Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Victor Arano

East Notes: Rays, Nats, T. Frazier, Phillies

By | at

The Rays, who have employed some outside-the-box thinking with regards to their rotation this season, will turn to veteran reliever Sergio Romo for his first career start Saturday. The 35-year-old right-hander will take the hill against the Angels’ formidable offense after beginning his MLB tenure with 588 straight appearances out of the bullpen. Unsurprisingly, there’s almost no chance Romo will be in the game long enough to pick up a win, manager Kevin Cash suggested. “The thought process is fairly obvious,” Cash said of the decision to start Romo (via Jay Paris of MLB.com). “They are a heavy stacked right-handed lineup. Now, they can obviously change that, but a couple of their guys aren’t going to move no matter who’s pitching. So, if Romo can get through an inning or two, we’ll see where we are at and probably give the ball to (Ryan) Yarbrough.”

Meanwhile, a more traditional starting option – righty Nathan Eovaldi – is nearing his Rays debut. Eovaldi, who hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2016 (as a Yankee), is likely to join the team after a Triple-A rehab start Wednesday, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Eovaldi underwent Tommy John surgery late in the ’16 campaign, causing him to miss all of last season and some of this year, and has been dealing with a right rib muscle strain more recently.

More from Tampa Bay and a few other East Coast cities…

  • In other Rays news, the club placed shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria on the disabled list with a hamstring strain, retroactive to Friday, Topkin writes. The team recalled righty Ryne Stanek from Triple-A to take Hechavarria’s roster spot. The light-hitting Hechavarria’s absence will leave short to infielder Daniel Robertson, who has quietly been one of the majors’ premier offensive players this year. Robertson’s slashing .284/.438/.471 with four home runs and nearly as many walks (26) as strikeouts (29) through 130 trips to the plate.
  • Nationals outfielder Rafael Bautista will undergo season-ending knee surgery, Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post reports. Bautista, 25, tore the ACL, LCL and meniscus in his left knee on a collision Thursday while playing for the Nats’ Triple-A affiliate. Even though Bautista has only totaled 33 major league plate appearances (six this year) since debuting last season, his loss is another unwelcome one for a team whose outfield depth has taken multiple hits in 2018. Washington was already down Adam Eaton and Brian Goodwin prior to Bautista’s injury, and it may have to go without Howie Kendrick after he departed Saturday’s game on a cart with an apparent ankle issue.
  • There’s no timetable for Mets third baseman Todd Frazier’s return from the DL, the player said Saturday (via MetsBlog). Frazier landed on the shelf May 8 with a hamstring issue, meaning he would have been eligible to come back Friday. Instead, the injury-riddled, slumping Mets will continue to go without the offseason free-agent signing. The Frazier pickup had been paying off for the Mets prior to his injury, as he began the season with a .237/.357/.412 line and five homers in 140 PAs. New York has turned to Wilmer Flores, Jose Reyes and Luis Guillorme at the hot corner in Frazier’s stead.
  • The Phillies activated righty reliever Victor Arano from the DL on Saturday. Arano went down April 30 with a strained right rotator cuff, before which the 23-year-old rookie produced dominant results. Across his first 12 innings of the year, Arano logged a .75 ERA/1.73 FIP with 9.75 K/9 and 2.25 BB/9.

Phillies Place Victor Arano On 10-Day DL

By | at

The Phillies have placed righty Victor Arano on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. He has been diagnosed with a strained right rotator cuff.

To replace Arano on the active roster, the Phils have promoted fellow right Zach Eflin. That move had been anticipated, as he’ll make a start tomorrow night — thus filling the rotation spot vacated (at least temporarily) by Ben Lively.

It does not seem there’s much cause for long-term concern regarding Arano, a 23-year-old reliever who has swiftly turned into a key cog for the Phils. The strain is said to be “mild,” MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki tweets.

Certainly, the Phils will hope the young hurler is not facing more than a brief respite. After a strong debut in 2017, Arano entered the current season with fairly high expectations. He has delivered beyond any reasonable hope thus far, allowing just one earned run on five hits and one unintentional walk over a dozen frames. Throwing his slider on more than half of his deliveries to the plate, Arano has carried an 18.1% swinging-strike rate through his 22 2/3 total MLB innings.

Eflin, meanwhile, will look to improve upon his less-than-promising major-league numbers to date. Through 127 2/3 innings over the past two seasons, he carries a 5.85 ERA with 4.7 K/9 and 2.0 BB/9. There’s probably an opportunity to grab ahold of a starting job if he throws the ball well, though there’s no indication at this point that Lively will be out for long.

Tommy Hunter To Open Season On DL

By | at

Phillies righty Tommy Hunter will open the year on the DL after being diagnosed with a hamstring strain, as Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com was among those to report on Twitter.

It’s not clear at the moment just how long Hunter will be sidelined, but skipper Gabe Kapler says the belief is it isn’t a serious injury, as Bob Brookover of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Saying the team is acting “conservatively,” Kapler explained that there are no “long-term concerns” at the moment.

Hunter is expected to play a key role in the Phillies pen after joining the organization on a surprisingly hefty two-year deal over the winter. He was promised $18MM after a strong 2017 season in which he not only worked to a productive 2.61 ERA in 58 2/3 innings but ran up a career-high 9.8 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9.

The early returns have not exactly been exciting, though it’s certainly not worth rushing to any conclusions. Hunter managed only one strikeout and allowed three earned runs in his 4 1/3 Grapefruit League frames.

[RELATED: Updated Phillies Depth Chart]

While the injury to Hunter leaves the Phillies down another arm, after already losing a few hurlers to open the year, it does clear space for Jake Thompson. The younger righty, once considered a promising rotation prospect, had shown some promise in camp. He’ll likely be joined in the bullpen by 23-year-old Victor Arano, who’ll get his first full crack at the majors.

Added To The 40-Man Roster: Arano, Moya

By | at

A couple of 40-man additions to kick things off Tuesday morning…

  • The Phillies will add not only Henderson Alvarez to the 40-man roster — as was reported yesterday — but also right-hander Victor Arano, according to CSN Philly’s Jim Salisbury (Twitter link). The hard-throwing 22-year-old, who ranks 27th on MLB.com’s list of the Phillies’ top 30 prospects, spent the season pitching against older competition with Double-A Reading and posted a 4.19 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and a 38.9 percent ground-ball rate. MLB.com’s Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo note in their free report on him that a move to the bullpen in 2017 and a focus on his slider as his primary breaking pitch have both allowed Arano’s stuff to play up in the bullpen. Arano needed to be added to the 40-man this winter anyhow in order to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft, so the Phils will add him a bit earlier and take a few looks at him against MLB pitching down the stretch. He opened the year with an arm injury — reportedly a sprained UCL — but made his way back to toss 38 2/3 innings this season.
  • The Twins look set to add lefty reliever Gabriel Moya to their 40-man roster. Venezuelan journalist Dessiree Castro tweeted that Moya was promoted to the Majors, and Moya’s former pitching coach in the D-backs’ minor league system did the same. Moya rated at the back-end of the Twins’ top 30 at MLB.com before the trades of Jaime Garcia and Brandon Kintzler added a couple of new names to that list. The 22-year-old has posted video-game numbers in Double-A this year, working to a combined 0.77 ERA with 13.4 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9 with a ground-ball rate of about 41 percent through 58 1/3 innings. Acquired from Arizona in late July for catcher John Ryan Murphy, Moya would have been added to the 40-man this winter as well, so this move will just give Minnesota an earlier chance to evaluate him for a future role.

NL East Notes: Nationals, Wieters, Mets, Arano, MacPhail

By | at

Nationals ace Max Scherzer has been recovering from a stress fracture in the knuckle of his right ring finger, and he’s on track to throw off a mound for the first time this spring on Saturday, Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com reports. If everything goes according to plan, he’ll progress to bullpen sessions and be game-ready in a couple of weeks, Zuckerman adds. While pitching coach Mike Maddux conceded that Scherzer could be “a start or two” behind the rest of the team’s rotation, the extra time in Spring Training (which was worked in due to the World Baseball Classic) will prove beneficial to Scherzer. Both Stephen Strasburg and Tanner Roark threw in an intrasquad game today as well, Zuckerman notes — a particularly important note for Strasburg. The 28-year-old righty saw his 2016 season end in early September due to a flexor mass strain but was able to throw his fastball, curveball and changeup in Thursday’s session.

More from the NL East…

  • The Mets’ show of faith in Travis d’Arnaud will be all the more interesting to watch now that Matt Wieters has agreed to sign with the division-rival Nationals, writes Dan Martin of the New York Post. The Mets weren’t impressed with Wieters’ defense, Martin reports, which is why the team never embarked on a serious pursuit of the longtime Oriole. Martin spoke to a number of Mets players about the feeling of watching an excellent catcher, Wilson Ramos, depart from the Nationals only to be replaced by another well-reputed backstop. “When you lose a guy like Ramos and back him up with a guy like Wieters, that’s pretty solid,” David Wright said to Martin. “It’s tough to replace a guy like Ramos. … That’s what good organizations do, whether it’s us getting [Neil] Walker immediately after losing [Daniel] Murphy [to the Nationals]. They find a Plan B and a Plan C very quickly.”
  • The Phillies will be without hard-throwing right-handed relief prospect Victor Arano for at least one month, per CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury. The 22-year-old, who averaged about 94 mph on his fastball in 2016, has been diagnosed with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. While surgery hasn’t been recommended, Arano did receive a platelet-rich plasma injection that will sideline him for the bulk of Spring Training. Though he was never likely to break camp with the Phils, it’s still discouraging for the team to see the promising young see his development set back. Last season, Arano posted brilliant numbers between Class-A Advanced and Double-A, working to a combined 2.26 ERA with 10.7 K/9 against 2.1 BB/9 across 79 2/3 innings of work. Arano rated 23rd among Phillies prospects entering the season, per MLB.com, while ESPN’s Keith Law rated him 16th. “If there’s a Ken Giles in the system right now, it’s him,” Law wrote of Arano.
  • Andy MacPhail’s career in baseball spans several decades, but the Phillies’ president is leading the charge to help modernize his organization, writes MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki. MacPhail, who took charge of the Phillies following the 2015 season, explained to Zolecki the myriad changes that are being made all throughout the organization. Improvements not only to the team’s analytics department but also to nutrition programs in the minor league ranks and a new facility opening in the Dominican Republic are just some of the changes that have been ushered in. MacPhail also sounded intrigued by the Rays’ recent decision to push back the start times of their spring workouts for players and cited an interest in sleep science studies. Beyond that, he noted that the Phils will be looking to hire a replacement for EVP/COO Mike Stiles, who will be retiring in June, though there’s been no determination on whether they’ll go with an internal or external hire.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top