AL East Notes: Mancini, Kirk, Anderson, McKay, Kluber
In a bit of good news for Orioles‘ fans, Trey Mancini will participate in this year’s Home Run Derby, per The Athletic’s Dan Connolly (via Twitter). Mancini should provide some feel-good coverage for the 2021 All-Star festivities. Having missed last season while being treated for stage 3 colon cancer, Mancini has returned to lead the Orioles with a .260/.337/.466 triple-slash line with 14 home runs and 52 runs batted in, good for a 121 wRC+. Let’s check in with the other clubs in the AL East…
- Alejandro Kirk has joined the Blue Jays‘ Triple-A club in Trenton with the possibility of returning from the injured list as early as July 1, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). Kirk must first prove himself ready in Triple-A. After making the team out of spring training, Kirk has been out since May 2nd with a flexor strain. The Jays have also been without starter Danny Jansen for almost three weeks now. Riley Adams, who has three options remaining, will head back to Trenton whenever Kirk is ready.
- Nick Anderson threw his second bullpen session for the Rays, and he appears on track for an August return. per Adam Berry of MLB.com (via Twitter). Anderson’s value as a bullpen ace is well-known after last year’s breakout campaign — 0.55 ERA in 16 1/3 regular-season innings. The Rays leaned hard on Anderson to get them to the World Series: he appeared in both games of the Wild Card sweep of the Blue Jays, two of the five games in their ALDS win over the Yankees, and three more apiece in the ALCS and World Series.
- Brendan McKay is in line for a 30-pitch bullpen soon, Berry also notes, and if that goes well, he’ll start to build his strength up to a starter’s workload. McKay last appeared in competitive action in 2019, when he threw 49 innings at the big-league level with a 5.14 ERA/4.03 FIP.
- The Yankees don’t expect to get Corey Kluber back until August at the earliest, but it could be as late as September, per MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch (via Twitter). Kluber gave the Yankees exactly what they’d hoped in his ten starts: 3.04 ERA/3.77 FIP in 53 1/3 innings. Unfortunately, he also realized their fears when he suffered a shoulder strain that will ultimately knock him out for more than half the year.
Blue Jays Place Danny Jansen On IL, Recall Riley Adams
The Blue Jays have placed catcher Danny Jansen on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain, Shi Davidi of Sportsnet was among those to report. The club called up fellow backstop Riley Adams to take Jansen’s place.
Toronto has gotten little offensive production this year from Jansen, who’s off to a .157/.248/.278 start with three home runs in 122 plate appearances. Reese McGuire has recorded similarly uninspiring numbers, while Alejandro Kirk hit the IL at the beginning of May with a left hip flexor injury. The Blue Jays have nonetheless come out of the gates with a respectable 30-27 record.
Now, the hope for the Jays is that they’ll receive a boost from Adams, a 24-year-old who has held his own against minor league pitching since the team chose him in the third round of the 2017 draft. Adams has slashed .265/.366/.422 with 27 home runs in 1,129 plate appearances in the minors, and he has worked his way to the majors this year with an even better .250/.410/.600 line and six homers over 78 PA in his first Triple-A action. MLB.com ranks Adams 18th in the Jays’ system, lauding his combination of offensive power and defensive ability.
Blue Jays Notes: Jansen, Springer, Biggio, Hatch, Borucki
Catcher Danny Jansen suffered a right hamstring strain that forced him out of Sunday’s 6-3 Blue Jays loss to the Astros. Jansen was hurt running the bases trying to beat out a fielder’s choice in the third inning, and Reese McGuire took over at catcher for the top of the fourth. Jays manager Charlie Montoyo told MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson and other reporters that Jansen would receive tests both yesterday and today to determine the extent of the strain.
With Alejandro Kirk already on the 60-day injured list, losing Jansen to the IL would leave Toronto with a catching depth chart of McGuire and (in all likelihood) Riley Adams, who is hitting .250/.410/.600 over 78 plate appearances at Triple-A this season. Adams had never played at the Triple-A level prior to this season, and he doesn’t officially have any big league experience — the Blue Jays called Adams up for a three-day cup of coffee on the active roster in early May, though Adams didn’t appear in any games. While McGuire is the more experienced option, his struggles at the plate over the last two seasons would perhaps mean that McGuire and Adams would be deployed in a platoon, as the youngster’s Triple-A production certainly seems to warrant a look against Major League pitching.
More from the Jays…
- George Springer is making “extremely encouraging” progress in his recovery from a quad strain, GM Ross Atkins told reporters (including Matheson, TSN’s Scott Mitchell and Sportsnet’s Arden Zwelling) as part of a series of updates on injured Blue Jays players. Springer has been performing running drills over the last two days, and Atkins implied that the outfielder is “very close” to heading out on a minor league rehab assignment. This is Springer’s second quad injury of the season, and combined with those injuries and an oblique issue, the prized free agent signing has appeared in only four games in 2021.
- Speaking of rehab assignments, Cavan Biggio began his assignment at Triple-A yesterday. A cervical spine ligament sprain sent Biggio to the 10-day IL on May 22, but it looks like he’ll be able to rejoin the Jays sometime this week. The injury absence has underlined an overall tough season for Biggio, who has a -0.3 fWAR through 39 games and 151 PA due to a lack of hitting (.205/.315/.315) and some defensive struggles as Toronto’s regular third baseman.
- Thomas Hatch threw two scoreless innings for Triple-A Buffalo yesterday, as the right-hander resumed a rehab assignment after missing two weeks with what Atkins described as “mild tightness in his side.” Hatch is working his way back from an elbow impingement suffered during Spring Training that has kept the righty out of any Major League action this season. Hatch worked 16 of 17 games as a reliever in his 2020 rookie season, but Atkins said the team is still planning to build Hatch up as a starter.
- Ryan Borucki is on the verge of beginning a throwing program, and is no longer feeling any pain in his forearm. A left flexor strain went Borucki to the injured list in mid-May, representing yet another injury setback for a southpaw who missed most of the 2019 due to elbow issues.
Blue Jays Add 5 Players To 40-Man Roster
The Blue Jays announced Friday that they’ve selected the contracts of catchers Riley Adams and Gabriel Moreno, right-hander Ty Tice, outfielder Josh Palacios and infielder Otto Lopez. All five are now protected from being selected in next month’s Rule 5 Draft. Toronto’s 40-man roster is now full.
Adams, 23, adds another catching option to a roster already well stocked at that position. He topped out with a solid Double-A showing in 2019 and ostensibly isn’t too far from MLB readiness. The 20-year-old Moreno, on the other hand, hasn’t played above A-ball, although he hit quite well there in ’19.
Tice, 25, logged a 2.34 ERA between Double-A and Triple-A in ’19 and racked up better than 11 K/9 but did so while walking nearly six per nine frames. Palacios plays all three outfield spots and is an OBP-over-power option who has seen some time in Double-A. Lopez, 22, hasn’t advanced beyond A-ball. He hit well there in 2019 and has experience at both middle infield spots and both corner outfield positions.