Padres Designate Nelson Cruz For Assignment
The Padres announced a series of roster moves today, recalled left-hander José Castillo, right-hander Matt Waldron and infielder Matthew Batten. In corresponding moves, right-hander Domingo Tapia was optioned to Triple-A El Paso, righty Michael Wacha was placed on the 15-day injured list (retroactive to July 2) with right shoulder inflammation and designated hitter Nelson Cruz was designated for assignment.
Cruz, 43, has long been one of the most feared sluggers in the league but has struggled over the past couple of years. In 2021, he was hitting .294/.370/.537 for the Twins with a 142 wRC+ when they flipped him to the Rays. That deal worked out very well for the Twins but Cruz slumped after switching jerseys, hitting just .226/.283/.442, 95 wRC+. He then signed with the Nats for 2022 but hit just .234/.313/.337 for a wRC+ of 85.
As last season was winding down, he underwent surgery to address some inflammation in his eye, which he said was impacting his ability to pick up spin on the ball. The Padres took a gamble on a bounceback from Cruz, giving him a $1MM guarantee on a one-year deal. Unfortunately, that hasn’t come to pass, with Cruz hitting just .245/.283/.399 thus far for a wRC+ of 85. He’s striking out at a 30.3% rate and walking just 3.9% of the time, both of those marks easily the worst of his career.
He’s essentially just a designated hitter at this point in his career, having not played the outfield since 2018 and logging just one inning at first base this year. That makes it especially important that he produce at the plate, something he hasn’t been able to do for a couple of years now.
The Padres will now have one week to trade Cruz or pass him through waivers. It’s possible that some club is intrigued based on his past production and modest salary, though that remains to be seen. As a veteran with more than five years of service time, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment in the event he clears waivers while retaining his salary. That means he’s likely to end up released if the Friars can’t find a trade partner in the coming days.
As for Wacha, his shoulder has been an ongoing minor issue. His start on June 24 was skipped due to fatigue in that shoulder, though he did later take the ball on July 1 and toss five innings. Manager Bob Melvin tells AJ Cassavell of MLB.com that the club is trying to use next week’s All-Star break to give him a chance to fully heal up. He has a 2.84 ERA through 15 starts this year, so the team will surely be hoping that a little breather is all he needs to get back on track.
Padres Chairman Peter Seidler: “We’re Not Going To Reverse Course”
Today’s 4-3 loss to the Reds dropped the Padres to 38-46, as the team continued to languish in fourth place in NL West. San Diego is closer to the last-place Rockies than they are to a wild card berth (8.5 games) or the first-place Diamondbacks (11.5 games), and the Padres aren’t exactly gaining momentum, with seven losses in their last eight games.
It’s a very surprising dropoff for a club that reached the NLCS last season, and has been spending to franchise-record levels to continue that success. The Padres exceeded the luxury tax threshold in each of the last two seasons and are easily on pace for a third, with a $250MM payroll and a projected $275.8MM tax number (as per Roster Resource). Getting to the NLCS only made the Padres hungry for more, but a busy offseason that included signing Xander Bogaerts and extending Manny Machado and Yu Darvish has thus far yielded mediocre results.
The struggles of the Padres’ first three months haven’t dampened the overall view of team chairman Peter Seidler, who first of all hasn’t written off the Friars’ chances for 2023. “We have half the season to play. I mean, much, much stranger things have happened….So there’s a lot of catching up for us to do. I’m on the train that says we’re gonna catch up,” Seidler told Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Just because the Padres’ plan for 2023 “hasn’t worked yet….it doesn’t make me lose sleep at night or lack confidence in what we’re doing.”
“I know we’re going to be good. We’re gonna have every chance to be in the mix for the World Series every single year. And so that gives me some kind of serious long-term comfort. We’re not going to reverse course. We’re always gonna adjust….All my focus now is on this year, because I’m as solid as I can be on the year after and two years after and three and the next decade.”
While Seidler naturally isn’t pleased with how the Padres have performed to date, he pointed to the trade deadline as an opportunity for improvement, saying “You know we’re always open for business.” While naturally much can still change between now and the August 1 deadline, Seidler’s comment would suggest that the Padres are looking to be buyers, rather than sellers. Of course, the team might take a middle ground and pursue both routes, perhaps trading some shorter-term assets for players who can help the Padres either in the rest of 2023 or in 2024 and beyond.
As to who could be making these calls on deadline day, Seidler expressed his total support in club CEO Erik Greupner and president of baseball operations A.J. Preller.
“I’m not afraid to make changes. I never have been. But I really value stability,” Seidler said. “And when I know the person as well and the skillset as well as I know A.J. and Erik, they’re not going anywhere. Period….I believe in stability. It is something that is undervalued, generally speaking, in organizations and maybe particularly in sports franchises. But I’m not for mediocre stability. I’m for excellence. And to me, A.J. is excellence.”
“That’s the very interesting thing about professional sports. You have a couple of bad months and fans or the media say, ‘You’ve got to fire this guy.’ It’s crazy to me. Absolutely crazy.”
Preller is one of the longer-tenured front office bosses in baseball, running the Padres’ baseball ops department since August 2014. It hasn’t exactly been a smooth ride, as Preller’s tenure has included only two winning records in his eight full seasons, though he did oversee a substantial rebuild (albeit in the wake of an ill-fated attempt to load up on big-name talent early in his stint as general manager). Even as recently as 2021, the Padres seemed to be stumbling both on and off the field, but the hiring of Bob Melvin as manager seemed to calm things, and San Diego went 89-73 in 2022 before making their postseason run. Preller received a contract extension following the Padres’ playoff berth in 2020, and his current deal runs through the 2026 campaign.
Seidler endorsed Melvin as well, though as Acee noted, Seidler (like Preller in recent comments) didn’t give a full guarantee about Melvin’s future as the Friars’ manager. Melvin’s deal with the team is up after the 2024 season, and if the Padres’ struggles were continue, a managerial change might be one logical route of shaking things up, if a larger-scale front office change isn’t happening.
That said, Seidler seemed to disagree with the premise of a true guarantee of Melvin’s job security, asking “What’s the point in saying that? Bob is one of the great managers in our game. I’ll leave it there. As well as being a great guy and as trusted a human being as you’ll ever find. But we’re talking about a job here.”
NL Notes: Goldschmidt, Reynolds, Painter, Suarez
The Cardinals have been among the most disappointing teams in the league this season. Despite coming into the season as the shoo-in favorite for the NL Central crown, St. Louis sports just a 34-48 record and is in fifth place in the NL Central, 9.5 games out of a playoff spot. That rough first half to the 2023 campaign led president of baseball operations John Mozeliak to admit that “some changes” were on the horizon for the Cardinals late last month, even as he pushed back against the idea of the club entering a full rebuild.
The Athletic’s Katie Woo expanded upon those comments today, suggesting that the Cardinals are likely to make most of their position player group available in trade talks as they look to retool the team, though she highlights Nolan Arenado, Willson Contreras, Lars Nootbaar, and Jordan Walker as players who aren’t expected to be moved. Woo places the most emphasis on first baseman Paul Goldschmidt as a player who’s off-limits in trade as the deadline approaches.
The 35-year-old first baseman has posted another solid season for the Cardinals on the heels of his 2022 MVP campaign, slashing .289/.379/.498 in 359 plate appearances this season. A free agent after the 2024 campaign, speculation has swirled that the club might consider offers on Goldschmidt ahead of the trade deadline this year. Woo pushes back strongly against those rumors, arguing that a two-year extension this offseason is the “most likely scenario” regarding Goldschmidt. Such a deal would figure to take the veteran slugger through the end of his age-38 season in a Cardinals uniform.
More from around the National League…
- The Pirates welcomed outfielder Bryan Reynolds back from the injured list today, per a club announcement. Pittsburgh’s star was on the shelf with a low back strain for just slightly over the minimum 10 days required, but the club struggled while Reynolds was away. Since Reynolds last appeared in a game on June 19, the club has gone 5-6 including key losses to division rivals in Chicago and Milwaukee. Reynolds, who’s slashing .279/.350/.473 in 294 plate appearances this season, will look to spark his club as they head into the All Star break with tough matchups against the Dodgers and Diamondbacks. In recent days, outfielder Josh Palacios has filled in for Reynolds in the outfield alongside Henry Davis and Jack Suwinski.
- Phillies managed Rob Thomson tells reporters, including Destiny Lugardo of Phillies Nation, that top prospect Andrew Painter is set to face live hitters on Tuesday for the first time since he was shut down during Spring Training with a UCL sprain. In even more encouraging news, Todd Zolecki of MLB.com adds that Painter is not only expected to pitch competitively at some point this summer, but could make his big league debut sometime this season. That’s surely a relief for Phillies fans, given Painter appeared poised to slot into the club’s Opening Day rotation prior to his injury during the spring as baseball’s consensus top pitching prospect.
- Padres reliever Robert Suarez is making progress in his return to a big league mound, beginning a rehab assignment in the Arizona Complex League as noted by Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Suarez has been on the 60-day IL all season dealing with an elbow injury, but was a key piece of the San Diego bullpen last season with a 2.27 ERA in 47 2/3 innings of work. Sanders adds that Suarez is expected back sometime after the All Star break. Upon his return, Suarez figures to bolster a bullpen that ranks bottom ten in the majors with a 4.26 FIP.
West Notes: Astros, Rodgers, Padres
The Astros have seen a great deal of upheaval in their rotation throughout the season, as established hurlers like Luis Garcia, Jose Urquidy, and Lance McCullers Jr. have spent much of the season on the injured list while up and comers like Hunter Brown and J.P. France have taken up roles in the rotation. In the midst of all that turmoil, left-hander Framber Valdez and right-hander Cristian Javier have stood as fixtures at the top of Houston’s rotation.
That figures to change in the coming days, however, as the club has scratched Valdez from his planned start against the Rangers tomorrow. Manager Dusty Baker indicated to reporters, including Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle, that Valdez had been battling with a sprained ankle since June 20 against the Mets, and the injury worsened during his last start against the Cardinals. Right-hander Shawn Dubin figures to take the ball in Valdez’s stead tomorrow, though his 10.80 ERA in five innings this season doesn’t exactly measure up to Valdez’s Cy Young-caliber performance this season.
Per Kawahara, Baker noted that Javier is still expected to make his start on Monday “as of right now” despite the fact that the right-hander is “scuffling a bit,” as indicated by his uncharacteristically lackluster 5.79 ERA in June. Chandler Rome and Eno Sarris of The Athletic suggest the Astros could push Javier’s next start back by calling up right-hander Brandon Bielak, who was scratched from his start at the Triple-A level today.
More from around MLB’s West divisions:
- The Rockies may welcome back second baseman Brendan Rodgers from surgery before the 2023 campaign comes to an end. Rodgers suffered a torn labrum during spring training that ultimately required surgery, but the 26-year-old infielder has begun to work his way back to the field, per Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post. Rodgers took live batting practice for the first time today, ran the bases and took infield practice. Rodgers will report to Arizona for extended spring training after the All Star break, and manager Bud Black indicated to reporters (including Saunders) that Rodgers could return to the Rockies in August or September. That’s fantastic news for the Rockies, who have relied primarily on Harold Castro and Coco Montes at the keystone in Rodgers’ absence.
- The Padres will be without right-hander Yu Darvish tomorrow, as the veteran hurler was scratched from his start due to a bout of the flu. Annie Heilbrunn of the San Diego Union-Tribune adds that, per manager Bob Melvin, he may not be able to pitch Monday either. Who will start in Darvish’s stead tomorrow is currently unclear, though the club did recall right-hander Pedro Avila earlier today. Avila has made 13 starts at the Triple-A level this season, posting an 8.49 ERA in 46 2/3 innings of work.
Padres Make Four Roster Moves
The Padres made four pitching moves today, including the activation of left-hander Tom Cosgrove from the 15-day injured list. San Diego also called up right-hander Pedro Avila from Triple-A, while optioning southpaw Ray Kerr to Triple-A and placing righty Drew Carlton the 15-day IL due to right elbow inflammation.
Carlton signed a minor league contract during the offseason, and was promoted to San Diego’s active roster in the middle of May. Pitching mostly in multi-inning relief situations, Carlton has a 4.35 ERA, 21.2% strikeout rate, and 7.1% walk rate over 20 2/3 frames. That ERA took a hit in yesterday’s game, as Carlton allowed three runs (two earned) in two-thirds of an inning, including a walkoff homer from the Reds’ Spencer Steer. It isn’t known whether Carlton’s elbow issue developed during the game, or if he was trying to pitch through some soreness.
Cosgrove returns from the IL after missing only the minimum 15 days with a strained left hamstring. A 12th-round pick for the Padres in the 2017 draft, the 27-year-old made his MLB debut this season and has made a very solid impression in his first 17 innings in the Show. Cosgrove has a tiny 0.53 ERA and 3.4% walk rate, as well as a solid 25.9% strikeout rate. His SIERA is naturally higher (3.00), as Cosgrove has a perfect 100% strand rate and he has benefited from a .158 BABIP. Still, it’s not a bad showing at all for a pitcher who wasn’t really on the radar for a call-up heading into 2023, but Cosgrove has pitched well enough to retain his spot in the Padres’ bullpen.
MLB Trade Rumors Podcast: The Angels Trade for Infielders, Indecisive NL Central Teams and Aaron Judge’s Toe
The latest episode of the MLB Trade Rumors Podcast is now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts! Make sure you subscribe as well! You can also use the player at this link to listen, if you don’t use Spotify or Apple for podcasts.
This week, host Darragh McDonald is joined by Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors to discuss:
- The Angels acquired Eduardo Escobar from the Mets and Mike Moustakas from the Rockies (1:25)
- The Pirates and Cubs and Cardinals are thinking about their respective trade deadline approaches (7:20)
- The Yankees’ hopes are hanging on Aaron Judge‘s toe (16:05)
Plus, we answer your questions, including:
- How do you think the Red Sox will approach the deadline? Will they try to toe the line like last season (which did not work)? (18:50)
- I would like to know what you think the Padres are going to do? They have numerous holes in that lineup, they are selling out game after game at home? You think major trades forthcoming? Or what? (22:40)
- What do you think are the chances that the Braves trade Vaughn Grissom at the deadline? What caliber of player do you believe a package built around Grissom would bring in? (25:35)
Check out our past episodes!
- Exciting Youth Movements in Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, Bad Central Divisions and the Dodgers Want Pitching – listen here
- Marcus Stroman Lobbies for Extension, Mets’ Woes and Astros Seeking Bats – listen here
- Elly De La Cruz, Alek Manoah’s Demotion and Surgery for Jacob deGrom – listen here
Nabil Crismatt Elects Free Agency
Right-hander Nabil Crismatt has elected free agency after going unclaimed on outright waivers, the Padres announced. San Diego had designated him for assignment on Tuesday.
Crismatt has spent the past three seasons with the Friars. He signed a minor league deal heading into the 2021 campaign and cracked the Opening Day roster. That proved to be an excellent depth addition for the San Diego front office. While he worked mostly in low-leverage relief, the Colombian-born hurler was a quality middle innings arm. He topped 65 innings in both seasons between 2021 and ’22, posting respective ERAs of 3.76 and 2.94.
Between those two years, he worked to a 3.39 mark over 148 2/3 frames. Crismatt’s 21.6% strikeout rate was a couple points below league average for a reliever, but he showed sold control and kept the ball on the ground on half the batted balls he allowed.
The 2023 season has been more challenging. Crismatt allowed multiple runs in four of his first six appearances before landing on the injured list midway through April with a left hip strain. He spent two months on the shelf and only got into one game after returning before San Diego took him off the roster. Crismatt has never been a hard thrower, but his average fastball velocity was down from the 90-91 MPH range to 88.8 MPH this year.
Crismatt has exhausted his minor league options, so a DFA was the only way for the Padres to take him off the big league roster. Because he also cleared waivers while a member of the Cardinals’ organization back in 2020, he had the right to decline this outright assignment and test the open market. He certainly did enough over the prior two seasons to draw minor league interest around the league.
West Notes: Campusano, San Jose, Urquidy, Moore
Padres catcher Luis Campusano is making notable progress in his rehab from a sprained left thumb. As Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune notes, Campusano hit on the field prior to today’s game against the Nationals before catching a bullpen session for right-hander Yu Darvish. As noted by MLB.com, manager Bob Melvin considered today’s steps forward “significant” as Campusano continues his rehab process, but the club has not yet set a timeline for the catcher to begin a rehab assignment.
Campusano appeared in just seven games this season prior to going on the injured list, leaving much of the catching duties to Austin Nola, who’s struggled to a brutal .144/.263/.195 slash line this season. More recently, the Padres have learned on in-season addition Gary Sanchez behind the plate. In 80 plate appearances since arriving in San Diego, Sanchez has slashed .206/.275/.521 with a wRC+ of 114 while grading out as a roughly average defensive catcher. Still, Campusano’s eventual return figures to give the Padres insurance if Sanchez’s production takes a turn for the worse and an alternative to Nola as the second catcher on the roster.
More from around MLB’s western divisions…
- As reported by John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose mayor Matt Mahan and four previous mayors of the city have issued a letter to commissioner Rob Manfred pleading the city’s case for an MLB expansion or relocation team. In the letter, the mayors argue that San Jose presents a unique opportunity for MLB considering its population, annual GDP, and its relationship with major tech companies. As Shea notes, the Giants currently have territorial rights over San Jose following an agreement between San Francisco and Oakland in 1990. That agreement was a major factor in the failure of a bid by the Athletics to move to San Jose back in 2013. While the idea of San Jose as a potential expansion team location farfetched considering MLB’s decision to support the Giants in their dispute with the A’s over territorial rights a decade ago, the situation is nonetheless worth noting as groups around the country such as those in Nashville and Salt Lake City prepare for the possibility of expansion in the coming decade.
- Astros right-hander Jose Urquidy threw a bullpen session today and told reporters, including Matt Kawahara of the Houston Chronicle, that he was sitting 88-89 with his fastball, down from his typical velocity of 93-94. That’s not much of a cause for concern at the moment, however, considering how early it is in Urquidy’s rehab from shoulder woes that have kept him on the injured list since the beginning of May. Urquidy, who has long been expected to return sometime in July, told reporters that the current plan is for him to throw two more bullpen sessions before advancing to facing live hitters. It seems reasonable to expect a rehab assignment to be in the near future for Urquidy once he begins facing live batters, assuming everything goes well up to that point.
- Angels lefty Matt Moore is making progress in his rehab from an oblique injury that has left his sidelined for nearly a month, though he told reporters, including MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger, that today’s bullpen didn’t go well enough for him to be activated from the injured list on Monday. While how Moore feels tomorrow will decide a lot of the process, the Halos reliever indicated that he expects to throw at least one more bullpen before he’s activated from the IL. Moore has been stellar for the Angels this season when healthy, with a 1.44 ERA in 25 innings, though the club has managed to maintain a solid bullpen in his absence thanks to the efforts of players like Carlos Estevez, Jaime Barria, and Chris Devenski.
Padres Select Matt Waldron
TODAY: The Padres have officially announced their selection of Waldron’s contract. To make room for Waldron on the active roster, left-hander Ray Kerr was optioned to Triple-A. Kerr had a 6.00 ERA and 5.77 FIP in six innings of work out of the San Diego bullpen, and now figures to serve as depth with El Paso going forward.
JUNE 23: The Padres will promote knuckleballer Matt Waldron to start tomorrow night’s game against the Nationals, the club informed reporters (including Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune). He’s not on the 40-man roster but San Diego has an opening after designating Nabil Crismatt for assignment on Tuesday. Michael Wacha had been slated to start the game. The Friars are skipping his outing due to some shoulder fatigue, tweets AJ Cassavell of MLB.com.
Waldron, a 26-year-old righty, entered the professional ranks as an 18th-round pick of the Indians back in 2019. Cleveland traded him to San Diego after the 2020 season as the player to be named later in the Mike Clevinger/Josh Naylor, Cal Quantrill blockbuster.
The University of Nebraska product has slowly progressed up the minor league ranks over the two and a half years since then. He reached Triple-A El Paso midway through last season and has spent all of 2023 there. He has a 7.02 ERA over 66 2/3 innings this year, starting 12 of 14 appearances.
That’s obviously not a strong run prevention mark, even in the context of the brutal Pacific Coast League setting for pitchers. Waldron ranks 27th among 38 PCL hurlers (minimum 40 innings) in ERA. He’s seventh among that group in strikeout rate, however, fanning just under a quarter of opponents. He has kept his walks to a manageable 7.8% clip, with the inflated ERA largely attributable to a batting average on balls in play just shy of .400.
It’s unclear if Waldron will get more than one start in his initial MLB look. Even if it’s a one-off appearance for now, it’ll mark both a major personal achievement and a win for fans of the knuckleball.
According to Statcast, there hasn’t been a single knuckleball thrown in the major leagues (outside of a few scattered eephus pitches from position players in mop-up duty) in either of the last two seasons. Mickey Jannis made one relief appearance for the Orioles in 2021; the last knuckleballer to pitch more than twice was Steven Wright back in 2019.
NL West Notes: Suter, Wacha, Sheehan
The Rockies placed left-hander Brent Suter on the 15-day injured list yesterday due to a left oblique strain, and recalled righty Noah Davis from Triple-A in the corresponding move. Suter has posted his typically low strikeout rate and his 8.1% walk rate is barely above league average, but the 33-year-old has nonetheless worked to a 2.81 ERA over 41 2/3 innings out of Colorado’s bullpen. Suter has allowed only two home runs over those 41 2/3 frames, and he has some of the best soft-contact numbers of any pitcher in baseball, sitting in the 99th percentile of hard-hit ball rate and in the 97th percentile of barrel rate.
Losing Suter to the IL is another blow to the injury-riddled Rockies, but the particular timing of the oblique problem adds some doubt to the southpaw’s value as a trade chip. Suter is a free agent after the season, and thus a logical player for the Rockies to shop in what looks like another non-contending season for the club. While oblique injuries can vary greatly in severity, it appears that Suter’s issue is relatively minor, as he told MLB.com that he was still feeling good and was planning to continue playing catch.
More from around the NL West…
- Knuckleballer Matt Waldron will start today’s game for the Padres, as Michael Wacha (the original scheduled starter) will skip a turn in the rotation due to some shoulder fatigue. Manager Bob Melvin described the move as “proactive,” telling the San Diego Union-Tribune’s Jeff Sanders and other reporters that Wacha has “got a little bit of history there with the shoulder. He’s been as good as any pitcher in the National League so this is something we don’t want to push.” Wacha has missed some time with shoulder issues in three of the last four seasons but not any truly significant time, making this seemingly more of a nagging injury than a top-tier concern. Wacha has a 2.90 ERA over 80 2/3 innings for San Diego this season, with a 1.7 fWAR that leads all Padres pitchers. Despite a below-average strikeout rate, Wacha has relied on soft contact and good control to achieve that ERA, and both his changeup and (due to some batted-ball luck) four-seamer have been premium pitches.
- Emmet Sheehan‘s MLB career is off to a tremendous start, as the Dodgers prospect has a 1.50 ERA over his first 12 innings in the Show. Sheehan held the Astros to two runs over six frames in yesterday’s 3-2 Los Angeles victory, earning his first big league win in the process. Unsurprisingly, this success has earned Sheehan a continued look, as Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya) that Sheehan will get another start next week. Julio Urias, Noah Syndergaard, and Dustin May are all on the IL, and while Urias might be back within a week or so, L.A. has had to rely on younger arms to join Clayton Kershaw and Tony Gonsolin in the rotation. Sheehan and Bobby Miller have done well to pick up the slack, while Michael Grove has been less consistent. Roberts said that Grove will work as a bulk pitcher behind an opener on Wednesday, when the Dodgers play the Rockies.