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Injury Notes: Grandal, Belt, Miller, Akiyama

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After suffering a twisted knee early in camp, Yasmani Grandal played in his first game of the spring today.  Grandal was in the White Sox lineup as a DH, and it isn’t yet known when he might return to his usual spot at catcher.  Grandal told reporters (including NBC Sports Chicago’s Vinnie Duber) that he is focused on his catching preparation, saying “right now, repetition behind the plate is probably No. 1.  I could (not) care less if I start off the season hitting or not.  I know the bat is going to come through at some point, and once that happens, then it’s a done deal.”

Given the length of time between now and Opening Day, it doesn’t seem like Grandal will require any sort of injured list trip to allow him another week to get fully ready.  With James McCann now signed with the Mets, Chicago’s backup catching options include the inexperienced Zack Collins and veteran Jonathan Lucroy (in camp on a minor league deal), and Grandal is expected to take more of the catching load in 2021.

More on some injury situations from around the league…

  • Brandon Belt’s readiness for the Giants’ opener is more of a question, as he got a late start on Spring Training and still hasn’t played in any games.  Belt told reporters (including Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle) that he spent several weeks recovering first from a positive COVID-19 diagnosis and then a case of mono almost immediately afterwards.  Beyond these twin illnesses, Belt’s readiness for Opening Day was already a bit up in the air due to his heel surgery from last October.  While Belt is a major contributor to the Giants’ offense, the team at least has quite a bit of first base depth — Darin Ruf, Wilmer Flores, Austin Slater, Tommy La Stella, or even Buster Posey — to fill the gap until Belt is ready to play.
  • Brad Miller was a late scratch from today’s Phillies lineup after suffering a ribcage injury during a running drill.  Manager Joe Girardi told NBC Sports’ Jim Salisbury and other reporters that Miller suffered a “tweak” and will get further testing done to determine the extent of the injury.  There certainly appears to be some concern that Miller has hurt his oblique, which would require at least a few weeks out of action and an IL stint.  After initially playing for the Phillies in 2019, Miller spent last season with the Cardinals before signing a one-year, $3.5MM deal this winter to return to Philadelphia.  The 31-year Miller brings both multi-positional value and a solid bat (.247/.343/.510 with 20 home runs over 341 plate appearances in 2019-20) to the roster, making him a difficult player to replace for the Phils if indeed Miller does end up on the IL.
  • Reds outfielder Shogo Akiyama left tonight’s game with a tight left hamstring and will be re-evaluated tomorrow.  In his first MLB season, Akiyama hit .245/.357/.297 in 183 PA, though he hit significantly better in September and October once he became more adjusted to Major League pitching.  Between this improved bat and some solid glovework, Akiyama was being counted on for at least a big part-time role in Cincinnati’s outfield, though those plans could be altered should his hamstring injury prove serious.

NL West Notes: Grisham, Lovullo, Toles, Giants

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Here’s the latest from the National League West:

  • Padres center fielder Trent Grisham left Thursday’s game with a hamstring issue, leading to an evaluation Friday. Manager Jayce Tingler issued a positive update, saying (via Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune) that it’s Grade 1 hamstring sprain that should only keep Grisham out of action for a week. Grisham helped key the Padres’ resurgence in 2020, when he batted .251/.352/.456 with 10 home runs and stolen bases apiece in 252 plate appearances. He may have been even better in center, where he notched seven Defensive Runs Saved and a 7.5 Ultimate Zone Rating.
  • Diamondbacks manager Torey Lovullo is in the last year of his contract, but he suggested this week he won’t approach the front office about an extension, per Zach Buchanan of The Athletic. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that,” he stated. “I’ve said before that I want to honor my contract.” CEO Derrick Hall said he and general manager Mike Hazen “will have conversations about” Lovullo’s status during the season, adding that Lovullo “has done a great job” as the team’s skipper. Hired prior to the 2017 campaign, Lovullo led the D-backs to three straight above-.500 seasons and a playoff berth before the team backslid a year ago. Overall, Arizona is 285-261 on Lovullo’s watch.
  • Dodgers outfielder Andrew Toles has been battling mental health issues that have kept him from playing professionally since 2018, but the club still renewed his contract for this season, according to Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register. Toles is on the restricted list, meaning he won’t collect his salary, but the team’s decision could enable him to maintain healthcare access, Plunkett notes.
  • Giants outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe will miss six to eight weeks because of a left wrist sprain, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle relays. This continues a rough few weeks for the 24-year-old Basabe, whom the Giants designated for assignment Feb. 4. He cleared waivers after that and remained with the organization.

Injury Notes: Longoria, Urias, Whitley

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Evan Longoria made his spring training debut today at designated hitter, but it might be some time until he’s regularly taking grounders at third. He’s working his way back from plantar fasciitis, per MLB.com’s Maria I. Guardado (via Twitter). This is an injury that has plagued Longoria in the past, and it does have a tendency to linger. The Giants have no reason to rush Longoria, who hit .254/.297/.425 in 2020. The Giants built up their infield depth this winter. Tommy La Stella is the most likely to see time at third while Longoria is out with Donovan Solano staying at the keystone. If the injury lingers, San Francisco could also use the opportunity to get extra at-bats for Wilmer Flores.

  • Luis Urias will be out for a day or two with a hamstring injury, but it’s “very minor” and unlikely to affect his playing time beyond the next couple of days, per the Athletic’s Will Sammon (via Twitter). Urias is looking to take advantage of an opportunity to win the everyday shortstop job in Milwaukee. The Brewers are clearly comfortable playing Orlando Arcia and Travis Shaw on the left side of the infield, but they’d like to see Urias in one of those spots. Arcia has been moved around this spring for the first time in his career in an effort to give Urias more training at short.
  • Forrest Whitley is again having a tough spring. His arrival in camp was initially delayed because of coronavirus intake protocols, and now he’s dealing with a sore arm, writes MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart. Whitley has struggled to get healthy and produce as expected for a top prospect, but there is still hope that he will establish himself at some point in 2021. He is on the Astros’ 40-man roster now, and while the stakes seem high for 2021, Whitley is still only 23 years old.

Padres Claim Jordan Humphreys From Giants

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The Padres claimed Jordan Humphreys off waivers from the Giants and will add him to the 40-man roster, per the team. To make room on the 40-man, Jose Castillo was placed on the 60-day injured list. Castillo will soon undergo Tommy John surgery.

Humphreys was an 18th round draft choice of the Mets in the 2015 June draft. He missed all of the 2018 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, returning to make just a handful of appearances in the minors for the Mets in 2019. The Mets traded the right-hander to the Giants in August for Billy Hamilton. That would turn out to be Humphreys’ initiation into baseball’s nomad class. There are always a couple of players who get caught in the waiver wire carousel each winter, and Humphreys is one of this year’s contestants.

He was designated for assignment in November, at which point the Indians claimed him. When the Indians claimed Harold Ramirez, Humphreys was DFA’ed again. The Giants brought him back, claiming the 24-year-old from Cleveland. Presumably to make room for the José Álvarez signing, the Giants waived Humphreys again. Humphreys has now twice been a member of the Giants’ organization without ever suiting up for San Francisco in a game. Given the depth in San Diego, it will be a little surprising if Humphreys finds his ultimate home in San Diego, but at least for now, he will become the 40th man on the Padres’ 40-man roster.

Giants Sign Jose Alvarez

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MARCH 6: The Giants announced the signing of Álvarez to a one-year, $1.15MM contract with a $1.5MM club option for 2022, per MLB.com’s Maria I. Guardado (via Twitter). The option comes with a $100K buyout, adds John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). That bonus will count towards the luxury tax, though the option year will not. Therefore, Álvarez’s deal should count $1.16MM against the luxury tax payroll this season.

MARCH 2: Free-agent reliever Jose Alvarez is nearing a deal with the Giants, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. It’s unclear whether it will be a major league contract.

The left-handed Alvarez, who will turn 32 in May, debuted with the Tigers in 2013 and has since pitched for the Angels and Phillies. Alvarez struggled to keep runs off the board as a Tiger, but he did well in Anaheim and Philadelphia. Overall, despite a subpar strikeout percentage (20.8), Alvarez has logged a respectable 3.59 ERA/3.85 SIERA in 340 2/3 major league innings. He has thrown 50-plus innings in a season on four occasions, though he only tossed 6 1/3 frames last year as a result of a groin injury.

If his agreement with San Francisco does go through, Alvarez could be part of a bullpen that has no shortage of southpaws. Jake McGee has been their relief corps’ biggest free-agent acquisition, but Jarlin Garcia, Sam Selman, Wandy Peralta and Caleb Baragar are also on the Giants’ 40-man roster.

Giants Sign Justin Bour

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7:35pm: Bour will not be in MLB camp, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets. He’ll report to minor league camp April 1.

5:03pm: The Giants have agreed to a contract with Justin Bour, the first baseman himself posted in his Instagram profile. It’s a minor-league contract, reports Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic (Twitter link).

Bour is probably best known for a solid four-year run with the Marlins. He peaked in 2017, when he hit a robust .289/.366/.536 with 25 home runs in just 429 plate appearances. Bour’s offensive production tailed off in 2018, though, particularly after an August trade to the Phillies. He couldn’t right the ship in 2019, where he slumped to a .172/.259/.364 mark after signing with the Angels.

After being outrighted off Los Angeles’ 40-man roster, Bour signed a one-year contract with the Hanshin Tigers of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. While there had been some hope he’d rediscover his power stroke in NPB, Bour slashed an unspectacular .243/.338/.422 with 17 homers across 379 plate appearances.

It has now been three years since we’ve seen Bour at peak form, but there’s no risk for San Francisco in bringing him in as depth. First base is sure to belong to Brandon Belt when he’s healthy, but the longtime Giant underwent heel surgery last October and might not be ready for Opening Day. Each of Wilmer Flores, Darin Ruf and Jason Vosler is on the 40-man roster as a potential replacement if Belt can’t go at the start of the season. Among them, only Vosler (who has yet to make his MLB debut at age 27) hits left-handed, so Bour’s lefty bat helps balance the group.

Giants, Scott Kazmir Agree To Minor League Deal

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FEB 27: Kazmir’s deal is official and he will report to spring training, per Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group (via Twitter).

FEB 23: Comeback season is upon us, it seems. The Giants have agreed to a minor league contract with left-hander Scott Kazmir, reports ESPN’s Buster Olney. He’ll be invited to Major League Spring Training. Kazmir will earn a $600K base salary if he makes the Giants, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. His deal doesn’t include any opt-out dates.

It’s been nearly five years since Kazmir, now 37, pitched in the Majors with the Dodgers. Current San Francisco president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi was serving as general manager under president Andrew Friedman in Los Angeles at that point, and he was also an assistant GM in the Athletics’ front office in 2013 when Oakland inked Kazmir to a two-year deal.

There’s some obvious history between Zaidi and Kazmir, who at one point was one of the game’s brightest young starters. Kazmir broke out with the Rays in 2005, drawing Rookie of the Year votes that season and going on to make a pair of All-Star teams with Tampa Bay, where he posted a 3.51 ERA and a 25.1 percent strikeout rate from 2005-2008 (back when the league-average strikeout percentage was just 17 percent).

Injuries looked to have derailed Kazmir’s career after a disastrous stint with the Angels. He recorded just five outs in the Majors from 2011-12 and looked to be in danger of washing out entirely before even celebrating his 30th birthday. But Kazmir parlayed a minor league deal with the Indians — not unlike the one he’s now signing with the Giants — into a strong rebound campaign in 2013. He rewarded the A’s with an All-Star season in ’14 and a strong first half in ’15 before being traded to the Astros. Injuries again waylaid Kazmir in the second and third seasons of his three-year pact with the Dodgers, and he hasn’t been on a big league mound since Sept. 2016.

Overall, Kazmir owns a lifetime 4.01 ERA that, remarkably, is an exact match with both his FIP and his SIERA. He’s fanned 22.2 percent of his opponents at the MLB level against a 9.4 percent walk rate. Those numbers come across as that of a third or fourth starter, but Kazmir has shown on multiple occasions that when he’s at his best, he’s a good deal better than that.

Whether he has anything left in the tank remains to be seen, but Olney notes that Kazmir hit 92-93 mph in recent bullpen sessions. He’s never been a particularly hard thrower, so that velocity aligns nicely with Kazmir’s peak years. Even during his All-Star campaigns in 2006, 2008 and 2014, Kazmir averaged just north of 91 mph on his heater.

There’s no harm in the Giants taking a look this spring to see if Kazmir has another rebound in him — even if this comeback seems all the more improbable given his age and his considerably longer layoff from pitching in the Majors. He’ll add another intriguing, high-upside arm to a Giants staff that has rolled the dice on Aaron Sanchez, Alex Wood and Anthony DeSclafani on Major League deals.

Giants Claim Jordan Humphreys

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The Giants have claimed right-hander Jordan Humphreys off waivers from Cleveland, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets. The Indians designated Humphreys for assignment Wednesday. In a corresponding move, the Giants placed righty Tyler Beede on the 60-day injured list as he continues to recover from March 2020 Tommy John surgery.

This will be the second go-around with San Francisco for Humphreys, whom the team first acquired from the Mets for outfielder Billy Hamilton last August. Humphreys never made an appearance with the Giants, though, and they designated him in November. The Indians quickly claimed Humphreys, who only lasted about three months with the organization.

An 18th-round pick of the Mets in 2015, Humphreys has yet to get past the High-A level, owing in part to the Tommy John procedure he underwent in 2017. The 24-year-old has performed well in the minors, however, with a 2.60 ERA and a 26.1 percent strikeout rate against a minuscule 4.4 percent walk rate over 169 2/3 innings.

Minor MLB Transactions: 2/26/21

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The latest minor transactions from around baseball…

  • The White Sox have signed outfielder Mikie Mahtook to a minor league contract, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets. Mahtook did not receive an invitation to major league spring training. The 31-year-old was most recently with the Phillies organization, but he did not appear in the majors last season. Mahtook saw big league action in each season from 2015-19, which he divided between the Rays and Tigers, and batted .235/.292/.405 with 33 home runs and 14 stolen bases in 965 plate appearances.
  • Giants right-hander Trevor Gott cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A Sacramento on Friday, per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic. He’ll remain in the organization as depth after it designated him for assignment last week. The hard-throwing Gott, 28, had a difficult 11 2/3-inning season in 2020, when he issued an equal number of strikeouts and walks (eight) and gave up 13 earned runs on 13 hits. The home run ball was one of the main culprits for Gott’s struggles, as he surrendered seven during that short period.

Giants Sign Jeremy Walker

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The Giants have signed right-hander Jeremy Walker, he announced Wednesday on Instagram (h/t: Mark W. Sanchez of KNBR). It’s presumably a minor league contract for Walker, whom the Braves released Feb. 12.

Walker was a 2016 fifth-round pick of the Braves who made his major league debut with the team in 2019, when he put up 9 1/3 innings of two-run ball with six strikeouts, four walks and a 57.1 percent groundball rate. He wasn’t able to follow up on that solid performance last year, though, owing in part to a shoulder impingement that sidelined him for 2020.

At the minor league level, Walker has also kept runs off the board while inducing plenty of grounders and limiting walks. In 2019, for instance, he recorded a 2.88 ERA with more than a strikeout per inning and a little over one walk per nine across 81 1/3 frames between Double-A and Triple-A ball. Based on Walker’s production as a pro, he seems like a worthwhile buy-low addition for the Giants.

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