers were ghastly. Mayers coughed up 11 runs in that time, including two longballs, with matching strikeout and walk totals (10 apiece). That continued a rough MLB go for Mayers, who has a 7.17 ERA in 69 career games.
Mayers has some interesting raw material to work with, though. Per Statcast, his fastball and curveball each have above-average spin, and he’s generally performed well in Triple-A. A contender like St. Louis could no longer afford to keep giving MLB opportunities to an underperforming arm, but perhaps another organization with a less urgent competitive cycle will give a crack at straightening Mayers out. Any claiming team would have to keep Mayers on the 25-man roster or again expose him to waivers.
Carpenter returns from a three-week stint on the shelf with a right foot contusion. His underwhelming .215/.321/.373 line has been a surprising sore spot for an offense that looks stronger on paper than it has played to this point.
With Carpenter back and Mayers gone, the club swaps out the rookie position player (Ravelo) for a rookie arm (Helsley). Helsely’s mid-90’s fastball will return to the bullpen, while Ravelo will look to continue to build on a strong Triple-A body of work.
Cardinals Designate Chasen Shreve For Assignment
The Cardinals announced Tuesday that they’ve designated lefty Chasen Shreve for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 25- and 40-man rosters for righty Mike Mayers, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list.
Shreve, 29, allowed a pair of runs in two innings of work during his second go-around with the Cardinals. St. Louis acquired him from the Yankees in the trade that sent Luke Voit to New York last summer. Shreve has given them 16 2/3 innings of work out of the ‘pen but has now also been twice jettisoned from the 40-man roster. This season in Triple-A, Shreve pitched to a 3.80 ERA with 10.6 K/9, 4.0 BB/9, 1.05 HR/9 and a 36.3 percent ground-ball rate.
Of course, Shreve didn’t go to the Cardinals alone, and the breakout being enjoyed by 27-year-old righty Giovanny Gallegos lessens the sting of what once looked to be a decidedly lopsided swap. Gallegos also went to the Cards in that deal, and he’s been brilliant in his first full MLB season. Through 46 2/3 frames out of the bullpen, he’s pitched to an excellent 2.31 ERA with 67 punchouts against six unintentional walks. Metrics like FIP (2.39), xFIP (2.85) and SIERA (2.25) all generally agree that Gallegos has been nothing short of outstanding.
The same doesn’t hold true for Shreve, unfortunately. The Cardinals now have a week to trade him, pass him through outright waivers or release him. Shreve has enough service time to elect free agency if he does clear waivers, but doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of this season’s $900K salary. As such, he’s likely to stick with the organization if he is not traded and goes unclaimed by another team.