Bruce Rondon Elects Free Agency
The White Sox outrighted reliever Bruce Rondon earlier this week, giving him a chance to remain in the organization at the Triple-A level. Instead, he has rejected the assignment and elected free agency, James Fegan of The Athletic tweets.
The hard-throwing Rondon will now look for work elsewhere, though he won’t bring an accomplished major league resume to his next stop. Rondon, who debuted with the Tigers in 2013 and pitched for Detroit through 2017, owns a 5.73 ERA and a 5.03 BB/9 across 141 1/3 innings. He threw 29 2/3 frames with the White Sox this season and logged an 8.49 ERA and an 8.19 BB/9, though he did strike out upward of 12 batters per nine and has regularly run up high K totals in the bigs (11.03 K/9).
It’s a near-certainty that Rondon’s next pact will be a minor league accord, as his deal with the White Sox was. It’s worth noting, then, that the 27-year-old has held his own in the minors. Across 109 2/3 Triple-A innings, he has pitched to a 3.04 ERA and notched 11.2 K/9, but he has also issued 5.5 free passes per nine.
Minor MLB Transactions: 7/14/18
Keeping up with the latest minor moves…
- The White Sox outrighted reliever Bruce Rondon to Triple-A on Friday, per Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. Rondon could have rejected the assignment in favor of free agency, but it seems he’ll report to Charlotte. The 27-year-old flamethrower has amassed 40 strikeouts in 29 2/3 major league innings this season, but he has also registered a hideous walk rate (8.19 per nine) and an even higher ERA (8.49). As a result, the Sox designated Rondon on Wednesday and no one took a chance on him via waivers.
- The Mariners have selected the contract of right-hander Matt Festa from Double-A and optioned fellow righty Christian Bergman to Triple-A, the team announced. Festa is now in position to make his M’s debut two years after they picked him in the seventh round of the 2016 draft. Now 25, Festa has been formidable in relief this year, having pitched to a 3.13 ERA with 12.51 K/9 against 1.99 BB/9 in 31 2/3 innings. He ranks as Seattle’s ninth-best prospect at MLB.com.
- The Blue Jays selected right-hander Chris Rowley from Triple-A Buffalo and transferred righty Rhiner Cruz (groin) to the 60-day DL prior to Saturday’s game. Rowley’s season debut couldn’t have gone much worse – he surrendered three earned runs on two hits (including a walk-off grand slam to Boston’s Xander Bogaerts) and a walk in a third of an inning.
Injury Notes: Paxton, Kuhl, Urias, Adolfo
Mariners fans are holding their collective breath after James Paxton exited last night’s start in the first inning with an apparent injury. Per Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times, Paxton was lifted due to some discomfort in his lower back. Clearly, this would’ve been Paxton’s last start before the All-Star break anyhow, so the plus for the team is that he’ll have an extended period of time to rest up and hopefully return in healthier form. If the Mariners want to truly be cautious with their ace, they could slot him into the back of the rotation coming out of the break, giving him extra time in an effort to ensure that his back issue is cleared up. The injury doesn’t appear to be serious, though there’ll understandably be at least some apprehension around the situation until Paxton can make it through a start or two without further incident. Seattle can ill-afford to lose Paxton, who heads into the break with a 3.70 ERA, 11.7 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 through 119 1/3 innings.
Some more injury updates from around the league…
- Pirates righty Chad Kuhl will be shut down from throwing entirely until Aug. 8, writes Elizabeth Bloom of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. At that point, he’ll be reevaluated and, if all goes well, begin throwing from flat ground. There’s no definite timetable on Kuhl’s return from the current forearm injury that has him on the shelf, though Bloom notes that Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomczyk doesn’t expect that Kuhl will ultimately require any type of surgical procedure to correct the issue. The 25-year-old Kuhl had pitched to a 3.76 ERA with 8.5 K/9, 3.4 BB/9 and a 36.2 percent ground-ball rate through 14 starts before he was rocked for 10 runs across two starts (six innings). He exited that final start early due to the forearm issue and was subsequently placed on the DL.
- Julio Urias faced live hitters this week for the first time since undergoing major shoulder surgery last June, tweets Pedro Moura of The Athletic. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts told reporters that the left-hander’s fastball reached as high as 92 mph in that session, and while that’s not quite as high as the 93.1 mph he averaged last season before surgery, it’s an encouraging sign in the early stages of his return to throwing. At the time of Urias’ procedure, Dodgers president of baseball ops Andrew Friedman suggested that the prized young lefty’s rehab could be as long as 14 months. It still seems possible that Urias could return before season’s end, though the team will undoubtedly exercise caution with a player of his upside. Urias had one of the most meteoric rises through the minors of any pitcher in recent history, debuting in the Majors as a 19-year-old in 2016.
- The White Sox received some more tough news on a promising young prospect, as the team announced to reporters this week that outfielder Micker Adolfo will undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the remainder of the season (Twitter link via WGN’s Adam Hoge). The silver lining, if there’s any, is that the procedure comes with a quicker recovery time for position players than for pitchers, and Adolfo is expected to be recovered in eight to 10 months. That would put him on track to be back up to speed anywhere from early Spring Training to early May Adolfo, 21, had turned in a quality .283/.368/.466 slash with 11 homers but a more concerning 27.2 percent strikeout rate through 78 games against older competition in Class-A Advanced. Fangraphs ranked him ninth among ChiSox farmhands earlier this year, while he currently ranks 10th in their system over at MLB.com.
Miguel Gonzalez Undergoes Shoulder Surgery
White Sox right-hander Miguel Gonzalez underwent right shoulder surgery and will require a recovery period of nine to 12 months, the team announced tonight. Per the announcement, doctors “performed a labral repair and debridement” on Gonzalez.
It’s a tough blow for the 34-year-old Gonzalez, who made just three starts and totaled just 12 1/3 innings in what is now an injury-ruined season. He’d performed nicely with the Sox in 45 starts from 2016-17, pitching to a 4.02 ERA with 6.0 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in 268 2/3 innings before being traded over to the Rangers at the end of August. Gonzalez’s time with Texas didn’t go well, and he ultimately returned to the ChiSox on a one-year pact this offseason.
Gonzalez now, in a best-case scenario, wouldn’t be ready until mid-April of 2019, though the operation could effectively wipe out the first half of the 2019 season for the veteran right-hander as well. He’ll likely generate some minor league offers if not over the winter than early in the ’19 season as teams look to add veteran depth options to their organizations. In 883 2/3 innings between the O’s, White Sox and Rangers, Gonzalez has a 4.06 ERA with 6.3 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9.
White Sox Designate Bruce Rondon, Select Jeanmar Gomez
The White Sox have designated right-hander Bruce Rondon for assignment, per a club announcement. Replacing him on the roster will be fellow righty reliever Jeanmar Gomez, whose contract was selected.
Rondon, 27, was in his first season with the Sox after previously spending the entirety of his pro career in the Tigers organization. Rondon enjoyed a fairly promising start in his new environs, working to a solid 3.68 ERA with 31 strikeouts against 12 walks through his first 22 innings with the Pale Hose. But things derailed quickly for Rondon, as he was hammered for a stunning 19 earned runs over his next 7 2/3 innings — including another three-run meltdown in Tuesday night’s bludgeoning by the Cardinals. In the end, Rondon’s ERA with the White Sox will be a dismal 8.49. He’s out of minor league options, so the Sox don’t have the luxury of sending him to Triple-A to sort things out without first exposing him to waivers.
Rondon still throws plenty hard, averaging 96.4 mph on his heater, and he clearly has little trouble when it comes to missing bats; he punched out 40 hitters in 29 2/3 innings of work and notched a quality 14 percent swinging-strike rate. As has typically been the case for Rondon, though, he showed a significant lack of control in his time with the Sox, walking 27 batters, hitting another and throwing six wild pitches.
The Sox will have a week to either trade Rondon, run him through outright waivers or release him. It’s possible that another organization will be intrigued by his velocity and ability to miss bats, but they’d have to allow him to try to sort things out at the big league level due to that lack of minor league options. If Rondon does clear waivers, he has enough big league service time to reject a outright assignment and seek a new opportunity with another organization.
As for Gomez, 30, this will be his first shot at the majors since he fell out of fortune last year with the Phillies. He had turned in a few solid seasons, even becoming the Phils’ closer for a stretch, but was knocked around in 2017. Though he carried a career-high 8.5 K/9 in his 22 1/3 innings, Gomez was tagged for 31 hits (seven of which left the yard) and 18 earned runs prior to being cut loose.
Gomez spent a bit of time in the upper minors last year, throwing well but failing to make his way back up. He landed with the White Sox on a minors deal over the winter and has performed admirably thus far at Triple-A. Through forty frames over thirty appearances with Charlotte, Gomez owns a 2.02 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9. If he can show well over the next few weeks, perhaps it’s not out of the question that he could turn into something of a trade candidate. If not, he may simply help the rebuilding White Sox fill innings down the stretch.
White Sox Place Avisail Garcia On 10-Day DL
The White Sox announced today that outfielder Avisail Garcia is headed back to the 10-day disabled list with a strained right hamstring. That’s the same essential injury that forced him out of action for much of the first half of the season.
To take the open spot on the active roster, the Chicago organization has promoted Ryan LaMarre. The outfielder was acquired recently in a waiver claim from the division-rival Twins, who had designated him for assignment.
The news is rather disappointing for Garcia, who had been on fire at the plate since being activated. In 17 games since his return to the roster in late June, he carried a .333/.347/.783 slash with eight home runs. Though that stretch also included just two walks to go with 17 strikeouts, Garcia showed last year that he can be quite productive even when carrying a marginal walk rate.
It now seems reasonable to presume that Garcia won’t really factor in this summer’s trade deadline build-up. Questions about the sustainability of his hitting, poorly graded glovework, and nagging hamstring problems already posed questions. Now, though the team hasn’t ruled out a return before the end of the month, it’s especially hard to imagine a trade coming together.
Garcia is earning $6.7MM this year and remains eligible for one more season of arbitration, which obviously reduces any urgency to work out a trade this summer. Certainly, the rebuilding South Siders could try to deal him next winter or instead decide to pursue an extension. Garcia, after all, is just 27 years old. Of course, his age, earnings to date, and proximity to free agency also leave him with a fair bit of leverage. There has been no clear indication to date whether a long-term deal is a serious consideration for the club.
White Sox Claim Ryan LaMarre
The White Sox announced that they’ve claimed outfielder Ryan LaMarre off waivers from the Twins. LaMarre was designated for assignment by Minnesota last week when Jorge Polanco was reinstated from his suspension. The ChiSox already had two open spots on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move isn’t required. The White Sox didn’t announce that LaMarre is going to Triple-A (though he does have minor league options remaining), so it seems he’ll join their active roster.
LaMarre, 30, batted .263/.321/.313 through 109 plate appearances as a Twin before his DFA, logging plenty of time in center field with Byron Buxton struggling to stay healthy in 2018. Though his average and OBP were respectable, LaMarre also struck out in 30.3 percent clip of his big league plate appearances. He’s capable of playing any of the three outfield positions for the Sox and can be optioned back and forth between Charlotte and Chicago as a depth piece for the remainder of the season if the Sox hang onto him.
Cafardo’s Latest: Abreu, Astros, Ramos, Nats, A’s, Treinen, Orioles
The Astros have shown interest in White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Abreu carries a stronger track record than Houston first baseman Yuli Gurriel and designated hitter Evan Gattis, either of whom could lose playing time to Abreu if the reigning world champs acquire him. However, in 2018, both Gurriel and Gattis have offered superior production to Abreu, a fellow right-handed hitter who has batted a disappointing .260/.316/.451 through 373 plate appearances. The 31-year-old Abreu also carries a high price tag, as he’s on a $13MM salary this season and should land a raise over that figure next winter during his final trip through arbitration. But despite the veteran’s cost and the fact that the White Sox are rebuilding, they have thus far been unwilling to move Abreu, an important mentor to their array of young players.
Here’s more from Cafardo:
- The Nationals recently sent special assistant Dan Jennings to watch Rays catcher Wilson Ramos, Cafardo reports. The Nationals are already familiar with Ramos, who played with the team from 2010-16, and the pending free agent figures to end up with either them or another club by the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline. After a mediocre 2017, the 30-year-old Ramos has rebuilt his stock with a .287/.338/.460 line in 293 PAs. Those numbers are far better than the production Nationals catchers have offered. Washington’s backstops have combined to hit a league-worst .185/.278/.265 in 338 trips to the plate, thus contributing to the team’s five-game deficit in the NL East.
- The Athletics are suggesting to teams that closer Blake Treinen isn’t available for trade, though clubs are wondering if that’s just a ploy to drive up his price, per Cafardo. If the A’s expect to push for a playoff spot this year and next, they may well keep Treinen, who’s under control through 2019 for affordable prices. Treinen has been an integral part of this year’s Oakland team, which is a solid 48-40 and sits 7 1/2 games back of a wild-card spot. Across 42 2/3 innings, Treinen has logged a near-spotless ERA (.84) with 10.97 K/9, 2.53 BB/9 and 22 saves in 24 opportunities.
- Unsurprisingly, the Orioles “would love” to land Indians catcher Francisco Mejia in a potential Manny Machado trade, Cafardo writes. Cleveland has reportedly shown strong interest in Machado, though it’s unknown if the Tribe would be willing to give up Mejia at all – let alone for a rental. The 22-year-old Mejia ranks as the Indians’ top farmhand in the estimation of MLB.com and Baseball America, both of which regard him as one of the game’s 25 best prospects.
- More on Machado, who could wind up in a package with teammate and fellow free agent-to-be Zach Britton, Cafardo hears. As an accomplished reliever, Britton may be a fit for Cleveland, whose bullpen has been among the majors’ weakest this year. It’s unclear how much trade value Britton has, though, given that he fell off somewhat last year after an incredible 2016 and hasn’t been good this season in his first action since suffering a ruptured Achilles over the winter.
White Sox Grant Donn Roach His Release To Pursue Opportunity In Japan
Right-hander Donn Roach has been granted his release by the White Sox in order to pursue an opportunity in Japan, the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte announced. The move comes after Roach was named the club’s minor league pitcher of the month for June and after he’d been selected to the International League All-Star team.
There’s no official word as to which club will be signing Roach, though multiple reports out of Japan have suggested that the Orix Buffaloes have been showing interest in the 28-year-old right-hander. Roach becomes the second player to be released from a Triple-A club in order to pursue a job in Japan, joining now-former Mariners lefty Ariel Miranda.
Roach hasn’t pitched in the Majors since 2016 with Seattle and has just a 5.77 ERA with 20 strikeouts and 18 walks in 39 innings as a big leaguer. But he’s notched a much better 3.68 ERA in 453 innings at the Triple-A level, albeit with a pedestrian 4.8 K/9 mark against 2.2 BB/9. Roach also spent the 2017 season pitching for the KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization, posting a 4.69 ERA through 165 innings of work.
That led Roach to the White Sox organization, where he’s turned in a terrific season to date. Through 95 innings, he’s logged a 2.65 ERA with 5.8 K/9, 2.0 BB/9, 0.28 HR/9 and a 56 percent ground-ball rate, with all but one of his 16 appearances coming out of the rotation. While the ChiSox aren’t exactly enjoying quality results from their rotation in the Majors, it also seems unlikely that Roach would’ve been a long-term answer for them at the big league level — especially given his lack of missed bats. This arrangement will allow Roach to earn more than he’d been earning in the States (and possibly set him up for a raise in a second season in Japan) while providing the Sox with some financial compensation for granting Roach his release.
Central Notes: Twins, Shaw, Cervelli, Kuhl, ChiSox
The Twins are open to trading their pending free agents, MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi reports, as the team begins to look ahead to the 2019 season. Minnesota’s loss to the Brewers today drops them to 35-48 on the season, 11.5 games out of first place in the AL Central and 18 games out of a wild card slot. One NL executive believes the Twins would be willing to hold trade talks for just about every player on the roster, not just the free agents, though Morosi doubts the team’s younger players under long term control would be seriously discussed.
Looking only at the players signed through 2018, the list includes Brian Dozier, Eduardo Escobar, Lance Lynn, Zach Duke, and Joe Mauer, plus Fernando Rodney, Logan Morrison, and Ervin Santana could also be free agents depending on club options. There are several big names in that group, though only a few (Escobar, Duke, Rodney) are playing well enough to be considered prime trade chips. Dozier’s disappointing year, in particular, has both hurt the Twins’ hopes of contending and drastically lowered his value at the deadline. It isn’t known if Mauer would be willing to waive his no-trade clause to go elsewhere, as Mauer’s agent declined to provide any details about how the longtime face of the franchise would respond if a trade offer materialized.
Here’s the latest from around both the AL and NL Central divisions….
- A recent report from The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal (subscription required) stated that the Brewers had been working Travis Shaw out at second base, which created speculation about Milwaukee potentially targeting third basemen at the deadline. Brewers GM David Stearns, however, said in an e-mail to MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy that Shaw’s pregame alignment is fairly routine procedure. “We have guys taking ground balls all over the field during early work and BP….Travis plays on that side of the bag a fair amount in our shift alignments so it makes sense for him to take ground balls over there. Adding to positional versatility is always helpful,” Stearns wrote. For his part, Shaw said that the team asked him both recently and earlier in the season “if I would be open to playing second if that situation presents itself,” and he said he’d be willing to do so. Shaw has never played second base during his eight-year professional career, so it would be a bold move if Milwaukee actually shifted him to the keystone midway through the season to accommodate a new acquisition at third base.
- Pirates director of sports medicine Todd Tomcyzk updated some of the team’s injury situations in a chat with reporters (including The Athletic’s Rob Biertempfel and MLB.com’s Adam Berry) today. Francisco Cervelli could begin a rehab assignment this weekend, as the catcher has resumed full baseball activities after being cleared of concussion symptoms. Cervelli has been on the disabled list since June 22.
- The outlook is more ominous for right-hander Chad Kuhl, who was diagnosed with a strained right forearm after undergoing an MRI. “Doctors have recommended a conservative treatment at this time,” Tomcyzk said, so Kuhl won’t be facing a surgical procedure in the near future. Kuhl has a 4.37 ERA, 7.9 K/9 and 2.21 K/BB rate over 313 career innings and 61 starts for the Pirates.
- Since the White Sox heavily bolstered their prospect ranks in the Chris Sale, Jose Quintana, and Adam Eaton trades, the team now faces the potentially lengthy and sometimes-frustrating wait to see this young talent develop at the Major League level. The Sox haven’t shown much this season, and as executive VP Ken Williams tells Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times, “We’re probably ahead of where we have a right to believe we’re supposed to be, but we’re right where we want to be, but not quite where we need to be yet.” Both Williams and Carlos Rodon stressed the importance of the young team learning how to win and not getting used to losing, though obviously the organization is in for more growing pains during the rebuild process.