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Tim Beckham

AL East Notes: Yankees, Benintendi, Pomeranz, Beckham

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The only locks for the Yankees’ 2017 rotation right now are Masahiro Tanaka, Michael Pineda and CC Sabathia, but Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes that GM Brian Cashman won’t take a reactionary approach to plugging holes in his rotation. As Sherman points out, though, the quartet of Luis Severino, Chad Green, Luis Cessa and Bryan Mitchell has yet to prove that there’s a definitive starter among them, and any could end up in the ’pen. The Yankees will add at least one arm this winter, he continues, though given the paucity of quality starters on the free agent market, a trade from the team’s suddenly top-ranked farm system might be the most rational expectation. Sherman lists speculative candidates ranging from Ervin Santana to Chris Sale, though the top-tier names like Sale are included more as a means of demonstrating the depth of New York’s farm than as a genuine indication of likelihood. Sherman rightly points out that with free agency looking so sparse, the asking prices in trades will be staggering — especially for the likes of Sale, Jose Quintana, Chris Archer and other top-tier arms.

More from the division…

  • The injury from which Andrew Benintendi recently returned was a bit more significant than originally reported, according to Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald, who reports that in addition to a sprain in his left knee, Benintendi also suffered an avulsion fracture just below the knee. The Red Sox have fitted Benintendi with a custom brace that he’ll wear on his left leg for the remainder of the season, but the 22-year-old tells Drellich that he’s already accustomed to the brace and no longer notices that he’s wearing it.
  • Red Sox lefty Drew Pomeranz could be feeling the effects of a career-high workload of innings, writes Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal. Manager John Farrell explained to MacPherson that while Pomeranz’s velocity remains strong, his pitch-to-pitch command hasn’t been present of late, which has cost him. Pomeranz, acquired in exchange for top pitching prospect Anderson Espinoza in July, has lasted a combined 5 2/3 innings across his past two starts. He’s currently slated to make his next start (Friday against the Rays), but MacPherson notes that his fading results could land him in the bullpen once the postseason rolls around. Pomeranz is up to 164 1/3 innings this season, and his previous career-high (147 1/3 innings) came all the way back in 2013.
  • MLB.com’s Bill Chastain writes in his latest Rays Inbox column that he wouldn’t be surprised if Tim Beckham’s time with the Rays organization is coming to a close. Adding Matt Duffy to play shortstop and moving Brad Miller to first base to pair with Evan Longoria and Logan Forsythe at third and second has solidified the starting infield mix. And, he notes, the heightened play of Nick Franklin in 2016 gives him a leg up on the utility job. The Rays demoted Beckham on Aug. 31 right before rosters expanded due to some perceived carelessness on the basepaths, and they doubled down on that harsh message by electing not to bring him back up later in September. The former No. 1 overall pick, set to turn 27 in January, hit .247/.300/.434 with five homers in 215 PAs for the Rays this season.

Matt Duffy Expected To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery

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TODAY: Duffy will likely remain active through the end of the week before having the surgery, Topkin tweets.

YESTERDAY: Newly-acquired Rays infielder Matt Duffy is expected to undergo season-ending surgery, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The procedure would “address the lingering soreness stemming from his earlier left Achilles injury,” per the report.

Duffy, acquired as the headliner in the swap that sent Matt Moore to the Giants, has continued to struggle at the plate since heading to Tampa Bay. All told, he owns only a .260/.312/.360 batting line over 364 plate appearances on the year. He has hit five long balls and swiped eight bases, though he has also been caught five times after going 12-for-12 on stolen base attempts a year ago.

The Rays are obviously banking on a return to form at the plate. Duffy benefited from a .336 BABIP in 2015, but nevertheless impressed with a solid .295/.334/.428 batting line. Even with some regression, a slightly above-average bat would conceivably make Duffy a highly valuable asset, as he rated as an outstanding defender at third with strong baserunning contributions last year. There are some questions there, too, however: Duffy hasn’t compiled stellar metrics since converting to short, though it’s a very small sample and he had primarily played at the hot corner of late, and his baserunning numbers took a huge dive in 2016 (-3.0 BsR, per Fangraphs).

Certainly, the nagging injury could go a ways toward explaining Duffy’s assorted struggles. He told Topkin that the soreness has lingered, with particular problems when playing on the turf infield at Tropicana Field. A surgical option has been on the table since June, the infielder noted, but the timeline for making a decision had shortened. “The only thing would be the recovery time,” said Duffy. “We want to be 100 percent sure that we’re ready to go by next season. I guess that’s one of the concerns.”

Tampa Bay still has plenty of time to make good on its end of the bargain, and certainly won’t be overly concerned with keeping Duffy on the field late this year with the postseason out of reach. The club controls him for four more seasons, and will be obligated only for the league minimum in 2017.

The need to replace Duffy for the rest of the season presents the Rays with many options, which Topkin details. Tim Beckham and Taylor Motter do not appear ticketed for the majors, he says, which could open the door for a move back to short for Brad Miller and/or some time there for Nick Franklin. Another player who could get a chance is prospect Daniel Robertson, though Topkin suggests the club may actually be “more likely” to go outside the organization and add a short-term veteran such as Alexei Ramirez.

AL East Notes: Moncada, Beckham, Duquette

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The $31.5MM bonus the Red Sox will reportedly pay Yoan Moncada has generated a variety of reactions from players around the league, Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe writes. Moncada’s bonus is well beyond what most other 19-year-old prospects might be able to make, since he was able to negotiate with all 30 teams. “It’s not right that a Cuban 19-year-old gets paid [$31.5 million] and the best 19-year-old in the entire USA gets probably 1/6 of that,” wrote Rays pitcher Drew Smyly. “Everyone should have to go through the same process.” An international draft would help standardize the system by which amateurs sign with teams, and new commissioner Rob Manfred seems to favor discussing it in the next round of CBA negotiations. Abraham polls Red Sox players about an international draft, leading to a large range of answers. Here’s Jackie Bradley Jr.’s: “I would have loved to be a free agent in college and made the best deal I could. Maybe I should have moved out of the country. If everybody was a free agent, you’d get what your real value is.” Here are more notes from the AL East.

  • More than six years after being selected first overall in the 2008 draft, shortstop Tim Beckham is competing for a big-league job in Rays camp for the first time, Marc Topkin writes for Baseball America (subscription-only). With Ben Zobrist and Yunel Escobar now gone, the Rays now have more space in their middle infield. Asdrubal Cabrera will take one of the middle infield starting jobs, but Topkin suggests Beckham could be a reserve infielder or even a starter, particularly if the team decides it would be best if Cabrera played second base. Beckham, now 25, moved slowly through the minors and finally made his big-league debut in 2013 before missing most of last season due to a knee injury.
  • The Blue Jays’ pursuit of executive Dan Duquette was serious, but Duquette is back to work with the Orioles, writes MLB.com’s Barry M. Bloom. Duquette confirms that he could not leave the Orioles for Toronto because the two teams could not agree on a compensation package for him. This offseason, the Orioles made few big moves of their own and lost Nelson Cruz, Andrew Miller and Nick Markakis, although Duquette points out that the O’s should benefit from full seasons from Manny Machado, Matt Wieters and Chris Davis.

40-Man Roster Moves: Fernandez, Beckham

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Here’s the recap of some notable players who saw their roster status changed over the weekend…

  • The Marlins moved Jose Fernandez to the 60-day disabled list, opening up roster space for newly-acquired reliever Bryan Morris.  Fernandez, of course, will be sidelined for roughly the next year as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
  • The Rays moved infielder Tim Beckham to the 60-day DL and filled his 40-man roster spot by purchasing the contract of outfielder Jerry Sands from Triple-A.  Sands will help fill in for Wil Myers, who went on the 15-day DL yesterday.  Beckham, the first overall pick of the 2008 draft, tore his right ACL during the offseason.
  • The Diamondbacks moved left-hander Matt Reynolds to the 60-day DL in order to create a 40-man roster spot for outfielder David Peralta, who had his contract purchased from Double-A.  (A.J. Pollock was placed on the 15-day DL in a corresponding move.)  Reynolds posted an impressive 1.98 ERA, 7.6 K/9 and 4.60 K/BB rate in 27 1/3 IP out of the Arizona bullpen last season before undergoing Tommy John surgery in September.

AL Notes: Beckham, Yankees, Trout, O’s, Twins, M’s

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The career of the Rays' Tim Beckham, who was the first overall pick in the 2008 MLB Draft, hasn't gone as planned, but Beckham finally did make it to the Majors at the tail end of the 2013 season. 2014, though, may turn out to be a lost year for him, as he tore his ACL in his right knee, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times notes (on Twitter). Beckham, who turns 24 in January, hit .276/.342/.387 in 522 plate appearances at Triple-A Durham last season. Here are more notes from around the American Legaue.

  • Yankees president Randy Levine's recent comments about Mike Trout and the Angels displeased Major League Baseball, Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News reports. In reference to Robinson Cano's ten-year contract with the Mariners, Levine said, "If Mike Trout was here, I’d recommend the 10-year contract. But for people over 30, I don’t believe it makes sense." That led MLB to investigate whether Levine's comments broke any rules regarding tampering with another team's players. Levine says he called Angels president John Carpino to apologize, and he considers the matter settled.
  • The Orioles are still negotiating with free-agent closer Grant Balfour, but Balfour wants three years and the Orioles only want to give him two, Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun tweets. The Orioles indicate that they are willing to look elsewhere to fill their closer job if they can't find common ground with Balfour.
  • The Orioles discussed a big-league deal with Jason Kubel's agency, Wasserman Media Group, MASNsports.com's Roch Kubatko reports. Kubel ended up signing a minor-league deal with the Twins, however, and Kubatko suggests that's because Kubel is very confident he'll make the team in Minnesota (Twitter links).
  • After adding Robinson Cano, Corey Hart and Logan Morrison, the Mariners still want to add a starting pitcher, a reliever and another catcher, MLB.com's Greg Johns reports. They'd like to add relief help to offset the departure of Carter Capps, who headed to the Marlins in the Morrison trade, and they're looking for a catcher because they have just two, Mike Zunino and Jesus Sucre, on their 40-man.

Quick Hits: Beckham, Lind, Tejada, Sveum, Ravin

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Tim Beckham, the first overall pick in the 2008 Draft, entered the Rays' game as a pinch-hitter against the Rangers Thursday night and singled in his first big-league at-bat. It marked a milestone for the infielder, who crawled through the minor leagues, never hitting all that impressively at any level, before posting a line of .276/.342/.387 in 2013 for Triple-A Durham. All of the 20 players drafted immediately after Beckham made it to the big leagues before he did. (Many, of course, were drafted out of college; Beckham came out of high school.) Remarkably, as Baseball America's John Manuel notes (via Twitter), Beckham is the first player drafted by the Rays since 2007 to make it to the big leagues with them. That's surprising, given how vital young players are to a low-payroll team like the Rays and how successful they've been in recent years. Here are more notes from around the Majors.

  • Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos has implied to first baseman Adam Lind that there's a good chance the team will pick up Lind's 2014 option, but nothing is certain yet, SportsNet.ca's Shi Davidi reports. "You know Alex pretty well, it’s pretty much the explanation I anticipated," says Lind, who will get either $7MM to play for the Jays or a $2MM buyout. The Jays also have options on Lind's services for 2015 and 2016. Lind has hit .282/.352/.486 so far this season. The team isn't required to make a decision about his option until shortly after the World Series ends.
  • Mets manager Terry Collins wants Ruben Tejada to take command of the shortstop position next season, Anthony DiComo and Chris Iseman of MLB.com write. "My message is real simple: this job is his," says Collins. "But he's got to show everybody that he wants it desperately." That doesn't rule out the possibility that the Mets could pursue a shortstop from outside the organization. The offseason free-agent market isn't a strong one, but a trade might be a possibility. Tejada has hit .202/.259/.260 in 227 plate appearances this season.
  • The Cubs aren't ready to say whether Dale Sveum will remain their manager in 2014, but the notion that the Cubs would fire Sveum is "laughable," says Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Sun-Times. Morrissey raises the possibility that the Cubs hesitation on Sveum may have something to do with big-name managers like Joe Girardi and Ron Gardenhire being free agents this offseason. He argues that Sveum shouldn't be blamed for the struggles of Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro this season, suggesting that the pair might simply not be as good as the Cubs and their fans hoped.
  • The Brewers claimed pitcher Josh Ravin off waivers from the Reds today, and MLB.com's Adam McCalvy compares Ravin to Joe Nathan, noting that Ravin can throw in triple digits (Twitter link). Ravin wouldn't be the first player to find success as a reliever in the Majors after an unimpressive minor-league career, but Joe Nathan is a lofty name to drop when discussing a 25-year-old who posted a 5.82 ERA with 6.7 BB/9 in the minors this year.
  • Dodgers lefty Onelki Garcia is now represented by BHS Sports Council, CBS Sports' Jon Heyman reports (via Twitter). Garcia posted a 2.90 ERA with 9.7 K/9 and 5.1 BB/9 in the upper levels of the minors in 2013, and he made his big-league debut last week.

Rays Links: Price, Friedman, Baggage, Beckham

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Happy birthday to Rays right-hander Jeff Niemann, who turns 30 years old today.  Niemann, the fourth overall pick of the 2004 draft, is looking to rebound from an injury-shortened 2012 season and has also drawn some interest on the trade market — the pitching-needy Rockies reportedly asked the Rays about Niemann's availability.  Here's the latest out of Tampa Bay…

  • "In a perfect world" David Price says he would love to stay with the Rays and "in a vacuum," executive VP Andrew Friedman would love to keep Price for years to come, ESPN's Jayson Stark reports.  Both men, however, are realistic about the difficulties involved in keeping Price in Tampa Bay over the long term.  Price is under team control through the 2015 season and recently said he wouldn't take a discount on a new multiyear deal to remain with the Rays.
  • Several recent additions to the Rays roster have checkered reputations off the field, MLB.com's Matthew Leach writes, and Friedman admits to making some "calculated risks" with such players as a function of operating in a small market.  "And we're much more comfortable taking them now than we probably were in '07, just having more of a developed culture.  So we go through things very methodically in great detail. And there have been guys we have determined wouldn't necessarily fit in, and others that we feel like the reward far outweighs the risk," Friedman said.
  • Joe Maddon is a fan of Tim Beckham, telling MLB.com's Bill Chastain that the 2008 first overall pick "has a really high ceiling as a Major League player" and sees Beckham "playing at a very high end for a very long time."  Beckham, 23, hit .256/.325/.361 in 323 PA at the Triple-A level in 2012 and was suspended for 50 games after testing positive for marijuana.   
  • Ben Nicholson-Smith reviewed the Rays' offseason earlier today on MLBTR.

Quick Hits: Abreu, Cespedes, Young, Phillies, Cook

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Former first overall draft pick Tim Beckham has been suspended for 50 games, MLB announced. The shortstop, who had reached Triple-A in the Rays' system, is in violation of MLB's drug policy for the second time. "I take full responsibility for my actions and I will use this experience to refocus my commitment to baseball," he said in a statement released by the team. Here are more links from around the league…

  • Bobby Abreu could make sense for the Orioles, opines Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com (on Twitter). Nick Johnson remains hitless on the season and Nolan Reimold recently left the team to have numbness and tingling in his fingers examined.
  • An arbitration claim for breach of contract has been filed against Yoenis Cespedes of the Athletics reports Enrique Rojas of ESPN Deportes. Edgar Mercedes, who helped represent Cespedes during his free agency, is owed 17% of the outfielder's earnings but has not yet been paid.
  • It's encouraging that MLB suspended Tigers outfielder Delmon Young following last week's incident in New York City, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports writes. Young's actions will cost him millions, Morosi explains. Before the incident I suggested a multiyear deal was within reach for Young if he had a strong season. It's definitely harder to imagine any team making a multiyear commitment today.
  • The Phillies announced that they selected the contract of right-hander Brian Sanches from Lehigh Valley. Sanches takes the place of David Herndon on the team’s active roster.
  • One agent suggested to Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com that the Yankees might have interest in Aaron Cook if the Red Sox don’t make room for the right-hander on their roster by today (Twitter link). Cook can opt out of his deal with Boston if he’s not added to the roster today.
  • There haven’t been recent talks between Mike Napoli and the Rangers or Miguel Montero and the Diamondbacks, Heyman tweets. Montero is looking for a four-year deal in the $52MM range and Napoli seeks more than that. Heyman suggests Napoli is more likely than Montero to sign an extension.

Mike Axisa contributed to this post.

Post-Draft Roundup: Hosmer, Smoak, Strasburg

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Below I’ve collected more interesting remaining links regarding the amateur draft.

  • The Royals bumped their offer from $5MM to $6MM and signed top pick Eric Hosmer. Rany Jazayerli was surprised to see Hosmer effectively get more than #1 pick Tim Beckham.  The Royals joined the Red Sox and Pirates as teams spending around $10MM on draft picks this year.
  • The Rangers resisted a Major League deal for Justin Smoak, and ultimately signed him to a $3.5MM minor league deal.  Owner Tom Hicks pined for a hard slot system.
  • The story of pitcher Chris Gruler, picked third overall by the Reds in ’02, reminds us to temper our enthusiasm for these kids.  Many will bust.
  • Tim Lincecum says Buster Posey can expect other minor leaguers to treat him differently because of the bonus he received.
  • The race is on for Stephen Strasburg, who is separating himself from the pack as the top talent in the ’09 draft.  The Mariners, Padres, and Nationals all have a shot at him, with the Nats in the "lead."  Would the Nats avoid Strasburg due to signability concerns?
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