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Socrates Brito

Padres Claim Socrates Brito

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5:02pm: San Diego has now announced the waiver claim. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, they’ve transferred Jankowski to the 60-day injured list.

12:42pm: The Padres have claimed outfielder Socrates Brito off waivers from the Diamondbacks, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter link). Brito will join an already crowed outfield mix with the San Diego organization.

It’s possible that the Friars see Brito as a fill-in for Travis Jankowski, who’s sidelined for an extended stretch to open the year. Brito is a left-handed hitter who’s capable of playing center and runs the bases well, not unlike Jankowski. But other options abound in the San Diego outfield. The club may even open the year with six outfielders on its active roster, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell tweets, though that would assuredly not last long into the season.

Instead, as Piecoro notes, the San Diego club may have other intentions. The Padres may simply put the out-of-options 26-year-old back on waivers in hopes he’ll clear in the midst of the pre-season roster turmoil, or they could flip him on to another organization with a lower waiver priority. Any number of other roster machinations could conceivably be related, though claiming Brito hardly shows the club’s hand.

Diamondbacks Place Socrates Brito On Outright Waivers

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The Diamondbacks have placed outfielder Socrates Brito on outright waivers, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (via Twitter). He can be claimed off waivers; if he clears, he could be assigned to Triple-A and remain with the Arizona organization.

That news is of particular interest given that fellow D-Backs outfielder Steven Souza Jr. just left the club’s contest tonight with an apparent left leg injury. It’s not clear at all yet how severe the injury is, but Souza was visibly in significant pain and unable to put weight on the leg.

Brito, 26, might have been an option to step in for Souza if he requires time on the injured list. That could still come to pass, but only if he doesn’t end up on another club’s roster.

Despite debuting in 2015, Brito has received only minimal MLB opportunities. He hasn’t done much of note in his 175 plate appearances at the game’s highest level. At Triple-A, though, he has turned in strong numbers. In over one thousand plate appearances at the highest level of the minors, Brito carries a .303/.352/.484 slash with 28 home runs and 28 steals.

Diamondbacks Select Contract Of Kristopher Negron

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The Diamondbacks have selected the contract of utilityman Kristopher Negron, per a club announcement. Socrates Brito was optioned to Triple-A to create active roster space; the club had an open 40-man spot, so no move was needed there.

Negron, 32, saw brief time in the majors last year with the Snakes and has spent some time there previously with the Reds. All told, he’s a .214/.296/.338 hitter in 301 MLB plate appearances. And Negron has never shown much more than that with the bat in the upper minors; in parts of nine seasons at Triple-A, he carries a .245/.308/.378 slash.

The appeal here for the D-Backs, clearly, isn’t about boosting the offense. Rather, Negron will help fill in wherever needed, given his professional experience all over the field.

Diamondbacks Place Steven Souza On 10-Day DL

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The Diamondbacks placed outfielder Steven Souza Jr. on the 10-day disabled list with a strained right pectoral.  This is the same injury that kept Souza from making his season debut until May.  Outfielder Socrates Brito has been recalled from Triple-A in a corresponding move.

Souza originally suffered the injury in the last week of Spring Training, while diving for a ball in the outfield.  This second DL placement would seem to confirm that the issue was still bothering Souza, as he didn’t look at all like himself at the plate, hitting just a .163/.234/.186 over his first 47 plate appearances for Arizona.  While no timeline was given about the DL placement, it’s fair to assume that Souza will miss more than the 10-day minimum absence to ensure that the injury is fully behind him.

[Updated D’Backs depth chart at Roster Resource]

After a breakout 2017 season (.239/.351/.459 with 30 homers over 617 PA) for Tampa Bay, Souza was traded to the D’Backs as part of the three-team deal with the Rays and Yankees that also saw Brandon Drury go to New York and pitching prospect Anthony Banda head to Tampa.  Souza was expected to be Arizona’s everyday right fielder and at least somewhat fill the offensive gap left behind by the departed J.D. Martinez, though his injury has essentially kept him from getting out of the blocks thus far in the 2018 campaign.

Injuries to Souza, A.J. Pollock, and Jake Lamb have contributed to a lack of offensive firepower for the D’Backs, not to mention protracted slumps from Paul Goldschmidt and Alex Avila.  Arizona ranks at or near the bottom of the league in runs, batting average, on-base percentage, and OPS, and the hitting drought has started to catch up with the team, as the Snakes have lost 11 of their last 12 games.  Remarkably, however, the D’Backs are still hanging onto first place in the NL West.

Brito will get his first taste of the big leagues since 2016, as the 25-year-old missed a good chunk of last year recovering from finger surgery.  Brito has only a .612 OPS over 131 PA with the Diamondbacks in 2015-16, though he isn’t far removed from being a pretty well-regarded prospect in Arizona’s farm system.  He can play all three outfield positions, and has been hitting well at Triple-A Reno, with a .323/.365/.437 slash line over 170 PA this season.

Diamondbacks Designate Tom Wilhelmsen For Assignment

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The Diamondbacks have announced that they’ve reinstated outfielder Socrates Brito (finger) from the 60-day DL and optioned him to Triple-A Reno. They’ve also activated righty Zack Greinke from the paternity list and designated righty Tom Wilhelmsen for assignment.

[Related: Updated Arizona Diamondbacks Depth Chart]

Wilhelmsen was a key contributor in the Mariners’ bullpen from 2011 through 2015, but his career briefly went off the rails after a trade to Texas prior to the 2016 season. He fared reasonably well after being released by the Rangers and re-signing with the Mariners last June, then signed a minor-league pact with the Diamondbacks last winter and made the team out of Spring Training. He produced a 4.44 ERA with the Snakes with a disappointing 5.8 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 over 26 1/3 innings. The 33-year-old still boasts a fastball in the mid-90s and a 49.4 GB%, however, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he wound up back in the big leagues in the near future.

Socrates Brito Undergoes Surgery On Dislocated Finger

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Diamondbacks outfielder Socrates Brito required surgery to repair an “open dislocation of the fourth finger on his left hand” this evening, the Diamondbacks announced. A specific timetable for the 24-year-old’s recovery has yet to be determined, per the release, but it certainly seems as though this injury takes Brito out of the mix for an Opening Day roster spot. Brito incurred the injury while sliding headfirst into home plate during a Cactus League contest.

Brito made his big league debut with the Diamondbacks in 2015 and turned in an impressive showing in a small sample of 34 plate appearances. His second effort in the Majors, this past season, was considerably worse, though he tallied a similarly minimal 97 PAs this time around. Overall, Brito has mustered just a .211/.229/.383 batting line in 131 trips to the plate at the Major League level.

There’s plenty of reason for optimism when it comes to Brito, though. For starters, Brito rated third, fourth and sixth on the respective lists of top Diamondbacks prospects from ESPN’s Keith Law, Baseball America and MLB.com this offseason (though the Arizona farm system is among the weakest in the game). Beyond that, he’s been reasonably productive at virtually every stop of his minor league career. Brito hit .294/.322/.439 in his first run through Triple-A this season (albeit in a hitter-friendly environment, making those numbers a bit less impressive). Those numbers, though, are similar to the .300/.339/.451 slash he posted at Double-A in 2015 and to the .293/.339/.429 line he recorded in Class-A Advanced back in 2014.

Baseball America praised his plus speed and arm, noting that he needed to improve his approach at the plate. MLB.com’s report on Brito notes that he has the tools to be an everyday outfielder, while Law’s report was a bit more pessimistic, pegging him as a probable fourth outfielder.

While the range of opinions on Brito’s ultimate role is a bit varied, most would likely agree that he could’ve benefited the D-backs immediately out of the gate in 2017. Yasmany Tomas, A.J. Pollock and David Peralta are currently set for regular outfield work, but Brito could’ve given Jeremy Hazelbaker a run for his money as the fourth outfielder. A left-handed hitter, Brito could’ve seen occasional starts in place of Tomas against right-handed pitching and could’ve been used as a late-game defensive replacement, pinch-hitting option or pinch runner.

It’s also not hard to see a larger role in the outfield opening up for Brito. Tomas’ defense, baserunning and low OBP negate a great deal of his power, and both Peralta and Pollock missed significant time due to injury in 2016. Of course, Brito himself is no stranger to injuries; last season alone, he suffered a broken toe and a broken hamate bone, both of which limited his time in the Majors. For now, however, both Hazelbaker and non-roster invitee Gregor Blanco stand to see their odds of making the Opening Day roster improve.

Injury Notes: Brito, Skaggs, Boxberger, Duffy

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D-backs outfielder Socrates Brito suffered a dislocated finger while sliding headfirst into home plate today, tweets MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert. He’s being further evaluated, though Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets that manager Torey Lovullo wouldn’t rule out surgery as a possibility. Brito is behind Yasmany Tomas, A.J. Pollock and David Peralta on the Diamondbacks’ outfield depth chart, but he certainly has a chance to make the team’s roster (or to re-emerge in the Majors midseason) if healthy. While Brito hasn’t hit much in his brief taste of the Majors, the 24-year-old has been fairly productive in Double-A and Triple-A in each of the past two seasons.

A few more injury updates from around the league…

  • Lefty Tyler Skaggs has been scratched from his upcoming Cactus League start due to weakness in his left shoulder, writes Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times. While the Angels are calling the setback minor in nature, DiGiovanna notes that there’s some cause for trepidation given Skaggs’ lengthy injury history. Shoulder troubles limited Skaggs as recently as 2016 — his first campaign back from Tommy John surgery that was performed late in the 2014 season. Furthermore, DiGiovanna cites scouts who attended Skaggs’ first outing of the spring in reporting that the southpaw’s fastball dipped from 89-92 mph early in that outing to the 86-88 mph range near the end of his day. Skaggs walked four hitters and didn’t complete one inning in that outing, though obvious Spring Training caveats come along with that unsightly outing. The current plan is for Skaggs to throw a ’pen session this weekend.
  • Right-hander Brad Boxberger had “a little bit of a setback” with his right lat muscle, Rays manager Kevin Cash tells Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links). The pitcher himself tells Topkin that he’s not concerned by the issue and isn’t feeling any discomfort in his arm. Both player and team are still hopeful that Boxberger can be ready for Opening Day. The now-former Rays closer — Alex Colome seized that role in 2016 — missed the majority of the most recent season due to groin and oblique issues.
  • Topkin also reports that shortstop Matt Duffy’s target to appear in Grapefruit League games has been pushed back from its original mid-March placement (Twitter links). Duffy, whose 2016 season ended when he underwent surgery to repair the injured Achilles tendon in his left heel, tells Topkin that his progress has been a bit slowgoing. Topkin notes that the delay in his return to the playing field could impact Duffy’s Opening Day availability, though Cash wouldn’t rule out the possibility that Duffy could be ready by that point. Nevertheless, one can imagine that the Rays aren’t keen on rushing the 26-year-old back to the field, so a backdated DL stint to begin the year seems plausible. Tampa Bay acquired Duffy alongside prospects Lucius Fox and Michael Santos in last summer’s Matt Moore swap with the Giants.

Socrates Brito Undergoes Surgery For Broken Hamate

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Diamondbacks outfielder Socrates Brito underwent surgery today after being diagnosed with a broken hamate bone, the club announced. He suffered the injury preparing for winter ball, per the release.

Brito, 24, is expected to play a significant role in Arizona’s outfield mix in the near future. There’s little reason to believe the injury will prevent him from returning to the majors in 2017, though the lost development opportunities — and, perhaps, a delayed start to Spring Training — certainly harm his hopes of cracking the roster out of camp.

Entering the 2016 season, Brito was seen by many as a breakout candidate. He had shown well in a brief debut the season prior, and an opportunity opened when A.J. Pollock went down late in the spring. But Brito ended up taking only 97 MLB plate appearances, posting an anemic .179/.196/.358 batting line.

Still, the Snakes’ new front office surely still hopes that Brito can make an impact at some point in the coming year. He did put up a useful .294/.322/.439 slash in his 317 Triple-A plate appearances, and he’s viewed as a quality defender.

Injury Notes: Gray, Rasmus, Peralta

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The latest injury news from around the majors:

  • The Athletics’ Sonny Gray is headed to the disabled list for the second time in 2016, this time because of a right forearm strain, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to report (on Twitter). Gray’s roster spot will go to fellow righty Chris Smith, who has spent the season with Triple-A Nashville (updated depth chart). This latest injury continues a season to forget for the A’s – who have set a franchise record with 25 DL uses (Twitter link via Slusser) – and Gray, who posted a solid start (five innings, five hits and two earned runs allowed) against the Cubs on Saturday. Unfortunately, though, he had to depart after 72 pitches because of forearm discomfort. Gray previously hit the DL in May with a strained right trapezius and has compiled a shockingly ineffective 5.74 ERA in 116 innings this season. A significant home run spike is largely behind Gray’s bloated ERA. Entering the year, he had logged back-to-back full seasons of ace-like production for Oakland.
  • The Diamondbacks have placed outfielder David Peralta on the DL with right wrist inflammation and recalled Socrates Brito from Triple-A Reno, tweets Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (updated depth chart). This is the third DL stint of the year for Peralta, and two have come as a result of right wrist troubles. Perhaps thanks in part to his injury problems, Peralta has hit an underwhelming .251/.295/.433 with four home runs in 183 plate appearances this year. He was an integral part of the D-backs’ offense from 2014-15, slashing an outstanding .301/.351/.492 with 25 homers in 865 PAs.
  • The Astros have sent outfielder Colby Rasmus to the DL because of a cyst in his right ear and recalled Tony Kemp from Triple-A Fresno, per Angel Verdejo Jr. of the Houston Chronicle (updated depth chart). Rasmus, who has tumbled backward since a sizzling start and is currently amid a 3-for-66 slump since July 2, has batted a woeful .211/.286/.352 with 12 home runs in 368 plate appearances. He hit a much better .238/.314/.475 with 28 HRs across 485 trips to the dish last year, leading the Astros to extend him a $15.8MM qualifying offer in the offseason. Rasmus accepted that offer, but it’s fair to say Houston won’t tender him another QO (if they’re still around in the next collective bargaining agreement) during the upcoming winter.

D-Backs Activate Miller, Place Peralta On DL, Option Drury

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In a series of roster moves, the D-Backs announced on Monday that right-hander Shelby Miller has been activated from the disabled list, while outfielder David Peralta has once again been placed on the 15-day DL — this time due to a lower back strain. Additionally, Arizona has optioned infielder/outfielder Brandon Drury to Triple-A Reno and recalled outfielder Socrates Brito in his place.

[Related: Updated Arizona Diamondbacks depth chart]

Miller returns to the Diamondbacks after landing on the DL last month with a sprained index finger in his pitching hand. Both team and player will be hoping for markedly better results this time around, as Miller’s woeful start to the season was one of the most talked-about early slumps of the year. In 45 2/3 innings, the 25-year-old posted a dreadful 7.09 ERA and averaged just 5.9 K/9 against an alarming 5.7 BB/9 with a 40 percent ground-ball rate that represented a significant decrease from last season’s career-best 47.7 percent. Miller’s struggles have contributed to a 4.72 ERA from Arizona starters that is currently tied with the Royals for 23rd in the Majors. Certainly, that wasn’t the result that Arizona execs Dave Stewart and Tony La Russa were expecting when signing Zack Greinke and trading a king’s ransom for Miller this offseason, but an injury to Rubby De La Rosa and struggles from lefties Robbie Ray and Patrick Corbin have all contributed to the problem.

Peralta’s trip to the disabled list will mark the second of the season for the 28-year-old. He’d previously missed about three weeks due to inflammation in his right wrist. It’s not immediately clear how long he’ll need to be out of action, but he’d been out of the lineup since last Wednesday as it is, and the D-backs seemingly no longer felt that they could play with a short bench. While he’s hitting just .259/.308/.442 on the season, Peralta’s injury further depletes the D-backs’ outfield depth, as A.J. Pollock and Chris Owings are each already on the disabled list.

A month ago, it might’ve seemed ridiculous to suggest that Drury would be optioned to the minors; as of May 20, he was hitting .309/.340/.547 and had forced his way into an everyday role — splitting time between the outfield, third base and, occasionally, second base. However, Drury has batted a paltry .200/.257/.262 since that time and, more troublesomely, struck out 21 times in 70 plate appearances (30 percent). The demotion will allow him to get everyday at-bats in the minors while giving Brito another crack at big-league pitching.

There are also some potential service time implications for Drury, who is up to 112 days of Major League service between his 2015 debut and 2016 season to date. He’ll need another 60 days on the big league roster to reach a full year of service, so the length of his stay in the minors will be worth monitoring. It’s also worth noting that the fact that Arizona chose to option Drury certainly doesn’t indicate that he’s fallen out of favor in any way; a report from just last night indicated that the versatile 23-year-old is held in high enough regard within the organization that the D-backs would likely ask the Mets for a controllable piece such as Zack Wheeler in a trade to acquire Drury.

As for Brito, his overall minor league batting line isn’t overly impressive, but he’s been on a tear over his past 20 games, batting .393/.409/.643 with a dozen extra-base hits (five doubles, five triples, two homers). From a service time standpoint, Brito would fall shy of a full year even if he sticks on the big league roster for the remainder of the season.

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