Nick Robertson

NL Central Notes: Montas, Alzolay, Cardinals

By Mark Polishuk | April 21, 2024 at 6:12pm CDT

The Reds’ 3-0 shutout of the Angels today saw five relievers combine for 8 1/3 innings of work, after a forearm bruise forced starter Frankie Montas out of the game in the first inning. Montas was struck by a Taylor Ward line drive and was still able to throw Ward out at first base, though he then left the mound after an examination from the team trainer. X-rays revealed no fractures, though Montas told reporters (including Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer) after the game that there is enough soreness and swelling that it seems unlikely that he’ll make his next start.

That next start is set for Friday against the Rangers, and since the Reds don’t have another off-day until May 2, another start would have to be covered if Montas needs more recovery time than just the one turn through the rotation. It seems like the injured list might therefore be a possibility for Montas just so the Reds aren’t left short-handed, though the team figures to evaluate Montas over the next few days before making a decision. Montas has a 4.19 ERA over 19 1/3 innings for Cincinnati this season, as he followed up two strong opening starts with much shakier performances in his two outings prior to today’s abbreviated appearance.

Red Sox Acquire Tyler O’Neill

By Darragh McDonald | December 8, 2023 at 11:58pm CDT

The Red Sox brought in outfield help on Friday night, announcing the acquisition of outfielder Tyler O’Neill from the Cardinals. Right-handers Nick Robertson and Victor Santos are going back to St. Louis.

O’Neill, 29 in June, has had a mercurial career but showed his tremendous ceiling as recently as 2021. He played 138 games that season, hitting 34 home runs. He struck out at a high 31.3% clip but hit .286/.352/.560 overall for a wRC+ of 143. He also received strong grades for his outfield defense and stole 15 bases. That all-around production led to a tally of 5.5 wins above replacement, per FanGraphs, whereas Baseball Reference had him at 6.1 WAR.

But the results since then have been less impressive, with injuries seeming to drag him down. In the past two seasons, O’Neill has hit the injured list due to a right shoulder impingement, a left hamstring strain, a lower back strain and a right foot sprain. He’s been able to get into just 168 games over those two campaigns, hitting 23 home runs and producing a batting line of .229/.310/.397. That amounts to a wRC+ of 98, indicating he’s been just a bit below league average.

It appeared that he had fallen out of favor in St. Louis over that time. In early 2023, he and manager Oli Marmol got in a bit of a spat, where the skipper publicly admonished O’Neill for a perceived lack of hustle. Though the outfielder pushed back on the idea that he wasn’t giving full effort and also seemed displeased with Marmol making the disagreement public.

As the Cardinals fell out of contention during the most recent season, it seemed as though O’Neill could have been traded at the deadline a few months ago, since he’s slated for free agency after 2024. But no deal materialized and he stuck with the club into the current offseason. In recent weeks, trade rumors surfaced and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak did little to quell them. “In the outfield, right now, if we were to play tomorrow it’d likely be [Lars Nootbaar], Tommy Edman and [Jordan Walker],” said Mozeliak during the Winter Meetings earlier this week. “Our fourth outfielder would be Dylan Carlson. … Tyler O’Neill is somebody that we are listening to on trades.”

But for the Red Sox, O’Neill makes plenty of sense. After they traded Alex Verdugo earlier this week, their outfield projects to have lefties Masataka Yoshida, Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu. The club also has righties Ceddanne Rafaela and Rob Refsnyder, but the former has just 28 games of experience while the latter is a platoon specialist. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow recently spoke about how the club would like to add a right-handed hitter capable of playing center field, but that it wouldn’t be a need.

O’Neill does indeed hit from the right side and has played some center field, having logged 303 2/3 innings there over 40 games in his career. The defensive reviews are mixed but it’s hard to glean much in such a small sample.

He will likely not be Plan A in center anyhow. Per a report from Jen McCaffrey and Chad Jennings of The Athletic this week, the club considers Rafaela a viable center field option. Even if he were to struggle in his first extended stretch of play in the big leagues, Duran has spent plenty of time up the middle and Abreu has seen action there as well. But all told, he balances the mix and will be a low-cost upside play for the Sox.

As mentioned, O’Neill is slated for free agency after 2024. Per MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, he’s projected for a salary of just $5.5MM next year before reaching the open market. If he gets back to his 2021 upside, he would be a bargain and could help the club return to contention or perhaps turn into a midseason trade chip if the Sox are out of the race. If he continues to struggle, he can yield playing time to Duran, Rafaela or Abreu, depending on who is performing well.

The Cardinals came into this offseason with a notable position player surplus. Mozeliak outlined the outfield situation, which also includes players like Alec Burleson and Richie Palacios. But they also have Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt on the infield corners. Up the middle, they have Masyn Winn, Nolan Gorman and Brendan Donovan as potential options.

It was thought that they would use this surplus to add their rotation, where they were looking to add three arms. But they rather quickly signed Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson to bolster their starting group. That led to recent speculation that an eventual position player trade would return bullpen help or prospects.

Robertson, 25, was drafted by the Dodgers and added to that club’s 40-man roster earlier this year, but he was flipped to Boston as part of the Enrique Hernández trade from a few months ago. He has 22 1/3 innings of MLB experience between the two clubs with an earned run average of 6.04, though with more encouraging peripherals. He struck out 24.5% of batters faced while walking 8.5% and getting grounders at a 47.1% clip. His .397 batting average on balls in play and 57.5% strand rate were both on the unlucky side of average, leading to a 3.88 FIP and 3.76 SIERA.

He was even better in the minors, having tossed 42 2/3 Triple-A innings between the two clubs with a 3.16 ERA, 33.1% strikeout rate and 7.4% walk rate. He still has a couple of options, so the Cards don’t need to commit an active roster spot to him right away, but he’s already had some MLB experience and could potentially be part of their club in the coming season.

Santos, 23, has mostly been a starter in the minors but hasn’t ever really been a top prospect, though he has received plaudits for his command. He tossed 145 innings in 2022, split between Double-A and Triple-A with a 4.97 ERA. His 20.6% strikeout rate was a bit below average but his 5.6% walk rate was quite strong. He didn’t pitch in 2023 because of injury. He’ll provide the Cards with a bit of non-roster depth for their starting staff.

Jon Heyman of the New York Post first reported O’Neill was being traded to Boston. Sean McAdam of MassLive reported that St. Louis would receive two minor leaguers. Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reported that Robertson and Santos were going to the Cardinals.

Red Sox Designate Kyle Barraclough For Assignment

By Nick Deeds | September 24, 2023 at 9:44am CDT

The Red Sox announced a series of roster moves this morning. The club activated right-hander Zack Kelly from the 60-day injured list, and in corresponding moves optioned righty Nick Robertson to Triple-A while designating fellow right-hander Kyle Barraclough for assignment.

Kelly’s return, while not necessarily unexpected, is surely a major relief for both the Red Sox and Kelly himself. The 28-year-old righty has been on the 60-day injured list for most of the season to this point thanks to an ulnar nerve transposition revision in his throwing elbow he underwent at the beginning of May. Despite battling injuries to this point in his big league career, Kelly has been effective on the mound when healthy, with a career 3.86 ERA in 21 innings of work that includes a 3.68 ERA across six appearances this season. In returning for the final games of the season, Kelly should have the opportunity to test his arm ahead of the offseason and prepare himself for a typical offseason regimen with an eye on returning to the club’s bullpen in 2024.

The move spells the end of Barraclough’s tenure with the Red Sox. Once a quality reliever with the Marlins who posted a 3.21 ERA (122 ERA+) and 3.45 FIP to go with a 29.8% strikeout rate from 2015-18, Barraclough has struggled in limited big league opportunities ever since. In 63 1/3 innings of work since the start of the 2019 season, Barraclough has seen his strikeout rate dip to 23.1% despite an elevated 12.7% walk rate. As a result, his ERA has ballooned to 6.11 with a 6.45 FIP during that time. To make matters worse, Barraclough’s strikeouts have all but evaporated this year: he’s punched out just four of the 46 batters he’s faced with Boston.

While Barraclough’s results at the big league level have been rough for several seasons at this point, he figures to look ahead to the offseason with a solid chance of landing a minor league deal somewhere, should he choose to do so. After all, the veteran righty has a track record of past success in Miami and has never stopped performing at the Triple-A level, with a career 3.44 ERA in 170 innings of work at the level. Robertson also figures to look toward translating success in the minors to big league production headed into 2024, as the 24-year-old hurler sports a brutal 6.33 ERA in 21 1/3 career innings as a major leaguer despite a sterling 2.98 ERA in 51 games at the Triple-A level.

Red Sox Place James Paxton On 15-Day Injured List

By Mark Polishuk | September 10, 2023 at 10:20am CDT

The Red Sox announced that left-hander James Paxton has been place on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to September 7) due to right knee inflammation. In other transactions, Boston called up right-hander Nick Robertson from Triple-A Worcester and activated righty Garrett Whitlock from the bereavement list, while left-hander Joe Jacques has been optioned to Triple-A.

The timing of the IL move means that Paxton’s 2023 campaign is over, as Red Sox manager Alex Cora told The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier and other reporters that Nick Pivetta will take Paxton’s place in the rotation for the remainder of the season. Paxton will finish the year with a 4.50 ERA over 96 innings, as well as a 24.6% strikeout rate and 8.0% walk rate that were both above the league average.

Considering that injuries (including a Tommy John surgery) limited Paxton to only six games and 21 2/3 total innings between the 2020-22 seasons, just getting onto a mound and making it almost the entire way through the 2023 season counts as a significant achievement for the southpaw. A Spring Training hamstring injury delayed Paxton’s debut until May 12, but he pitched well over his first four months before seemingly starting to wear down during August. Paxton was tagged for 16 earned runs over his last three starts and 9 2/3 innings, putting a sour end on what had been a solid year.

The Sox had already planned to push Paxton’s next start back a few days, but since Cora implied that Paxton’s knee had been bothering him, the team has opted to shut the lefty down rather than risk any further injury. While Paxton hadn’t been contributing much in his last few outings anyway, the IL decision also seems to hint how the Red Sox might be slowly turning to look towards 2024 rather than the wild card race, as Cora implied in today’s meeting with reporters. Boston is seven games back of the last AL wild card slot, and with just a 72-70 record, finishing above .500 is no guarantee for the Sox, let alone a playoff berth.

The outcome might lead to some hindsight about Boston’s decision to keep Paxton at the trade deadline, as the Rangers (and likely several other teams) had interest in the left-hander prior to August 1. For the second straight season, Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom opted to both buy and sell at the deadline, though this year’s Red Sox club was closer in the race than the 2022 edition. The very streaky nature of this year’s club also makes it understandable why Bloom didn’t swing too hard in either transactional direction at the deadline, and since the Sox were already hurting for pitching, it makes sense why the team would’ve wanted to keep Paxton as a key piece of whatever late-season push might have been in store.

With Paxton’s 2023 now over, it is possible he has also thrown his last pitch in a Red Sox uniform. He is set to hit free agency this winter, and it will be interesting to see what kind of deal Paxton could land as he enters his age-35 season and on the back of a year that saw mostly good results when healthy. Assuming this knee problem doesn’t develop into anything serious, Paxton could have a case for a multi-year agreement, though teams will likely prefer a one-year deal with vesting/club options (maybe similar to his previous deal with the Red Sox) given his lengthy health history.

Red Sox Designate Dinelson Lamet For Assignment

By Steve Adams | August 9, 2023 at 1:30pm CDT

1:30pm: The Red Sox have now officially announced these moves.

10:08am: The Red Sox are planning to designate right-hander Dinelson Lamet for assignment as part of a series of roster moves, reports MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith. His spot on the roster will go to veteran righty Kyle Barraclough, whose contract is being selected from Triple-A Worcester. Boston is also set to recall lefty Brandon Walter from Worcester, with righty Nick Robertson being optioned there in his place.

Lamet’s stay on Boston’s big league roster will prove extremely brief. The former Padres and Rockies hurler was only just selected to the Majors two days ago. He appeared in one game, serving up three runs on three hits and a walk with one strikeout and a wild pitch in two innings of work.

Lamet was a legitimate Cy Young contender during the shortened 2020 season, but injuries have been a major issue for the 31-year-old righty in the seasons since. He’s encountered a biceps strain, a UCL sprain, forearm inflammation and a hip injury that required a “cleanup” procedure in the years since that scintillating 2020 effort (wherein he posted a 2.09 ERA and 34.8% strikeout rate in a dozen starts).

Including this brief, unsightly stop with the BoSox, Lamet has a 6.81 ERA in his past 107 big league innings. While he had pitched decently over in Worcester prior to his call to the big leagues, Lamet will make a quick exit in favor of a fresh arm — fellow veteran hurler Barraclough.

The 33-year-old Barraclough has appeared in 288 big league games, all coming out of the bullpen, and posted a 3.61 ERA with a very strong 28.9% strikeout rate but also a woeful 14% walk rate. The bulk of his Major League success came early in his career with the Marlins, from 2015-18. Since that time, he’s logged just 55 2/3 innings while pitching to a 5.17 ERA.

Interestingly, the Red Sox have been using Barraclough as a starter in Worcester, and the experiment has gone quite well. Seven of his eight appearances since signing out of the independent Atlantic League have been starts, and Barraclough has recorded a sharp 2.57 ERA in 42 innings. Granted, his strikeout rate is down considerably (17.8%), and walks remain an issue (11.9%). The Sox either see more to like in Barraclough than Lamet or simply need another fresh arm after Kutter Crawford was knocked out of the game in the fourth inning yesterday, leading to three relievers covering 5 2/3 innings. Lamet and Robertson combined to cover five of those frames.

Now that the trade deadline has come and gone, the Sox’ only options with Lamet are to place him on outright waivers or release waivers. He has more than five years of big league service, so he’ll be able to reject a minor league assignment and become a free agent even if he goes unclaimed. Because of that service time, he’d have been a free agent at season’s end even if he’d stuck on Boston’s roster and performed well for the remainder of the year.

Barraclough, meanwhile, entered the season with 4.089 years of Major League service. The most he’ll be able to accrue from here on out is 54 days, which would leave him shy of five years of service, thus making him eligible to be retained another two seasons via arbitration. There’s quite a ways to go before that’s even a consideration, and it’s likelier that Barraclough will have a brief stay on the roster himself, but that remaining club control is at least worth noting in the event that he sustains his Triple-A pace in the big leagues.

Dodgers Acquire Enrique Hernandez

By Steve Adams and Anthony Franco | July 25, 2023 at 11:59pm CDT

Enrique Hernandez is back with the Dodgers. Los Angeles announced they’ve acquired the utilityman (along with cash considerations) from the Red Sox for relievers Nick Robertson and Justin Hagenman. Boston is reportedly paying down $2.5MM of the approximate $3.6MM remaining on Hernandez’s contract.

Hernandez, 31, is struggling through one of the worst seasons of his career, batting just .222/.279/.320 in 323 plate appearances. The offseason injury of Trevor Story — which required elbow surgery — prompted the Sox to move Hernandez from center field to shortstop. The results weren’t pretty, with Hernandez returning to a position he’d barely played since 2018 and posting some of the lowest defensive grades of any player at any position (-6 Defensive Runs Saved, -13 Outs Above Average in just 484 innings).

The extent to which the defensive struggles also impacted Hernandez’s mindset at the plate can’t be known, but his production hasn’t dipped to this level since the 2016 season. He’s hitting .260 against left-handed pitching — albeit with a lowly .314 OBP and .338 slugging percentage — but has been a nonfactor against right-handed pitching (.209/.266/.314).

Struggles on both sides of the ball notwithstanding, Hernandez is a career .259/.346/.465 hitter against southpaws. The Dodgers will hope that a return to the team he called home for the majority of his career can bring about a turnaround at the plate and/or on the field. Los Angeles has hit well against lefties as a team, but that’s generally been in spite of poor production from a cast of outfielders that has looked lost against southpaws.

All of David Peralta, Trayce Thompson and Jason Heyward have struggled in that regard. James Outman is getting on base at a .366 pace against lefties but not hitting for power and striking out at a 34% clip. Chris Taylor has gotten on base at a lowly .268 rate but at least hits lefties for power.

There’s no guarantee that Hernandez will improve the team’s overall production against southpaws, but he’s a low-cost roll of the dice as a bench player who’s had success in just this type of limited role before — with this very team, no less. Given that the Dodgers have been cycling through journeyman like Yonny Hernandez and Jake Marisnick on the bench, there’s some sense to seeking lower-cost stability. Hernandez figures to be a boon in the clubhouse at the very least, and any big early hits following the swap will clearly be well-received by a fanbase with which he was popular during his last tenure. There’s minimal risk in displacing Hernandez, though the Dodger faithful will surely be hoping this trade is merely a footnote among a larger slate of deadline transactions rather than a focal point of the front office’s approach to upgrading the roster.

For the Red Sox, with Story nearing a return, they’ll subtract Hernandez from their glut of middle-infield and outfield options. Jarren Duran’s emergence in center field put a serious dent in Hernandez’s role with the team — particularly with Masataka Yoshida and Alex Verdugo locked into the corners. Yu Chang is a more versatile infield defender, meanwhile, and the Sox apparently prefer to continue giving the more controllable Christian Arroyo opportunities over Hernandez — a pending free agent playing on a one-year, $10MM contract extension he signed last winter.

Per Roster Resource, the Dodgers had a $228MM payroll and $245MM luxury-tax bill prior to the trade. Tacking on roughly $1.1MM won’t put them anywhere near the third tier of luxury-tax penalization, which begins at $273MM and is the point at which teams see their top pick in the following year’s draft pushed back by 10 spots. As a third-time luxury tax offender in the midst of the first penalty bracket, the Dodgers would pay a 50% dollar-for-dollar tax on all overages. As such, Hernandez’s remaining $1.1MM actually amounts to about $1.65MM in terms of total expenditure.

In return for picking up the bulk of the tab, Boston lands a couple pitchers who add desired right-handed middle relief depth. Robertson, 25, is on the 40-man roster and has made nine big league appearances for Los Angeles this season. The rookie righty has allowed 10 runs (seven earned) over his first 10 1/3 frames. He’s fanned 13 against four walks, though, missing bats at a decent 11.4% clip. Robertson is a fastball-changeup pitcher who has averaged a little under 95 MPH on his heater in his brief MLB look.

He’s having an excellent year in Triple-A. Over 28 1/3 innings with the Dodgers’ top affiliate in Oklahoma City, the 6’6″ hurler owns a 2.54 ERA. Robertson has punched out an excellent 37.5% of batters faced at the top minor league level, where he’s also inducing grounders on half the batted balls he allows. The former seventh-round pick owns a 3.54 ERA with a 30% strikeout rate over parts of four minor league campaigns. He’ll start his Boston tenure on optional assignment to Triple-A Worcester but could be recalled to work out of the big league bullpen at any point.

Hagenman has never played in the majors. Like Robertson, he’s having a strong year in Triple-A. Through 55 innings spread over 25 appearances, the 26-year-old righty has a 2.78 ERA. He’s punching hitters out at a solid 27% clip while keeping his walks to a tidy 5% rate. The Penn State product went unselected in last year’s Rule 5 draft after posting a 6.08 ERA in Triple-A; he’d be eligible for the Rule 5 again next winter but has a good chance to earn a spot on the Sox’s 40-man roster before then after his much better second season at the top minor league level.

David Vassegh of SportsNet Los Angeles noted this afternoon the Sox and Dodgers were discussing Hernandez trades. Ken Rosenthal and Fabian Ardaya of the Athletic first reported the Dodgers were acquiring Hernandez. Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reported the Red Sox would receive two upper minors relief pitchers. Chris Cotillo of MassLive first suggested Robertson and Hagenman were potentially involved in the deal. Tom Caron of NESN confirmed Hagenman’s inclusion, while Jeff Passan of ESPN first confirmed the package was Robertson and Hagenman. Speier was first to report the cash considerations.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Dodgers Place Daniel Hudson On IL With MCL Sprain

By Darragh McDonald | July 6, 2023 at 7:15pm CDT

Dodgers manager Dave Roberts tells reporters, including Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register, they are going to place right-hander Daniel Hudson on the injured list due to a sprained MCL in his right knee. Hudson missed significant time last year and this year due to a torn ACL, though that was in his left knee. Roberts says Hudson will miss “a significant amount of time” but they are “hopeful” he can return this season, per Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times (Twitter links). Roberts tells Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times that Hudson will miss at least a month or two. The Dodgers subsequently announced the move and that Yency Almonte was placed on the paternity list with Nick Robertson and Alex Vesia recalled in corresponding moves.

It remains to be seen exactly how much time Hudson will miss but it’s undeniably a brutal blow. It was just over a year ago, June 24 of 2022, that Hudson tore the ACL in his left knee, which wiped out the remainder of his 2022 season. That injury kept him on the injured list for the first few months of this year, with the righty just being activated a week ago. He made three scoreless appearances for the club in the past week but is now facing yet another significant absence.

Prior to last year’s injury, Hudson was on pace to have one of his best seasons as a reliever. He had a 2.22 ERA through 25 appearances, striking out 30.9% of batters faced while walking just 5.2% and getting grounders on 53.4% of balls in play. Despite the injury, the Dodgers showed faith that Hudson would be able to come back and contribute in the future. In September of last year, they agreed to an extension, picking up their $6.5MM club option for 2023 while tacking on a 2024 option as well.

That option comes with a $6.5MM base and can reach $7.3MM based on appearances. The exact nature of those escalators aren’t known but it seems fair to conclude he won’t trigger any of them with his limited work this year. The club will then have to decide whether or not to trigger the option, which will undoubtedly be impacted by his health status as the season winds down.

For the club, this is yet another in an extensive series of injuries to their pitching staff. The starting rotation has Walker Buehler, Dustin May, Clayton Kershaw, Ryan Pepiot and Noah Syndergaard currently on the injured list, whereas the relief corps has lost Tyler Cyr, J.P. Feyereisen, Shelby Miller, Jimmy Nelson, Alex Reyes, Blake Treinen and now Hudson to the IL. Despite all those pitching injuries, the club is 48-38 and in possession of a National League Wild Card spot. President of baseball operations Andrew Friedman already admitted that the rash of injuries made it more likely the club will seek out pitching reinforcements at the upcoming trade deadline and Hudson’s injury would seemingly only increase those chances.

Dodgers Select Nick Robertson

By Steve Adams | June 6, 2023 at 2:51pm CDT

The Dodgers have selected the contract of right-hander Nick Robertson from Triple-A Oklahoma City and optioned fellow righty Tayler Scott to Triple-A in a corresponding move, per a team announcement. It’ll be the big league debut for Robertson, a 24-year-old bullpen prospect, whenever he first takes the mound. The Dodgers already have an open 40-man spot, so they don’t need an additional move beyond optioning Scott.

Robertson, the Dodgers’ seventh-round pick in the 2019 draft, ranked 46th among Dodger prospects on the list of FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen back in January, where he was tabbed as a likely middle reliever despite going unselected in the Rule 5 Draft. He’s had an outstanding start to his season in OKC, pitching 25 1/3 innings with a 2.13 ERA that’s backed by an exceptional 37.4% strikeout rate and strong 7.1% walk rate. Robertson has kept the ball on the ground at a 48.1% clip and found success against both righties and lefties, the latter likely in large part due to heavy usage of an above-average changeup.

While he had a rough go in a couple stints of Double-A ball, Robertson has breezed through Triple-A pitching, both in a small sample of 11 1/3 innings last year and in this season’s 25 1/3 frames. He looks the part of a big league-ready bullpen piece, and the Dodgers will give him that opportunity as they look to stabilize what’s been a top-heavy unit. Dodgers relievers rank 26th in baseball with a 4.64 ERA, and the majority of their success has come from Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol and Caleb Ferguson. Robertson will get the chance to help smooth things out, although given the Dodgers’ habitual cycling of arms through the final few spots of their relief corps, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Robertson optioned a few times even if he performs well.

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