Central Notes: Bibee, Madrigal, Yelich, Perez
Guardians right-hander Tanner Bibee exited yesterday’s game due to right hip tightness in the sixth inning of yesterday’s win over the Rangers, as relayed by MLB.com. Bibee is scheduled to undergo an MRI today to determine the severity of the issue.
It’s the latest negative development for a Guardians rotation that’s been plagued by injury woes all year. Right-handers Shane Bieber and Triston McKenzie are both currently on the 60-day injured list, while righty Cal Quantrill also missed significant time with injury earlier this season. With the club’s three most established starters having spent time on the shelf this season, Bibee has become the rotation’s anchor during his rookie season. The 24-year-old youngster sports an impressive 2.98 ERA that’s 41% better than league average across 25 starts this year. While his 3.52 FIP and and slightly inflated 80% strand rate indicate there could be some regression in Bibee’s future, his solid 24.1% strikeout rate and strong 7.7% walk rate give him the look of a strong mid-rotation starter at the very least.
If Bibee’s injury ends his 2023 campaign, it will have certainly been a successful one that figures to garner some attention in AL Rookie of the Year voting. The Guardians are unlikely to be meaningfully impacted by his availability for the remainder of this season, however. Considering Cleveland sits seven games back of the Twins in the AL Central with just thirteen games left to play, it would take a miracle for the club to make the postseason even in the weak AL Central division.
More from around MLB’s Central divisions…
- Cubs infielder Nick Madrigal exited yesterday’s 13-inning marathon loss to the Diamondbacks with right hamstring tightness, as relayed by Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune. Madrigal’s balky right hamstring has caused him issues throughout his young big league career: it required season-ending surgery while he was with the White Sox back in 2021, and he missed just under a month with a strain earlier this season. A former top prospect who was selected fourth overall in the 2018 draft, Madrigal has slashed just .283/.311/.352 (83 wRC+) in 294 big league plate appearances this season. That being said, the 26-year-old has hit better since returning to the big leagues from an optional assignment in early June, slashing .271/.325/.379 with a minuscule 7.7% strikeout rate. With Jeimer Candelario already on the shelf, the Cubs figure to primarily rely on Patrick Wisdom at third base for the time being if Madrigal is out for an extended period.
- Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich has appeared in just one game since September 8 due to low back stiffness, and manager Craig Counsell (as relayed by MLB.com) indicates that the 31-year-old is still day-to-day despite starting Friday’s game against the Nationals. “At this point, we need 100 percent of Christian Yelich.” Counsell told reporters yesterday, “It’s not the time to go out there less than that.” Though Yelich is still nowhere near the level of production he enjoyed in 2018 and 2019 when he looked like one of the best players in the sport, the veteran outfielder has enjoyed a bounce-back of sorts in 2023, slashing a solid .272/.363/.432 with a wRC+ of 116. The club has utilized Joey Wiemer and Tyrone Taylor in the outfield alongside regular fixtures Sal Frelick and Mark Canha while Yelich has been unavailable.
- Royals catcher Salvador Perez exited yesterday’s game against the Astros after a foul ball off the bat of Jose Altuve struck his mask in the fifth inning. Perez began to feel lightheaded before exiting the game to undergo the concussion protocol, though the Royals later announced that Perez had avoided a concussion. Per MLB.com, manager Matt Quatraro told reporters that Perez “got his bell rung a little bit” but that Perez was feeling fine by the end of the game. It’s possible, then, that Perez returns to the lineup as soon as this afternoon. Perez has slashed .252/.291/.415 with a wRC+ of 84 in 551 trips to the plate this year while splitting time between catcher, first base, and DH.
Guardians Notes: Naylor, Valera, Rotation
The Guardians briefly added top catching prospect Bo Naylor to the big league roster as the 27th man in yesterday’s doubleheader, but he’s already been sent back to Triple-A Columbus and will continue to get regular playing time there, it seems. Cleveland’s offense is out to a dismal start to the 2023 season, and the catching corps, in particular, has been quite poor at the plate so far.
Naylor’s .257/.391/.507 slash in Triple-A Columbus is strong, but manager Terry Francona noted to Bill Ladson of MLB.com that Naylor’s throwing numbers in Columbus have been rough. He’s just 7-for-49 in cutting down base thieves this year (14.3%). Francona added that some of that could be due to minor league pitchers doing some experimenting of their own (perhaps at the cost of some quickness to the plate), it seems the organization would understandably still like to see some improvement in that aspect of his game. To his credit, Naylor had a much stronger 32% caught-stealing rate in the minors last year.
One other near-MLB-ready prospect who could come up this year in hopes of providing some offensive help will be sidelined for the second time this year. Outfielder George Valera, who missed the first seven weeks of the season due to hamate surgery, is heading back to the injured list after just five games, per Paul Hoynes of Cleveland.com. This time, the 22-year-old is dealing with a strained hamstring. It’s not yet clear how long he’s expected to miss.
Valera went 3-for-16 at the Triple-A level in his brief five-game activation between IL stints. Last year’s .221/.324/.448 output in Triple-A doesn’t immediately stand out, but that also came as a 21-year-old against much more advanced competition and was only across 179 plate appearances. Valera spent the majority of the season in Double-A Akron, where he posted a heartier .264/.367/.470 batting line. Between those two stops, he mashed 24 homers over the course of 132 games.
Valera ranked among the game’s top 100 prospects at MLB.com (No. 51) and Baseball America (No. 72) heading into the season, and the organization surely hoped he could hit his way into the big league mix before too long. Health hasn’t cooperated to this point, though the Guardians have at least avoided injuries to their position player corps at the big league level.
That’s not the case on the pitching side of things, where Cleveland has faced prolonged absences for both Triston McKenzie (teres major strain) and Aaron Civale (oblique strain). McKenzie embarked on a minor league rehab assignment over the weekend and will make at least one more outing before the team considers activating him, writes Hoynes, citing Francona. The Guards are aiming to build both righties up to around five innings and 80 to 90 pitches before reinstating either from the injured list.
McKenzie’s first rehab outing lasted three innings and 52 pitches; he can’t be activated until May 29 at the earliest, due to his status on the 60-day injured list. Civale also pitched three innings in a rehab game last week.
As it stands, the Guardians only have one clear opening in the rotation. Righty Hunter Gaddis is up from Columbus to make today’s start in place of the injured Peyton Battenfield. One of McKenzie or Civale could step into that spot, but Cleveland has Shane Bieber, Cal Quantrill and thriving rookies Tanner Bibee and Logan T. Allen also in the rotation currently. Situations such as this tend to work themselves out — injuries are inevitable on the pitching front — but at some point it’s possible the Guards will need to make the tough call to send one of Bibee or Allen back to Columbus. Speculatively speaking, Cleveland could also look into a six-man rotation or perhaps bump a more established starter like Quantrill or Civale to the bullpen, but however it shakes out there’ll be some decisions on the pitching front in the near future.
Guardians Promote Tanner Bibee, Designate Konnor Pilkington For Assignment
The Guardians announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of top pitching prospect Tanner Bibee from Triple-A Columbus. He’ll make his Major League debut and start today’s game. In a corresponding roster move, left-hander Konnor Pilkington has been designated for assignment.
Bibee, 24, was Cleveland’s fifth-round pick in 2021 but has quickly outshined that relatively humble draft status. The right-hander breezed through High-A and Double-A in 2022, showing pristine command and a strong ability to miss bats as he pitched to a combined 2.17 ERA in 132 2/3 innings. He’s opened the 2023 campaign with 15 1/3 innings of 1.76 ERA ball and a 19-to-8 K/BB ratio. While Bibee’s command hasn’t been as sharp in this year’s small sample, he’s walked just 6.1% of his opponents since being drafted and boasts a career 32.2% strikeout rate in the minors.
Bibee’s rapid ascension through the Cleveland system is largely attributable to a major jump in fastball velocity. After sitting in the high 80s and low 90s in college at Cal State Fullerton, his heater now resides in the mid-90s. He ranks comfortably within the sport’s top 100 prospects at MLB.com (No. 59), FanGraphs (No. 69) and Baseball America (No. 80). FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen details many of the changes Bibee has made to his mechanics, pitch selection and his physique since being drafted — all without sacrificing the command that garnered him attention in the draft.
Cleveland’s rotation has struggled thus far, with Shane Bieber the only member of the Opening Day quintet who’s currently healthy and pitching well. Triston McKenzie is out until at least late next month due to a teres major strain, and Aaron Civale is on the injured list as well thanks to an oblique strain. Cal Quantrill has given up at least three runs in four of his five starts, including a five-run clunker in 3 1/3 innings against the Rockies earlier this week. Zach Plesac has been tagged for a 6.50 ERA through his first four starts. Neither Quantrill nor Plesac have ever missed many bats, but this year’s strikeout rates of 12.8% and 14.9%, respectively, are both career-lows for the pair of righties.
In light of those injuries and shaky performances, Cleveland has begun to tap into its farm system early. Left-hander Logan Allen — not to be confused with the former Cleveland pitcher of the same name — made his big league debut against the Marlins earlier this week and fired six innings of one-run ball. Righty Peyton Battenfield has held his own through three starts in spite of a rocky 10.8% walk rate. Bibee will join the group for now, and with a strong debut, it’s possible he could stake a claim to a rotation spot moving forward.
Given the timing of his call to the big leagues, Bibee won’t have enough days on the schedule to reach a full year of service time in 2023, even if he’s in the big leagues for good. He could still snag that full year of service with a strong showing in the American League’s Rookie of the Year voting, but barring that scenario, he’ll remain under club control through the 2029 season. He will, however, project as an eventual Super Two player if he sticks in the big leagues, which would position him for arbitration eligibility four times rather than three, beginning after the 2025 season.
As for Pilkington, he’s had a tough start to the season in Triple-A. The 25-year-old southpaw has made four starts and been tagged for 13 runs on 19 hits and 11 walks with 14 strikeouts in 14 innings. He had a rough showing in Triple-A last year as well (5.88 ERA in 56 2/3 innings), but Pilkington was also serviceable in 58 Major League frames in 2022.
In last year’s MLB debut, Pilkington worked to a 3.88 ERA over those 58 innings, making 11 starts and another four relief appearances. His pedestrian 19.4% strikeout rate and bloated 12.4% walk rate made that ERA appear rather suspect, but the bottom-line results were solid.
The Guardians will have a week to trade Pilkington or else attempt to pass him through outright waivers. Given that he’s a 25-year-old lefty who’s stretched out to start and has a minor league option remaining beyond this year, there’s a decent chance another club in need of some pitching depth would have interest, if not via a minor trade then at least via waiver claim. If he makes it through waivers unclaimed, he’ll remain in the Cleveland organization, as he doesn’t have the service time or prior outright required to reject an outright assignment to Triple-A.