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Tyler Pill

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/23/18

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We’ll kick off the week with Monday’s minor moves from around the game…

  • The Dodgers picked up right-hander Tyler Pill from the Diamondbacks in exchange for cash considerations in a minor swap late last week (Twitter link via J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group). Pill, 27, signed a minor league deal with the D-backs after making his big league debut with the Mets in 2017. The brother of former big league first baseman Brett Pill, Tyler tossed 22 innings for the Mets and yielded 13 earned runs (5.32 ERA) on 22 hits and 10 walks with 16 strikeouts last season. He’s posted solid numbers up through Double-A but struggled at the Triple-A level, although those shaky results came exclusively at an exceptionally hitter-friendly setting in Las Vegas (and the Pacific Coast League in general). Pill debuted with the Dodgers’ own Triple-A affiliate over the weekend and tossed three scoreless frames. He’ll add some depth to an organization that shuffles its pitching staff and the fringes of its 40-man roster perhaps more aggressively than any club in the game.
  • Right-hander Luke Jackson cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A by the Braves after being designated for assignment last week, per Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. The 26-year-old Jackson owns a 4.85 ERA and a 36-to-21 K/BB ratio in 52 innings with the Braves over the past two seasons and has struggled to a 5.79 ERA in 70 total innings at the big league level. Jackson hasn’t missed enough bats in the big leagues (5.8 K/9, 10.7 H/9), but he does have a track record of missing bats in the minors (career 9.8 K/9).
  • Also via Eddy, the Reds have released outfielder Adam Brett Walker from the organization. Walker, 27, was a third-round pick of the Twins in 2012 and boasts huge raw power but plenty of swing-and-miss issues as well as a limited defensive skill set. Minnesota removed him from the 40-man roster after the 2016 season, and he landed with the Brewers, Orioles (twice), Braves and Reds via a series of waivers claims and minor league signings in 2017 alone. Walker’s power is evident in looking at his career .232 ISO in the minors, but he’s whiffed in 30.9 percent of his minor league plate appearances — including an enormous 37.4 percent strikeout clip in Triple-A.

Minor MLB Transactions: 3/8/18

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Here are Thursday’s minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Mariners announced that righty Shawn Armstrong has been outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers. Armstrong, 27, is out of options and obviously was not seen as likely to win a pen job out of camp. Still, he could be a useful depth piece for the M’s. In 43 1/3 MLB frames over three seasons, Armstrong owns a 3.53 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 as well as an 11.3% swinging-strike rate. Armstrong has posted interesting numbers at Triple-A, where he carries a 2.44 ERA with 13.0 K/9 and 4.7 BB/9 in 133 total innings.
  • Lefty Hunter Cervenka has been released by the Marlins, per SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter). Cervenka, who recently turned 28, was outrighted off of the 40-man roster over the winter. He has 48 MLB innings under his belt but has not yet shown an ability to stay in the zone, with 6.8 BB/9 in that span. Cervenka spent the bulk of 2017 at Triple-A, where he worked to a 4.58 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 5.9 BB/9 over 39 1/3 innings.

Earlier Transactions

  • In a minor signing that flew a bit below our radar earlier this winter, the D-backs’ Triple-A affiliate announced that they signed former Mets righty Tyler Pill to a minor league pact. Pill, 28 in May, made his MLB debut with the Mets last year and totaled 22 innings of work across seven innings, including three starts. He struggled to a 5.32 ERA with a 16-to-10 K/BB ratio in that time, but Pill posted more encouraging numbers in a very hitter-friendly Triple-A Las Vegas setting. In 80 1/3 frames in the Pacific Coast League, he logged a 3.47 ERA, albeit with a modest 5.6 K/9 mark against 2.5 BB/9. Pill was assigned to Reno, per the announcement, and hasn’t logged an inning with the D-backs this spring, so it seems he was not invited to Major League camp. He’ll presumably be on hand as a depth option in Triple-A this season.
  • Jumping further back into Mets history, right-hander Vic Black has signed on with the independent New Jersey Jackals of the Canadian-American Association (h/t: Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, on Twitter). Now 29 years of age, the Mets hoped at one point that Black could be a long-term piece in their bullpen. He turned in a 2.96 ERA in 51 2/3 MLB innings from 2013-14 between the Pirates and Mets, but shoulder issues slowed his career before New York eventually cut him loose. Black struggled between A-ball and Double-A with the Giants organization in 2017 and will hope to use the indy circuit as a platform to get his career back on track.
  • Sticking with former big leaguers joining the independent leagues, the Long Island Ducks announced yesterday that they’ve signed former Braves All-Star Jair Jurrjens. Back in 2008, a 22-year-old Jurrjens finished third in NL Rookie of the Year voting with the Braves and went on to earn All-Star honors as a 25-year-old in 2011. However, a series of knee injuries torpedoed his promising career, and he hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since totaling 16 2/3 innings for the Orioles and Rockies from 2013-14. Jurrjens did toss 54 1/3 innings with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in 2017, and he turned 32 years of age just five weeks ago, so he could still work his way back into affiliated ball with a strong showing in the Atlantic League.

Mets Outright Five Players

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The Mets began their offseason roster maintenance on Wednesday, outrighting five players off their 40-man roster, per a club announcement. Among the cuts were right-handers Tyler Pill and Erik Goeddel, outfielders Travis Taijeron and Wuilmer Becerra, and infielder Phillip Evans.

The 27-year-old Pill came up from Triple-A Las Vegas to support an injury-ravaged pitching staff. In 22 innings (four relief appearances and three starts), Pill logged a 5.32 ERA with 6.6 K/9, 4.1 BB/9 and a 49.3 percent ground-ball rate. Pill, the younger brother of former Giants first baseman Brett Pill, posted a solid 3.47 ERA in 80 1/3 innings in Las Vegas’ extremely hitter-friendly environment, though his 5.6 K/9 mark and 2.5 BB/9 mark there suggest that he benefited from some degree of good fortune.

Goeddel, 28, has spent parts of four seasons with the Mets but has not replicated the promise he showed from 2014-15, when he posted a 2.48 ERA with a 40-to-13 K/BB ratio in 40 innings out of former manager Terry Collins’ bullpen. Over the past two seasons, Goeddel has seen his control and velocity worsen, with the ultimate results being a 4.87 ERA in 64 2/3 innings of work. He still averaged 9.6 K/9 in those 2016-17 seasons, but Goeddel also served up 13 homers in that time — an unacceptable average of 1.8 homers per nine innings pitched.

Taijeron and Evans, meanwhile, both received September cameos that marked their respective MLB debuts. The 28-year-old Taijeron mashed in the aforementioned hitters’ haven of Las Veags (.272/.383/.525, 25 homers, 32 doubles) but hit just .173/.271/.269 in 59 big league plate appearances. Evans, 25, batted .279/.341/.418 in Vegas and spent at least 140 innings at each of left field, second base, shortstop and third base. He hit .303/.395/.364 in a tiny sample of 38 MLB PAs.

The 23-year-old Becerra went from the Blue Jays to the Mets alongside Noah Syndergaard and Travis d’Arnaud in the widely panned R.A. Dickey swap and for a couple of years rated as one of the Mets’ more promising farmhands. However, Becerra batted just .267/.332/.335 this past season as a 22-year-old in his second trip through the Class-A Advanced Florida State League.

Mets Shut Down Wheeler For Season, Will Activate Familia Friday

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The Mets announced a slew of medical updates on their roster in a press release this morning, with the most notable reveal being that right-hander Zack Wheeler will miss not pitch again this season. The Mets also announced that closer Jeurys Familia will be activated for tomorrow’s game, while righty Tyler Pill has undergone an arthroscopic debridement of his right elbow, which figures to end his season as well. The Mets also confirmed previous reports that Steven Matz has undergone surgery on his left elbow.

Matt Harvey, meanwhile, will make a Class-A rehab start on Saturday, and Noah Syndergaard will throw live batting practice on Friday. Seth Lugo is slated for a bullpen session Friday, and David Wright is continuing baseball activities in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

Wheeler’s shutdown comes one month to the day after he was placed on the disabled list with a stress reaction in his right arm. The 27-year-old made his return form a two-year layoff stemming from Tommy John surgery this season, and while he got off to a strong start (3.45 ERA through 11 starts), Wheeler wilted as the summer progressed. In his final six trips to the hill, Wheeler completed six innings just one time and posted a collective 9.89 earned run average. His 2017 season will come to a close with a 5.21 ERA, 8.4 K/9, 4.2 BB/9 and a 47.5 percent ground-ball rate over 86 1/3 frames.

Familia, meanwhile, hasn’t pitched since May 10 due to an arterial clot in his right shoulder that required surgery. Between that and the suspension that he served under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy earlier this year, Familia has been limited to 9 1/3 innings this year, during which time he’s logged a 10-to-8 K/BB ratio.

Pill, 27, made his big league debut with the Mets in 2017 after posting a solid ERA but more questionable secondary numbers in the hitter-friendly environment of Triple-A Las Vegas this season. He made three starts and four relief appearances with the Mets, totaling 22 innings with a 5.32 ERA, 16 strikeouts, 10 walks and a 49.5 percent ground-ball rate.

NL East Notes: Pill, Ruiz, Marlins, Glover

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The Mets are promoting Triple-A righty Tyler Pill to join their pitching staff, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports (Twitter link). It’s not clear exactly what role Pill will have with the club, though DiComo does note that Jacob deGrom is healthy and is making his start tonight, so Pill won’t be stepping directly into the rotation. Pill, who turns 27 this weekend, has done a nice job keeping runs off the board in a tough Las Vegas environment this year, tossing 46 innings with a stellar 1.96 ERA. His secondary stats aren’t as encouraging, as he’s averaged just 4.5 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 with a 43.4 percent ground-ball rate. Pill isn’t on the Mets’ 40-man roster, meaning New York will have to make some type of move in order to formally select his contract from Triple-A.

Elsewhere in the NL East…

  • Rio Ruiz wasn’t called upon when Adonis Garcia hit the disabled list last week, but after being promoted in the wake of Freddie Freeman’s injury, the 23-year-old corner infielder has impressed the Braves enough that he’ll likely remain their primary third baseman upon Garcia’s activation, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reports. Atlanta still has some questions about Ruiz’s strikeout tendencies and ability to hit lefties, but his .320/.393/.480 start to his career and .262/.305/.447 effort thus far in Triple-A have apparently earned him some trust. (It probably doesn’t hurt Ruiz’s case that Garcia was struggling to a dismal .237/.278/.348 batting line at the time he was placed on the DL.) With Garcia nearing activation from the DL, the roster spots of Emilio Bonifacio and Danny Santana could be at risk, Bowman adds.
  • The potential price tag in a sale of the Marlins could dip further below the reported $1.3 billion mark that both the Derek Jeter/Jeb Bush and Tom Glavine/Tagg Romney groups were said to be willing to exceed, reports FanRag’s Jon Heyman. Heyman spoke to one person with knowledge of the Bush-Jeter group in particular and said that group is still short of the necessary capital to formally make such a bid. He adds that some potential suitors for the Marlins have backed away after looking “under the hood,” so to speak, which gels with previous reports that the team’s lack of revenue and long-term payroll commitments could be negatively impacting the sale process.
  • Though he’d already been operating in such a capacity without the title, Koda Glover has been officially labeled the Nationals’ closer by manager Dusty Baker, writes MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman. “We wanted to break him in slowly because this guy’s … shoot, he’s only a year-and-a-half out of college,” said Baker. “So he had said that’s the job he wanted, and so it’s his now.” Glover took the reins from veteran righty Shawn Kelley after Kelley blew a save recently and has excelled since being activated from a minor DL stint. The 24-year-old hasn’t been scored upon in his past five appearances and has been the Nationals’ most effective reliever in 2017, tossing 14 innings with a 2.57 ERA, 7.1 K/9, 1.3 BB/9 and a 47.6 percent ground-ball rate.
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