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AL East Notes: Kelly, Cueto, Whitley, Harvey

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Red Sox righty Joe Kelly had the luxury of having Yadier Molina call his games with the Cardinals, yet Kelly is now having to manage his own games, WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford.  Kelly has gotten off to a rough start in Boston, and he admits “my stats don’t show, but I feel like I’m better at” reading situations and recognizing what pitches to throw at the right times.  Here’s some more from around the AL East…

  • Twenty scouts were in Cincinnati to watch Johnny Cueto’s start tonight, Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News reports.  The group included high-ranking evaluators from the Blue Jays and Padres.  Cueto delivered another impressive start (7 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 3 BB, 9 K) for his audience in a no-decision in the Reds’ 4-3 victory over the Giants.
  • Yankees right-hander Chase Whitley left tonight’s game after just 1 2/3 innings due to an elbow injury.  Whitley will undergo an MRI tomorrow and he told reporters (including Chad Jennings of the LoHud Yankees blog) that he has been coping with the injury for a while but hadn’t told the club about it until tonight.
  • Orioles prospect Hunter Harvey will visit Dr. James Andrews next week in regards to his injured right elbow, Dan Connolly of the Baltimore Sun reports.  Harvey underwent an MRI yesterday and O’s executive VP Dan Duquette said the club believes the injury is a flexor mass strain in Harvey’s right forearm.  Duquette is hopeful the injury won’t require surgery and Harvey can return to action this season after a rest period, though these plans will likely change if Andrews disagrees with the initial diagnosis.  Harvey, the 22nd overall pick of the 2013 draft, drew high placements in preseason prospect rankings from ESPN’s Keith Law (16th), MLB.com (41st) and Baseball America (68th).
  • The Orioles have ten players scheduled for free agency this winter, and if MASNsports.com’s Roch Kubatko were to set an over/under of three players re-signed by the team, he would “take the under if pressed to wager today.”  The free agent trio represented by Scott Boras (Wei-Yin Chen, Chris Davis and Matt Wieters) may potentially be the likeliest to depart, and Kubatko says “you’ll find plenty of people in the industry, and at least a few in the Orioles organization, who are making that assumption.”  Kubatko does stress that it’s still far too early to guess with any certainty about who could be leaving or staying, however — in Wieters’ case, for instance, he has yet to even hit the field this season.

Minor Moves: Fox, Cooper, Jimenez, Swarzak

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Here are today’s minor moves from around the league…

  • Infielder Jake Fox has agreed to a deal with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korean Baseball Organization, Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net reports (via Twitter).  Fox was playing for the Blue Jays’ Double-A affiliate after signing a minor league deal with Toronto during the offseason, and Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reports that the Jays released Fox to facilitate his move to KBO. Fox last played in the majors in 2011 and has since bounced around between the minors, independent leagues and Mexican leagues.
  • ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin reports (via Twitter) that the Mets have signed former Blue Jays and Indians first baseman David Cooper to a minor league deal. Cooper, a former first-round pick, was batting .273/.351/.394 in 18 games for the independent Lancaster BarnStormers when the Mets brought him on board. He’ll serve as a depth piece for the organization and has been assigned to Double-A Binghamton, according to Rubin.
  • Infielder Luis Jimenez has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A by the Red Sox, tweets Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald. Jimenez, 27, received just one plate appearance with Boston and has 17 on the year between the Sox and Brewers. He’s a career .217/.253/.268 batter in 168 trips to the plate but has authored an impressive .295/.327/.485 triple slash in 287 Triple-A games throughout his minor league career — all in the Angels’ system.
  • Right-hander Anthony Swarzak has accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Columbus after clearing waivers, the Indians announced (on Twitter). Cleveland designated Swarzak for assignment when they needed a 40-man roster spot for Bruce Chen. The DFA was somewhat of a surprise, given that Swarzak has produced excellent results this season after signing a minor league deal this winter. The long-time Twins swingman has tossed 13 1/3 innings, yielding five earned runs for a 3.38 ERA. Swarzak did surrender 18 hits, but those knocks come as a result of a .395 BABIP. The 29-year-old punched out 13 hitters against just three unintentional walks with the Indians and averaged 92.2 mph on his heater. Swarzak’s uptick in strikeouts may be the result of his conversion to a two-pitch pitcher, as he’s thrown nothing but four-seamers and sliders in 2015, jettisoning a two-seamer, his curve and a rarely used changeup.

Astros Notes: Correa, McCullers, Rasmus

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The Astros sent Jon Singleton to Triple-A to begin the season in the wake of his lackluster 2014 numbers and a poor Spring Training, yet the former star prospect is doing his best to earn a return ticket to the bigs.  Singleton has 11 homers and an impressive .274/.386/.632 slash line over 140 plate appearances at Triple-A Fresno, highlighted by a two-homer, 10-RBI game last night.  While stats in the very hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League have to taken with a grain of salt, Singleton’s production is certainly a positive sign.  Here’s some more from Houston…

  • The time is now for the Astros to promote Carlos Correa, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal opines.  While the Astros’ decision to give Correa more Triple-A seasoning is a reasonable one, Rosenthal argues that if Houston will just promote him in two weeks if he’s tearing up the PCL, the club should just get him to the bigs now.  Correa would instantly upgrade the Astros at shortstop and help the team maintain its surprising first-place status.
  • Righty Lance McCullers has also been promoted to Triple-A, and Astros GM Jeff Luhnow told MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart that McCullers could potentially be in the mix for a Major League call-up this season.  “The reality is if he’s pitching the way he’s been pitching, we could probably benefit from having him here.  There is a possibility he will be here,” Luhnow said.  McCullers was a top-100 ranked prospect by both MLB.com and Baseball America prior to the 2013 and 2014 seasons, but his stock dipped a bit following an unimpressive year at high-A ball last year.  The 21-year-old rebounded to post an 0.62 ERA, 13.3 K/9 and 3.91 K/BB rate over 29 innings at the Double-A level this year.
  • Colby Rasmus is enjoying his time in Houston, the outfielder tells Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi.  Rasmus is one of the more experienced players in the young Astros clubhouse, which seems to be a relief for him given how he wasn’t happy playing for the more veteran Blue Jays last season.  Rasmus said he felt judged “in the sense of how much (service) time you had, and the pecking order, just feeling comfortable in the clubhouse. I’m not going to go into any details, but I feel more comfortable in this clubhouse and in this environment.”

Blue Jays, Luke Scott Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays have signed first baseman/outfielder Luke Scott to a minor league contract, reports SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter). The Page Odle/PSI Sports Management client will report to Triple-A tomorrow, he adds.

Scott, 36, hasn’t appeared in the Majors since a 2013 stint with the Rays. He spent part of the 2014 season playing with the SK Wyverns of the Korea Baseball Organization, slashing an impressive .267/.392/.505 with six homers in 33 games. He opened the season in the Mexican League, enjoying similar success with a .292/.400/.519 batting line and seven bombs in 28 games.

At his best, Scott would offer plus left-handed power and a keen eye that resulted in healthy walk rates. He’s a career .258/.340/.481 hitter in 3193 big league plate appearances, with his most impressive work coming from 2006-10 with the Astros and Orioles, when he posted a 126 OPS+, indicating that he was 26 percent better than a league-average hitter after accounting for park factors.

Scott was never known for his defense, but both Ultimate Zone Rating and Defensive Runs Saved give him slightly positive marks for his career work in left field. Of course, it seems doubtful that he’d still be capable of playing an average or better corner outfield. Even in his 2013 stint with Tampa, he logged just 21 innings in the outfield, and he hasn’t seen any significant Major League time there since 2011 with Baltimore. Presumably, Scott will hope to slug his way to the big league roster and stick as a bench bat, or part-time DH/first baseman. It’s not difficult to envision a scenario where he hits well enough to challenge Justin Smoak for his spot on the roster.

Rays Claim Preston Guilmet, Place Drew Smyly On 60-Day DL

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The Rays have announced that the team claimed righty Preston Guilmet off waivers from the Blue Jays (via Matt Stein of Sports Talk Florida, Twitter links). To create a 40-man roster spot, Tampa moved lefty Drew Smyly to the 60-day DL.

Guilmet was designated by Toronto on Sunday in a roster shuffle. He had worked at the Triple-A level this year, posting a 1.26 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9. In the majors last year with the Orioles, Guilmet struck out twelve and walked only two in 10 1/3 innings, but surrendered six earned runs in the process.

The most impactful element of this news, of course, is the fact that Smyly is now confirmed to miss significant time with his shoulder injury. Indeed, the club says that Smyly has a torn labrum. Surgery is not yet inevitable, as a rehab option is still being explored.

Acquired last summer as a critical piece of the David Price deal, Smyly has been excellent for Tampa when healthy — he owns a 2.70 ERA with 11.3 K/9 against just 1.6 BB/9 over 16 1/3 thus far in 2015. But a labrum tear is a major concern for his future value, whether or not he goes under the knife. Just 25, Smyly took home a $2.65MM salary as a Super Two this year and comes with three seasons of future control via arbitration.

Giants, Ricky Romero Agree To Minor League Deal

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10:20am: Romero and the Giants have indeed agreed to a Minor League contract, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports (via Twitter).

MAY 11, 7:09am: The Giants and Romero are making progress on a deal and could have something finalized as soon as today, reports Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (via Twitter). Romero would report to extended Spring Training with the Giants upon completion of the deal.

MAY 10: The Giants are close to signing former Blue Jays starting pitcher Ricky Romero, Bob Elliott of the Toronto Sun tweets. The deal will, presumably, be of the minor-league variety. The Jays released the 30-year-old lefty last month. Romero is a client of the Legacy Agency.

Romero appeared to be blossoming into one of the game’s better young starters in 2011, when he posted a 2.92 ERA in 225 innings with Toronto. He struggled the following season, though, leading the American League in walks, then had elbow surgery and never returned to his previous form. He last appeared in the bigs in 2013. Lately, he’s battled knee injuries, and Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos said his team decided to release Romero because they didn’t think he would recover in time to contribute this year. The Jays are on the hook for the remainder of Romero’s $7.5MM 2015 salary, plus a $600K buyout.

Pirates Acquire Jayson Aquino

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The Pirates have announced they have acquired left-hander Jayson Aquino from the Blue Jays for cash considerations. Aquino, who was designated for assignment Tuesday, will report to Class A-Advanced Bradenton.

This is the 22-year-old’s third organization in as many months. Aquino was obtained by the Blue Jays in a February trade after he was designated by the Rockies. Per Baseball America, Aquino has been ranked among Colorado’s top 30 prospects three times topping out at 9th following the 2012 season, but falling to 28th last offseason. Baseball America notes in its scouting report Aquino possesses a plus changeup and an average slider, but poor fastball command and becomes emotional on the mound when the strike zone isn’t to his liking.

In five starts for Toronto’s Class A-Advanced affiliate, Aquino has thrown 25 2/3 innings posting a 2.81 ERA, 5.6 K/9, and 2.1 BB/9.

 

Blue Jays Designate Preston Guilmet For Assignment

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The Blue Jays announced that they have designated Preston Guilmet for assignment. The right-hander has been removed from the 40-man roster in order to help make room for infielder/outfielder Steve Tolleson.

Guilmet, 28 in July, pitched 10 1/3 innings out of the Orioles’ bullpen in 2014, allowing six runs on eight hits with 12 strikeouts against two walks. The former ninth-round pick has a nice track record at Triple-A and notched a 3.91 ERA there in 2014 with an impressive 10.1 K/9 against just 1.9 BB/9. This season, Guilmet pitched to a 1.26 ERA with 7.5 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 in ten appearances for Triple-A Buffalo.

Minor Moves: Beck, Constanza, Pineiro, Nelson

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Here are today’s minor moves from around the game.

  • The White Sox have announced that they’ve selected the contract of righty Chris Beck to be the 26th man for the second game of their doubleheader today. Beck, 24, has made his way through the minors with few strikeouts but strong control, posting 5.4 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 since the White Sox drafted him in the second round in 2012. This season, he had a 4.78 ERA with 6.2 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9 in 26 1/3 innings with Triple-A Charlotte.
  • The Reds have signed outfielder Jose Constanza to a minor-league deal, according to MLB.com’s transactions page. The 31-year-old Constanza collected 240 plate appearances with the Braves from 2011 through 2014, batting .273/.316/.323. He spent most of last season with Triple-A Gwinnett. The Braves released him last month.
  • The Blue Jays have signed veteran starter Joel Pineiro to a minor-league deal and assigned him to Double-A New Hampshire, Jays broadcaster Mike Wilner tweets. Pineiro, 36, last pitched in the big leagues with the Angels in 2011. He pitched briefly in the Cubs and Angels systems in a comeback bid last season, then pitched winter ball in Puerto Rico.
  • The Brewers will sign infielder Chris Nelson to a minor-league deal, according to SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (Twitter links). The Phillies recently released Nelson from their minor-league deal with him. The five-year veteran played briefly with the Padres in 2014. The former first-round pick has a career line of .265/.311/.388, with many of his at-bats coming in hitter-friendly Coors Field.
  • The Padres have outrighted catcher Wil Nieves to Triple-A El Paso, according to the MLB.com transactions page. The Padres designated Nieves for assignment earlier this week to make room for top prospect Austin Hedges. It’s unclear whether Nieves will accept his outright assignment or opt for free agency. Nieves appeared in just six games for the Padres this year.
  • The Cubs have outrighted righty Anthony Varvaro, also according to the MLB.com transactions page. The Cubs recently claimed Varvaro from the Red Sox and then designated him for assignment on Wednesday. He did not appear in a game for them. He pitched in nine games for Boston earlier this season.
  • The Athletics have released outfielder Alex Hassan, according to the Pacific Coast League transactions page. That news might actually come as a relief to Hassan, who had been claimed five times in the past seven months. The A’s designated Hassan for assignment yesterday.
  • The Angels have released corner infielder Ryan Wheeler, via the Pacific Coast League transactions page. They had claimed the 26-year-old from the Rockies last August. Wheeler, who played briefly in the big leagues in 2012, 2013 and 2014, was hitting .291/.304/.418 for Triple-A Salt Lake, although he has a track record of hitting for better power at the Triple-A level.
  • The Rays have announced that they’ve placed Alex Cobb, who’s having Tommy John surgery, on the 60-day DL and selected the contract of 23-year-old righty Andrew Bellatti. Bellatti had struck out 20 batters in 21 1/3 innings at Triple-A Durham this season, posting a 2.11 ERA, pitching as a starter even though he had spent most of the previous three seasons working in relief. As Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times explains, it’s been a strange path to the Majors for Bellatti, a 2009 draft pick who spent a few months in jail for vehicular manslaughter following a 2010 car accident.

Blue Jays Notes: Buehrle, Tolleson, Colabello

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Reports from earlier this season suggested that Blue Jays left-hander Mark Buehrle is contemplating retirement following the season, but the highly durable workhorse tells Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet (Twitter link) that such talk is “kind of ridiculous,” adding that he has yet to make any kind of decision on his future. The 36-year-old Buehrle has struggled in the early stages of the 2015 season as he aims to complete his 15th consecutive 200-inning season.

A few more notes on Major League Baseball’s lone Canadian team…

  • As Shi Davidi of Sportsnet writes, the Blue Jays and infielder Steven Tolleson have circumvented the rule that requires outrighted players to remain in the Minors for 10 days before returning to the big league club. While initial reports stated that Tolleson accepted his outright assignment to Triple-A, Davidi reports that he instead opted for free agency (as all players that have been previously outrighted are allowed to do) and re-signed on a Minor League deal. Because of that, he will be eligible to rejoin the club whenever the Blue Jays decide they need an additional infielder, which could even be this weekend, according to Davidi.
  • Outfielder/first baseman Chris Colabello is healthy this season after quietly suffering through nerve damage in his right thumb following his hot start last season with Minnesota, writes Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com. However, Colabello was battling for playing time after having clawed his way to the Majors from independent ball and didn’t feel a stint on the DL was something he could afford. Medical tests after the season revealed that there was no tear, and a hand specialist told Colabello that some rest would allow the issue to heal, which the 31-year-old said is indeed the case. Colabello has six hits in eight at-bats and has a window for some playing time as both Michael Saunders and Jose Bautista are less than 100 percent, Chisholm notes.
  • Colabello spoke with the Toronto Star’s Mark Zwolinski about his unorthodox path to Major League Baseball and the decision to turn down a $1MM offer to play in Korea because he was unwilling to let his dream of making it to the Majors die. He tells Zwolinski that his time with the Twins has taught him that he can’t worry about the future, because doing so ultimately hurt him. Now, says Colabello, he’s simply living in the moment and soaking up another opportunity to be in the Majors: “Every day on a baseball field is the best day for me.”
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