Padres Option Francisco Mejia
The Padres activated catcher Francisco Mejia from the 10-day injured list and optioned him to Triple-A El Paso on Saturday, the team announced. In other moves, the Padres sent reliever Phil Maton to El Paso and recalled left-hander Nick Margevicius from Double-A Amarillo.
The most notable move here is the demotion of Mejia, formerly a star prospect whose career hasn’t gotten off the ground in San Diego. The Padres acquired Mejia, then ESPN prospect guru Keith Law’s fifth-ranked farmhand, from the Indians for relievers Brad Hand and Adam Cimber last July. Since then, the switch-hitting Mejia has slashed a dismal .176/.224/.324 (46 wRC+) in 116 plate appearances with the Padres, and he didn’t acquit himself well defensively before landing on the IL on May 11 with a left knee sprain.
During the 23-year-old Mejia’s injury-forced absence, San Diego utilized Austin Hedges and Austin Allen as its top two catchers. The Austins will continue to reign supreme with Mejia heading to the minors. They’ve offered almost nothing at the plate this season, but Hedges has lived to his billing as an elite defender for his position, ranking first in the majors in Baseball Prospectus’ Fielding Runs Above Average metric. Hedges has also caught 38 percent of would-be base stealers in 2019, which comes in far above the 29 percent league average.
There’s no word on how long Mejia will stay in the minors, but it’s worth keeping an eye on with respect to his service time. Mejia entered the season with 62 days’ service and has amassed another 65 this year, giving him 127 overall. He needs another 45 to accrue a full year of service. As things stand, Mejia is on pace to reach free agency after the 2024 campaign.
Minor MLB Transactions: 6/1/19
The latest in minor moves from around the game…
- Veteran catcher Chris Stewart has opted out of his deal with the Padres, Robert Murray of The Athletic reports. The 12-year MLB vet, a reliable backup for the Giants, Yankees and Pirates, among others, since his debut all the way back in 2006, will again look to provide defensive stability for a club in the stretch run. Stewart’s never hit much, with a career line of .230/.297/.291, but does flash occasional on-base ability and unexpected pop against quality lefties. In 73 plate appearances for Triple-A El Paso this season, Stewart slashed .277/.333/.354 with a lone homer. He led all MLB catchers in 2011 with 21 defensive runs saved in a mere 460 innings behind the dish.
- Righty Jeanmar Gomez has been placed on unconditional release waivers by the Rangers, per the club. The 31-year-old was designated for assignment by the club last week. Gomez was a capable performer for the Pirates and Phillies from 2013-16, but has fallen on hard times in recent seasons. He’s had particular difficulty with stranding runners – a 55.2% LOB mark in ’19 spelled his end in Texas, the latest in a disturbing trend that began in the 2016 season, when his grounder-heavy excellence began slowly to erode.
Padres Release Sammy Solis
The Padres have released left-handed reliever Sammy Solis from his minor league contract, according to Roster Roundup (Twitter link). He’d signed with the Friars on a minor league back in early March after being released by the Nationals.
Solis, 30, has enjoyed a solid season in Triple-A El Paso to date, putting up a 3.57 ERA through 22 2/3 innings in that hitter-friendly setting. Solis has punched out 28 hitters against eight walks in that time and, despite a tiny 21.4 percent ground-ball rate, has held opponents to three home runs.
The past couple of seasons in D.C. were ugly ones for Solis, who most recently turned in a dismal 6.41 ERA in 39 1/3 frames for the Nats in 2018. Even in that down year, though, Solis averaged 10.1 K/9 with a solid 12.9 percent swinging-strike rate, and a 31.7 percent chase rate on pitches outside the strike zone. He’s averaged 94 mph on his heater at the big league level, and his track record in Triple-A aligns closely with what he’s done this season. Solis has been a bit more effective against righties than lefties in his career at the big league level, and that has emphatically been the case thus far in a small sample of innings with El Paso. At his best in 2015-16, he found success against hitters from both sides of the dish.
He’s a long ways from earning a trip back through the arbitration process, but if Solis does return to the Majors and find enough success that a new team wants to keep him into the offseason, he’d be controllable for multiple seasons. At present, Solis would be controlled through 2021 via arbitration, but by mid June there wouldn’t be enough time left in the season for him to reach four full years of MLB service, which would push a team’s control over him back another year.
Dinelson Lamet Begins Rehab Assignment
The Padres announced today that righty Dinelson Lamet will begin a rehab assignment. He’ll open at the High-A level.
Lamet underwent Tommy John surgery last April, so this will represent his return to competitive pitching. His timeline will surely be determined by his progress on the mound, but this move will start a thirty-day clock for the completion of the rehab assignment. (As Dennis Lin of The Athletic notes on Twitter, the team can request up to three ten-day extensions if needed.)
Barring a setback, Lamet will presumably be activated before the end of June. It’s possible he’ll move back into the San Diego rotation at some point next month, though the club could also ultimately decide upon an optional assignment depending upon what he shows.
Lamet entered the year with 1.130 years of MLB service already accrued. He’s continuing to pick up service while on the injured list, so he’ll finish the season with 2.130 years on his ticker if he spends all (or virtually all) of the year in the majors once his rehab assignment wraps up. That could put him in line for Super Two status next year, though the precise cutoff is not yet known.
For the Friars, Lamet’s progress could have a significant bearing on the team’s postseason hopes. He showed plenty of promise in his debut campaign of 2017, working to a 4.57 ERA with 10.9 K/9 and 4.3 BB/9 over 114 1/3 innings, and could represent a notable addition to a rotation that has (not unexpectedly) gone through some ups and downs to this point of the season.
A pair of other San Diego players are also set to begin their own rehab assignments. Utilityman Jose Pirela and outfielder Franchy Cordero will report to Triple-A, the former today and the latter on Friday.
Padres Promote Josh Naylor
May 24: The Padres announced that Naylor’s contract has been selected from Triple-A El Paso. Outfielder Alex Dickerson has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a sprained right wrist, thus opening a 25-man roster spot, while lefty Aaron Loup‘s transfer from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL opens a spot on the 40-man roster.
May 23: The Padres are planning to promote outfield prospect Josh Naylor, according to Dennis Lin of The Athletic (via Twitter). Corresponding roster moves aren’t yet known.
This decision adds to the interest in tomorrow’s matchup in Toronto, which will already feature just-promoted Blue Jays prospect Cavan Biggio. As Lin notes, Naylor is a Toronto-area native, hailing from neighboring Mississauga. Still another Ontarian, Cal Quantrill, will start Saturday’s game for the Friars.
Naylor was taken with the 12th overall pick of the 2015 draft by the Marlins. He ended up being shipped to San Diego in the partially undone 2016 trade — a transaction that came close on the heels of another swap in which the Friars picked the pocket of the Miami organization.
Primarily a first baseman to begin his professional career, Naylor has been shifted to a corner outfield role more recently in a bid to find a home for his bat. He’s still learning his way around the outfield grass, but has continued to ramp up his productivity at the plate while moving into the upper ranks of the Friars farm.
Naylor received at least one top-100 leaguewide prospect grade entering the present season, with Baseball America slotting him in at #99, and he has certainly boosted his stock since. So far this year, Naylor carries a .299/.378/.538 batting line through 209 plate appearances at Triple-A. He has swatted ten home runs and walked as many times as he has struck out (24 apiece), making for a nicely balanced offensive profile.
Bringing Naylor up is going to require both 40-man and active roster space. It’s fair to wonder whether the time is up for Alex Dickerson, who returned this year from a lengthy run of poor injury luck. He devastated Triple-A pitching but has managed just three singles while going down seven times on strikes in his 19 MLB plate appearances.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Injury Notes: Tatis, Flores, Duffy, Wendle, Volquez
The Padres were hoping that star prospect Fernando Tatis Jr. would return from the injured list as early as Friday, though manager Andy Green told reporters (including The Athletic’s Dennis Lin) that Tatis won’t play during San Diego’s upcoming six-game road trip. Tatis has been out of action since April 30 due to a hamstring strain, so he projects to miss a full month of games if he indeed won’t be back until May 31 (when the Padres host the Yankees) at the earliest.
Some updates on other injury situations from around the game…
- Wilmer Flores was placed on the 10-day IL with a right foot contusion on Tuesday, though Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo told media (including Arizona Sports 98.7 radio) that an MRI revealed Flores suffered a fracture. Ildemaro Vargas was called up from Triple-A to take Flores’ spot on the roster, and he’ll provide utility depth in the middle infield as second baseman/center fielder Ketel Marte now looks like he could receive more time at the keystone. Flores signed a one-year deal worth $4.25MM in guaranteed money last winter and has hit .281/.326/.398 over 138 PA for the Snakes, with much of that production coming in the last few weeks following an ice-cold start at the plate.
- While on a minor league rehab assignment, Rays infielder Matt Duffy re-aggravated the hamstring injury that has kept him on the IL all season. (Eduardo A. Encina of the Tampa Bay Times was among those to report the news.) Duffy will be re-evaluated tomorrow. The infielder has been solid (.292/.354/.364 over 640 PA) since joining the Rays in August 2016, though he has appeared in just 153 games since that time, largely due to an Achilles injury that cost him the entire 2017 season.
- In more positive news for the Rays, Joey Wendle told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) that is no longer wearing a cast on his fractured right wrist. Wendle said he is “free to move forward as I can tolerate” any discomfort while beginning baseball activities, though he said he will be cautious in his process to try and avoid any setbacks. One can’t fault Wendle for wanting to be entirely ready in the wake of two lost months for the utilityman, as Wendle has played in only eight games this season due to his wrist fracture and an earlier hamstring injury.
- Veteran righty Edinson Volquez has begun to play catch, Rangers manager Chris Woodward told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Jeff Wilson and other reporters, as Volquez continues to make his way back from an elbow sprain. Volquez made just two starts for Texas before being placed on the injured list, and he even hinted at retirement should his injury be another UCL tear (Volquez has already undergone two Tommy John surgeries). Playing catch is a preliminary step, but nevertheless a good sign that Volquez may have avoided a more serious injury.
Latest On Dallas Keuchel, Padres
Although the Padres are looking for starting pitching help, it “doesn’t appear” they have interest in free-agent left-hander Dallas Keuchel at this time, AJ Cassavell of MLB.com writes.
A match between the Padres and Keuchel looked like a possibility on multiple occasions during the offseason, though reports indicated a union was improbable. However, at those points of the winter, few would have expected Keuchel to remain without a team nearly two full months into the current campaign. Odds are Keuchel will have to wait at least a couple more weeks to sign, as it wouldn’t make much sense at this juncture for a team to ink the 31-year-old before the June 3 draft. Because Keuchel rejected a qualifying offer from the Astros, a club that signs him prior to the draft would have to surrender a pick. The former AL Cy Young winner will be free of that burden soon, however, which could finally end the staring contest between him and teams in need of starting pitching.
It’s no secret the Padres want to bolster their own rotation, but if they don’t have a change of heart on Keuchel, any noteworthy addition will have to come via trade. Dating back to the offseason, reports have tied the Padres to several controllable hurlers – most recently the Indians’ Trevor Bauer – though their attempt at going big-game hunting for a starter hasn’t yielded anything yet.
The Padres’ unsuccessful pursuits on the trade front have left them with a youth-laden rotation that has been a mixed bag this season. Chris Paddack, Matt Strahm and Joey Lucchesi have held their own (though San Diego’s monitoring the workloads of Paddack and Strahm), while Eric Lauer and the just-demoted Nick Margevicius have had difficulty preventing runs. The team called on Cal Quantrill to take over Margevicius’ vacated rotation spot Sunday, but he struggled during a loss to the Pirates.
Padres Option Nick Margevicius, Recall Cal Quantrill
The Padres have optioned left-hander Nick Margevicius to Double-A Amarillo and sent reliever Gerardo Reyes to Triple-A El Paso, per a team announcement. To take their roster spots in San Diego, the club recalled righty Cal Quantrill from El Paso and reinstated reliever Trey Wingenter from the 10-day injured list.
The Margevicius demotion ends his run in the Padres’ starting staff, at least for now. Although the 22-year-old is not a top prospect and had never pitched above the High-A level entering the season, he spent the first month and a half of 2019 in the Friars’ rotation. The returns were great at first, but the soft-tossing Margevicius has gone into a tailspin since mid-April. In his most recent start, a 7-2 loss to the Pirates on Saturday, he yielded six earned runs on eight hits (including four homers) in four innings. Margevicius now carries a 4.96 ERA/6.00 FIP with 6.55 K/9, 2.98 BB/9, a 43.4 percent groundball rate and a 21.2 percent HR-to-fly ball rate over 45 1/3 major league frames.
Margevicius’ struggles have opened the door for Quantrill, who will have a chance to make a case for a starting job. The promising prospect, 24, will take the ball Sunday for his third start of the season. He could eventually hand the ball off to Wingenter, who got off to an effective start this year before right shoulder inflammation forced him to the shelf two weeks ago.
Padres Seeking Front-End Starter
The Padres have gotten ace-caliber production from rookie Chris Paddack and quality numbers from fellow young starters Joey Lucchesi and Matt Strahm this year, but they’re still not satisfied with their rotation. The club attempted to acquire Indians co-ace Trevor Bauer toward the beginning of the season, according to FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal, who reports it’ll continue to seek a No. 1 starter in advance of the July 31 trade deadline. Additionally, San Diego may look for a left-handed hitter to help balance out a righty-heavy lineup, Rosenthal says (video link).
This isn’t the first time the Padres have been tied to the Indians, having reportedly gone after another of their aces, Corey Kluber, in the offseason. The Indians ended up retaining him and Bauer, though, in part because they were expected to contend this year. At 24-20, it appears they’ll do just that, though the back-to-back-to-back AL Central champions are facing plenty of resistance from the first-place Twins. Still, barring a collapse over the next couple months, it may be unrealistic to expect the Tribe to wave the white flag and ship out any of their top pitchers during the season.
Along with Bauer and Kluber, the Padres have reportedly pursued deals for the Mets’ Noah Syndergaard and the Blue Jays’ Marcus Stroman dating back to the offseason. They also had winter interest in Dallas Keuchel, who remains a free agent almost seven months after hitting the market. Even though Syndergaard hasn’t been his usual dominant self this season, it’s far from a sure thing the Mets would move him and his two-plus years of team control. Stroman, who’s thriving in his penultimate season of control, looks more likely than Syndergaard to change teams during the summer. Rangers lefty Mike Minor is also among controllable starters who may hit the trade block, given that he’s only signed through next season. As for Keuchel, it’s anyone’s guess how much he’ll wind up raking in during his seemingly endless stay on the open market. Furthermore, it’s unknown whether the Padres are still interested in the 31-year-old former AL Cy Young winner.
One thing is clear: Few teams are in better position to make hay on the trade market than the Padres, who continue to boast an enviable farm system. They’re still a work in progress at the big league level, though, as their desire for more starting pitching and offense shows. For the most part, San Diego’s best hitters are right-handed, with first baseman Eric Hosmer the sole lefty-swinging regular on the roster. The lack of balance has been a problem for the Padres, who have only managed an 83 wRC+ with a .686 OPS against right-handed hurlers.
Health Notes: Tatis Jr., Upton, Price, Diaz, K. Davis
The Padres are hoping shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. will return May 24, the start of a six-game road trip for the club, per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Tatis went to the injured list on April 30 with a hamstring strain, temporarily derailing a phenomenal start to the 20-year-old rookie’s career. The Padres have had the luxury of using Manny Machado at short to fill in for Tatis, but moving the former off third base has left the hot corner to the light-hitting Ty France.
Here’s more on several other household names dealing with injuries…
- Angels left fielder Justin Upton remains a ways off from making his 2019 debut, as he explained to Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register and other reporters Saturday. That’s not surprising, though, considering Upton was slated to miss eight to 12 weeks when he went down with a toe injury at the end of March. While Upton is one of the Angels’ best complements to Mike Trout, his absence hasn’t been ruinous thanks to the surprisingly great offensive production waiver pickup Brian Goodwin has offered in his place.
- Red Sox left-hander David Price will come off the IL to start Monday, manager Alex Cora told reporters, including Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. Price will end up missing exactly two weeks after heading to the shelf with elbow tendinitis May 6. Before that, Price followed up last fall’s playoff heroics with a 3.75 ERA/3.42 FIP and a career-high 10.5 K/9 across 36 frames.
- Utilityman Aledmys Diaz left the Astros’ game Friday with a Grade 1 left hamstring strain, manager AJ Hinch announced (via Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle). The injury doesn’t seem as if it will require an IL stint, though, as Hinch noted Diaz “could possibly be back as early as next series.” Diaz had been filling in at second base since last weekend, when the team placed starter Jose Altuve on the IL, and produced at a white-hot clip before going down with his own injury. Hinch indicated the Astros will turn to Yuli Gurriel at second and Tyler White at first for however long Diaz is out.
- Athletics designated hitter Khris Davis incurred a left hip injury on May 5, and the issue continues to trouble him nearly two full weeks later, Martin Gallegos of MLB.com relays. Davis said Saturday he’s “not 100 hundred percent,” which caused the Athletics to scratch him from their lineup. Manager Bob Melvin admitted there’s “a little bit of concern” for the 31-year-old Davis, who was eminently durable with the A’s from 2016-18, though he’s hopeful the slugger will be OK by Sunday.