White Sox Release Brandon Guyer
The White Sox announced Friday that they have released outfielder Brandon Guyer. He’d been in camp on a minor league contract. The 33-year-old went 5-for-23 with a homer and a pair of walks (against eight strikeouts) in his brief time with the club this spring.
Guyer struggled in 2017-18 with the Indians, hitting at a .220/.312/.351 clip with nine homers in 413 plate appearances. He batted a combined .266/.356/.403 between Tampa Bay and Cleveland from 2014-16, however, and he’s generally been a solid platoon bat over the life of his MLB tenure. In 792 career plate appearances against lefties, Guyer has a .274/.376/.449 batting line. He’s more of an on-base threat than a power threat, in part because of the astonishing rate at which he’s hit by pitches.
Chicago has one corner-outfield slot earmarked for Eloy Jimenez, while playing time elsewhere in the outfield will be divided up between Jon Jay, Adam Engel, Leury Garcia and Daniel Palka. Guyer will have the opportunity to search for a bench role with another club — the Braves are reportedly considering alternatives to Adam Duvall — though the fact that he has just 356 career innings in center field don’t help his cause.
AL Notes: Gio, Armstrong, Herrera, Tepera/Axford
Newly minted Yankees lefty Gio Gonzalez says it was an easy choice to join the New York organization, as George A. King III of the New York Post and MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch cover (Twitter links). The offer from the Yanks “was pretty much” the only one he got all winter long, says the veteran southpaw. It has been quite some time since Gonzalez has had to fight for a roster spot and a big-league paycheck, but he says it’s “a pretty great opportunity” that he “can’t be ungrateful” for. If he cracks the roster, Gonzalez will play for a $3MM base salary and would also take home $300K for each game started.
Here’s more from the American League …
- Mariners righty Shawn Armstrong is heading to the injured list with a grade 1 oblique strain, MLB.com’s Greg Johns reports. He says he’ll be patient in allowing thing to heal, but didn’t hide his anger at hitting the shelf just before the season began. (Anderson flew to Japan believing he would be ready to roll, but the issue was worse upon arrival.) Armstrong, 28, is still hoping that this’ll be the season he fully establishes himself in the majors. He has seen action in four seasons but has yet to be entrusted with more than 21 appearances in a given campaign. Armstrong turned in sub-2.00 ERA performances at both Triple-A (in 56 innings) and the majors (14 2/3 innings) in 2018.
- The White Sox may not go long without new reliever Kelvin Herrera, Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times writes. The veteran hurler, who’s working back from a Lisfranc fracture in his left foot, hasn’t yet fully ramped things up but seems on track to get back to being a high-powered relief arm early in the new season. “I will probably be in full shape by April something or May,” he says.
- It seems there’s some new potential for late-camp movement with the Blue Jays roster. Skipper Charlie Montoyo says that righty relievers Ryan Tepera and John Axford have turned up with elbow pain that is being looked at more closely, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports (Twitter link). Those injuries are among the factors that could leave the Toronto organization with more 40-man roster room to work with — but also more 25-man roster needs to address — than had been anticipated, MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm notes on Twitter.
Dane Dunning Undergoes Tommy John Surgery
White Sox pitching prospect Dane Dunning has undergone Tommy John surgery, the club announced to reporters including Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times (via Twitter). He’ll miss the entire 2019 season and, in all likelihood, some of the 2020 campaign as well.
This news isn’t surprising given the course of recent events. The club had acknowledged that replacement of Dunning’s ulnar collateral ligament was a possibility.
Dunning was generally considered one of the game’s hundred or so best overall prospects, even after his otherwise excellent 2018 campaign ended with elbow issues. Before that development, which ultimately proved a precursor to today’s procedure, Dunning had spun 86 1/3 innings of 2.71 ERA ball at the High-A and Double-A levels. He recorded 10.4 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in that stretch while drawing grounders on more than half the balls put in play against him.
AL Central Notes: Joyce, Clippard, Zimmer, White Sox
The Indians have informed veteran outfielder Matt Joyce that he won’t make the roster, manager Terry Francona told reporters Friday (Twitter link via STO’s Andre Knott). The team is giving Joyce a bit of time to ponder his next step — presumably exploring other opportunities out there and weighing a potential assignment to Triple-A Columbus. The 34-year-old Joyce had a rough 2018 season with the A’s (.208/.322/.353 in 246 PAs) and is just 5-for-27 with seven punchouts and three walks thus far in Spring Training. However, he’s only one season removed from batting .243/.335/.473 with Oakland in 2017 and has generally functioned as a quality platoon bat over the past decade in the Majors. Of course, finding another opportunity could be tough, as there are still other veteran left-handed-hitting outfield bats looking for work on the market — including Carlos Gonzalez and Denard Span.
With Joyce out of the mix for the Indians, it seems they’ll lean on some combination of Greg Allen, Jake Bauers, Leonys Martin, Tyler Naquin and Jordan Luplow in the outfield. Once Bradley Zimmer has fully recovered from shoulder surgery, he’ll reemerge as an option as well.
Here’s more from the AL Central…
- Another veteran in camp with the Indians on a minor league deal, Tyler Clippard, will be sidelined from baseball activities for three to four weeks due to a mild pectoral strain, the club announced. The Indians, however, would like to keep Clippard, per Francona. That seemingly suggests that the Indians view the right-hander as a legitimate part of their MLB pen this year, though it’s tough to know what the roster landscape will look like when he is ready to resume competitive action. The 34-year-old Clippard has appeared in three spring contests and tallied 2 2/3 scoreless innings with three strikeouts and a walk. Last year, in 68 2/3 frames with the Blue Jays, he logged a 3.67 ERA with 11.1 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 against an alarming 1.70 HR/9 mark.
- It seems there’s a realistic chance that Royals right-hander Kyle Zimmer will head north on the active roster, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan writes. He’s throwing in the mid-nineties and showing an impressive curveball, per skipper Ned Yost, who says that the progress throughout camp has been remarkable. The 27-year-old Zimmer, once the fifth overall pick in the draft, has yet to appear in the big leagues. He re-signed with the club on a MLB deal back in November but can still be optioned to Triple-A. Flanagan notes that the Royals are likely to carry an eight-man bullpen, though several spots are already earmarked for Wily Peralta, Brad Boxberger, Jake Diekman, Tim Hill, Kevin McCarthy and perhaps Rule 5 pick Sam McWilliams.
- White Sox GM Rick Hahn discussed his team’s plans for its top prospects, as Madeline Kenney of the Chicago Sun-Times reports. Hahn cited a tepid spring showing at the plate as the basis for the decision to place exciting youngster Eloy Jimenez back at Triple-A. Jimenez slashed .355/.399/.597 in 228 plate appearances there last year. As for top pitching prospect Dylan Cease, Hahn says the righty is ready to succeed in the majors. But he’ll also head back to the upper minors as part of the team’s plan to “get him through an entire season strong.” Cease threw a career-high 124 innings last year and so likely won’t be asked to take 32 starts in the season to come. Hahn says he’ll likely join the MLB roster at some point during the summer.
White Sox Outright Juan Minaya
Right-hander Juan Minaya has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Charlotte by the White Sox, thus opening a spot on the team’s 40-man roster. The Athletic’s James Fegan tweets that Minaya’s velocity has dipped “noticeably” in recent outings, and the righty has struggled through a series of poor relief appearances this spring (11 runs in 4 2/3 innings). Beyond Minaya, the Sox also reassigned non-roster invitee Randall Delgado to minor league camp, ending the former D-backs right-hander’s bid to make the Opening Day roster.
Minaya, 28, has been a consistent presence in the White Sox’ bullpen over the past two seasons, pitching to a combined 3.89 earned run average while averaging 10.9 strikeouts and 4.9 walks per nine innings pitched. He briefly served as the team’s closer in 2017, tallying nine saves in that role, and has generally been a solid reliever for the Sox — albeit an erratic one in terms of control. Minaya averaged 95 mph on his heater last season and has posted an 11.5 percent swinging-strike rate across the past two years, though it seems some of that velocity has disappeared in camp.
Minaya’s subtraction from the 40-man roster doesn’t necessarily indicate that the White Sox are on the verge of any sort of signing. Veteran righty Ervin Santana, in camp with the White Sox on a minor league contract, is widely expected to claim a spot in the rotation and now has a clear path to be added to the roster. If that indeed plays out, he’ll reportedly earn a $4.3MM salary in 2019.
As for Delgado, the 29-year-old was a useful bullpen piece himself for the Diamondbacks from 2015-17 when he notched a 3.79 ERA with 8.6 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 over the life of 209 2/3 innings. (He also mixed in six starts along the way.) A significant oblique strain wiped out more than half of his 2018 season, however, and he managed just 11 1/3 innings with more walks (six) than strikeouts (five) before being designated for assignment.
White Sox Shut Down Dane Dunning
White Sox prospect Dane Dunning has been shut down after experiencing renewed discomfort while working through a throwing program, general manager Rick Hahn revealed to reporters (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Scott Merkin). As if that wasn’t ominous enough, Dunning is slated to meet with Dr. James Andrews this week, and Hahn was candid about the ominous nature of his injury. “Everything is on the table including a potential Tommy John surgery,” the GM said.
The 24-year-old Dunning was the third piece acquired in the trade that sent Adam Eaton to the Nationals, joining fellow righties Reynaldo Lopez and Lucas Giolito. He’s elevated his prospect status since the time of that deal, currently checking in at No. 80 on MLB.com’s ranking of the game’s Top 100 prospects. Baseball Prospectus ranked him 76th this winter, while he currently checks in just outside the Top 100 (No. 121) on Fangraphs’ rankings.
Last year, Dunning opened the season at Class-A Advanced and moved up to Double-A after four starts — excelling at both levels. His 2018 season was cut short by an elbow sprain, but when he was healthy enough to take the mound, he worked to a terrific 2.71 ERA with 10.4 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 and a ground-ball rate north of 50 percent. In 86 1/3 innings of work, Dunning yielded just two home runs.
Should Dunning require Tommy John surgery, he’d be the second of the White Sox’ top-rated arms to sit out the 2019 campaign while rehabbing a UCL replacement. Righty Michael Kopech underwent the same operation late in the 2018 campaign and won’t be back on the mound for the organization until the 2020 season. Sox fans have been dreaming of a rotation headlined by Kopech, Dunning and fellow highly touted right-hander Dylan Cease, but that the timeline to that potential reality continues to be pushed back by injury troubles.
Offseason In Review: Chicago White Sox
This is the latest post of MLBTR’s annual Offseason in Review series, in which we take stock of every team’s winter dealings.
The White Sox pinned most of their offseason hopes to signing Manny Machado, and instead wound up adding a series of largely unexciting veteran players.
Major League Signings
- Kelvin Herrera, RP: two years, $18MM
- Jon Jay, OF: one year, $4MM
- James McCann, C: one year, $2.5MM
- Total spend: $24.5MM
Options Exercised
Trades and Claims
- Acquired P Manny Banuelos from Dodgers for IF Justin Yurchak
- Acquired RP Alex Colome from Mariners for C Omar Narvaez
- Acquired SP Ivan Nova from Pirates for P Yordi Rosario and $500K in international bonus pool money
- Acquired 1B Yonder Alonso from Indians for OF Alex Call
- Claimed RP Josh Osich off waivers from Orioles
Notable Minor League Signings
- Ervin Santana. Brandon Guyer, Randall Delgado, Ryan Goins, Evan Marshall, Matt Skole, Donn Roach, Chris Johnson, Preston Tucker
Notable Losses
- Avisail Garcia, James Shields, Omar Narvaez, Matt Davidson, Kevan Smith, Hector Santiago, Ryan LaMarre, Ian Clarkin
Of MLBTR’s top ten free agents this winter, the White Sox reportedly showed some level of interest in at least seven of them. Their most high-profile pursuit was that of Manny Machado. Prior to the Winter Meetings, GM Rick Hahn tried to make it clear to reporters that he couldn’t “guarantee by any stretch that we’re going to convert on these targets.” Dallas Keuchel and Craig Kimbrel notwithstanding, the dust has settled on the offseason, and the White Sox failed to convert on any premium player they were targeting.
Looking at what the team actually did, this was a fairly typical recent White Sox offseason. It’s just that fan expectations tend to balloon when front office brass is meeting with Bryce Harper and Manny Machado, we know the team can afford either player, and it’s about that time where a rebuilding process draws to a close. The club hung around in the Machado bidding til the bitter end, strangely acquiring Manny’s brother-in-law Yonder Alonso and good friend Jon Jay presumably to help close the gap on an offer that fell far short. Here’s White Sox executive vice president Kenny Williams attempting to defend the team’s eight-year, $250MM final offer, as reported by Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times: “People are lost on the fact that on a yearly basis, our offer was more than San Diego’s. The average annual value was $31 [million] and change. So it was about years guaranteed. So there is an argument that could be made that our offer was the better of the two. It certainly had more upside for him. All he had to do was basically stay healthy.” This is almost comical, as is Williams’ assertion that if the team had gone further financially, fans would have been “much more disappointed in our inability to keep this next core together.” The key piece of that core, Eloy Jimenez, remains a minor leaguer for the purpose of gaining control of his 2025 season. The team’s “next core” literally hasn’t reached the Majors yet, but giving Machado an extra two years would break it up?
Chicago’s offer to Machado came in a full $50MM shy of the contract he received from the Padres. The Sox thought this star free agent was going to be swayed by a ridiculous $100MM in additional non-guaranteed money, or by the acquisition of his buddies? Going into free agency, there was never a reason to think $250MM would get the job done for Machado or Harper, so why even try? Hahn’s claim that the Sox made a “very aggressive offer” is patently untrue. With every large market team sitting out Machado’s market and the price coming in much lower than it could have been, the White Sox still never got close. After losing out on Machado, Hahn pledged, “The money will be spent. It might not be spent this offseason, but it will be spent at some point. This isn’t money sitting around waiting to just accumulate interest. It’s money trying to be deployed to put us in best position to win some championships.”
Perhaps Hahn said that so that Sox fans will dream about signing Anthony Rendon or Xander Bogaerts next winter, but the Machado progression hardly inspires confidence that White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf is willing to outspend the field for a premium free agent. When Reinsdorf last did that by signing Albert Belle – over 22 years ago – Bud Selig and the owners were stunned that “the owner who’s railed the loudest and longest about curbing player salaries has just broken the bank,” wrote Jon Pessah in his 2015 book The Game. There’s little reason to think Reinsdorf will shatter precedent again.
Given the self-imposed $250MM limit on Machado, the White Sox knew they weren’t going to get close on Harper. The White Sox certainly explored other avenues, including upgrades at catcher. They made a multiyear offer (terms unknown) to Yasmani Grandal, according to Robert Murray of The Athletic. And the Sox were “in the mix” for J.T. Realmuto, according to Ken Rosenthal. The White Sox had moved on from last year’s tandem, Omar Narvaez and Kevan Smith, deciding someone new should pair with Welington Castillo in 2019. They went with non-tendered former Tigers catcher James McCann. Patrick Nolan of Sox Machine disparaged the choice, writing, “The White Sox’ young pitchers have had the misfortune of throwing to tiny strike zones and guys who let the ball get away, and McCann’s poor receiving and pitch-blocking will help continue that trend.” It’s particularly painful to see a pitcher’s dream backstop, Martin Maldonado, sign with a division rival for the same contract (although Maldonado’s asking price at the time McCann signed had not yet fallen to this level).
The White Sox made reasonable efforts to address their bullpen this winter, trading Narvaez for Colome in November and signing Herrera in January. Colome is under team control through the 2020 season, though his salary in that season will climb even higher than this year’s $7.325MM. He’s a solid reliever who stands a good chance of serving as the team’s closer. They also signed Herrera to a two-year deal with a vesting option for a third season. Herrera had surgery in September to repair a torn Lisfranc ligament in his foot, but he’s made his Cactus League debut, implying the procedure may not affect him during the 2019 season. Herrera’s got some other red flags, such as 2018’s declining strikeout and ground-ball rates, but the 29-year-old still throws 97 miles per hour and has a chance to be a major asset to Chicago. Along with holdovers Nate Jones and Jace Fry, this could be a decent bullpen, especially compared to the cumulative work of last year’s unit. The White Sox reportedly showed interest in Adam Ottavino, Andrew Miller, and Joe Kelly before they signed elsewhere.
With highly-regarded pitching prospect Michael Kopech out for 2019 due to Tommy John surgery and James Shields gone to free agency (though technically still unsigned), the White Sox reportedly poked their head in on free agents Patrick Corbin, J.A. Happ, and Nathan Eovaldi, before ultimately trading for Ivan Nova in December. Nova, owed $8.5MM in 2019, is a pitch-to-contact, homer-prone veteran who projects for an ERA around 4.60. If you’re looking for a veteran starter who could potentially be flipped for something interesting in July, Nova doesn’t qualify. Nor does Ervin Santana, who signed a minor league deal but seems likely to eventually earn the team’s fifth starter job.
“Fundamentally this is a baseball deal,” Hahn told reporters upon acquiring Alonso from the Indians in December, but that claim hardly stands up when looking at the types of contracts that comparable first-base-only sluggers received this offseason (MLBTR Free Agent Tracker link). I again turn to Patrick Nolan of Sox Machine, who explains that adding Alonso at designated hitter will “either eat into Daniel Palka’s plate appearances or force everyone to watch Palka play the outfield more often,” while it also “helped out a division rival with $8 million in cash relief.” That’s a little harsh, but in Nova and Alonso, the White Sox took on $17.5MM for a pair of players projected by Steamer and ZiPS to be worth about one WAR apiece in 2019. It feels like spending money just to spend money.
Jay, his friendship with Machado aside, is an acceptable veteran stopgap for a club that parted ways with longtime right fielder Avisail Garcia. Top prospect Eloy Jimenez will start the season at Triple-A after being optioned just hours ago — presumably to “work on his defense” or another semi-vague reason that will be resolved once he cannot accrue a full year of service time in 2019 (as is commonplace throughout the league with this caliber of prospect). Until Jimenez arrives, none of the White Sox outfielders look like part of their next contending team.
The truly baffling aspect of Chicago’s offseason additions is that had they simply condensed the money offered to that patchwork collection of stopgaps, those resources could’ve been utilized to up the offer to Machado — a transformative player who’d move the needle considerably more not only in 2019 but in the long term. The near-$50MM they spent on this offseason’s group is worth much more than $50MM in 2028-29 dollars. Perhaps the Padres would’ve been willing to further increase their proposal had the ChiSox presented a legitimately competitive offer, but the approach would’ve been much more understandable.
2019 Season Outlook
Fangraphs projects the White Sox as a 70-win team this year, virtually no different from the Tigers or Royals. Given the team’s run at Machado, this may seem like an incredibly disappointing offseason, but go back to something Hahn said in September 2017: “I think even under the most optimistic projections of our ability to contend, certainly ’18 and ’19 don’t include the bulk of the time when we anticipate having a window open to us.”
So, it seems the club was willing to sign Machado or Harper at a relative bargain price and maybe make a little noise in ’19, but that duo’s free agency was always coming a year before the White Sox thought their team would be ready. The White Sox have just $12.5MM committed to two players for the 2020 roster, so they’ll again enjoy major payroll flexibility in the offseason. Generally, you don’t get a fourth year for an intentional rebuild, so it’s 2020 or bust for this group.
How would you grade the White Sox’ offseason? (Poll link for Trade Rumors app users.)
How would you grade the White Sox' offseason?
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D 33% (1,842)
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F 32% (1,799)
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C 26% (1,480)
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B 8% (444)
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A 1% (81)
Total votes: 5,646
White Sox Option Eloy Jimenez To Triple-A
In what has been a widely anticipated move, the White Sox announced Wednesday that they’ve optioned top outfield prospect Eloy Jimenez to Triple-A Charlotte. The move was one of nine spring cuts by the ChiSox, who also optioned out top pitching prospect Dylan Cease, catcher Seby Zavala and outfielder Micker Adolfo.
Jimenez, 22, is not only considered to be among the game’s premier prospects but is also largely believed to be ready for MLB action. The Dominican-born slugger obliterated Double-A and Triple-A pitching in 2018, posting ridiculous slash lines of .317/.368/.556 and .355/.399/.597 at those respective levels.
Jimenez’s demotion will stand out as one of the more blatant examples of service time manipulation this spring, as the decision to send him to Triple-A is surely motivated more by the desire to gain an extra season of club control over the player rather than to further his development. This year’s regular season is 186 days long, and a player would gain a full season of MLB service by spending 172 of those days at the MLB level (be it on the active roster or the injured list). In other words, by keeping Jimenez in the minors for just 15 days, the Sox will be able to control him for seven seasons as opposed to the six seasons for which they’d control him by bringing him to the Majors to open the year.
It’s a maddening and counter-intuitive side effect of a system that has prompted pundits, players, agents and fans to call for change. For a team in the White Sox’ situation — unlikely to contend this season but optimistic that their ongoing rebuild is nearing the finish line — it makes perfect sense from a business standpoint to trade two weeks of Jimenez in a noncompetitive season for a full extra year of control over a potential premium player. For Jimenez, however, the current structure of service time and free agency delays his path to his most significant potential payday, while the fans are asked to accept that their team won’t bring the 25 best players in camp north to open the season. It’s a system in which there’s arguably no true winner, as the even White Sox’ front office will surely face a negative wave of backlash from fans and onlookers.
For the time being, Jimenez will be asked to continue honing his skills in the minors. Perhaps the Sox will opt not to call him up on the very first day on which he’d fall a year shy of big league service, using the delay as a means of further claiming that the move was a developmental decision rather than one driven by service time. It’s likely that they’ll point to Jimenez’s .154/.154/.346 slash in Spring Training as justification of the move, though few would find it plausible that 26 spring plate appearances are more indicative of MLB readiness than the 456 PAs during which Jimenez laid waste to minor league pitching in 2018. Furthermore, the move would surely have happened regardless of his performance; the White Sox, after all, declined to give Jimenez a September call-up in 2018 despite his aforementioned mastery of minor league pitching and despite the fact that he was already on the 40-man roster.
Regardless of the specific timing, it seems quite likely that Jimenez will be in the Majors very early in the 2019 campaign. Cease and the others who were sent out aren’t as far along in their development and will be on a more uncertain timeline to the big leagues.
To be fair to the White Sox, they’re far from the only club to take this route. The Braves held back Ronald Acuna‘s promotion to the Majors last season under similarly dubious circumstances, while others who’ve been subject to this form of service time manipulation include Kris Bryant and Maikel Franco (among many others). It was a foregone conclusion that the Blue Jays would send Vladimir Guerrero Jr. down to the minors in the exact same fashion, though Guerrero’s recent oblique injury actually gave the Toronto organization a legitimate reason to do so.
White Sox Claim Josh Osich
The White Sox announced Monday that they’ve claimed left-handed reliever Josh Osich off waivers from the Orioles. In order to make room on the 40-man roster, Chicago has placed right-hander Michael Kopech on the 60-day injured list. Osich, 30, was designated for assignment by Baltimore last week. Kopech, meanwhile, is expected to miss the entire 2019 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery late in the 2018 campaign.
Osich, 30, has spent time with the Giants in each of the past four seasons, though he’s struggled increasingly at the MLB level dating back to 2016. In 120 1/3 innings, Osich has a 5.01 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 4.6 BB/9, 1.50 HR/9 and a 51.8 percent ground-ball rate. Last year in Triple-A, Osich posted a 4.96 ERA with a 42-to-18 K/BB ratio in 45 1/3 innings.
Osich does have a minor league option remaining, and he’s also averaged roughly 95 mph on his heater throughout his career. Right-handed batters have owned him at the MLB level (.294/.385/.496), though he’s held lefties to a more manageable (albeit still unspectacular) .228/.319/.388 line in his time as a big leaguer. San Francisco designated Osich for assignment a month ago when they acquired young righty Jose Lopez from the Reds, after which he was claimed by the Orioles. Osich’s time in the Baltimore organization lasted only about three weeks, as the O’s designated him Friday upon picking up Dwight Smith Jr. from the Blue Jays.
Injury/Rehab Notes: Ohtani, Davis, Cardinals, Kendrick, Delmonico
Angels right-hander/designated hitter Shohei Ohtani played catch Friday — his first time throwing since undergoing Tommy John surgery last year. The Angels tweeted video of the 23-year-old doing so, and Mike DiGiovanna of the L.A. Times adds that he made about 60 to 70 light tosses from a max distance of “about” 12 feet (Twitter links). It’s an ever so minor first step in the electrifying young talent’s return to the mound — one that’ll be accompanied by a corresponding decline in his swinging for the time being. Ohtani’s hitting drills will be limited to soft toss for the foreseeable future, as the Halos proceed with extra caution regarding his right elbow. He’s reportedly targeting an early May return to the lineup as a DH.
More injury and rehab notes from around baseball…
- Orioles first baseman Chris Davis underwent an MRI on an ailing left hip that has kept him out of game action since Sunday, manager Brandon Hyde divulged to reporters (link via MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko). The test was described as “precautionary,” though, and Hyde indicated that Davis has been feeling better as the week has progressed. While spring stats don’t mean much, it’s hardly encouraging that Davis is 1-for-12 with seven strikeouts to begin Grapefruit League play. The soon-to-be 33-year-old turned in the worst season of his career in 2018, hitting just .168/.243/.296 with 16 home runs and a staggering 36.7 percent strikeout rate in 522 plate appearances.
- Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch tweets that Cardinals righty Carlos Martinez is still another five to seven days away from even being able to throw. Meanwhile, a calf strain will sideline utility infielder Jedd Gyorko for about a week. Martinez has been slowed by shoulder weakness this spring and already received a platelet-rich plasma injection, though a timetable on his readiness for game activity will remain murky until the team can see how he responds to throwing. There’s been talk of him working as a reliever in 2019, as he did late in the 2018 season. Meanwhile, Gyorko figures to be a key backup all around the infield. A longer-than-expected absence for him would open more playing time for Yairo Munoz early in the season.
- The Nationals will be without infielder/outfielder Howie Kendrick for “at least” 10 to 12 days as he nurses a hamstring strain, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post tweets. Kendrick underwent an MRI earlier this week to evaluate the status of his hamstring after he suffered an injury during a game last weekend. Opening Day is less than three weeks away, so the strain could potentially jeopardize his readiness.
- Outfielder Nicky Delmonico has been diagnosed with a “mild” concussion, the White Sox announced Friday. The 26-year-old sustained the injury upon crashing into the outfield wall in yesterday’s Cactus League contest. Delmonico piqued the interest of ChiSox fans with a strong .262/.373/.482 slash (166 plate appearances) as a rookie in 2017, but his production cratered in 2018 as he batted just .215/.296/.373. He’s been vying for an outfield job in a mix that includes Jon Jay, Leury Garcia, Adam Engel Danial Palka and non-roster invitee Brandon Guyer. Top prospect Eloy Jimenez obviously looms in waiting, though the widespread expectation is that the Sox will keep him Triple-A for a couple of weeks to open the season, thus buying an additional year of control over the vaunted slugger.