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West Notes: Mariners, Giants, Dodgers

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A few items from the game’s West divisions:

  • The Mariners are scheduled to start their season at home March 26 against the Rangers, but it’s possible that series (and perhaps some ensuing sets) will take place outside of Seattle. With the coronavirus outbreak taking a toll on Seattle, the Mariners might temporarily play regular-season home games at their spring training facility in Arizona, Evan Drellich of The Athletic reports (subscription link). That scenario could become more likely on Wednesday, when Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to restrict all gatherings of 250-plus people in Seattle and other areas in the state, according to the Seattle Times. It’s unknown how long that restriction will last, but with just over two weeks left until the M’s season starts, there seems to be a growing likelihood that they’ll host their opener away from T-Mobile Park.
  • Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi shed some light Tuesday on the team’s spring roster battles, as John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle relays. Tyler Beede was a strong contender for the fifth spot in the club’s rotation, but now that he’s dealing with a flexor strain, the competition is down to Logan Webb, Dereck Rodriguez, Trevor Cahill and Trevor Oaks. Any of them could take the ball April 7 – the first time the Giants will need a No. 5 starter. Meanwhile, there could be a rotating bunch of players in center field, Shea writes. That may affect the picture at the keystone; among the Giants’ current second base options (Mauricio Dubon, Yolmer Sanchez and Donovan Solano), “Dubon is best suited to go out to the outfield,” Zaidi observes. Dubon’s versatility could lead to a season-opening roster spot for Sanchez, a 2019 Gold Glove winner whom the Giants signed to a minor league contract in the offseason.
  • He wasn’t considered a legitimate prospect at this point a year ago, but now the Dodgers are of the belief that minor league utility player Zach McKinstry will turn into a contributor at the MLB level this season, Jorge Castillo of the Los Angeles Times writes. A 33rd-round pick in 2016, McKinstry put himself on the map in 2019 with excellent production at the Double-A and Triple-A levels, leading the Dodgers to add the 24-year-old to their 40-man roster in November. The multi-positional McKinstry has continued to impress team brass this spring, notes Castillo, who adds that he could become the Dodgers’ latest Chris Taylor or Enrique Hernandez type. “He can play anywhere on the diamond, he’s an intelligent player,” manager Dave Roberts told Castillo. “He conducts really good at-bats. He’s a guy that I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw him sometime this year.”

Giants Outright Jake Jewell, Trevor Oaks

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The Giants continued their roster-churning efforts by outrighting pitchers Jake Jewell and Trevor Oaks. Among those to tweet the news was Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group (via Twitter).

Both of these 26-year-old right-handers were acquired earlier in the offseason through waiver claims, then dropped to allow the club to acquire two additional hurlers. Jewell and Oaks are now lodged in the San Francisco system without occupying 40-man roster space, which was perhaps the plan all along.

The voluminous waiver activity of the Giants has brought in a host of new players. Whether any will provide much value remains to be seen.

Jewell is coming off of a tough 2019 effort in which he was bombed at both the MLB and Triple-A levels. But he features a mid-to-upper-nineties fastball and has shown some swing and miss potential. Perhaps the Giants can re-think his approach and help improve the results.

For Oaks, the standout skill is groundball induction. The soft-tossing sinkerballer has worked almost exclusively as a starter and was successful in that role last year at Triple-A. Though he recorded just 4.9 K/9, he drew grounders on 50.2% of the balls put in play against him and allowed just five home runs in 128 1/3 innings — no small achievement given the offensive explosion in the highest level of the minors.

Giants Sign Drew Smyly

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4:16PM: Baggarly has the full breakdown (Twitter link) of Smyly’s available bonuses, including the note that Smyly can receive his $250K roster bonus if he spends 130 days on the active roster, not only if he makes the Giants’ Opening Day roster.  Up to $3MM in incentives are available to Smyly based on the number of starts he makes, with at least 12 starts required to unlock his bonuses.  $1MM in bonus money is available to Smyly as a reliever — $250K for 25 games finished and another $250K for 35 games finished, and $125K for reaching the 45-, 50-, 55-, and 60-game thresholds in terms of relief appearances.

2:55PM: Smyly will earn $4MM in guaranteed money, The Athletic’s Andrew Baggarly tweets, and can also receive a $250K roster bonus.  More bonus money is available based on the number of starts Smyly makes, and also (intriguingly) the number of games he finishes, though Baggarly notes that the Giants plan to use Smyly as a starting pitcher.

1:12PM: The Giants have signed left-hander Drew Smyly, as per an announcement on the team’s Twitter feed.  Smyly, a Frontline client, has been signed to a one-year contract.  Righty Trevor Oaks has been designated for assignment to create space on San Francisco’s roster.

Smyly becomes the second veteran pitching addition of the winter for the Giants, who also inked Kevin Gausman to a one-year deal back in December.  The Giants’ rotation mix now consists of Johnny Cueto, Jeff Samardzija and Gausman as the top three, with Smyly, Tyler Anderson, and younger arms such as Logan Webb, Dereck Rodriguez, Tyler Beede, and Shaun Anderson all vying for starts.

Smyly is the most experienced of the latter bunch with 684 1/3 Major League innings to his name, though the 30-year-old spent 2019 just trying to shake off the rust after missing all of the 2017-18 seasons due to Tommy John surgery.  The southpaw posted an 8.42 ERA over 51 1/3 innings with the Rangers before being released, and then briefly caught on with the Brewers and Phillies on minor league contracts.

It was in Philadelphia that Smyly again appeared on a big league mound and somewhat stabilized his performance, posting a 4.45 ERA, 9.8 K/9, and 3.24 K/BB rate over 62 2/3 innings (over 12 starts).  Smyly drastically reduced his walks and homers over the course of the season, though his 1.9 HR/9 as a Phillie was still troublingly high, if an improvement over his ungainly 3.2 HR/9 in Texas.  To say nothing of possible changes to the baseball for the 2020 season, a move to a more pitcher-friendly environment like Oracle Park should help Smyly keep his home run issues in check.

Now more than two and a half years removed from his Tommy John procedure, Smyly will be looking to get what was once a quite promising career back on track.  Smyly posted a 3.24 ERA over his first 395 MLB innings from 2012-15 with the Tigers and Rays, and was a major part of the trade package sent to Tampa Bay for David Price in the summer of 2014.  After a somewhat shaky 2016 campaign, however, Smyly was traded from the Rays to the Mariners in the 2016-17 offseason, and ended up never throwing a pitch in a Seattle uniform due to injury.

The Giants’ offseason has been a pretty quiet one, as the team continues to straddle the line between a rebuild and a full push towards contention.  The Smyly signing fits the pattern of short-term, fairly inexpensive signings that president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has focused on (as well as a blizzard of waiver claims) since taking over San Francisco’s front office last winter.  A bounce-back year from Smyly could make him a candidate to be flipped elsewhere at the trade deadline.

Oaks (who turns 27 in March) was claimed off waivers from the Royals in November.  The groundball specialist made his MLB debut with 13 2/3 innings for Kansas City in 2018, though hip surgery sidelined him for the entire 2019 season.  Oaks has a 3.26 ERA, 6.1 K/9, and 3.12 K/BB rate over 532 1/3 career minor league innings, starting 88 of 102 games.

Giants Announce Series Of Roster Moves

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The Giants announced a flurry of roster moves, claiming infielder Kean Wong from the Angels and right-hander Trevor Oaks from the Royals. The Giants also formally announced their previously reported claim of righty Rico Garcia from the Rockies organization. In order to open space on for the trio of new additions, San Francisco designated outfielder Mike Gerber and right-hander Ricardo Pinto for assignment.

Wong’s time in the Angels organization will ultimately last barely more than a month. The Halos claimed him from the Rays near the end of the season, and the 24-year-old went hitless in four plate appearances in the lone game for which he suited up with the team. Wong, the younger brother of Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, was the Rays’ fourth-round pick back in the 2013 draft and made his MLB debut as a September call-up with Tampa Bay. Between his six games with the Rays and one game with the Angels, he went 3-for-18.

Wong spent the rest of the season with Triple-A Durham, where he logged his second consecutive above-average season at the plate. After hitting .282/.345/.406 with nine homers, 23 doubles, three triples and seven steals in 2018, he turned in a .307/.375/.464 slash with 10 homers, 29 doubles, six triples and six steals in 2019. Offense was elevated throughout the league in Triple-A this season, but Wong’s output checked in at 16 percent better than league average, as measured by wRC+. Primarily been a second baseman in his minor league career, Wong began logging time at third base and in the outfield beginning in 2018 as the Rays looked to enhance his versatility.

Oaks, meanwhile, is a known commodity for Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. The 26-year-old Oaks was a seventh-round pick by Zaidi’s former club, the Dodgers, back in 2014 and was traded to Kansas City in a three-team swap while Zaidi was serving as general manager under L.A. president of baseball ops Andrew Friedman.

At the time of that trade, which sent Scott Alexander to Los Angeles, Oaks was ranked in the middle of the Dodgers’ farm system. He looked like a potential back-of-the-rotation option but has seen his prospect status derailed by hip surgery that wiped out his 2019 season. He was healthy enough to take the ball in the Arizona Fall League this year, though, where he allowed six earned runs on 14 hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts in 12 innings of work.

Oaks was hit hard in his MLB debut in 2018 but did put together 128 1/3 innings of 3.23 ERA ball with Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate that season. Unfortunately, he averaged a dismal 4.9 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9 along the way — though his 50.8 percent ground-ball rate was a bit more encouraging. For now, Oaks will add some upper-level depth to the Giants roster.

None of the three players claimed today, however, should be considered any kind of lock to survive the winter on the Giants’ roster. Zaidi and his staff have been known to aggressively claim players off waivers in hopes of successfully passing that player through waivers themselves shortly thereafter as a means of keeping those new talents without dedicating a 40-man roster spot.

As for the players cut loose — neither is particularly surprising. Gerber, 27, went 1-for-24 in his brief time with the Giants at the MLB level, though he did author an impressive .308/.368/.569 batting line with 26 homers in Triple-A. The former Tigers prospect had never hit much in Triple-A before that, however, and he’ll turn 28 next summer.

Pinto, meanwhile, was a September waiver claim out of the Rays organization who never pitched in a game for San Francisco. He allowed four runs in 2 1/3 innings with Tampa Bay this season in addition to 123 1/3 innings of 4.23 ERA ball at the Triple-A level. The Giants have seven days to trade, release or waive Gerber and Pinto.

Royals Designate Trevor Oaks

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OCT. 30: Oaks is likely to be outrighted, reports Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com (via Twitter). As a player with less than three years of big league service who has never before been outrighted, he would not have the ability to elect free agency. If he clears waivers, then, he’ll remain in the Kansas City organization.

OCT. 29: The Royals announced today that they have reinstated right-hander Trevor Oaks from the 60-day injured list and designated him for assignment.

Oaks, 26, was sidelined for all of the 2019 with hip labrum surgery but had returned to action in the Arizona Fall League, giving the organization a chance to evaluate him before issuing a decision. Over his seven AFL appearances, Oaks allowed six earned runs in a dozen frames with an 11:3 K/BB ratio. Clearly, the showing wasn’t deemed sufficient to warrant tying up a 40-man spot.

Acquired in a 2018 trade that sent Scott Alexander to the Dodgers and Joakim Soria to the White Sox, Oaks got his first brief taste of the majors in his first season with the Kansas City organization in 2018. He was knocked around in four outings in the bigs but carried a 3.23 ERA in 128 1/3 Triple-A frames last year — albeit with only 70 strikeouts to go with 44 free passes.

While Oaks’ prospect status has dipped from his days with the Dodgers — he was considered among L.A.’s 20 best farmhands at the time of the trade — he could still conceivably be brought back to compete for a job in Spring Training next year. He’d first need to clear waivers for that to happen, though his injury-ruined season increases the chances of that happening.

Trevor Oaks Undergoes Hip Surgery

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Royals righty Trevor Oaks has undergone surgery to repair a tear in his hip labrum, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan reports on Twitter. The news was largely expected by this point, though it remains a disappointing outcome for the 25-year-old.

Oaks was primed to compete in camp for a rotation spot — or, more likely, a place on the depth chart at Triple-A. Having debuted in the majors last season, his first with the Royals after an early-2018 trade, he was certainly a candidate to see substantial time in a K.C. rotation that will enter the season with loads of uncertainty.

Instead, Oaks will miss most or all of the coming season while working back from a procedure that turned out to be “a little more extensive” than originally anticipated. It is believed that he’ll be able to get back to baseball activities in four months’ time, though the timeline up to and past that point will depend upon his actual progression.

Whether Oaks will return to competitive action in 2019, let alone do so at the MLB level, remains to be seen. The Royals will surely prioritize his long-term health as the rehab unfolds. Though Oaks is not regarded as a particularly high-upside pitching prospect, he has had some success in the upper minors with a groundball-heavy approach. Through 275 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level, Oaks carries a 3.30 ERA with 6.2 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9.

Health Notes: Nelson, Herrera, Swanson, Oaks

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Brewers hurler Jimmy Nelson is pausing his throwing program owing to “arm fatigue discomfort,” president of baseball operations David Stearns tells reporters including Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. All involved say they’re unconcerned with the development, with manager Craig Counsell labeling it “a very minor setback.” It has been a long road back already for Nelson, who hasn’t thrown a competitive inning since undergoing a labrum procedure in September of 2017. He’ll need to wait a while longer before taking the bump in a Spring Training contest, with the club understandably maintaining a conservative plan in light of his health history.

More health notes from around the game …

  • The Phillies say that outfielder Odubel Herrera is dealing with a grade 1 hamstring strain, Matt Breen of Philly.com reports on Twitter. He’s said to be “coming along,” though skipper Gabe Kapler couldn’t specify when Herrera will be ready to take the field. It’s not a terribly worrying injury at the outset of camp, though it will limit Herrera’s opportunities to get in a groove after a disappointing 2018 season. The wild card in the situation is the Phils’ ongoing pursuit of Bryce Harper and their as-yet-unknown plans for shuffling the outfield deck if they sign him. The injury might impact Herrera’s marketability, if he’s a player the team would consider moving to make way for Harper.
  • Braves shortstop Dansby Swanson is readying for his first Spring Training game action at the end of the week, per Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (via Twitter). That seems to represent a positive sign for a player who underwent wrist surgery at the conclusion of the 2018 campaign. Swanson had a quiet but reasonably promising 2018 campaign, with sparkling glovework and baserunning making up for still-lagging production at the plate. Swanson produced only a .238/.304/.395 slash (80 wRC+) with 14 home runs and ten steals over 533 plate appearances, but that represented a step forward after a rough 2017 effort. He’ll open camp with a presumption of at least semi-regular playing time, but could face pressure from Johan Camargo over the course of the season.
  • Hip surgery is on the table for Royals righty Trevor Oaks, Rustin Dodd of The Athletic reports (subscription link). If it is determined that he needs to go under the knife for a labrum tear, the 25-year-old will miss a significant portion of the season to come. Oaks turned in 128 1/3 innings of 3.23 ERA ball at Triple-A last year after he was acquired in last winter’s Scott Alexander swap. He managed only 4.9 K/9 with 3.1 BB/9 on the year, though did post a 50.2% groundball rate (which actually lags his well-above-average minor-league career groundball numbers). Oaks also made a brief MLB debut in 2018. As Dodd explains, it didn’t seem likely that he’d crack the active roster to open the coming campaign. Nevertheless, the loss would dent the Royals’ rotation depth.
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