Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Yhonathan Barrios

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/9/16

By | at

Time to catch up on some recent 40-man roster moves:

  • The Brewers outrighted righties Yhonathan Barrios and Ben Rowen as well as catcher Josmil Pinto, per MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert and Adam McCalvy. Barrios cracked the bigs briefly in 2015 but missed all of 2016 with shoulder issues. The 27-year-old Rowen has minimal major league experience, but did put up a strong 2.33 ERA with 7.0 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 over 58 minor league frames last year. As for Pinto, who’s also 27, he’s still waiting for another shot at the majors. His .308/.362/.517 batting line over 315 plate appearances could warrant interest.
  • Recently-claimed lefty Jed Bradley has been shipped to Triple-A and off of the Orioles’ 40-man, the team announced. Plucked from the Braves, where he briefly debuted last year, Bradley will be a useful stashed arm if a need arises.
  • The Indians announce that catcher Adam Moore was outrighted. He has one of the more interesting Baseball-Reference pages you’ll ever see. Since receiving significant time in 2010 with the Mariners, he has bounced around quite a bit but managed to appear in the majors in every seasons since. Yet Moore has accumulated just fifty total MLB plate appearances in that six-year span. He’ll surely land as a depth piece somewhere, if he doesn’t return to Cleveland.
  • Righty Dustin Molleken elected free agency after being outrighted by the Tigers. The 32-year-old finally reached the majors in 2016, allowing four earned runs on 12 hits and five walks against eight strikeouts over his 8 1/3 innings. Otherwise, he has spent the last five years pitching in Japan or the highest level of the minors.
  • The Twins outrighted right-hander Alex Wimmers, as Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press tweets. Wimmers threw his first 17 1/3 major league innings last year, putting up a 4.15 ERA with 14 strikeouts and 11 walks. In his 56 2/3 Triple-A frames on the year, he worked to a 3.97 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9.
  • The Dodgers dropped righty Chin-hui Tsao from their 40-man roster, as MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick tweets. Now 35, Tsao has made just seven appearances over the last two seasons. All of his prior major league action came between 2003 and 2007.
  • Catcher A.J. Jimenez had his contract selected by the Blue Jays, per a club announcement. He had been removed from the 40-man last spring, but will now be added to prevent him from departing as a minor league free agent. Jimenez has been in Toronto’s system since 2008, but has yet to reach the majors. he posted a .241/.290/.377 batting line over 248 plate appearances at Triple-A last year.
  • The Giants added righty Ian Gardeck to their 40-man roster, as John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. He missed all of last year due to Tommy John surgery. Gardeck’s most recent showing came at the High-A level in 2015, when he pitched to a 3.54 ERA with 10.8 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 over 86 1/3 innings.

Matt Garza Out At Least Four To Six Weeks With Lat Strain

By | at

Brewers right-hander Matt Garza learned today that a strained lat muscle will sideline him for the next four to six weeks, he told reporters, including Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Twitter link). Garza has been dealing with some tightness in his shoulder, but based on his comments, he wasn’t anticipating anything overly serious from his medical examinations. Via MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy (Twitter link), Garza told the media: “I’m not afraid of work, it just wasn’t what I was looking forward to at the beginning.”

Garza, 32, was expected to return to the Brewers’ rotation after losing his spot late last season, but he’ll now spend the foreseeable future on the disabled list instead. Right-hander Zach Davies stands out as a likely candidate to step into the rotation alongside fellow right-handers Wily Peralta, Jimmy Nelson, Taylor Jungmann and Chase Anderson, although top prospect Jorge Lopez received some Major League experience in 2015 as well. And, as McCalvy further tweets, the Brewers won’t need a fifth starter through the first 11 games due to scheduled off days, so there’s no immediate need to promote a starter in Garza’s place. For the time being, righty Tyler Cravy will be promoted to take Garza’s roster spot.

While the rebuilding Brewers aren’t expected to contend this season, it’s nonetheless a disappointing way to begin the season. After losing potential closer Will Smith to a freak LCL tear, Garza’s injury thins out the pitching depth a bit more and also eliminates the possibility of the once-excellent veteran rebuilding some trade stock with a strong early showing. While Garza could, of course, do so upon his return in what appears to be May or June (based on the presented timetable), he already has a fairly lengthy injury history under his belt, and a recent shoulder issue won’t do his stock any favors come July even if he’s pitching well. Last season, Garza struggled to a career-worst 5.63 ERA in 148 2/3 innings.

Garza is entering the third season of a four-year, $50MM contract with Milwaukee which also contains a complex fifth-year option that is largely dependent on the health of his right arm. (The $5MM club option turns into a $13MM vesting option if Garza throws 110 games over the course of the contract’s first four seasons but also shrinks to just a $1MM option if he spends more than 130 days of a season on the disabled list.) The Brewers owe Garza a combined $25MM between the 2016 and 2017 seasons, which is spread out evenly by annual salaries of $12.5MM.

In further injury news, the Brewers have also lost bullpen candidate Yhonathan Barrios to shoulder surgery, as McCalvy tweets. The 24-year-old Barrios, acquired from the Pirates last summer in exchange for Aramis Ramirez, had his rotator cuff repaired by renowned surgeon Dr. James Andrews. Barrios made his big league debut with the Brewers in 2015, firing 6 2/3 scoreless innings out of the ’pen. In that brief but dominant cameo, Barrios allowed just three hits and no walks while averaging 96.4 mph on his heater and striking out seven hitters. His minor league work wasn’t quite as impressive, however; Barrios logged a solid 2.83 ERA in 60 1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, but the hard-throwing righty also averaged just 5.5 strikeouts against 3.3 walks per nine innings pitched.

Show all

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

hide arrows scroll to top