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Yoenis Cespedes

East Notes: Yankees, H. Harvey, Soroka, Cespedes

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It turns out top prospect Justus Sheffield might not be the next minor league pitcher in line to join the Yankees’ rotation, as Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports in his latest video that the club nearly promoted 23-year-old Jonathan Loaisiga for a spot start during a doubleheader, until rain altered their schedule. Rosenthal notes that Loaisiga had never pitched above Low-A ball until this season. It seems like he’s met little resistance this year, though, as he’s posted a 3.13 ERA this season while striking out 10.96 batters per nine against an equally impressive 1.17 walks per nine. Of course, plenty could change by the next time the Yankees need another starter. It’s certainly worth noting that promoting Sheffield last Monday might have improved his chances of making the Super Two cut, had he impressed enough to stick in the rotation from there on out. There will certainly be some entertaining suspense surrounding this situation from here forward.

Other items fresh off the East coast…

  • Orioles prospect Hunter Harvey was scratched from his most recent Double-A start due to a shoulder injury, Dan Connoly of baltimorebaseball.com reports. Harvey’s dealt with plenty of injury issues in his career already, and this latest case (described as “posterior shoulder instability) has left him on an unknown timetable to return to the rotation. Harvey also had Tommy John surgery on his throwing elbow in 2016. Even when on the field, he hasn’t been particularly impressive this year. His 5.57 ERA across 32 1/3 innings on the season is an eyesore.
  • Rookie Mike Soroka is set to come off the DL and start Wednesday for the Braves, reports David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. O’Brien adds that manager Brian Snitker plans to hold Soroka to a pitch count of 85-90. Soroka is widely considered to be one of the best right-handed pitching prospects in the game, and he’s backed that up by pitching to a 2.77 FIP in three starts this season while striking out more than a batter per inning.
  • Injury news isn’t looking so good for a division rival, however, as the Mets’ Yoenis Cespedes reportedly left his rehab start tonight with tightness in his right quad. He’ll be re-evaluated tomorrow, but even a small setback is certainly discouraging; Cespedes has been riddled with injuries since signing a four-year, $110MM pact with New York following the 2016 season.

Mets Place Yoenis Cespedes On 10-Day DL

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The Mets have placed outfielder Yoenis Cespedes on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by Phillip Evans.

It’s not surprising to hear that Cespedes is going to be shut down for a bit, as he has been dealing with a hip strain that has lingered for the past ten days or so. The team had resisted a DL placement but finally decided to bite the bullet and shut Cespedes down. The placement is backdated to May 14th.

The 32-year-old Cespedes remains a key cog in the New York lineup. He’s off to a .255/.316/.474 slash through 152 plate appearances, which isn’t quite up to the standard he has set over the past three years but remains substantially above-average output.

While it always hurts to lose such a productive member of the lineup, the Mets will obviously want to ensure that this doesn’t balloon into another worrying lower-body injury for Cespedes. Plus, both Brandon Nimmo and Juan Lagares have hit well in limited action; providing some extra action for them probably isn’t the worst outcome.

NL Notes: Dodgers, Mets, Braves, Padres, Giants

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Dodgers right fielder Yasiel Puig is slated to go on a rehab assignment Monday and come off the disabled list Wednesday, Ken Gurnick of MLB.com tweets. It has been a short stay on the DL for Puig, who suffered a hip pointer and a bruised foot on April 28. Meanwhile, third baseman Justin Turner took batting practice Sunday for the first time since suffering a broken left wrist on March 20, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register was among those to report. Both the Puig and Turner updates are much-needed positive news for the Dodgers, who have been victimized by key injuries all year. Ace Clayton Kershaw became their latest cornerstone player to hit the DL on Sunday.

More from the National League…

  • Mets left fielder Yoenis Cespedes exited the team’s game Sunday with a right quad issue, Tim Britton of The Athletic tweets. Cespedes has dealt with right quad problems in the past, but he’s optimistic this isn’t a serious issue. The 32-year-old said after the game that he might play the Mets’ series opener in Cincinnati on Monday.
  • Braves third base prospect Austin Riley is getting closer to the majors. The Braves promoted the 21-year-old from Double-A to Triple-A on Sunday, according to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Riley, whom multiple outlets ranks as a top 100 prospect, slashed an incredible .333/.394/.677 (193 wRC+) with six home runs in 109 plate appearances at Double-A this year. He might push for the Braves’ starting third base job as early as next season, per O’Brien.
  • Padres righty Bryan Mitchell could lose his starting job before he’s scheduled to take the hill again on Thursday, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com relays. “Going forward, we’ll sit down and talk about it,” Padres manager Andy Green said Saturday after Mitchell allowed three earned runs on five hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings against the Dodgers. Although Mitchell’s ERA is now up to 6.47 across 32 frames, during which he has logged 4.5 K/9 against 7.31 BB/9, it doesn’t seem as if those struggles will cost him his roster spot. Rather, the Padres would move the out-of-options 27-year-old to the bullpen, Cassavell suggests. Mitchell’s output this year clearly isn’t what San Diego had in mind when it acquired him and third baseman Chase Headley (and $12.5MM of his $13MM salary) from the Yankees for outfielder Jabari Blash over the winter.
  • Giants outfielder Mac Williamson’s return from the seven-day concussion DL isn’t imminent, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle suggests. Williamson, who suffered the injury April 24, will likely need a rehab assignment even when he’s healthy enough to play again, Schulman notes. As such, he might not suit up again for the Giants until mid-May or later.

NL East Notes: Cespedes, Soroka, Braves, Rendon

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Yoenis Cespedes made an early exit from today’s Mets/Padres game, as the outfielder left during the third inning with a thumb injury.  Cespedes suffered the injury while making a headfirst slide during a steal of third base, and remained in the game for the rest of the Mets’ turn at bat before being replaced by Brandon Nimmo in the bottom half of the inning.  The injury is just a day-to-day issue for now, though it is certainly another unwelcome problem in what has already been a tough start to the 2018 season for the New York outfielder.  Cespedes entered today’s action hitting just .218/.279/.416 with a league-high 43 strikeouts.  [UPDATE: Cespedes tells MLB.com’s Tim Powers and other media that he believes he’ll miss three days recovering from the injury, or two games given New York’s off-day on Monday.  X-rays were negative on Cespedes’ thumb and he is likely to undergo an MRI on Monday.)

Some more from around the NL East…

  • Braves pitching prospect Mike Soroka was scratched from a Triple-A start today since he could be needed for his big league debut this week, David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution writes, depending on the health of Julio Teheran and Anibal Sanchez.  Teheran’s outing on Friday was cut short by tightness in his upper right trapezius, though the Braves are hopeful that he’ll be able to make his scheduled start on Wednesday.  Sanchez, meanwhile, is tentatively slated to return from a hamstring injury and be activated from the DL in time for Saturday’s start.  Both Teheran and Sanchez felt good after bullpen sessions on Sunday, and Sanchez will also throw in a simulated game on Tuesday before a decision is made about his status.  Soroka, the 28th overall pick of the 2015 draft, is a consensus top-35 prospect according to preseason rankings from Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, Fangraphs, and MLB.com.  He has continued to display that promise in his first taste of Triple-A ball this year, with a 1.99 ERA, 9.5 K/9, and a 4.8 K/BB rate over 22 2/3 innings at the top of the minor league pyramid.  It’s likely that Soroka wouldn’t get an extended stint in the majors quite yet if he was promoted this week, though he is a prime candidate for a longer look later this season once rosters expand.
  • In a video update for FOX Sports (Twitter link), Ken Rosenthal believes Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos will be his usual aggressive self on the trade front if Atlanta is in contention at the deadline, though Anthopoulos doesn’t seem likely to deal multiple prospects.  While the Braves have a deep farm system, this pipeline of young and affordable talent is crucial to both the club’s rebuild and its financial situation — Rosenthal notes that the Braves “are saddled by debt.”  Anthopoulos already eschewed trading from that prospect depth last winter, though it will be interesting to see what moves he does make if the Braves continue to keep pace in the NL East.
  • Anthony Rendon is “very close” to returning from his toe injury, Nationals manager Dave Martinez told MASNsports.com’s Mark Zuckerman and other reporters.  Rendon was eligible to be activated from the DL today, though he remained sidelined and Martinez said that the activation may not come on Monday, either.  On a more positive note, Martinez said that Rendon went through fielding, running, and hitting drills today with no issue.  The team still has to decide whether a short rehab stint is needed since Rendon has been out of action for over two weeks.

Juan Lagares Still Drawing Trade Interest

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5:32pm: The A’s don’t have interest in Lagares at this time, tweets the Post’s Joel Sherman, removing one speculative partner from consideration.

4:20pm: The Mets have received recent trade interest in Juan Lagares and “haven’t ruled out” a trade of the defensively gifted center fielder, reports Mike Puma of the New York Post. Per Puma, at least one AL club has maintained interest in Lagares into the middle portion of Spring Training.

Lagares, who turns 29 on Saturday, is guaranteed $6.5MM in 2018 and $9MM in 2019, plus a $500K buyout of a $9.5MM option for the 2020 season. While his bat has been a negative asset since he signed his $23.5MM extension prior to the 2015 season, his glove remains superlative; over the past three seasons, Lagares has amassed 1914 2/3 innings in the outfield (nearly all in center field) and delivered 25 Defensive Runs Saved and 22.1 Ultimate Zone Rating. Statcast’s OOA metric pegged him at seven outs better than an average defender in 2017.

Moving Lagares would obviously thin out New York’s outfield mix, though Puma notes that Brandon Nimmo could be leapfrogging Lagares on the depth chart with a strong spring showing while Lagares struggles at the dish. Michael Conforto is expected to man center field upon his return — which Puma notes could come by early May — with Yoenis Cespedes and Jay Bruce lining up in the corners. Conforto’s return would push Nimmo and Lagares further down the depth chart. Cespedes, it should be noted, is being slowed by a sore wrist, though MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo tweets that X-rays on the wrist came back negative.

The Mets are currently set to open the 2018 season with a club-record payroll of more than $152MM, and the fact that they already have $95MM+ on the payroll for the 2019 season creates some further impetus for moving Lagares if he’s been pushed to fifth on the outfield depth chart. The Mets figure to get some of those projected Opening Day figures back in the form of an insurance policy on David Wright’s salary — he’s expected to be shut down from baseball activity for eight weeks — but it obviously stands to reason that no team would relish the notion of paying a fifth outfielder at that relatively lofty rate.

Speculatively looking around the American League, the A’s, Tigers, White Sox and Rangers were among the clubs that received questionable defensive ratings from their center field contingents in 2017, and the Royals lost Lorenzo Cain to free agency (though they’ve since added Jon Jay on an affordable one-year deal). The Mariners, meanwhile, are dealing with a thin outfield mix that is being slowed by injuries and have placed a premium on defensive value under GM Jerry Dipoto, who is never shy about making trades.

NL East Notes: Phillies, Conforto, AGon, Robles

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As the Phillies introduce Jake Arrieta today, the organization is now much more clearly in a competitive posture than it was at the outset of the winter. But the pedal won’t be fully pressed down, it seems, despite the presence of a few other notable free agents who’d improve the near-term outlook in Philadelphia. GM Matt Klentak says that he does not anticipate any further additions before the start of the season, as MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki tweets.

More from the NL East:

  • The Mets continue to have cause for optimism on outfielder Michael Conforto, whose scary shoulder injury made for quite an offseason concern. He’s now nearing game readiness, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets, and anticipates getting into a spring game next week. That doesn’t mean that Conforto will be on the Opening Day roster, but certainly suggests he’s on track to return relatively early in the season. In other injury news, via MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (Twitter links), the Mets say that outfielder Yoenis Cespedes has a sore wrist. Though there’s no indication at present that it’s a worrying injury, he has undergone an x-ray and is waiting for the results. Meanwhile, veteran third baseman David Wright is no closer to a return; rather, he’ll hold off on baseball activities for at least eight weeks after being examined recently.
  • New Mets first baseman Adrian Gonzalez discussed his fresh start and unusual offseason with Mike Puma of the New York Post. Notably, Gonzalez says he was initially resistant to the Dodgers’ request that he waive his no-trade protection to go to the Braves in a contract-swapping move that ultimately left him landing in New York. But Los Angeles “sweetened the deal every single time” he met with the team, says the veteran, who acknowledged there was compensation involved.
  • Pete Kerzel of MASNsports.com examines the Nationals’ decision-making process with top prospect Victor Robles, who is impressing in camp despite a middling stat line in Grapefruit League action. The 20-year-old is ready for the majors, by all accounts, though the organization certainly has plenty of good reasons not to carry him out of camp. First and foremost, the organization has a solid center field combo already lined up in Michael Taylor and the out-of-options Brian Goodwin; in that sense, then, promoting Robles would mean parting with depth. Service-time considerations are also a factor; since Robles picked up 25 days of service last year, he’s just 147 days away from a full year of service. If the Nats wish to delay Robles’s eventual entry onto the open market, they’ll need to keep him down until early May; keeping him from potential Super Two status would likely mean waiting to bring him back up until the middle of the summer.

Injury Notes: Gurriel, Frazier, Gausman, Stroman, Thornburg, Eaton

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The Astros have shipped first baseman Yuli Gurriel to Houston so his injured hand can be evaluated, Jake Kaplan of The Athletic reports (Twitter link). At this point, the situation is more or less a mystery, with no real indication how the issue arose or just what the club is concerned about. Clearly, though, the team’s training staff has found cause to get a closer look from a specialist.

Here’s more on some injury situations from around the game:

  • Yankees outfielder Clint Frazier has been diagnosed with a concussion, tweets MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. Frazier made a leaping catch in yesterday’s Grapefruit League game against the Pirates and stumbled a bit before falling backwards and hitting his head against the base of the left-field wall (video link). Manager Aaron Boone said Frazier will be down for “a few days” and acknowledged the seemingly optimistic nature of that timeline. Frazier is far from a lock to make the Opening Day roster in New York with Brett Gardner, Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge and Jacoby Ellsbury all on the roster, but he remains a key potential long-term piece for the Yanks.
  • It seems that Orioles righty Kevin Gausman has largely shaken off a home-plate collision yesterday, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com writes. The young starter, who is a key factor in the team’s hopes for the coming season, says he “feel[s] pretty good” on the whole despite slamming into Tigers youngster Jeimer Candelario. For the time being, at least, Gausman is expected to take the ball for his next scheduled spring outing.
  • The outlook is at least a bit more worrisome for Blue Jays righty Marcus Stroman. Per MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm, shoulder inflammation is holding Stroman back. Though he has already been cleared by an MRI of structural concerns, Stroman will rest up in hopes of moving past a problem that has evidently been going on for a few weeks. The key Jays hurler says he’s hoping to be fully ramped up for “the very beginning of the start of the season,” even if it’s not Opening Day, though surely the organization will proceed with caution.
  • The Red Sox will welcome reliever Tyler Thornburg back to the hill for the first time since he underwent surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome, Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe reports on Twitter. A bullpen session is just one of many steps back, of course, and Thornburg still has some hurdles to clear. He has yet to pitch competitively for the Boston organization (excepting brief spring action last year) since coming over in a trade in advance of the 2017 season.
  • Indications are that Nationals outfielder Adam Eaton is largely progressing well after a long layoff for a torn ACL. As Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com writes, though, Eaton has yet to appear in game action. That appears to be less a reflection of Eaton’s surgically repaired joint than it is a planned effort to build him up deliberately. “We’re going to take it and be methodical and do it right for the first time and make sure I’m overcooked, so to speak, before I go out there.” While it’s surely tempting to max out Eaton’s reps after a lost season, skipper Davey Martinez emphasized the primary goal is to have Eaton at full speed come Opening Day.
  • The rival Mets are reporting shoulder and back soreness for Yoenis Cespedes and Jacob deGrom, respectively, but those don’t seem to be real concerns at this point, as MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports. However, the New York organization is likely to hold back first baseman Dominic Smith for a while after he was diagnosed with a strained quad. He already seemed to face a difficult task of cracking the Opening Day roster, so this setback is not likely to help the cause. (New reliever Anthony Swarzak just left his relief appearance with an apparent calf injury, as Mike Puma of the New York Post was among those to tweet, though details are sparse at this time.)

AL East Notes: Betts, Otani, Yankees, Mets, Pomeranz

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Mookie Betts left today’s game in the fifth inning due to a bruised right thumb, suffered when his own helmet was knocked off by a Lucas Duda tag attempt and landed on the thumb.  X-rays were negative and Betts told reporters (including MLB.com’s Connor Mount) that he hopes to play as soon as tomorrow.  Betts also added that he has been dealing with nagging thumb problems “for a couple months” but it hasn’t been serious enough to keep him off the field.  While this doesn’t look like a major injury, Betts is such a major part of the Red Sox lineup that his condition bears mention as the team heads towards a likely postseason appearance.  Here’s some more from around the AL East…

  • The Blue Jays have put particular effort into scouting Shohei Otani but realistically, Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi writes that Toronto looks unlikely to sign the two-way star.  On the plus side for the Jays, Otani has worked out with former Blue Jay fan favorite Munenori Kawasaki and the team seems willing to let Otani both pitch and hit.  Beyond those positives, however, the Jays’ relative lack of history in the Japanese player market would seem to put them behind others in the running for Otani’s services.
  • Less than a year after the Yankees and Mets signed Aroldis Chapman and Yoenis Cespedes to multi-year free agent deals, Joel Sherman of the New York Post doubts either team would make those signings again given how both stars underachieved in 2017.  Injuries played a part in both players’ performance, of course, and there is still lots of time for Chapman and Cespedes to deliver on their contracts.  In Chapman’s case, his relative struggles also haven’t kept the Yankees from leading the AL wild card race.  With Chapman owed $60MM through the 2021 season, however, it’s still an ominous sign for the Yankees that this down year came in the first season of that deal.
  • The Drew Pomeranz trade is looking like a win for Dave Dombrowski and the Red Sox, WEEI.com’s John Tomase writes.  After the controversial deal with the Padres last year that saw top prospect Anderson Espinosa go to San Diego, Pomeranz was plagued by injury problems that continued into the offseason.  This year, however, Pomeranz has delivered a 3.28 ERA, 9.4 K/9 and 2.59 K/BB rate over 159 1/3 innings, emerging as a much-needed stabilizer to a rotation that has been without David Price for much of the season.

Mets Injury Updates: Cespedes, Wright, Conforto, Harvey

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The Mets have announced injury updates on a variety of notable players, as covered by James Wagner of the New York Times (Twitter links).

Outfielder Yoenis Cespedes, who recently hit the DL with a hamstring strain, is expected to require a six-week layoff and will therefore not make it back to the field this season. That’s not terribly surprising, as the veteran was said to have suffered a reasonably significant injury. He’ll surely focus on returning to health and finding a way to avoid further leg muscle problems in the 2018 season.

Meanwhile, the rehab assignment of third baseman David Wright has been halted after he again experienced shoulder pain. He’s set to be examined further tomorrow. The apparent setback makes it hard to imagine that Wright will be able to return to the majors this year. More broadly, it only continues to build upon the uncertainty about his future. New York owes the veteran $47MM over the next three seasons, though it can attempt to recoup 75% of his salary for any time during which he’s unable to play. But the Mets will also need to consider pursuing a replacement option at the hot corner for 2018 and beyond.

Perhaps the team’s most concerning open medical situation is that of young outfielder Michael Conforto, who had looked like a star before dislocating his shoulder and suffering a capsule tear in the joint. He has reportedly been weighing whether or not to undergo surgery, and is set for a second opinion on that decision. It’s not yet known what kind of outlook he faces, but the injury is plainly a serious one that will require plenty of care and a lengthy rehab process regardless of how it’s treated.

Finally, on the positive side, the Mets are set to welcome righty Matt Harvey back to the rotation on Friday. He has been out since the middle of June with shoulder problems that seemingly trace back to the thoracic outlet procedure he underwent last year. Beyond the health concerns, Harvey has struggled on the mound this year, with a 5.25 ERA over 70 1/3 innings. The Mets will surely hope that he can regain some positive momentum over the final month of the season.

Mets Place Yoenis Cespedes On 10-Day DL With Hamstring Strain

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TODAY: Cespedes has been officially placed on the DL, the Mets announced.  In corresponding moves, the Mets have also activated Jose Reyes from the disabled list, optioned righty Kevin McGowan to Triple-A, and selected the contract of outfielder Travis Taijeron from Triple-A.

FRIDAY, 9:27pm: Cespedes will head to the DL, Mets GM Sandy Alderson said after the game, as Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets. Per Alderson, the injury is about as serious as the one that sent Cespedes to the DL earlier this year. He missed about six weeks, though that period was also impacted by the later-arising quad problem. Regardless, it seems possible that Cespedes may not make it back by the end of the year.

8:00pm: Mets outfielder Yoenis Cespedes was pulled in the middle of tonight’s contest with what the team is calling a right hamstring strain, as was first announced on the SNY broadcast.

It is not immediately clear whether he’ll require a DL placement, but that seems reasonably likely — especially since the Mets have no need to force the issue with the postseason long out of reach. Betsy Helfand of the Las Vegas Review Journal notes on Twitter that outfielder Travis Taijeron was scratched from the lineup from the top Mets’ affiliate, quite likely to provide an option if needed to replace Cespedes.

The injury is the latest leg muscle problem for Cespedes, who missed time earlier this year with a strain in his left hammy that was followed by a right quad problem. And the track record stretches back before that, though Cespedes has never missed any truly lengthy stretches in his career.

Since re-joining the Mets on a four-year, $110MM contract over the winter, Cespedes has appeared in eighty games and produced a .292/.350/.540 batting line. That’s just what New York was hoping for on a rate basis, though the club will surely enter the offseason looking hard at ways to keep Cespedes — and a whole lot of other players — on the field more frequently for 2018 and beyond.

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