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Injury Notes: Beltre, Schoop, Price, Cueto, Heyward

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The Rangers announced this afternoon that they’ve activated Adrian Beltre from the disabled list. Beltre is in the lineup tonight, hitting cleanup and playing his customary third base. Infielder Eliezer Alvarez was optioned to Double-A Frisco to open a roster spot for Beltre’s return from a hamstring strain that sidelined him for roughly two weeks. The injury initially served as cause for greater concern within the organization, as Beltre was reportedly visibly frustrated and was not optimistic after initially sustaining the injury. Beltre was hitting .310/.366/.437 through 101 plate appearances when he laced a would-be double to the gap in right-center field but came up lame and hobbled into first base before exiting a late-April game.

Some additional injury updates on several high-profile players throughout the league…

  • The Orioles activated Jonathan Schoop from the 10-day disabled list prior to tonight’s contest, optioning infielder Engelb Vielma to Triple-A Norfolk to clear a space for their second baseman. Schoop, 26, missed nearly a month of action after landing on the DL on April 14 due to a strained right oblique muscle. Like much of the Baltimore offense, he’d been struggling prior to landing on the disabled list. In 65 plate appearances this season, he’s batted .230/.266/.344 with a troubling spike in strikeouts (19 — a rate of 29.2 percent) and just one walk on the season (1.5 percent).
  • David Price has been scratched from tomorrow’s start by the Red Sox, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe tweets. He’s headed back to Boston after experiencing numbness in his hand and being unable to complete his most recent bullpen session on Sunday, per the report. Abraham’s colleague, Alex Speier, recently examined Price’s velocity drop this season in a column, noting that he exited a start earlier this year due to similar feelings of numbness, though he attributed that instance to the cold weather. That wasn’t the case this time around, as Sunday’s bullpen session took place in Arlington. Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald has quotes from manager Alex Cora in the wake of today’s news. Cora doesn’t believe the injury is related to Price’s elbow, though the tests he undergoes in Boston will obviously be more telling in that regard. Rick Porcello is stepping up to start in Price’s place tomorrow.
  • Johnny Cueto will be shut down entirely for the next two weeks as he rests a sprain in his right elbow, per Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic (Twitter links). The Giants righty told reporters today that he pitched through “unbearable” pain in each of his final three starts before landing on the disabled list. Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets that Cueto had mentally prepared himself for the news that he was going to require Tommy John surgery and miss the remainder of the season.
  • The Cubs announced today that outfielder Jason Heyward has been placed on the 7-day concussion DL. Infielder David Bote is back up from Triple-A to take his spot on the active roster for the time being. Heyward collided with the right-field wall over the weekend when attempting to rob former teammate Dexter Fowler of what wound up being a walk-off home run in the 14th inning of Sunday’s game against the Cardinals (video link). Interestingly, manager Joe Maddon tells reporters that Kris Bryant could see some time in right field while Heyward is sidelined (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat).

An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that Cueto had already undergone Tommy John surgery once in his career.

Outrighted: Centeno, Ngoepe, Enns

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Let’s run through a few recently-designated players who have cleared waivers and been outrighted:

  • Rangers backstop Juan Centeno could have elected free agency but chose instead to take an assignment to Triple-A Round Rock, the club announced. The 28-year-old, a relatively rare left-handed-hitting catcher, has seen action in each of the past six MLB campaigns. He also has not shown much at the plate, with a cumulative .227/.278/.331 batting line.
  • Also clearing waivers was Blue Jays infielder Gift Ngoepe. This is the first time he has been outrighted; without significant MLB service time on his record, he had no choice but to head to Buffalo. Not unlike Centeno, Ngoepe is a useful fielder who perhaps will never fully come around with the bat. He had a particularly rough run in limited action this year in Toronto, striking out a dozen times in just 19 plate appearances.
  • Finally, the Twins will hang onto reliever Dietrich Enns after he, too, cleared waivers under the same essential circumstances as Ngoepe. Soon to turn 27, Enns is off to a poor start this year at Triple-A, where he has given out 11 free passes to go with 11 strikeouts in twenty innings. If he can get back on track, though, perhaps he’ll eventually present a depth option for the Minnesota organization. In his six prior professional seasons, Enns has never finished with an earned run average of over 2.94. In 136 Triple-A innings, he carries a sparkling 2.25 ERA with a more pedestrian combination of 7.1 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9.

Rangers Acquire Emmanuel Clase From Padres

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The Rangers have acquired righty Emmanuel Clase from the Padres, per club announcements. He’ll represent the player to be named later from the recent deal that sent catcher Brett Nicholas to San Diego.

Clase, 20, has yet to appear in the present campaign. He has pitched in several different rookie leagues over the past three seasons. In 118 total innings, Clase carries a 3.74 ERA with 9.0 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9. (Oddly, he has allowed a whopping 34 unearned runs in addition to the 49 earned runs that have crossed the plate against him in his career.)

As for Nicholas, he has yet to see the majors with San Diego. But he’s certainly making a case for a promotion. In 117 plate appearances at Triple-A, Nicholas carries a .314/.393/.627 slash with eight long balls.

Latest On Matt Harvey

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5:40pm: While the Rangers have discussed pursuit of Harvey, per MLB.com’s TR Sullivan (via Twitter), the organization won’t trade for him. Indeed, GM Jon Daniels confirmed as much in an appearance on 105.3 The Fan (Twitter link). Of course, it still seems possible the organization could be involved if Harvey reaches the open market.

2:36pm: The Giants have also discussed taking a flyer on Harvey, tweets ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick. San Francisco learned today that Johnny Cueto will miss the next six to eight weeks, and Madison Bumgarner remains on the disabled list until late May. They’ve been plugging in a struggling Derek Holland in the fifth spot in their rotation, though it’s not clear at all if Harvey would represent an upgrade.

12:51pm: Following one of the most high-profile DFAs in recent memory, the Mets appear to be generating some interest in former ace Matt Harvey. Andy Martino of SNY reports that that the Rangers and Mariners both have some degree of interest in acquiring the righty. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi wrote this morning that Texas’ interest is “mild,” while Martino indicates that Rangers assistant pitching coach Dan Warthen is pushing the organization to roll the dice on Harvey. Warthen was his pitching coach with the Mets prior to 2018.

While Morosi speculates about the possibility of the Orioles and Mets lining up on a deal, Martino hears that the O’s don’t have much in the way of interest. Baltimore did check in on Harvey over the winter, but Martino reports that the Mets circled back to the O’s prior to designating Harvey for assignment and found “little interest” despite the disastrous results of the Baltimore rotation thus far in 2018.

It’s not a huge surprise to see the Rangers connected to Harvey, given not only Warthen’s presence in the organization but also the team’s general approach to adding arms this offseason. The Rangers shopped for volume this winter, stockpiling veteran arms on low-cost deals (in many instances on minor league contracts) in an effort to bolster their organizational depth. Payroll was a factor in Texas’ approach, so it seems unlikely that they’d take on the full chunk of Harvey’s remaining contract — about $4.43MM — but the Mets will almost certainly be willing to include cash in any deal. The alternative, after all, is to release Harvey and simply pay him the money is owed anyway.

As for the Mariners, they’ve endured plenty of rotation struggles of their own. James Paxton’s 4.19 ERA leads Seattle starters, and their rotation as a whole has pitched to a 5.30 earned run average. There’s likely been some poor fortune at play — both xFIP and SIERA peg Mariners starters at 4.05 as a group — but the bottom-line results have not been encouraging. Erasmo Ramirez just went back on the disabled list as well, prompting the Mariners to move veteran Wade LeBlanc from a long relief role into the fifth starter’s slot.

It seems decidedly unlikely that the Mets would receive much in the way of a significant return for Harvey, whose struggles date back to Opening Day 2017. He’s earning $5.6MM this season, is a free agent in November and has undergone both Tommy John and thoracic outlet surgery — both of which (especially the latter) have contributed to his rapid decline.

AL Notes: Yanks, Didi, Harvey, Rangers, O’s, Schoop

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It doesn’t appear just-designated Mets right-hander Matt Harvey will continue his career in New York as a member of the crosstown rival Yankees. “Don’t bet on it,” a source told Brendan Kuty of NJ.com when asked if the red-hot Yankees would pursue Harvey. The Yankees could arguably use another rotation option in the wake of fifth starter Jordan Montgomery’s flexor strain, which will keep him out for six to eight weeks. But the team’s plan for now is to replace the left-handed Montgomery with righty Domingo German, a 25-year-old who will make the first start of his big league career on Sunday.

More from the Bronx and a couple other AL destinations:

  • If Harvey does indeed depart New York, it’s possible he’ll find a home in Texas, T.R. Sullivan of MLB.com writes. Rangers pitching coach Dan Warthen previously served in the same role with the Mets, and he formed a good relationship with Harvey during their time together from 2012-17. Warthen is of the belief that he can help fix the struggling Harvey, reports Sullivan, who adds that the Rangers will at least discuss adding the 29-year-old. If Harvey clears waivers and becomes a free agent, it could be worthwhile for Texas to take a low-cost flyer on him, given that its rotation ranks 24th in the majors in ERA (5.15) and 27th in fWAR (0.6).
  • The Orioles are likely to activate second baseman Jonathan Schoop from the disabled list on Tuesday, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com suggests. Schoop has been working back from the right oblique strain that sent him to the DL on April 14. Although Schoop got off to a poor start before then, hitting, .230/.266/.344 (64 wRC+) in 65 plate appearances, it’s fair to say his lengthy absence has helped lead to the O’s league-worst 8-24 record. Schoop was one of the best second basemen in the game last year, after all, and no one from the Jace Peterson–Engelb Vielma–Luis Sardinas trio has performed well in his stead over the past few weeks.
  • The Yankees’ December 2014 acquisition of shortstop Didi Gregorius from the Diamondbacks has worked out beautifully for New York, which only gave up reliever Shane Greene in a three-team trade that also included the Tigers. With Gregorius off to such a tremendous start this year, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman revisited the deal in an interview with Jack Curry of the YES Network (video link). The Yankees had long been interested in landing Gregorius, revealed Cashman, who credits the influence of his friend Kevin Towers and the team’s analytics department for New York’s desire to acquire the player. Towers, who passed away earlier this year, was the Diamondbacks’ GM when they picked up Gregorius from the Reds in 2012. Arizona fired Towers a couple months before Gregorius went to the Yankees in a trade that Cashman didn’t expect to consummate, largely because then-Diamondbacks GM Dave Stewart also had a high opinion of Gregorius. The Yankees found a way to make it work, though, after involving the Tigers, who “coveted” Greene. It’s clear the trade hasn’t gone as planned for Detroit, however, as Greene has been a mixed bag while both the player it dealt – lefty Robbie Ray – and Gregorius have emerged as key pieces in Arizona and New York, respectively.

Rangers Designate Juan Centeno

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The Rangers have designated catcher Juan Centeno for assignment, per a club announcement. His roster spot will go to just-claimed backstop Carlos Perez.

Texas had already cleared a 40-man spot when they claimed Perez, but needed a place on the active roster. The moves, taken together, create an additional opening on the 40-man.

Centeno, a 28-year-old who hits from the left side, has played at the MLB level with five different organizations over the past six years. In 353 career plate appearances at the game’s highest level, he’s a .227/.278/.331 hitter.

Rangers Claim Carlos Perez From Braves

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The Rangers announced that they’ve claimed catcher Carlos Perez off waivers from the Braves. Texas has opened a 40-man roster spot by transferring injured shortstop Elvis Andrus from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL. That move seemingly carries little impact on Andrus’ timetable for a return from an elbow fracture, as he was widely expected to miss around eight weeks with the injury anyhow. As Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets, Andrus can be activated on June 11.

Texas didn’t immediately reveal a corresponding 25-man roster move, as executive VP of communications John Blake indicated that said move will be announced tomorrow. However, it seems unlikely that the Rangers would carry three catchers on the big league roster, and Perez is out of minor league options, so it’s fair to speculate that current backup catcher Juan Centeno’s spot could be in jeopardy. It’s also possible, of course, that one of Centeno or Robinson Chirinos is dealing with a yet-undisclosed injury and could land on the disabled list, thus prompting the Texas organization to pick up some additional depth behind the dish.

Perez, 27, was traded from the Angels to the Braves on March 31 in the wake of an injury to Atlanta catcher Tyler Flowers. He appeared in eight games with the Braves but went just 3-for-21 with a walk and six strikeouts in 22 trips to the plate. That lack of production mirrors Perez’s meager output from a near-identical sample of 21 plate appearances in 2017 with the Halos. Overall, he’s hit just .122/.163/.195 over the past two seasons and .221/.264/.325 in a total of 617 big league plate appearances.

Of course, Perez’s calling card is his glovework behind the dish. The Venezuelan-born backstop has successfully halted 38 percent of stolen-base attempts against him at the big league level and has drawn generally positive marks for both his pitch-framing and pitch-blocking skills, per Baseball Prospectus.

It’s been an ugly start to the season for the season for the 28-year-old Centeno, which only makes it easier to speculate on his potential dismissal. He’s posted a tepid .147/.171/.176 slash in 35 plate appearances as the backup to Chirinos, and while he’s yet to have an opponent attempt a steal against him, Centeno has just a 13 percent caught-stealing rate as a Major League catcher.

Rangers Notes: Calhoun, Daniels, Martin

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The Rangers are not totally buried in the American League postseason hunt, but have already fallen eight games back of the division-leading Astros. Particularly with a variety of notable players on the DL, it’s increasingly difficult to see the Rangers contending in 2018. Here’s the latest from Texas:

  • Some Rangers fans are displeased with the fact that top prospect Willie Calhoun is plying his trade at Round Rock rather than with the Rangers. GM Jon Daniels bristled at the notion that Calhoun was being held down due to service-time considerations, as Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram writes. Rather, says Daniels, Calhoun is still at Triple-A because “he’s still working on his defense.” It probably does not help that Calhoun isn’t off to the best start at the plate, though nobody doubts his bat is ready for the majors. Daniels says he’s “really encouraged” by what he has heard about Calhoun’s defensive work thus far, but indicated that it will need to get up to snuff before the call is made.
  • More broadly, Daniels certainly sounds like a man who’s well aware of the uphill climb facing his team this year. As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports, the team’s top baseball exec acknowledges that “injuries have certainly eroded what depth there was.” That’s obviously sub-optimal, but he does say there are still benefits to the situation. “The upside is that a lot of guys are getting valuable experience they wouldn’t otherwise get,” Daniels said. “That doesn’t do a whole lot for the fans who want to see immediate returns, but long-term we’re going to benefit from experiences [young players] are getting.”
  • The Rangers have placed righty Chris Martin on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. He’s dealing with irritation in his right forearm. Fellow right-hander Nick Gardewine will take his spot on the active roster. That represents another blow to the team’s MLB roster. Though Martin owns a 5.14 ERA on the year, that’s due mostly to the disastrous recent outing that came in advance of the DL placement. Otherwise, he has generally been effective, carrying a solid combination of 8.4 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9 while showing a mid-nineties fastball.

Martin Perez Placed On 10-Day DL

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8:57pm: For the time being, Perez has been diagnosed only with inflation, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News was among those to tweet.

2:26pm: The Rangers announced Monday that left-hander Martin Perez has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to “continued discomfort in his right elbow” and has left the team to travel back to Texas for a more in-depth exam with Dr. Keith Meister. Righty Jose Leclerc was recalled in his place.

While the loss of Perez for the time being thins out the rotation, the silver lining for the organization is likely that the issue is confined to Perez’s non-pitching elbow. That certainly doesn’t preclude an extended absence, particularly given that Perez underwent offseason surgery to repair a fracture in that right elbow and opened the year on the disabled list as a result.

It’s been a nightmarish start to the 2018 campaign for Perez; the 27-year-old lefty has been tattooed for a 9.67 ERA in 22 2/3 innings through five starts while posting a career-worst 4.8 BB/9 rate and watching his fastball velocity drop from 93.1 mph in 2017 to 91.8 mph in 2018. While the injury obviously isn’t in his throwing elbow — Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News tweets that Rangers officials say Perez’s left elbow is not a concern — it’s still possible that the discomfort in his right elbow is impacting his mechanics and effectiveness. (Whether it’s related or not, Perez’s release point in 2018 is notably out of line with his career norms, per Brooks Baseball.)

Perez becomes the latest in a long line of Rangers regulars to land on the disabled list, where he’ll join Adrian Beltre, Rougned Odor and Elvis Andrus. (Right-hander Doug Fister also missed some time on the DL but was recently activated.) With Perez on the shelf, Texas will utilize Cole Hamels, Mike Minor, Matt Moore, Bartolo Colon and Fister in the starting rotation.

Poll: What Last-Place AL Team Is Likeliest To Turn Its Season Around?

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With one day left in April, we’ve already seen a wide gulf emerge within the American League standings.  Three clubs (the Red Sox, Yankees, and Astros) are on pace to surpass 105 wins, while six teams are also currently on pace to win fewer than 70 games.  By comparison, only six teams in all of baseball failed to surpass the 70-win plateau in 2017.

Obviously, it’s still very early, and there’s plenty of baseball still to be played for these struggling teams.  Three teams, however, will head into May in the basement of their respective divisions, and in those cases, a slower start could be much harder to overcome.  The Rangers, Royals, and Orioles all faced rather tricky paths to contention even in the best of circumstances, and their poor April records may force them to make some hard decisions about how long they’re willing to go before considering selling pieces at the trade deadline.

Let’s check in on the three last-place teams to see which has the most potential to make April simply a “slow start” en route to a respectable or even a contending season…

Rangers (11-18): With Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus, and Rougned Odor all on the disabled list, Texas fans are beginning to have some unpleasant flashbacks to the team’s disastrously injury-plagued 2014 campaign.  Still, while the injury bug explains the lack of offensive production, the Rangers’ pitching situation has looked as shaky as it appeared to be heading into the season.  Other than the surprise continuation of Bartolo Colon’s late-career renaissance, it’s been mostly bad news for both the rotation and the bullpen, with Martin Perez, Matt Moore, Matt Bush, Alex Claudio, and Kevin Jepsen all getting off to particularly tough starts.

The team’s big infield trio may not all be back until June, so can the Rangers at least tread water until then?  It doesn’t help that the rest of the AL West teams are all at the .500 mark or better, though the Angels (+5), Mariners (-2), and A’s (+3) are all nothing special in terms of run differential.  (Of course, Texas is a miserable -39 in that department.)  The Rangers will need more arms to step up if they are to turn their season around, plus some internal reinforcements have already come in the form of Delino DeShields and Tony Barnette, who are both back after lengthy DL stints of their own.  Top prospect Willie Calhoun could also provide more help for the lineup, though Calhoun is off to a quiet start at Triple-A this year.

Orioles (8-20): The Orioles and Rangers share pretty similar tales of woe.  Baltimore has also been hurt by a tough division, a lack of quality starting or relief pitching, plus several key injuries — Zach Britton and Mark Trumbo have yet to play a game, while Jonathan Schoop, Tim Beckham, and Colby Rasmus are all on the DL.  Manny Machado’s individual brilliance has been tempered by a lack of hitting from almost everyone else on roster, with Chris Davis standing out as the single worst position player by fWAR (-0.6) in baseball so far this season.

Dan Duquette unofficially cited Memorial Day as the date when teams begin to evaluate where they really stand in a season, so the O’s therefore have just under a month to get on track.  That might be enough time to get at least some of the injured parties back, plus it’ll give time for Alex Cobb to hopefully start rounding into form given that the late-to-sign righty has a 13.11 ERA over his first three starts.  On paper, Baltimore has too much hitting talent to be as bad as they are at the plate, so you figure that at least some type of positive correction is in store.

Royals (7-20): The Royals held off on a full-fledged rebuild over the winter, though their decision about whether to try for another playoff run may have been made for them by their lousy April.  The Royals entered Sunday’s play with the fewest runs in the majors, as only Mike Moustakas and Jorge Soler were putting up good numbers at the plate, and some quality returns by the starting rotation have been undermined by arguably baseball’s worst bullpen.  Even with closer Kelvin Herrera still boasting a perfect 0.00 ERA through 9 2/3 innings, the road to Herrera has been plagued by potholes, as the relief corps is collectively at or near the bottom of the list in just about every major statistic.

One bright side for the Royals?  Their competition.  The AL Central has been baseball’s worst division through the first month, with the first-place Indians holding just a 14-12 record.  As bad as Kansas City has been, the Royals are still just 4.5 games back of the second-place Tigers.  Since the White Sox and Tigers are rebuilding and the Twins are struggling to recapture their 2017 form, there is some opportunity for the Royals to regain some ground if they can beat up on their division foes.

Which of the AL’s last-place squads do you think has the best chance of recovering from its shaky April? (Link for app users)

Which Team Has The Best Chance Of Turning Its Season Around?
Rangers 53.94% (5,720 votes)
Orioles 28.29% (3,000 votes)
Royals 17.77% (1,885 votes)
Total Votes: 10,605

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