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AL East Notes: Solarte, Donaldson, Trumbo, Red Sox

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Yangervis Solarte’s career has been marked by both professional setbacks and personal tragedy, as Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi details in a profile of the Blue Jays infielder.  A lightly-regarded prospect growing up in Venezuela, Solarte was close to giving up on his baseball dreams before signing with the Twins in 2005.  Davidi’s piece details Solarte’s long path to becoming a big league regular, as well as the unimaginable burden Solarte had to face when his wife Yuliett passed away due to cancer in September 2016.  Though it all, Solarte has continued to be an energetic figure on the field and become an increasingly important piece of Toronto’s everyday lineup.

Here are some more items from around the AL East…

  • Blue Jays skipper John Gibbons told Sportsnet’s Hazel Mae (Twitter link) and other reporters that Josh Donaldson could potentially return from the DL on Friday when the team begins a series in Tampa Bay.  Donaldson began his rehab assignment today, going 0-for-3 for Toronto’s high-A ball affiliate.  Donaldson played as a DH today, so he has yet to test his ailing shoulder in a game situation by throwing from third base.
  • Mark Trumbo is slated to be activated from the DL on Tuesday, with the Orioles already optioning Joey Rickard back to Triple-A today to create roster space.  Trumbo will be making his season debut after missing six weeks with a quad strain, with the slugger looking to personally rebound from a poor 2017 season and also add some pop to an Orioles lineup that has struggled to score runs this year.  The O’s figure to use Trumbo as a right-handed hitting complement at first base, DH, and right field, as those positions are respectively occupied by lefty-swingers Chris Davis and Pedro Alvarez, and switch-hitter Anthony Santander.  Manager Buck Showalter also told media (including BaltimoreBaseball.com’s Dan Connolly) that Luis Sardinas will be placed on the 10-day DL due to a bad back, and Engelb Vielma looks to be the likeliest candidate to replace Sardinas as the utility infielder.
  • Red Sox manager Alex Cora provided some updates (to MLB.com’s Ian Browne and other reporters) about some injury situations, including Mookie Betts’ day-to-day status with right hamstring tightness.  Betts didn’t play on Sunday as the Sox are being cautious with their superstar: “If this game is September, October, November, I guarantee he’d play, but we have to take care of him,” Cora said.  As for other sidelined Sox players, Dustin Pedroia is begun play in extended Spring Training games as the second baseman continues his rehab from knee surgery last October.  Tyler Thornburg is also beginning a Triple-A rehab assignment on Monday, which will be his first taste of game action at any level after missing all of 2017 due to shoulder problems that resulted in thoracic outlet surgery.  Given the extended layoff, Browne thinks Thornburg’s rehab assignment could last for the maximum 30 days as the right-hander gets himself back into game shape.

Blue Jays Option Devon Travis

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The Blue Jays have optioned second baseman Devon Travis to Triple-A and recalled right-hander Carlos Ramirez, Hazel Mae of Sportsnet reports.

The 27-year-old Travis is a familiar name who has enjoyed success in the past, which theoretically makes this a surprising move. However, Travis has dealt with injury issues throughout his career and, although he’s healthy now, has gotten off to a dreadful start in 2018. Travis has batted an ugly .148/.212/.246 (25 wRC+) through 66 plate appearances, making it difficult for Toronto to keep him in its lineup – let alone in the majors. Sending Travis to the minors could enable him to get back up to speed in the wake of his injury-shortened 2017, as MLBTR’s Mark Polishuk recently noted.

In light of Travis’ struggles, prospect Lourdes Gurriel Jr. has been seeing some time lately at second. While Gurriel has also gotten off to a slow start, he seems likely to serve as Toronto’s top second base option now that Travis is headed to Buffalo. That may change when on-the-mend third baseman Josh Donaldson returns from a shoulder injury, which could push utility player Yangervis Solarte from the hot corner to the keystone.

Injury Notes: Teheran, Buchter, Giants, Donaldson, Schoop, Nats

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Braves righty Julio Teheran left his outing today with what the team is calling “right upper trap tightness.” He had shown a concerning velocity drop before departing, as David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets. The 27-year-old Teheran entered the day with a 4.00 ERA in his 27 innings, while carrying a career-best 12.8% swinging-strike rate, but gave up three earned in his three frames. It seems generally promising that there’s a muscular explanation for Teheran’s sudden loss of velo, though of course that does not necessarily mean he’s out of the woods and we’ll have to await further word.

Here’s the latest on some other health situations around the league:

  • The Athletics have placed southpaw Ryan Buchter on the DL, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by Danny Coulombe. At this point, the team plans to shut Buchter down for at least ten days and possibly longer, as MLB.com’s Jane Lee tweets. The 31-year-old southpaw, who was acquired over the offseason, has been quite good thus far for the A’s. He’s carrying a 1.69 ERA with 9.3 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 over 10 2/3 innings.
  • While the Giants will hold off on putting Mac Williamson on the DL, he’s in the concussion protocol at present, as manager Bruce Bochy informed reporters including Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group (Twitter link). In the meantime, the organization has brought fellow outfielder Austin Slater onto the active roster, creating space by sending reliever Josh Osich to the 10-day DL. It’s unclear at this point how long Slater will have in the majors, but he’ll surely be hoping to follow the same track as Williamson, who kept on raking after receiving a promotion. Slater owns a .358/.435/.642 slash with just six strikeouts in his 62 plate appearances on the year at Triple-A.
  • Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson is beginning his rehab assignment tomorrow, as the team announced. He’ll open as a DH as he eases back into action, though the real test will come when he puts his throwing back on display at game speed. There’s similarly good news for the division-rival Orioles, who expect to send second baseman Jonathan Schoop on a brief rehab assignment next week, as Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com tweets. He has been out for two weeks with an oblique strain.
  • The Nationals, who are still waiting for a trio of important players, gave some updates today. (Links to the Twitter feed of Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com.) Third baseman Anthony Rendon is reasonably close and is expected to return in relatively short order after a brief stint on the shelf. It’s not quite as rosy for outfielder Adam Eaton, who has seemingly had some ups and downs in rehabbing his ankle issues, but — GM Mike Rizzo emphasized — also has not experienced any setbacks. As for second baseman Daniel Murphy, who has yet to play at all following offseason knee surgery, there’s still no timeline for a return.
  • A number of other players are already coming off of the DL. The Reds have activated righty David Hernandez and the Mariners have brought back first baseman Ryon Healy. Both were relatively significant offseason acquisitions for their organizations. Meanwhile, the Rays activated infielder Matt Duffy and the Rangers did the same with righty Tony Barnette.

AL East Notes: Corbin, Gleyber, Machado, Donaldson, Tulo, Eovaldi

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For the time being, Patrick Corbin is pitching brilliantly for the Diamondbacks, but Bob Nightengale of USA Today writes that he could have been doing so for the Yankees. It was reported that the New York organization looked into dealing for Corbin over the winter, but Nightengale suggests that the interested was more focused than was realized at the time. It’s anyone’s guess how things will play out in the future, but Nightengale notes that Corbin is the member of a family of rabid Yankees fans. It’s not hard to connect the dots, at least speculatively, but Corbin also says he’s happy in Arizona and would be amenable to discussing a new deal during the season.

Here’s more from the AL East:

  • As the Yankees get their first look at top prospect Gleyber Torres at the major-league level, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic looks at how the gifted youngster ended up in New York. (Subscription link.) Yanks GM Brian Cashman says that the organization had targeted Torres years before as an amateur. That made it all the more exciting when he was finally landed via trade.
  • Rosenthal goes on to discuss a few other subjects of note, including some hypothetical trade suitors for Orioles shortstop Manny Machado. As Craig Edwards writes at Fangraphs, Machado seems to be a clear mid-season trade candidate given the O’s putrid start to the season and his pending free agency. Edwards gives the numbers on just how deep a hole the Baltimore club appears to be in, arguing the team ought to begin listening to offers even if it decides to wait and allow bidding to drive up the return for the star infielder.
  • The Blue Jays have received some promising news on the health front, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca reports (Twitter links). Star third baseman Josh Donaldson is just one step away from a rehab assignment. That said, it’s not an insignificant one for a player whose shoulder issues created notable problems throwing across the diamond. Presently, Donaldson is long tossing, but he’ll still need to make throws on the field before he goes out to an affiliate for a tune-up. Meanwhile, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is set to begin baseball activities for the first time since undergoing heel surgery.
  • There’s also progress to report for Rays righty Nathan Eovaldi, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. Eovaldi, whose long-awaited return from Tommy John surgery was thwarted when he required another procedure late this spring, has already managed a 25-pitch pen session. It’s possible he could be back in the big leagues within a month or so, says Topkin, which seems like a reasonably promising prognosis for a player who has endured significant health questions. Of course, given the club’s poor start to the year, it could be that Eovaldi will be looking to pitch his way into a trade chip once he’s back.

AL East Links: Blue Jays, Pearce, Swihart, Cubs, Rays, Cards

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The latest form around the AL East…

  • The Blue Jays will be facing a roster crunch when Josh Donaldson returns from the disabled list, Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi writes.  The hot-hitting Teoscar Hernandez is the better starting option right now than the slumping Randal Grichuk, though Grichuk is out of options and the Jays don’t want to risk losing him for nothing.  The presence of other veterans on pricey contracts (such as Kendrys Morales or Steve Pearce) further creates a positional glut, and demoting Lourdes Gurriel Jr. would leave Toronto without a backup shortstop option.  This is just my opinion, but one answer could be to demote Devon Travis, who is hitting just .140/.218/.160 through his first 55 plate appearances.  Travis missed most of 2017 due to knee problems and could possibly use some minor league time to get himself back up to speed.
  • A trade could also solve the Jays’ roster issues, and Davidi noted that Pearce received some interest during the offseason.  After an injury-plagued 2017, Pearce is off to a nice rebound year thus far, hitting .304/.360/.565 over 50 PA as the right-handed hitting side of an outfield platoon with Curtis Granderson.  Even with roughly $5.3MM still owed to him this year, Pearce could be attractive to a team looking for a right-handed bat at first base or in the corner outfield.  Pearce is a much more viable trade chip than Morales, who is owed $23MM in 2018-19, can only play DH at this point, and is off to another slow start at the plate.
  • Blake Swihart’s lack of playing time has created “a cruel catch-22” for the utilityman and the Red Sox, The Athletic’s Jen McCaffrey writes (subscription required).  Swihart has appeared in 10 of Boston’s first 21 games, with only two of those appearances coming in the starting lineup, and thus he hasn’t done much to enhance his trade value to potential suitors.  On the other hand, there isn’t yet any indication that the Sox are open to trading Swihart, as doing so would suddenly leave the team thin at catcher if Christian Vazquez or Sandy Leon got injured.  (Though it should also be noted that Swihart has yet to appear behind the plate this season.)  Swihart is out of options, and can’t be sent to Triple-A without being exposed to waivers and very likely claimed by another team, so the Sox aren’t going to part ways with the former top prospect without getting anything in return.  While not an ideal situation for Swihart, of course, it’s something of a good problem to have for the Red Sox — the reason Swihart isn’t getting more regular playing time is because the rest of Boston’s lineup is on fire amidst an excellent 17-4 start to the season.
  • Evaluators from the Cubs and Cardinals were recently on hand to watch the Rays last week, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports.  The Rays’ limited payroll capability could make them sellers regardless of their record, though the team is also off to a slow 8-13 start overall (though Tampa has won five of its last six games).  It isn’t known what players were being watched, though the Cubs have been heavily linked to Chris Archer in the past while the Cardinals had strong interest in Alex Colome this offseason.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/21/18

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The latest minor moves from around baseball:

  • Outfielder Ryan Kalish has retired, Peter Gammons tweets. Kalish, who played the final game of his career on Friday with New Britain of the independent Atlantic League, is stepping away because of knee issues, per Gammons. Now 30, Kalish was once a promising prospect with the Red Sox, who grabbed him in the ninth round of the 2006 draft. Injuries were problematic throughout Kalish’s career, though, which helps to explain why he only amassed 422 major league plate appearances with the BoSox and Cubs between 2010-16. Kalish was a .245/.297/.349 hitter with four homers and 16 stolen bases in the majors.
  • The Indians have acquired utility player Jon Berti from the Blue Jays for cash considerations, according to announcements from both teams. Berti will join Triple-A Columbus with Cleveland, which will be his second organization since Toronto chose him in the 18th round of the 2011 draft. The 28-year-old Berti ascended to Triple-A in 2015 and has since hit .212/.282/.314 in 433 PAs at the minors’ highest level.
  • The Rays outrighted outfielder Brandon Snyder to Triple-A Durham after he cleared waivers, the team announced. Snyder, whom the Rays designated Friday, could decline the assignment because he has been outrighted in the past. He totaled six PAs with the Rays before they cut him from their 40-man roster, giving him 211 since he debuted with Baltimore in 2011. Snyder has batted .240/.276/.455 with nine long balls in the bigs.

AL East Notes: Mallex, Red Sox, Cashner, Yanks, Donaldson

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The Rays are preparing to give a long look at outfielder Mallex Smith, as Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times writes. As he nears his 25th birthday, Smith has upped his offensive game, with a .373/.418/.510 batting line. Though he’s carrying an unsustainable .432 BABIP, it’s notable that Smith has been striking out at a meager 12.5% clip. With Kevin Kiermaier just starting a lengthy DL stint, there’s little reason not to see whether Smith can stake a claim to an everyday job. Topkin also covers some of the other players who could see additional opportunities due to the loss of Kiermaier.

Here’s more from the rest of the AL East:

  • Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski gave an honest answer when  asked by Jason Mastrodonato of the Boston Herald whether he foresaw the team’s unbelievable start to the season. “We thought the capabilities were there,” said Dombrowski. “But for me to say we expected it to this point, that would be a bit much.” Still, he did acknowledge that he and the rest of the front office truly believed that last year’s tepid run production would turn around, with or without the addition of J.D. Martinez. Sox fans will want to read the entire piece, which gives an interesting look at all the things going right in Boston at the moment.
  • The story isn’t quite the same in Baltimore, where the Orioles are off to a miserable opening run. One bright spot has been Andrew Cashner, one of several offseason pitching additions. Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun examines whether his 3.00 ERA through 24 innings — which follows a 3.40 mark in 166 2/3 frames last year — could be sustainable despite still-middling peripherals. Skipper Buck Showalter seems to believe that Cashner has matured as a pitcher and “came into his own last year.” He says he’s “hoping that we’re going to reap the benefits of that” over the full course of the current season. Of course, as Meoli explains, there are certainly some reasons not to buy in.
  • Relief pitching was expected to be an overwhelming strength for the Yankees in 2018, but Marc Carig of The Athletic writes (subscription link) that there are some cracks in the pen. Beyond just short-term struggles with results, the Yanks have seen cause for deeper concern with some pitchers. In particular, Dellin Betances has shown a bit of a velo drop and, perhaps more worryingly, reduced spin rate. There are similar issues for Tommy Kahnle, who is now on the DL after not looking capable of sustaining his 2017  breakout in the early going.
  • The Blue Jays have received generally promising news on star third baseman Josh Donaldson, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca tweets. Skipper John Gibbons says that, though Donaldson isn’t going to be ready to come back after the minimum ten-day stint, he has resumed throwing and is feeling “great.” The real question, though, is whether Donaldson will be able to throw without limitation after showing reduced form early in the season.

Blue Jays Promote Lourdes Gurriel Jr.

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11:06am: The Blue Jays have now formally announced the series of roster moves.

9:35am: The Blue Jays are set to recall infielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. from Double-A New Hampshire, according to Shi Davidi and Hazel Mae of Sportsnet. The younger brother of Astros first baseman Yuli Gurriel, Lourdes will be making his Major League debut upon arriving. The Jays will option fellow infielder Gift Ngoepe and lefty Tim Mayza to Triple-A in order to open roster spots for Gurriel and the returning Kendrys Morales, per the report. That also means that surging young outfielder Teoscar Hernandez will stick with the big league club.

Gurriel, 24, was signed by the Blue Jays shortly after his 23rd birthday. Under the previous iteration of the collective bargaining agreement, his age and five-plus years of professional experience in the Cuban National Series qualified him to sign a Major League contract, which he did — a seven-year, $22MM pact. (Under the current CBA, he’d still be considered an amateur, as the the age criteria was bumped up to 25.)

While his first season in the Blue Jays organization didn’t go well (.229/.268/.339 between Class-A Advanced and Double-A), the younger Gurriel played much better in the Arizona Fall League last year. In 2018, he’s exploded out of the gates with a .347/.382/.510 slash in his first 55 Double-A plate appearances. Baseball America rated him as the game’s No. 73 prospect prior to the 2017 season, and while his poor showing last year knocked him off their rankings, he’s gotten himself back on track to open the year, it seems. Gurriel played all over the diamond in Cuba, but he’s been exclusively a second baseman and shortstop thus far in the Blue Jays organization, splitting his time evenly between the two spots.

As for Hernandez, while the move to recall him initially may have been looked at as a short-term option, he’s announced his presence in the Toronto lineup by hitting .375/.400/.708 with a homer, three doubles and a triple through five games and 25 plate appearances. It’s a small sample, to be sure, but Hernandez demonstrated huge power potential with eight home runs in a September call-up last season, and he’s among the leaders in barreled balls since that time, per Statcast. No hitter who has put at least 10 balls into play thus far in 2018 has averaged better than Hernandez’s 99.3 mph exit velocity.

Blue Jays Place Josh Donaldson On 10-Day DL

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The Blue Jays have placed third baseman Josh Donaldson on the 10-day DL with shoulder inflammation, per a club announcement. With the open active roster spot, the Jays will promote outfielder Teoscar Hernandez.

Donaldson, 32, has hit just fine in the early going but has notably struggled with his throwing. The organization had to this point resisted a DL placement but will now see whether some rest will allow the club’s best player to get back to full strength.

There’s no indication of a new injury or any kind of “structural instability,” Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports on Twitter. Instead, it seems that Donaldson just hasn’t responded as hoped over the early portion of the season.

It’s hard to know how long Donaldson might be out. The Jays intend to put him on a throwing program at the team’s spring facility, Nicholson-Smith notes, but it’s not evident whether there is any kind of anticipated timeline.

Despite the issues with his throwing shoulder, Donaldson has received positive marks in his 55 frames at third on the year. It’s not worth reading too much into fielding metrics at this stage, but that’s generally promising for a player who has graded more as good than great in the field over the past two seasons.

Any uncertainty is unwelcome in a contract year, though, particularly for a player that is already set to enter the open market at a somewhat advanced age. That said, there’s plenty of time for Donaldson to get back to form and turn in a big platform campaign.

Minor MLB Transactions: 4/13/18

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Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league, all courtesy of Baseball America’s Matt Eddy unless otherwise noted…

  • The Angels have added right-handed reliever Jordan Jankowski on a minor league contract. The 28-year-old got his first taste of the big league in 2017, tossing 4 1/3 frames for the Astros before landing with the Dodgers via waiver claim. Jankowski has averaged 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings in 177 1/3 Triple-A frames in his career, though he’s struggled with control since being selected in the 34th round of the 2012 draft as well.
  • Former big league infielders Tyler Ladendorf and Darnell Sweeney have signed minor league pacts with the Blue Jays. Ladendorf, a former Twins second-rounder who was once traded to the A’s in exchange for Orlando Cabrera, logged 68 MLB plate appearances with Oakland from 2015-16 but hit just .123/.149/.154 in that brief time. He’s a career .258/.326/.350 hitter in Triple-A and has played second base, shortstop, third base and corner outfield as a pro. Sweeney, meanwhile, posted a .639 OPS in 98 plate appearances with the Phillies in 2015 after they acquired him from the Dodgers in the Chase Utley trade. He’s a career .258/.325/.394 hitter in Triple-A.
  • The Giants released outfielder Daniel Carbonell, who they’d originally signed Carbonell to a four-year, $3.5MM contract back in 2014 after he left Cuba. Signed because of his defensive prowess and speed, Carbonell’s bat never came around, as he appeared in just two Triple-A games with the Giants after stalling out in Double-A. In 437 plate appearances at that Double-A level, the now-27-year-old Carbonell hit just .188/.227/.273.
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