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Notable September Callups

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We’ll track the flurry of notable callups as roster expand on September 1.

Latest Moves

  • The Mets promoted left-hander Daniel Zamora and right-hander Tyler Bashlor from Triple-A, and also selected the contract of second baseman Sam Haggerty.  (The club posted a fun video on its Twitter account of the players receiving the news.)  A 24th-round pick for Cleveland in the 2015 draft, Haggerty came to the Mets last winter part of the trade that sent Kevin Plawecki to the Indians.  Haggerty began the year at low-A ball and worked his way up to the Show after posting a .907 OPS over 49 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.

Earlier Updates

  • The Diamondbacks announced a slew of callups today. Most notably, the club has selected the contract of outfielder Abraham Almonte and recalled right-hander Jon Duplantier. Almonte, 30, has logged time as a reserve each of the past six seasons, to the tune of a career .237/.294/.367 slash (79 wRC+). Duplantier, one of the club’s top pitching prospects, has battled injury issues in recent years but offers a high-upside bullpen piece for the stretch run.
  • The Rays’ September additions include a number of notable players, with Nate Lowe headlining a group of five call-ups. He’ll be joined by Peter Fairbanks and Daniel Robertson, among others.
  • The Braves announced they’ve recalled utilityman Johan Camargo. Camargo was optioned after the club signed Adeiny Hechavarría to replace the injured Dansby Swanson at shortstop. Swanson’s back now, and Hechavarría is still on hand, so it’ll be a tough climb for Camargo, who’s mired in a dreadful season. He’s only a year removed from a productive age-24 campaign, though.
  • The Padres will select the contract of right-handed reliever David Bednar, reports Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (via Twitter). The 24 year-old gets a little lost among the Padres’ loaded system, but he boasts a pair of plus offerings in his fastball and curveball, opine Kiley McDaniel and Eric Lognenhagen of Fangraphs. Despite a less-than-stellar reputation for his command, Bednar has dazzled in the Texas League this season, pitching to a 2.95 ERA with elite strikeout (35.8%) and walk (7.5%) numbers.
  • The Indians announced today they have selected the contracts of Ryan Flaherty and James Hoyt. They’ve also recalled Eric Haase. Flaherty’s solid Triple-A work this year has earned him his seventh consecutive big league season, where he’ll serve as infield depth for the club down José Ramírez. Hoyt logged 72.2 innings with the Astros from 2016-2018 and offers right-handed bullpen depth, while Haase, 26, is a power-hitting catcher with contact issues.
  • The Yankees announced they have selected left-hander Tyler Lyons. The veteran reliever just signed a minor-league contract with the organization a few weeks ago and adds depth to a loaded bullpen. Right-hander David Hale was transferred to the 60-day injured list to clear 40-man space. The Bombers also recalled right-handers Ryan Dull and Chance Adams and outfielder Clint Frazier.
  • The Cardinals have selected catcher Joe Hudson, per a team announcement. The 28 year-old got into eight games last year with the Angels. He’s had a tough season offensively with Triple-A Memphis, slashing .223/.293/.411. Outfielder Lane Thomas was transferred to the 60-day injured list with a season-ending wrist injury. Anne Rogers of MLB.com tweets that veteran backstop Matt Wieters is day-to-day with a calf strain, so the club elected to bring Hudson and Andrew Knizner aboard to bolster their catching depth.
  • The Brewers announced they have selected the contract of first baseman Tyler Austin. A former Yankee, Twin and Giant, Austin has a strong minor-league track record and brings some right-handed power, but has mustered only a .220/.288/.451 line in 556 career MLB plate appearances thanks to untenable strikeout rates.
  • Top Astros prospect Kyle Tucker isn’t up yet, but he will be shortly, tweets Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle. Houston’s additional reinforcements will be announced tomorrow, Rome adds. The 22 year-old corner outfielder has again laid waste to the Triple-A Pacific Coast League and has nothing left to prove at the minor-league level, but opportunities have been few and far between in the Astros’ loaded lineup.
  • Just-acquired first baseman Ryan McBroom will be selected to the Royals’ active roster shortly, tweets Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com. As Flanagan notes, the 27 year-old was likely to be added to the 40-man this offseason to protect him from the Rule V draft regardless, so there’s little harm in giving him his first taste of MLB action in the meantime. The former 15th-rounder has put up strong offensive numbers throughout his minor-league career, culminating in a .315/.402/.574 line in the Triple-A International League this season.

NL Notes: Nimmo, Phillies, Guerra

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The words “bulging cervical disc” are likely to produce a wince from even the most stoic of readers, but it seems that Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo has managed that exact injury well enough to make a return to playing baseball in the coming days. Per Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News, it seems that Nimmo, who hasn’t appeared with the Metropolitans since mid-May, could rejoin the team as soon as tomorrow according to manager Mickey Callaway (link). After a brilliant 2018 in which the 26-year-old slashed .263/.404/.483 with a 149 wRC+, Nimmo was expected to be a large part of New York’s playoff push; instead, his injury largely opened the door for an emergent J.D. Davis, who has more than helped account for Nimmo’s absence with a 131 wRC+ in 374 trips to the plate this year.

Still, fellow Mets outfielder Michael Conforto is excited about Nimmo’s return: “He can be a gamechanger,” Conforto told Thosar. “He gets on base and there are days where he just doesn’t get out. If he’s feeling 100% healthy, he’ll be a serious weapon for us.”

More notes from around the National League on the last day of August…

  • The Phillies were just 3.0 games back in the NL Wild Card race entering play Saturday, but the team can count out three of their pitchers for the rest of the year. According to a tweet from Todd Zolecki of MLB.com (link), Philadelphia hurlers Seranthony Dominguez (elbow soreness), Adam Morgan (elbow), and Pat Neshek (hamstring) will all be held out through season’s end. None of these pitchers have appeared in August action; all were expected to be key contributors to the Philadelphia staff this year, which helps explain how the Phillies pen has struggled to a collective 4.70 ERA on the year (20th in MLB).
  • San Diego Union-Tribune writer Kevin Acee says it “sounds like” the Padres are set to promote relief prospect Javy Guerra when rosters expand tomorrow (link). That a 23-year-old Double-A reliever would receive a September cup of coffee on a losing team is hardly an earth-shattering development–except for the circuitous route that Guerra has taken to this point. When the club acquired Guerra in 2015 as part of the Craig Kimbrel deal, he was seen as the second key piece in a four-player package headlined by outfielder Manuel Margot. Of course, Guerra was a shortstop at the time–and one highly touted enough to slot in immediately as San Diego’s third-ranked overall prospect following the deal. Several years of putrid offensive production followed before Guerra finally started pitching full-time this season. Early results are promising: his first taste High-A yielded a 3.71 ERA and 12.18 K/9, and Double-A results through 4.1 innings included a 2.08 ERA and 14.54 K/9 mark.

Padres Place Francisco Mejia On IL

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The Padres have placed backstop Francisco Mejia on the 10-day injured list, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced by Austin Allen on the active roster.

Mejia is said to be dealing with an oblique strain. The severity isn’t yet apparent, but it seems likely to put the remainder of his season in jeopardy. While the youngster is optimistic of a quick turnaround, as AJ Cassavell of MLB.com tweets, the club will surely exercise caution. With just a month left to go, Mejia would have to bounce back rather quickly in order to see any further action in 2019.

If this is the end of the line for the current campaign, it’ll still go down as a reasonably successful one. The 23-year-old has bounced back from a dreadful start to the year with a strong second half, leaving him with a solid .263/.315/.439 slash over 222 plate appearances. He has graded well enough behind the plate.

Clearly, there’s still room to improve for a player who once rated as one of the game’s top prospects. But it seems fair to say that things have been headed in the right direction. Just how the Friars will handle the catching position for 2020 isn’t yet clear. The club could continue to platoon Mejia and Austin Hedges, though the latter has endured a miserable offensive campaign. It’s also possible that Mejia could be handed the reigns to the starting job with a veteran backup brought in to supplement him.

NL West Notes: D-backs, Dodgers’ Rotation, Richards

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The Diamondbacks have had mixed results when buying low on relievers under GM Mike Hazen’s regime, but Hazen tells The Athletic’s Zach Buchanan (subscription required) that prior outcomes won’t close off his mind to any avenues when building his ’pen this winter. “Shutting yourself off to whatever’s happened in the past, or hard-and-fast making rules that you won’t do something again, that just sets you up to miss out on the next opportunity,” said Hazen.

Arizona’s run with the Fernando Rodney Experience yielded solid results in 2017, though more recent matches with Brad Boxberger and in particular, Greg Holland, have been less fruitful. The Diamondbacks’ low-cost acquisition of Yoshihisa Hirano has paid dividends. The organization has plenty of young arms it could trot out next season in hopes of compiling a strong collective unit, but Hazen also cautioned against leaning too heavily on young relievers, which can be tantamount to “flipping coins” in the ’pen. A high-end bullpen signing would be out of character for Hazen & Co., but it seems reasonable to expect some upside plays to pair with the team’s incumbent options.

More out of the NL West…

  • The Dodgers have moved to a six-man rotation recently, and manager Dave Roberts said Thursday that he plans to continue that arrangement for the time being (link via MLB.com’s Jake Rill). The current six-man alignment has given the team more opportunity to work in some rest for the suddenly struggling Hyun-Jin Ryu. The lefty, who accepted a $17.9MM qualifying offer last offseason, was dominant through July but has served up 18 runs in 14 2/3 innings since returning from a brief IL stint due to neck soreness earlier this month. Beyond Ryu, the Dodgers have Clayton Kershaw, Kenta Maeda, Walker Buehler and rookies Tony Gonsolin and Dustin May as rotation options. They’re also likely to get right-hander Ross Stripling back from the injured list this weekend, giving them another candidate to make some starts or long relief appearances should they need to rest Ryu or any of their other arms in advance of the postseason.
  • Garrett Richards returned to the mound after a setback slowed him for three weeks in his rehab from Tommy John surgery. The 31-year-old allowed four runs and walked four hitters in 1 2/3 innings of work for Class-A Advanced Lake Elsinore. Signed by the Padres to a two-year, $15.5MM deal in the offseason, Richards is eyeing a September return to the big league mound and told the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Jeff Sanders last night that he considered yesterday’s outing a positive step — even if the bottom-line results were ugly. Fewer than half of Richards’ 53 pitches were strikes, but the former Angels righty explained that he felt his delivery was consistent, his pitches moved well and that he could’ve kept pitching. Richards hit 95 mph in the first inning of the start, per Sanders, and he’ll join the Friars today to discuss the next steps in his journey back to a Major League mound. Signing Richards was always a move geared toward 2020, but the Padres would assuredly love to get a look at him this year as they begin to map out their plans for next year.

Infield Notes: Odor, Padres, Hayes, Moncada

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Rangers general manager Jon Daniels suggested last week the club could reduce beleaguered second baseman Rougned Odor’s playing time. Manager Chris Woodward was even more aggressive Thursday in saying the Rangers need better from Odor, telling TR Sullivan of MLB.com that he’s “obviously got to show some improvement.” Otherwise, the Rangers will “have to make some decisions,” Woodward said, adding: “We are willing to withstand some lack of production, but this is the big leagues. I hate to say it, but you’ve got to be good to play every day, and he knows.” Woodward believes the rest of the season will be critical for Odor, who has turned in abysmal production for the second time since 2017. Prospect Nick Solak has been eating into Odor’s playing time of late as a result. Contrary to the inexpensive Solak, Odor’s causing a sizable dent in the Texas payroll. He’ll earn a guaranteed $36MM from 2020-22, including a $3MM buyout for ’23. Finances notwithstanding, Woodward will be reluctant to continue penciling Odor into the lineup if he continues putting up bottom-of-the-barrel numbers.

  • The Padres are anticipating a heated second base competition next spring between Luis Urias and Ty France, per AJ Cassavell of MLB.com. Urias is the more hyped player of the duo, as he’s not far removed from a run as an elite prospect, but San Diego doesn’t want to simply hand him a starting job. The 22-year-old has recorded weak offensive totals since he debuted in the majors last season, having logged a .191/.302/.289 line through 202 trips to the plate, though Urias has been much more productive this month. He also laid waste to Triple-A pitching earlier this season. France, 25, has been even better this season at that level, where he has performed like one of the premier hitters in the minors with a jaw-dropping .399/.477/.770 line and 27 home runs over 348 PA. However, like Urias, France hasn’t done much at the big league level to this point.
  • Pirates GM Neal Huntington is seemingly leaving the door open for the club to promote one of its top prospects, third baseman Ke’Bryan Hayes, when rosters expand this Sunday. The 22-year-old hasn’t thrived overall this season in his first action at Triple-A, where he has batted .266/.334/.420 in 459 plate appearances, but he has caught fire since a slow start. Asked if the defensively adept Hayes’ recent success with the bat could lead to his first major league call-up, Huntington told Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic (subscription required), “It could in theory.” However, as you’d expect, Huntington went on to indicate the Pirates don’t want to rush him to the game’s highest level. With that in mind, Pittsburgh “probably” won’t summon Hayes to the majors this year, Biertempfel writes.
  • White Sox star Yoan Moncada has already changed positions once during his short career. After playing second base from 2017-18, he has lined up at third for the entirety of this season. While Moncada told Scott Merkin of MLB.com he expects to continue at the hot corner “for a very, very long time,” he’d be willing to move elsewhere if it helps the team. That’s unlikely to happen, per Merkin, though he notes the White Sox could do a 180 if they’re able to land, say, third baseman Anthony Rendon in free agency. In that case, Moncada could shift back to second or even the outfield – two areas that have been weak points for Chicago in 2019.

Padres Claim Nick Martini

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1:04pm: San Diego announced the move. Martini will join the active roster on Thursday, per an announcement.

12:49pm: In an intriguing development, the Padres have claimed outfielder Nick Martini off waivers from the Athletics, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). The corresponding roster maneuvering isn’t yet known.

It’s a bit of a surprise to see the San Diego org summoning the bartender for the 29-year-old, left-handed-hitting outfielder. It remains to be seen whether Martini will have a shot at holding his roster spot over the course of the offseason.

To be sure, Martini seemed likely to be claimed by some team — so much so that it might’ve been expected he wouldn’t have made it to the San Diego organization’s spot on the waiver priority list. But the Friars already have an outfield mix that includes Wil Myers, Hunter Renfroe, Manuel Margot, and Josh Naylor. Only Naylor hits from the left side, but the club also still controls the southpaw-swinging Travis Jankowski.

Making any use of Martini this year will surely mean reducing the opportunities available to those other players. If nothing else, Jankowski’s roster footing now seems more tenuous than ever.

Perhaps the Friars think Martini could be a fourth outfielder candidate in 2020. He’s optionable, which certainly helps. There are some shades of Alex Dickerson, who was jettisoned earlier this year by the Pads. But holding open a role for Martini would create a tight squeeze once Franchy Cordero is added back to the mix, even assuming Naylor is sent back to Triple-A. It’s also certainly possible the Padres simply see this as a value proposition and intend to explore offseason trade possibilities involving any number of current assets.

Regardless, it’s clear that Martini stirred real interest in the San Diego front office. He certainly impressed in a 55-game big-league debut showing last year, though the A’s never saw fit for a second round this season. While he received only 13 MLB plate appearances in 2019, Martini did boast a .328/.432/.482 slash line and impeccable 51:49 K/BB ratio over 329 plate appearances at Triple-A.

NL Notes: Votto, Franchy, Doolittle

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Reds legend Joey Votto will be eligible to return from the injured list on Sunday, but it appears that the plate discipline devotee will need at least a few more days before resuming his role as the elder statesman on the Cincy lineup card. “He’s making a lot of progress,” manager David Bell told Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Still no date. I know he’s eligible tomorrow. That won’t happen. Maybe not too far behind.”

Votto did some on-field work in rehab for his lower back injury on Friday. Cincinnati has around a 1% chance of reaching the playoffs this year on the strength of a 60-67 record entering Saturday, so Votto’s return will likely be mostly about gaining a little feel-good momentum entering 2020–a year in which the Reds expect to compete, as evidenced by their deadline acquisition of ace Trevor Bauer.

More jottings from around the National League this weekend…

  • For Padres fans suffering through their 13th-consecutive season without a playoff appearance, there has been no greater “what if” story in recent years than the continued tease offered by outfielder Franchy Cordero. Long noted for his prodigious raw power and tantalizing athletic gifts, Cordero’s path toward center field playing time has been submarined by repeated injury–an unfortunate circumstance given the recent-year struggles of center fielders Wil Myers and Manuel Margot. Now, as noted in a tweet from MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell, Cordero is back on the rehab trail. While it was a wonky elbow that sidelined Cordero for most of 2018 and the beginning of this year, it was a hurt quad that has delayed his rehab for the last two months. Saturday marked Cordero’s first game in the resumption of his rehabilitative assignment, as the outfielder appeared at DH in the Arizona League. Manager Andy Green, however, has apparently learned to be cautiously optimistic in regard to Franchy’s injuries–with the key word being “cautiously”. “He’s on the path toward returning,” Green said. “It’s not a short path, though.”
  • Mark Zuckerman of MASN provides partial updates on Nationals arms Roenis Elias and Sean Doolittle, saying that Elias is “heading in the right direction” and that Doolittle should be ready for activation when his IL stint is up on August 28th (Twitter link). Does it even bear repeating that the Nats are in need of as much pitching help as they can get? Elias, for his part, appeared in just one D.C. game before being felled by injury. Between Seattle and Washington this year, the veteran has a 3.59 ERA through 47.2 relief innings, although his 4.68 xFIP indicates that he should be due for some bad luck regression if he does indeed make it back soon. Doolittle, for his part, has been the subject of a great deal of armchair psychology in recent weeks, as a rough stretch of play (10 earned runs in his last 5 appearances) culminated in his placement on the 10-day injured list with a knee injury. Nats relievers have amassed a 6.00 ERA on the year.

Padres Call Up Austin Allen, Option Eric Yardley

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The Padres have announced the promotion of 25-year-old catcher Austin Allen to the active roster. Sidewinding reliever Eric Yardley will be optioned back to Triple-A El Paso after appearing in just two games with the team. This will be Allen’s third stint with the team in 2019–his first year of action in the big leagues.

Allen’s recall should not be seen as having a great impact on the already crowded picture behind the San Diego dish. While Andy Green continues to dole out something of a 60/40 playing time split between Francisco Mejia and Austin Hedges, Allen’s promotion will likely be made in an effort to bolster the team’s tepid bench group. MLB.com beat writer AJ Cassavell points out that the Padres are in “dire need of bench help”–a fairly accurate portrait, considering that manager Andy Green has recently only had Hedges, Wil Myers, and rookie Ty France to turn to in search of late-inning at-bats.

In his previous two call-ups, Allen only managed a .250/.327/.318 line, but his minor league track record bears the markings of a potentially forceful big league bat. Across five seasons and 1998 at-bats in the developmental ranks, Allen owns a .296/.354/.490 batting line–production impressive from a player at any position, let alone a catcher. It remains to be seen how he will be deployed in the field for the team moving forward; Allen does have one appearance at first base this season, but that position is entrenched by the person and contract of one Eric Hosmer.

Yardley was called upon to spin 2.2 innings of work in last night’s 11-0 nothing beating at the hands of the Red Sox, but will be summarily issued back to Triple-A after amassing a 9.00 ERA across three innings this week. His own minor league track record portends a useful arm, as Yardley’s 2.63 ERA in 61.2 Triple-A innings this year is rather impressive considering the PCL confines in which he has been pitching.

Padres Notes: Tatis, Paddack, Mejia

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The latest from America’s Finest City, where a midseason malaise will keep the long-suffering Padres out of postseason play for the 13th consecutive season . . .

  • Wunderkind Fernando Tatis Jr., who’s hit the shelf with a serious injury for the third time in the last calendar year, has no plans to change his hyper-aggressive manner on the field, writes MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell. “No, absolutely not,” Tatis responded when posed with the question. “If it’s part of it, it’s part of it. But I’m not going to change my game at all.” The team, though, won’t sit by in deference: “Nobody’s looking to change him much or at all,”  Padres manager Andy Green noted. “But there will be moments in time where he learns, through time, that he doesn’t need to take a chance. That’s not necessarily saying he’s going to play soft or step off the gas pedal. He’ll play very similar to the way he always has. That’s the way we want him to play. He will continue to learn and grow the more he plays.” A public position slightly hedged typically means a great deal more beneath the surface, so it’s almost certain the club’ll place caution at the center of its future messages to the young star. Tatis’ .317/.379/.590 line was slightly inflated by an obviously unsustainable .410 BABIP this season, with Statcast pegging the rookie as the NL’s luckiest hitter in ’19, but it was nonetheless a banner debut for ESPN’s #1 overall prospect entering the season.
  • Fellow rookie Chris Paddack, whose relentless first-half assault on National League hitters has been thwarted by further exposure and the absence of a quality third offering, isn’t on a concrete innings limit, as Cassavell explores in a separate piece. A 2016 Tommy John Surgery limited the righty to just 90 IP in 2018, but the club has no plans to clot his late-season leak: “That’s not where my head is,” manager Andy Green said. “Get him back on the bump, attack again, overcome. Obviously if there’s something going on, that would change my mind quickly. But I think health-wise, he feels good.” After a solid first-half showing, in which the 23-year-old’s typically dominant K/BB was marred only by a 1.31 HR/9 mark, Paddack has been drilled in 35 post-all-star-break innings, allowing nine homers and as many doubles en route to a .507 slugging percentage against and 5.56 FIP. The former eighth rounder out of a Texas high school is author to perhaps the most impressive minor-league numbers since the days of Tim Lincecum, but may find his relentless zone-pounding in need of curation.
  • Catcher Francisco Mejia, who appears now to have wrestled full-time duties away from incumbent Austin Hedges, looks to be finding his stride in the season’s second half. The 23-year-old’s 142 wRC+, on the back of a much-improved 7.5% BB rate, ranks fifth among MLB catchers over that span. The once-undiscerning backstop has also sliced his strikeout rate nearly 10% from last season’s 30.6% mark, and is now chasing pitches at a far-more-respectable rate. Mejia will still need to improve his much-maligned (in prospect circles) defense to fulfill his lofty upside, but the Friars may well have found their backstop of the future.

Padres Select Eric Yardley’s Contract, Option Travis Jankowski

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The Padres announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Eric Yardley.  Outfielder Travis Jankowski has been optioned to Triple-A to create 25-man roster space.

The call-up represents a belated, and undoubtedly very welcome, belated birthday gift for Yardley, who turned 29 on Sunday.  As noted by Baseball America’s Kyle Glaser, Yardley was an undrafted player who began his pro career in the independent Pecos League in 2013 before catching on with the Padres.

The righty has a 2.87 ERA, 7.0 K/9, and 3.46 K/BB rate over 413 1/3 career minor league innings, all in San Diego’s farm system.  Yardley is an extreme groundball pitcher, easily topping the 60% grounder rate threshold in each of his professional seasons.  This includes a 63.7% rate at Triple-A El Paso this year, so between keeping the ball out of the air and some pinpoint control (1.9 BB/9), it isn’t a surprise that Yardley has been able to hold his own in the extremely hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League this season — he has a 2.63 ERA, 7.4 K/9, and 3.92 K/BB rate over 61 2/3 relief innings in 2019.

After being sidelined for much of the season due to a broken wrist, Jankowski appeared in just four games for the Padres before returning to the minors.  Jankowski has displayed some impressive speed and defense over 313 games with San Diego since the start of the 2015 campaign, though in the wake of his lost season, he could now be a non-tender candidate this winter.  Jankowski wouldn’t be in line for much of a raise on his $1.165MM salary and (as a Super Two player) he has three arbitration years remaining, but the Padres could prefer to just move on, given their depth of outfield options.

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