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Yoan Lopez

MLB Suspends Mets’ Yoan Lopez For Three Games

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Major League Baseball announced this evening that Mets reliever Yoan López has been suspended for three games and fined an undisclosed amount for “intentionally throwing pitches at Kyle Schwarber of the Philadelphia Phillies during the top of the ninth inning of Sunday night’s game at Citi Field.” As is typical practice, New York manager Buck Showalter received a one-game suspension for López’s actions.

The Mets optioned López to Triple-A Syracuse today. His suspension will take effect whenever he’s recalled, although he has the right to appeal. Showalter does not have an appellate right, and he’ll miss tonight’s game against the Braves as a result. Bench coach Glenn Sherlock will be the acting manager for tonight’s game, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB.com.

López’s first pitch to Schwarber was a fastball that missed down and in. His second offering was in virtually the same spot. López then threw three straight pitches in the strike zone, and Schwarber eventually grounded out. No one was ejected, although home plate umpire Jerry Meals did issue warnings. Earlier in the game, Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor had been plunked by Philadelphia’s Cristopher Sánchez. López later hit Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm.

It’s the second time in as many weeks López has been at the center of controversy. He threw a pitch up-and-in to Cardinals star Nolan Arenado during a game on Wednesday. Arenado started yelling back, and the benches cleared. Arenado and St. Louis reliever Genésis Cabrera wound up serving one-game suspensions for their roles in that incident; López was fined but not suspended.

Mets’ Sean Reid-Foley Placed On IL With Partial UCL Tear

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The Mets have informed reporters, including Anthony DiComo of MLB.com, that right-handed pitcher Sean Reid-Foley has been diagnosed with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. He left last night’s game with discomfort in that elbow. The club hasn’t specified the next course of action, though Tommy John surgery is an option. Even if Reid-Foley doesn’t require surgery, the non-surgical options for a partial UCL tear require lengthy absences. Reid-Foley was placed on the injured list with righty Yoan Lopez being recalled to take his spot on the active roster.

A second round draft pick of the Blue Jays, Reid-Foley was one of the three players that went from the Jays to the Mets in the Steven Matz trade. He was considered the #75 prospect in the game by Baseball America in 2017, but slid off the list in subsequent years. Between the two clubs, he’s appeared in each of the past five seasons, but thrown only 102 1/3 career innings. In that time, he has a 4.66 ERA, with a 23.6% strikeout rate and 13.7% walk rate.

Reid-Foley and the Mets will now try to figure out the next steps, but he’s not likely to return soon regardless. For example, Nationals’ hurler Joe Ross was diagnosed with a partial UCL tear in August of last year. He ultimately did not undergo surgery, but still hasn’t made it back off the injured list. Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com provided an update today, that Ross will soon start throwing to live hitters. However, the Nats placed him on the 60-day IL to begin the season, indicating they don’t anticipate him returning before June, ultimately amounting to an absence of nearly a year, despite avoiding surgery.

Reid-Foley had one year and 93 days of MLB service time going into this season, meaning he won’t qualify for arbitration until after the 2023 campaign, at the earliest. There’d be almost no cost for the Mets to just hold onto him even if he requires a lengthy rehab process. He can be moved to the 60-day IL at some point and therefore won’t require a roster spot, but the 60-day IL goes away in the offseason, meaning he could have a tenuous hold on his roster spot at that point if he hasn’t returned to health.

Mets Activate Taijuan Walker From 10-Day Injured List

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Taijuan Walker is set to make his return from the 10-day injured list, as the righty is the Mets’ scheduled starter tonight against the Phillies.  In advance of Walker’s activation, righty Yoan Lopez was optioned to Triple-A to create an open spot on the active roster.

Walker only tossed two innings in his first start of the season (on April 11) before leaving the game with shoulder inflammation.  The injury was later diagnosed as right shoulder bursitis, as Walker was placed on the IL the next day.  Fortunately, the issue wasn’t serious enough for Walker to miss too much time, which is a particular relief in Walker’s case given how he also battled some shoulder problems in 2019 while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

2022 is a big season for Walker, who can enter free agency this winter if (as expected) he declines his $6MM player option with the Mets for the 2023 season.  Walker will receive a $3MM buyout if he does opt out, so for the sake of an extra $3MM, it is exceedingly likely that he’ll return to the open market in search of a much pricier multi-year deal.  Walker had a roller-coaster of a 2021 season, as his excellent first half earned him his first career All-Star appearance, but he posted an ugly 7.13 ERA in 64 1/3 innings after the Midsummer Classic.

Walker returns to a red-hot Mets team that has been getting great production from its entire rotation.  Getting Walker back in the mix is the proverbial nice problem to have for the Amazins, and the rotation will be further bolstered later this season whenever Jacob deGrom is able to return from the injured list.

Mets Claim Yoan Lopez Off Waivers From Marlins

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The Mets have claimed reliever Yoan López off waivers from the Marlins, according to announcements from both teams. To clear space on the 40-man roster, New York placed left-hander Joey Lucchesi on the 60-day injured list.

López continues to bounce around the league — and more specifically, the NL East — via waivers. Designated for assignment by the Braves early in the offseason, he was claimed by the Phillies just before the lockout. Since the work stoppage, he’s gone from Philadelphia to Miami and now to Queens on the waiver wire.

Despite having been a member of four NL East teams within the past six months, the only big league club for which López has ever suited up is the Diamondbacks. A high-profile signee by Arizona out of Cuba, he was one of the better pitching prospects in the D-Backs system for the next couple years. López reached the big leagues briefly in 2018 and found a bit of success early in his career. He pitched to a 3.41 ERA over 60 2/3 innings during his second MLB campaign, but an underwhelming 17.1% strikeout rate indicated he might have trouble continuing to keep runs off the board.

That proved to be the case, as he’s posted a 6.19 mark in 32 innings over the past two years. His 19.6% strikeout percentage and 10.1% walk rate in that time are both worse than average. That said, the 29-year-old has actually had some success missing bats on a pitch-by-pitch basis. He’s generated swinging strikes on nearly 13% of his offerings in each of the past two years, about a point above the 11.7% league average for bullpen arms. López has also averaged north of 95 MPH on his fastball and has posted slightly better than average ground-ball marks.

Traded from Arizona to Atlanta in May, López spent the majority of last season with the Braves’ top affiliate in Gwinnett. He had much better results there than he’s had in the big leagues, posting a 3.03 ERA with a 26.7% strikeout rate in 32 appearances. Between his Triple-A performance and pair of remaining minor league option years, López has clearly piqued the interest of a handful of teams. None have yet been willing to devote him a permanent spot on the 40-man roster, but the Mets can stash him at Triple-A Syracuse as a depth option for the next couple years were they to keep him on the 40-man.

Lucchesi’s 60-day IL placement was an inevitability whenever New York needed a roster spot. The southpaw underwent Tommy John surgery last June and will miss most or all of the upcoming season recovering.

Marlins Claim Tommy Nance, Designate Yoan Lopez

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The Marlins announced that right-hander Tommy Nance has been claimed off waivers from the Cubs. To make room on the roster, fellow righty Yoan Lopez was designated for assignment.

Nance, 31, was designated for assignment by the Cubs on Friday. The righty made his MLB debut last year, tossing 28 2/3 innings out of the Cubs’ bullpen. His 7.22 ERA on the year was certainly unsightly, though there may have been some bad luck in there, as Nance’s 52.9% strand rate was about 20 points below league average. All of the advanced pitching metrics believed he deserved much better results. In 15 1/3 Triple-A innings last year, his ERA was much better at 2.35, along with excellent strikeout and walk rates of 31.6% and 5.3%. The Marlins clearly were able to see past the unfortunate results in the big leagues last year in order to focus on his potential. Since Nance still has options, he could be sent to the minors for extra bullpen depth.

As for Lopez, 29, this is yet another trip to DFA limbo for him, a place he’s spent a good deal of time in the past year. After being designated by the Diamondbacks in May, he was traded to the Braves, who designated him again in November, being claimed by the Phillies. Yet another DFA after the lockout resulted in a claim from the Marlins just over a week ago.

The fact that he keeps getting claimed shows that teams still see signs for hope in Lopez. After earning a hefty bonus when originally signed out of Cuba in 2014, Lopez didn’t show much reason for optimism in the following years. However, after being acquired by the Braves last year, his Triple-A performance seemed to give some hope, throwing 32 2/3 innings there with a 26.7% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate, finishing with an ERA of 3.03. Given that he still has options, it’s possible he is claimed on waivers another time, with some team adding him as depth and hoping that he can continue with the momentum he seemed to be building last year.

Marlins Release Monte Harrison

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TODAY: The Marlins have released Harrison, according to MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola (Twitter link).

MARCH 24: Harrison has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, the team informed reporters (including Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald). He’ll remain in the organization without requiring a 40-man roster spot.

MARCH 18: The Marlins announced a trio of roster moves Friday, designating outfielder Monte Harrison for assignment, claiming righty Yoan Lopez off waivers from the Phillies, and signing veteran outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. to a minor league contract.

Harrison, a second-round pick in 2014 and former top-100 prospect, was one of the key pieces sent from Milwaukee to Miami in the Christian Yelich blockbuster. The 26-year-old appeared in just 40 games with the Marlins over the course of his time in the organization, batting .175/.230/.263 in a tiny sample of 62 plate appearances. Of course, Harrison also never really forced his way onto the big league roster with standout performances in the minors, either. He logged a .715 OPS in an admittedly pitcher-friendly Double-A setting in 2018 — his first in the Marlins organization — and wasn’t able to push that OPS even as high as .800 in any of the three years he spent in the system.

Harrison did post a .242/.331/.446 batting line that checked in slightly above league-average production in Triple-A last year (108 wRC+), but he did so with a staggering 39.3% strikeout rate that surely didn’t give the team any confidence he was beginning to turn a corner. Now out of minor league options and squarely behind Avisail Garcia, Jesus Sanchez, Bryan De La Cruz and others on the outfield depth chart, Harrison finds himself jettisoned from the 40-man roster. The Marlins will have a week to trade Harrison, place him on outright waivers, or release him. The latter of those three scenarios seems highly unlikely; Harrison will either be traded/claimed by another club, or he’ll pass through outright waivers unclaimed and remain in the Marlins organization.

Taking Harrison’s spot on the 40-man roster, at least for now, is the 29-year-old Lopez — a former high-profile Diamondbacks signing out of Cuba. He’s spent parts of four seasons in the big leagues but, after a decent start with Arizona, has seen his numbers tank in recent years. Lopez throws hard (96.2 mph average fastball in his career) and has better-than-average marks in terms of walk rate (7.7%) and ground-ball rate (46.8%).

That said, Lopez’s 19.1% strikeout rate is well shy of the MLB average, particularly among relievers, and he’s been overwhelmingly homer-prone. In 101 2/3 innings at the MLB level, he has a 4.25 ERA but a sky-high 1.77 HR/9. Lopez’s four-seamer has above-average velocity but bottom-of-the-scale spin rate, which has allowed hitters to square it up with regularity. On 251 occasions, Lopez has finished a big league plate appearance by throwing a fastball, and opponents have posted a .280/.333/.511 batting line in those instances. Lopez’s career 5.3% swinging-strike rate on his four-seamer is one of the lower marks you’ll come across.

As for the veteran DeShields, he’ll replenish some of the center-field depth lost by designating Harrison for assignment but do so without requiring a 40-man roster spot. The 29-year-old is a generally known commodity know, having logged big league time in each of the past seven seasons (including three years as the primary center fielder in Texas). DeShields has never shown much in the way of power but has well above-average speed and is capable of playing all three outfield spots. He’s a lifetime .247/.326/.342 hitter in 2114 trips to the plate at the MLB level.

Phillies Designate Yoan Lopez For Assignment

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The Phillies announced today that they have designated right-hander Yoan Lopez for assignment. The move clears a spot on the 40-man roster for outfielder Odubel Herrera, whose signing is now official. Another move will be required for the signing of Kyle Schwarber, once that becomes official.

After Lopez defected from Cuba in 2014, the Diamondbacks signed him and gave him a bonus of $8.27MM. The club went over their international bonus allotment to do so, which was allowed under the CBA at that time. However, the penalty for doing so was that they were then prohibited from giving a bonus larger than $300K for the next two international signing periods.

Unfortunately, Lopez never really justified that aggressiveness. After a couple of years of mediocre results as a starter in the minors, Arizona moved him to a relief role. He made it to the majors in 2018 and threw out of the club’s bullpen over the next few years, making 113 appearances in that time, logging a total of 101 2/3 innings with a 4.25 ERA, 19.1% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate.

After being designated for assignment in May of last year, Lopez was claimed by the Braves and spent the rest of the year with their Triple-A club. He threw 32 2/3 innings there with a 26.7% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate, finishing with an ERA of 3.03. Despite those encouraging results, Atlanta designated him for assignment when they acquired Jay Jackson in November, with the Phillies claiming him off waivers at that time. That makes this the third DFA in less than a year for Lopez. With the promise he showed in Triple-A, it seems likely he will be claimed again. He has just over two years of MLB service time and still can be optioned to the minors, meaning a team could take a chance on the 29-year-old and improve their bullpen depth.

Phillies Claim Yoan Lopez, Designate Roman Quinn

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The Phillies announced Monday that they’ve claimed righty Yoan Lopez off waivers from the Braves and cleared a roster spot by designating outfielder Roman Quinn for assignment.

The 28-year-old Lopez had a solid run with the Braves’ top affiliate, Triple-A Gwinnett, tallying 32 2/3 innings of 3.03 ERA ball with a 26.7% strikeout rate and an 8.4% walk rate in that time. Atlanta never gave him a look in the Majors after acquiring him in a small, late-May swap with the D-backs, however, and Lopez was designated for assignment when the Braves picked up righty Jay Jackson from the Giants last week.

Once a high-profile international signing by the D-backs, Lopez has only tallied 101 2/3 innings in the big leagues to this point. He carries a 4.25 ERA with a solid 7.7% walk rate but a below-average 19.1% strikeout rate. He has a pair of minor league options remaining and will give the Phillies some bullpen depth if he survives the offseason on their 40-man roster.

Quinn, 28, long ranked as one of the better prospects in the Phillies’ system, but the speedster has been oft-injured and, to this point, generally unproductive at the MLB level. The fleet-footed switch-hitter batted just .173/.306/.288 in 62 MLB plate appearances this past season and owns a .228/.306/.355 batting line through 512 trips to the plate at the game’s top level.

To his credit, Quinn has swiped 39 bases in just 178 MLB games and has drawn solid defensive ratings across all three outfield positions. He’s also compiled a solid .286/.351/.407 batting line in Triple-A. However, Quinn is out of minor league options as well, and he’d been projected to receive a modest bump to $700K in arbitration. The dollar amount surely wasn’t of concern to the Phillies so much as the fact that Quinn simply wasn’t viewed as part of the outfield puzzle moving forward.

The Phillies are known to be in the market for center field upgrades, having previously been tied to Starling Marte (now with the division-rival Mets) and Byron Buxton (who signed a seven-year extension and received a full no-trade clause from the Twins). Presumably, the Phils will continue to explore alternative options in the outfield, eyeing at least a new center fielder if not a pair of outfielders to pair with reigning NL MVP Bryce Harper.

Braves Acquire Jay Jackson, Designate Yoan Lopez

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The Giants have traded right-handed reliever Jay Jackson to the Braves in exchange for cash or a player to be named later, per a pair of team announcements. San Francisco designated Jackson for assignment on Friday while setting their 40-man roster prior to the Rule 5 protection deadline. Fellow right-hander Yoan Lopez was designated for assignment in a corresponding move, per the Braves.

Jackson, 34, has found new life in the big leagues after a strong four-year run with the Hiroshima Carp in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He’s been with the Brewers and the Giants since returning, most recently pitching to a 3.74 ERA with an impressive 31.3% strikeout rate in 21 1/3 innings for San Francisco last season. Jackson also averaged 94.8 mph on his heater, pairing that with a sizable 13.3% swinging-strike rate. Those numbers are impressive, to be sure, but Jackson has also struggled with his command at times, walking 13.5% of his opponents since his return from NPB.

Command issues notwithstanding, Jackson makes for a solid, low-cost pickup for the reigning World Series champs. In addition to a good run with the Giants’ big league club last year, he also posted a 1.29 ERA with a gaudy 24-to-1 K/BB ratio in 14 Triple-A frames in 2021. And, despite the fact that he’s 34 years old, Jackson still has a minor league option remaining, so he can give the Braves a good bit of flexibility in the bullpen.

The 28-year-old Lopez was traded from Arizona to Atlanta in a late-May deal that sent minor league outfielder Deivi Estrada to Arizona. Lopez had a solid run in Triple-A Gwinnett, tallying 32 2/3 innings of 3.03 ERA ball with a 26.7% strikeout rate and an 8.4% walk rate in that time.

Once a high-profile international signing by the D-backs, Lopez has only tallied 101 2/3 innings in the big leagues to this point. He carries a 4.25 ERA with a solid 7.7% walk rate but a below-average 19.1% strikeout rate. The Braves will have a week to trade Lopez, place him on outright waivers or release him.

Braves Acquire Yoan Lopez From Diamondbacks

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The Braves announced they’ve acquired reliever Yoan López from the Diamondbacks. Outfield prospect Deivi Estrada has been sent to Arizona in return. Atlanta optioned López to Triple-A Gwinnett.

Arizona designated López for assignment earlier this week to clear 40-man roster space for the selection of Josh Reddick. The righty has gotten off to a difficult start to the year, pitching to a 6.57 ERA over 12 1/3 innings. That’s his second straight season of poor run prevention, as López only managed a 5.95 mark across 19 2/3 frames in 2020.

Those struggles led the D-Backs to move on from the 28-year-old, ending his six-year tenure in the organization. The previous front office regime signed López to an $8.27MM bonus as an amateur coming out of Cuba in January 2015. Under the terms of the previous collective bargaining agreement, the López signing barred the Diamondbacks from signing any other international amateur prospects for greater than a $300K bonus during either of the 2015-16 or 2016-17 international signing periods.

That decision proved to be one the organization would regret, as López never lived up to those lofty standards. He wasn’t completely unproductive in Arizona, though. López tossed 60 2/3 innings of 3.41 ERA ball in 2019, proving to be one of the D-Backs more reliable relievers that season. While he’s struggled to keep runs off the board the past two seasons, he has at least shown some flashes of promise.

López is inducing ground balls at a decent 45.2% rate, and he’s seen a slight uptick in swings and misses this year. His 21.3% strikeout rate is a career best (albeit still three percentage points worse than average for a reliever), excluding a 2018 season in which he only pitched nine innings. More impressively, López has generated whiffs on 12.7% of his pitches, a mark that’s slightly better than league average. He also brings a power arm to Atlanta, sitting 95.7 MPH on his heater.

Perhaps most appealing for the Braves is López’s contractual flexibility. He still has all three minor league option years remaining, so the front office can shuttle him back-and-forth between Atlanta and Gwinnett as they see fit for the next few seasons, so long as he sticks on the 40-man roster. As a player with 2.011 years of MLB service, he’s only making slightly more than the league minimum salary this year.

In return, the Diamondbacks will pick up a low-level developmental flyer. Estrada, 20, didn’t advance past the Dominican Summer League in the Atlanta organization. He hit .307/.433/.366 with more walks than strikeouts in 255 plate appearances at that level in 2019, playing mostly center field. Estrada has never been included on a Braves system ranking at Baseball America or FanGraphs.

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