Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Giants Rumors

NL West Notes: Bumgarner, Wingenter, Clarke, D’Backs

By | at

Trade speculation has swirled around Madison Bumgarner for months, and such buzz figures to grow even louder as we approach the trade deadline due to Bumgarner’s solid results.  After a pair of injury-marred seasons, Bumgarner has been healthy and effective this year, with a 3.92 ERA, 8.9 K/9, and a 6.14 K/BB rate that projects as the best of his career.  As ESPN’s Buster Olney notes in a subscriber-only column, Bumgarner is throwing his fastball more often than in recent years, and with better velocity.  While “the front offices of 2019 don’t necessarily believe in intangibles and mostly won’t pay for them,” Olney wonders if a proven postseason performer like Bumgarner might also benefit from a move to a contending team, similar to how Cole Hamels was reinvigorated after being dealt from the Rangers to the Cubs last summer.  With the Giants in last place in the NL West and looking like a deadline seller, it will be interesting to see what San Francisco can acquire for its longtime ace in July, assuming the team indeed does want to move Bumgarner.

Some more from around the NL West…

  • The Padres placed right-hander Trey Wingenter on the 10-day IL today (retroactive to Saturday) due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder, as per a team announcement.  Phil Maton was recalled from Triple-A to Wingenter’s place in the bullpen.  After making his Major League debut in 2018, Wingenter was off to a strong start this season, with a 2.93 ERA and 12.3 K/9 over 15 1/3 innings, albeit with some issues with his control (4.7 BB/9) and home run rate (1.2 HR/9).
  • With Zack Godley now pitching out of the bullpen, the Diamondbacks will give rookie Taylor Clarke a shot at the starting rotation, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic writes.  Clarke is scheduled to start Tuesday’s game against the Rays, and there certainly seems to be opportunity for Clarke to stick if he pitches well, as manager Torey Lovullo said “we haven’t looked past Tuesday” in terms of a long-term rotation plan.  A third-round pick for the D’Backs in the 2015 draft, Clarke is ranked by MLB.com as Arizona’s 10th-best prospect.  The 25-year-old righty has a 3.55 ERA, 7.8 K/9, and 3.06 K/BB rate over 492 1/3 career minor league frames, and he made his MLB debut earlier this season, a three-inning relief outing on April 20.
  • In another piece from Piecoro, he talks to Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen about the team’s good start, and how Hazen’s reluctance to fully rebuild (even while parting ways with the likes of Paul Goldschmidt, A.J. Pollock, and Patrick Corbin) kept the D’Backs in position to potentially contend in 2019.  While the losses of those big-name players drew the most headlines, Arizona has gotten some excellent early results from somewhat unheralded offseason pickups, i.e. Adam Jones, Greg Holland, Merrill Kelly, Luke Weaver.  As to whether the D’Backs could be buyers or sellers at the deadline, “we are hoping this team tells us what to do – directs us what to do – as we move through the season.  To this point, we’ve played good baseball,” Hazen said.

Giants Claim Andrew Moore, Designate Breyvic Valera

By | at

The Giants have claimed right-hander Andrew Moore off waivers from the Rays, according to Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic (Twitter link).  Moore will report to San Francisco’s Double-A affiliate in Richmond.  To create a 40-man roster spot for Moore, the Giants have also designated infielder Breyvic Valera for assignment.

Valera’s stint on the Giants’ 40-man roster has come to an end before he appeared in a game with the team, which acquired Valera in January when he was designated by the Orioles. In 24 games at Triple-A this season, Valera has posted a .257/.397/.338 slash line, including an impressive 16-to-10 BB:K ratio. The 27-year-old Valera has made only 86 MLB plate appearances and has produced a .529 OPS across parts of the last two seasons, which he spent with the Cardinals, Dodgers, and Orioles.

Moore has appeared in only 11 games in the Major Leagues — nine starts with the Mariners in 2017 — posting a 5.34 ERA in those games. Triple-A has not treated him well this season, as Moore has conceded 9 home runs in 17 1/3 innings while walking as many batters as he has struck out. Moore, a former second-round selection of the Mariners, was recently DFA’d by the Rays, but will hope to make a home in San Francisco. He is just 24 years old and is not far removed from successful seasons in the minors in 2016 and 2017.

Jake Peavy Retires

By | at

Right-hander Jake Peavy last pitched professionally in 2016, and though he was angling to return to the majors last summer, that attempt has come to an end. Recent reports from Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe and Scott Miller of Bleacher Report indicate the 37-year-old Peavy has decided to hang up his cleats.

Peavy spent his final two-plus seasons in San Francisco, but his peak came as the ace of NL West rival San Diego’s staff.  In a move that ranks among the wisest in franchise history, the Padres used a 15th-round pick in 1999 on Peavy, who debuted in 2002. Just two years later, he emerged as one of the majors’ premier pitchers.

During a 1,050-inning run in San Diego from 2004-09, Peavy pitched to a 3.02 ERA/3.16 FIP with 9.44 K/9 against 2.74 BB/9 and helped the Padres to their two most recent playoff berths (2005-06). He also earned a pair of All-Star nods and twice led the National League in both ERA and strikeouts in that period, during which he accumulated the majors’ fifth-highest fWAR among starters (26.4). Only luminaries Johan Santana, CC Sabathia, Roy Oswalt and Roy Halladay outdid Peavy in that category.

In the crowning personal achievement of his career, Peavy beat out Oswalt and others for the NL Cy Young Award in 2007, when he fired 223 1/3 innings of 2.54 ERA/2.84 FIP ball, amassed 240 strikeouts and led all big league pitchers in fWAR (6.7). It was the third straight season of at least 200 innings for Peavy, who exceeded that mark twice more later in his career.

Peavy was unquestionably the Padres’ most valuable player during his seven-plus years in their uniform. However, his reign in San Diego came to an end in August 2009 when the non-contenders traded him to the White Sox for Clayton Richard, Aaron Poreda, Dexter Carter and Adam Russell.

Save for Richard, who had a long but unspectacular run in San Diego, no one from that group panned out for the Padres. Meanwhile, despite Peavy’s presence, the White Sox never secured a playoff berth during his stint with the franchise. It didn’t help that Peavy often battled injuries throughout his tenure as a member of the White Sox, with whom his numbers declined. Still, he did log a respectable 4.00 ERA/3.70 FIP in 537 2/3 frames with the Pale Hose and pick up his third and final All-Star appearance with the club in 2012.

In July 2013, a year after his last truly great season, Peavy changed Sox when Chicago dealt him to Boston in a three-team, seven-player trade that also included Detroit. Peavy wasn’t any kind of rotation savior by then, but he was still a solid starter whose acquisition paid dividends for the Red Sox during their run to a World Series championship that season. However, Boston couldn’t defend its title in 2014, a season in which it nosedived in the standings and ended up dealing Peavy to the Giants for pitchers Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree.

For the second straight season, Peavy was a midsummer acquisition for a franchise that went on to a championship. Peavy gave the 2014 Giants the vintage version of himself in terms of run prevention over 78 2/3 regular-season innings (2.17 ERA), and he helped the club to NLDS and NLCS victories. Although Peavy struggled in both of his World Series starts, a pair of losses to the Royals, the Giants nonetheless triumphed in a seven-game classic. They then brought back Peavy on a two-year, $24MM contract, which will go down as the last deal of his career. While Peavy pitched well in the first of those seasons, injuries held him to 110 2/3 innings. He was only able to manage another 118 2/3 frames in 2016, a career-worst campaign that included a demotion to the Giants’ bullpen.

Although Peavy’s time in the majors didn’t end on a high note, he enjoyed a prolific career that most pitchers would sign up for without a second thought. Along with his personal and team awards, Peavy registered a 152-126 record, 2,207 strikeouts and a 3.63 ERA/3.65 FIP in 2,377 innings en route to 44.1 fWAR/37.5 rWAR and upward of $127MM in earnings. MLBTR congratulates Peavy on an outstanding career and wishes him the best in his post-playing days.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

West Injury Notes: Pollock, Tatis, Olson, Holland, Smyly

By | at

With center fielder A.J. Pollock having undergone right elbow surgery Thursday, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman told Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register and other reporters that adding another righty-hitting outfielder “would be ideal.” However, Friedman noted the Dodgers “have a fairly high bar with our mindset being to giving our current guys more of a runway.” Even without Pollock, the Dodgers have no shortage of quality outfield options at the big league level, though nearly all of them hit from the left side. Pollock could come back later in the season to balance out the group, but there’s still no timetable for his return. For now, Pollock’s “resting and recovering” in the wake of surgery, per manager Dave Roberts.

  • Padres manager Andy Green expressed optimism Saturday that shortstop Fernando Tatis Jr. will come off the injured list in relatively short order, Dennis Lin of The Athletic tweets. Tatis went down with a hamstring strain Tuesday, meaning he’s eligible to return as early as May 10. When he does come back, the 20-year-old rookie will try to pick up where he left off before the injury sidelined him. Tatis has burst on the scene by slashing .300/.360/.550 with six home runs and six steals in 111 plate appearances.
  • Injured first baseman Matt Olson could rejoin the Athletics as early as Tuesday, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle relays. The 25-year-old slugger has only totaled six plate appearances this season as a result of late-March surgery on his right hand, an injury that spurred the A’s to acquire Kendrys Morales from the Blue Jays. Morales has since amassed more appearances at first than any other Athletic, but the 35-year-old switch hitter has batted an uninspiring .200/.310/.271 with just one home run in 100 trips to the plate.
  • Giants left-hander Derek Holland will come off the injured list Wednesday for a start in Colorado, according to manager Bruce Bochy (via Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group). It’ll amount to a short stay on the IL for Holland, who landed on the shelf April 29 because of a bruised left index finger. Holland, 32, revived his career with the Giants last season, which convinced the team to re-sign him to a one-year, 7MM guarantee over the winter. The investment hasn’t paid off in the early going for San Francisco, as Holland has only managed a 5.34 ERA/5.15 FIP in 32 frames.
  • Texas will activate southpaw Drew Smyly from the IL to start Sunday against Toronto, Rangers executive vice president of communications John Blake announced. The oft-injured Smyly, who missed 2017-18 after undergoing Tommy John surgery, has been on the IL since April 20 because of mid-arm nerve tightness in his left arm. While the 29-year-old seems to have dodged a serious ailment this time, his return from TJ surgery has been a struggle thus far. Smyly has averaged fewer than four innings a start across four tries and posted a 7.80 ERA with six walks per nine and a meager 26.7 percent groundball rate.

Giants To Select Mike Gerber, Designate Gerardo Parra

By | at

3:01pm: This move is now official. In other news, the club has bumped catcher Erik Kratz to the 10-day injured list with a hamstring strain to make way for the promotion of Tyler Beede.

2:19pm: The Giants are planning a bit of a shake-up in the outfield. They’ll select the contract of Mike Gerber, per Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area (Twitter link). To create a roster opening, the team will designate veteran Gerardo Parra, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets.

Gerber, 26, had a miserable showing in his first taste of the majors last year. But the Giants saw enough to claim him from the Tigers, later bumping him from their 40-man roster but hanging onto his rights.

The low-risk move has paid off to this point. Gerber is off to a .357/.402/.655 start with six home runs over 92 plate appearances at Triple-A. He also has struck out 27 times while drawing only five walks, but the quality of contact remains intriguing.

Parra, who’s closing in on his 32nd birthday, is an eleven-year MLB veteran who settled for a minor-league deal with the Giants. It was widely expected that he’d claim a roster spot once camp closed, and that indeed proved to be the case.

Things haven’t shaken out as hoped to this point. Parra carries a meager .198/.278/.267 batting line through 97 plate appearances. He’s sure to hold appeal to other organizations as a depth piece, but will almost certainly have to spent some time at Triple-A for the first time in a long while (excepting a few short rehab stints).

It isn’t known whether Parra agreed to an advance consent clause before season. If so, the club would be able to cut him loose without paying him the full $1.75MM salary called for in his contract. If not, the obligation would remain (less any other big-league earnings he’s able to command later in the season).

Cardinals Trade Francisco Pena To Giants

By | at

The Giants announced Thursday that they’ve acquired catcher Francisco Pena from the Cardinals in exchange for cash. Pena, who was not on the St. Louis 40-man roster, will report to Triple-A Sacramento.

San Francisco recently brought veteran backstop Stephen Vogt from Sacramento up to the big leagues, so Pena will step into the spot that had previously been occupied by Vogt. In six games for Triple-A Memphis so far in 2019, Pena has batted .333/.429/.611 with a homer in 21 plate appearances, although that type of production shouldn’t be expected moving forward. Pena is a career .216/.249/.311 hitter at the MLB level and owns a .253/.298/.455 slash in just under 1400 PAs at the Triple-A level. Pena, 29, has caught 32 percent of would-be base thieves at the Triple-A level in his career and has generally received positive marks for pitch framing, though he did struggle in that regard both in the Majors and the minors with the Cards last season.

Stockpiling depth behind the plate has been a clear priority for new Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi in the first year of his tenure with his new organization. Under Zaidi, the Giants have signed or acquired Vogt, Pena, Erik Kratz, Tom Murphy and Rene Rivera, although the latter two are no longer in the organization. (Murphy was traded to the Mariners, while Rivera was released and signed with the Mets on a minor league deal.)

Giants Select Stephen Vogt, Option Ty Blach

By | at

5:08pm: The move is official. Vogt will take the 40-man spot that was opened earlier today when pitching prospect Logan Webb was placed on the restricted list due to an 80-game PED suspension. In order to open a spot on the active roster, San Francisco has optioned left-hander Ty Blach to Triple-A Sacramento.

10:15am: The Giants will select the contract of veteran backstop Stephen Vogt today, he tells Janie McCauley of the Associated Press (Twitter link). Corresponding roster moves aren’t yet known.

Vogt, 34, will return to the majors for the first time since the 2017 campaign. He ultimately missed the entirety of the 2018 season with a shoulder injury that required shoulder surgery and at one point looked to be career threatening.

Through 1,808 career plate appearances at the game’s highest level, Vogt owns a .251/.310/.416 slash line. At his peak with the Athletics, he was among the game’s best-hitting catchers for a brief stretch and was named to a pair of American League All-Star teams.

Vogt has shown signs that he’s ready to be a contributor in the majors once again. He’s off to a strong .241/.389/.500 slash with four home runs through 72 plate appearances with the Giants’ top affiliate. Better still, he has drawn 14 walks against 11 strikeouts. The Giants already have a pair of catchers on the roster in Buster Posey and Erik Kratz, so it’s not clear how Vogt will factor into the catching mix just yet, but he’ll at the very least give the Giants an additional veteran bat off the bench.

Giants Prospect Logan Webb Receives 80-Game PED Suspension

By | at

Giants pitching prospect Logan Webb has been hit with an 80-game suspension after testing positive for a performance-enhancing drug. He was found to have a substance known as dehydrochlormethyltestosterone in his system.

Webb entered the season as one of the Giants’ top prospects and had boosted his stock quite a bit in the early going. Through 27 innings over five starts at the Double-A level in 2019, he has allowed just six earned runs while compiling 31 strikeouts against seven walks.

The former fourth-round draft pick will now end up missing a big chunk of the season, which could well impact his timeline for reaching MLB readiness. He’ll also have to answer questions about the circumstances leading to the suspension. Webb denied knowingly ingesting the banned substance in a statement to Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group (Twitter link) and others.

It’s another suboptimal bit of news out of the Giants farm. The club’s two best prospects, Joey Bart and Heliot Ramos, are each sidelined with injuries — though neither appears to be particularly serious.

Giants Place Derek Holland On 10-Day IL

By | at

The Giants have placed lefty Derek Holland on the 10-day injured list, the club announced and reporters including Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweeted. He’s dealing with a bruise to his left index finger.

It’s certainly possible this’ll be a brief IL stint of limited consequence. There’s no indication at present as to how long Holland will be sidelined, but it doesn’t sound like a particularly worrisome injury. That said, the Giants’ pitching staff remains one of the most interesting in baseball from a hot-stove perspective, so it’s worth a quick look at the move.

The 32-year-old Holland has struggled to a 5.34 ERA in his first 32 frames, with home runs (seven already) and walks (16) largely to blame. But he’s also striking out 11.3 per nine on an 11.4% swinging-strike rate, with ramped-up usage of his slider helping to change his profile. Holland could yet be a mid-season trade candidate if he can refine his new approach.

For the time being, Ty Blach is coming up to take the open roster spot. But as Pavlovic notes on Twitter, the IL placement may end up opening the door for former 14th overall pick Tyler Beede. As he closes in on his 26th birthday, Beede could get his second shot at the majors after a rough debut last year.

The Giants are said to be pleased with what they’ve seen from Beede thus far in 2019. Indeed, he has run up 22 2/3 innings of 1.99 ERA pitching with 13.5 K/9 against 4.0 BB/9 this year at Triple-A. At some point, the Giants will want to get a full MLB look at the former Vanderbilt hurler.

Giants Reportedly Pursuing Trade For Outfielder

By | at

The Giants are inquiring around the league about possible outfield trade targets, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). It does not appear as if they have locked in on a particular player to this point, with the report specifying that they’re in talks with “multiple clubs.”

It’s still early, but the San Francisco organization has received little in the way of offensive production from its outfield unit. Most of the playing time has gone to youngster Steven Duggar (71 OPS+) and veterans Gerardo Parra (56) and Kevin Pillar (86).

Multiple prior trades have already contributed to the mix, including one at the beginning of the month that brought Pillar to San Francisco. Another swap landed the Giants Tyler Austin, a player they’d like to take a look at. Unfortunately, he’s struggling to get past an elbow injury.

It’s not entirely clear just what kind of player the Giants are looking for at the moment. They have taken on several unproven younger players, with Connor Joe and Michael Reed already being shown the door but Duggar and Austin still in line for opportunities. They’ve also gone with experienced options in Parra and Pillar.

The most intriguing possibility, by far, would be a surprising early-season swap in which the Giants move some of their veteran pitching for a highly promising young outfielder. That can’t be ruled out with a variety of contenders facing serious bullpen needs, though there’s no indication at the moment that a deal of real consequence is under contemplation.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top