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Blue Jays Designate Rafael Dolis For Assignment

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2:28pm: The Blue Jays have now formally announced each of the moves.

1:25pm: The Blue Jays are expected to designate right-hander Rafael Dolis for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for infielder/outfielder Kevin Smith to be selected to the 40-man and 26-man rosters, Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith reports (via Twitter). The Jays won’t formally announce the move until they’re certain tonight’s game will not be rained out, tweets Gregor Chisholm of the Toronto Star. Toronto is also expected to place rookie right-hander Alek Manoah on the bereavement list and reinstate southpaw Tim Mayza from the 10-day IL, Nicholson-Smith adds.

Dolis, 33, returned to the big leagues with the Jays in 2020 after a strong four-year run in Japan and posted a 1.50 ERA in 24 frames. However, he did so with a concerning 14.3 percent walk rate, and fielding-independent metrics were understandably less bullish than that bottom-line earned run average. Things have indeed gone the other direction for Dolis in 2021, as his walk rate has spiked to an even less tenable 17.3 percent and his strong 31 percent strikeout rate has dipped to 25 percent.

In 32 frames this season, Dolis has been tagged for a 5.63 ERA. He’s plunked three hitters and tossed four wild pitches in addition to a sky-high 27 walks through those 32 innings of relief. The right-hander’s fastball velocity is up to an average of 94.8 mph on average, but his control issues have proven to troublesome for the Jays. That’s been particularly true of late, as Dolis has totaled just one inning across his past three outings, yielding a total of five runs on six hits and five walks in that time.

Dolis is playing the 2021 season on a reasonable $1.5MM salary, so it’s not out of the question that a team would place a speculative claim when he hits waivers. He’s still owed about $371K of that base salary for the remainder of the season, though the contract also contains some performance incentives, which are generally tied to games pitched, total innings and/or games finished.

Turning to the 26-year-old Smith, he’ll make his big league debut the first time he takes the field. Baseball America ranked him as the game’s No. 91 prospect a couple years back in the 2018-19 offseason, and while his stock has dipped to an extent since that time, Smith has had a terrific season with the Jays’ Triple-A club — his first time reaching that level. Through his first 352 Triple-A plate appearances he’s notched a .286/.371/.576 batting line with 19 home runs, 23 doubles, four triples and 16 stolen bases.

The versatile Smith has spent the bulk of his time this season at shortstop but has also seen action at third base and in both outfield corners. He’s also seen time at second base as recently as 2019 and even made a pair of appearances at first base back in his college days at the University of Maryland, although that was way back in 2015. He’ll give the Jays a right-handed bat off the bench to bounce around the diamond and, along with fellow big league newcomer Otto Lopez, is a candidate to step into a utility role for the Jays for years to come.

Orioles Claim Zack Burdi

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The Orioles have claimed right-hander Zack Burdi off waivers from the White Sox and designated lefty Ryan Hartman for assignment, per a team announcement. Burdi, 26, had been designated for assignment by the White Sox earlier this week. Baltimore has optioned him to Triple-A Norfolk for the time being.

The 26-year-old Burdi was the White Sox’ first-round pick out of Louisville back in 2016. The younger brother of former Twins top prospect Nick Burdi, Zack was viewed as a potential late-inning powerhouse (as was his brother) when the Sox tabbed him with the 26th overall pick. Unfortunately for both Burdi brothers, injuries have severely impacted their development. Zack had Tommy John surgery in 2018 and has also missed time due to a torn tendon in his knee.

Even though it’s been more than five years since he was drafted, injuries have limited Burdi to just 141 1/3 innings between the minors and the big leagues. He’s tossed just 16 1/3 of those frames in the Majors and allowed 15 runs in that time. His minor league numbers aren’t overwhelmingly better; he’s worked to a 4.90 ERA across five levels, including a 4.74 mark in 74 Triple-A frames.

That said, it’s also not hard to see why a club in the Orioles’ position would be intrigued by Burdi. He’s still just 26 years old, isn’t far removed from being considered one of the game’s more promising bullpen prospects, and his power arsenal is still tantalizing. Burdi averaged a whopping 98 mph on his fastball in 2020 and 96 mph in 2021, and he’s fanned 29.9 percent of the opponents he’s faced as a professional. The Orioles have a number of bullpen-only arms on their 40-man roster, and while Burdi is something of a project, he also comes with a good bit more upside than most of those other bullpen prospects. Baltimore has lost 13 straight to drop to MLB’s worst club, but in the process, they’ve moved to the top priority on leaguewide waiver claims.

Hartman, 27, made his big league debut with the Astros earlier this season but has still pitched just 2 1/3 innings at the MLB level. He’s allowed a run on three hits and no walks with two punchouts in that time. Baltimore claimed him off waivers on the day of the trade deadline, but it could be a brief stay in the organization. He’s allowed four runs in 2 1/3 Triple-A frames since being claimed and, for the season, carries an ugly 5.40 ERA in 65 Triple-A innings.

Hartman does have strong numbers up through the Double-A level and quality strikeout-to-walk numbers this season, so it’s possible another club will want to take a look once he hits waivers. He’s in the first of three option years, so anyone who picks him up could keep him as a flexible depth option for the foreseeable future.

Rays Designate Chris Ellis For Assignment

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The Rays have designated right-hander Chris Ellis for assignment, per a club announcement. His spot on the 26-man and 40-man rosters will go to lefty Ryan Yarbrough, who has been reinstated from the Covid-19-related injured list.

It’s surely a bitter pill to swallow for Ellis, who was selected to the big league roster just two days ago and promptly pitched four brilliant innings in his lone appearance with the club. The righty picked up his first big league win in yesterday’s game when he tossed the final four innings of the game and held Baltimore scoreless on three hits and a walk with seven strikeouts.

That said, Ellis has had a rough go of it in Triple-A this year, which made his promotion to the big league roster look likely to be a short-term stint. In 15 appearances (13 starts) with the Rays’ top affiliate in Durham, Ellis has posted a 6.32 ERA with slightly below-average strikeout and walk rates. He’s also served up 14 home runs in just 57 innings of work thus far in Triple-A.

Ellis, now 28 years old, had a strong Triple-A season in 2018 but has been hit hard both in 2019 and 2020 at that level. Still, he’s a former third-round pick (Angels, 2014) who has been well-regarded enough to be included in a pair of trades involving notable big leaguers — Andrelton Simmons and  Jaime Garcia — and was a Rule 5 Draft pick as recently as the 2018-19 offseason. The Rays will now place him on outright waivers or release waivers, giving all 29 other clubs the opportunity to claim him.

Cubs Select Adrian Sampson, Designate Johneshwy Fargas

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The Cubs have selected the contract of right-hander Adrian Sampson from Triple-A Iowa and designated outfielder Johneshwy Fargas for assignment in a corresponding move, per a club announcement.

Sampson, 29, will be returning to the Majors for the first time since 2019. He’s spent parts of three seasons in the big leagues between the Mariners and Rangers but struggled to a 5.71 ERA in that time. He spent the 2020 season with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Lotte Giants and racked up 130 innings in their rotation, albeit with a lackluster 5.30 ERA in that time.

Sampson has been far from dominant in Iowa this year, but he’s carrying a 4.12 ERA over his past 10 starts — a span of 55 2/3 innings. That includes a seven-run meltdown on Aug. 7, but he’s been largely solid for the better part of two months outside of that hiccup. He’ll give the Cubs a fresh arm to start with Adbert Alzolay hitting the 10-day injured list due to a blister issue.

Fargas, 26, was claimed off waivers earlier in the summer and has gone 7-for-26 in his limited time with the team. He’s hitting .277/.292/.426 through 49 plate appearances this year between the Cubs and the Mets — the first big league action of his career. The longtime Giants minor leaguer is a career .255/.331./346 hitter in parts of eight minor league seasons, but he possesses well above-average speed — as evidenced by 248 minor league steals — and can play all three outfield spots. The Cubs will place him on outright or release waivers in the coming days.

Twins Designate Nick Vincent For Assignment

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The Twins announced Wednesday morning that they’ve designated veteran right-hander Nick Vincent for assignment. The move opens a spot on the active roster for left-hander Lewis Thorpe, who has been recalled from Triple-A St. Paul to start today’s game.

Vincent, 35, appeared in just two games for Minnesota but pitched quite well, holding opponents to a run on four hits and a walk with four strikeouts in that limited action. Prior to his selection to Minnesota’s big league roster, he split the 2021 season with the Triple-A affiliates of the Twins and Rangers, pitching to a combined 4.19 ERA with very strong strikeout and walk rates of 29.3 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively.

Minnesota was the sixth big league organization for which the increasingly well-traveled Vincent has pitched. The soft-tossing righty continues to bounce around the league despite enjoying fairly consistent success. He’s never posted a single-season ERA higher than last year’s 4.43 mark, and he’s posted strong strikeout-to-walk numbers throughout his career. Vincent averaged just 88.8 mph on his fastball in his brief time with the Twins, although that’s not exactly a new or notable decline in his velocity. He’s never averaged even 91 mph on his heater in a given season and hasn’t cracked a 90 mph average since 2017 — but he’s nevertheless had success along the way.

A fly-ball pitcher who averages around 89 mph on his heater is something of an oddball in today’s velocity-driven game, however, so Vincent will now head to either outright waivers or release waivers in the coming days, giving the other 29 clubs around the league a chance to pick him up. In 403 1/3 career innings, he carries a 3.37 ERA with a 24.2 percent strikeout rate and a 6.1 percent walk rate.

Thorpe, 25, has seen action in parts of three seasons with the Twins. The Australian southpaw was once a highly touted prospect within the system but has had his career slowed by injuries, most notably Tommy John surgery. He’s tossed 14 innings of 3.86 ERA ball in Minnesota this season but did so with career-low velocity and a perilously low 8.6 percent strikeout rate. Thorpe missed a good chunk of the minor league season on the injured list due to a shoulder strain and only recently returned to the team’s Triple-A club. He’s tossed a 8 1/3 innings since that return, allowing a pair of runs on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts while stretching back out to 65 pitches in his most recent outing.

David Hess Elects Free Agency

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Marlins right-hander David Hess has rejected an outright assignment following his recent DFA and elected free agency, as first reported by Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link).

Hess, 28, spent seven seasons in the Orioles organization after being selected in the fifth round of the 2014 draft. He debuted with Baltimore in 2018 and was an up-and-down member of their staff over the next three seasons, pitching to a 5.86 ERA through 190 1/3 innings.

The Orioles removed Hess from the 40-man roster after those struggles, and he quickly signed with the Rays as a minor league free agent last winter. A strong minor league start with Tampa Bay’s top affiliate this season — 32 innings, 2.81 ERA, 28.9 percent strikeout rate, 3.9 percent walk rate — led the Marlins to acquire Hess in a trade that sent minor league righty Justin Sterner to the Rays. Hess was immediately selected to the MLB roster and started out well in Miami, pitching to a 3.94 ERA with a 15-to-8 K/BB ratio through his first 16 innings. However, Hess yielded seven runs in one inning during a disastrous outing at Coors Field and ultimately finished his time with the Marlins with an 8.00 ERA through 18 frames, owing largely to that rough evening in Colorado.

While Hess has yet to find consistent big league success, he has a solid track record in the upper minors, having pitched to a 3.55 ERA with a 26 percent strikeout rate and a similarly strong 7.3 percent walk rate. He’s worked primarily out of the bullpen in recent years, although he did make a four-inning appearance with Miami earlier this year. With a solid Triple-A track record and virtually every club on the hunt for pitching depth, Hess ought to find another opportunity on a minor league deal before too long.

Yankees, Nick Goody Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees are in agreement to bring right-hander Nick Goody back to the organization on a minor league contract, reports Conor Foley of the Scranton Times-Tribune (Twitter link). He’ll head back to Triple-A Scranton Wilkes-Barre for the time being.

Goody, 30, opened the season with the Yankees on a minor league deal and pitched quite well for their top affiliate in Scranton, logging 22 innings of 2.86 ERA ball with a massive 36.5 percent strikeout rate against just an 8.2 percent walk rate. Goody exercised an early July opt-out clause in that deal, however, and the Yankees elected to let him become a free agent rather than add him to the MLB roster at the time. He went on to sign with the Nationals but didn’t fare as well with their Triple-A club in Rochester; in 14 innings there, Goody yielded eight runs on 13 hits and seven walks with 13 strikeouts (5.40 ERA).

Originally a sixth-round pick by the Yankees back in 2012, Goody made his big league debut with them back in 2015. He was traded to the Indians in a 2016 deal that netted minor league reliever Yoiber Marquina, and he went on to enjoy a solid three-year run in Cleveland from 2017-19: 107 innings, 3.53 ERA, 29.6 percent strikeout rate, 10.4 percent walk rate. After going to the Rangers via waivers in the 2019-20 offseason, Goody was hit hard in the 2020 season, yielding 11 runs on 14 hits and eight walks with 13 punchouts through 11 innings.

Now back with the Yankees, Goody will provide some depth to a bullpen that has a different composition than when he left the organization. In the six weeks since that time, the Yankees have lost Darren O’Day to a season-ending hamstring injury; traded Luis Cessa and Justin Wilson; and acquired both Clay Holmes and Joely Rodriguez in separate deals. They’re also currently without closer Aroldis Chapman, who has been on the injured list since Aug. 7 owing to elbow inflammation.

Giants Select Tyler Chatwood

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The Giants announced Tuesday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran right-hander Tyler Chatwood. San Francisco optioned righty Jay Jackson to Triple-A Sacramento to clear a spot on the active roster, and right-hander Tyler Beede was recalled from Triple-A and placed on the 60-day injured list with a lower back strain.

Chatwood, 31, was released by the Blue Jays on July 31 and signed with San Francisco on a minor league pact later that week. He’s tossed 5 2/3 shutout frames with the Giant’s Sacramento affiliate since joining the organization.

Signed by the Blue Jays to a one-year, $3MM deal over the winter, Chatwood moved to the bullpen on a full-time basis this season and got out to a brilliant start with the Jays. He missed a couple weeks early on due to some triceps inflammation, but through his first 17 innings out of the bullpen, Chatwood yielded just one run on eight hits and five walks with 24 strikeouts. Things quickly went south, however.

Over his next four appearances, Chatwood pitched just 3 1/3 innings, walked nine batters and served up a whopping 11 runs. That disastrous stretch ballooned his ERA from 0.53 all the way to 5.31. He righted the ship for much of June, lowering his ERA to 4.00 with a string of scoreless outings. But in what would be his final two appearances with the Blue Jays, Chatwood again lost his ability to locate the ball, issuing four walks and yielding a combined five runs in just an inning of work. He was placed on the injured list with a neck strain and, upon returning, was designated for assignment and released.

The Giants will obviously be hoping to get the early version of Chatwood in what has been a Jekyll-and-Hyde season for the veteran righty. Chatwood has only been scored upon in six of his 30 outings this season, but he’s surrendered runs in bunches — including individual appearances in which he’s yielded four and five runs apiece. Command issues aren’t exactly anything new for the longtime Rockies hurler, as evidenced by his 12.1 percent walk rate, but Chatwood’s uptick in his strikeout rates over the past few years surely piqued the interest of not only the Jays but also the Giants.

Brewers Sign David Dahl To Minor League Deal

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The Brewers have signed free-agent outfielder David Dahl to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A, tweets Will Sammon of The Athletic. They’ve also released infielder Kevin Kramer from their Nashville roster.

The 27-year-old Dahl was a first-round pick and longtime top prospect with the Rockies. After debuting as a 21-year-old back in 2016 and hitting the ground running with a .315/.359/.500 slash in 237 plate appearances, Dahl looked like a potential building block for the Rox.

However, Dahl came to the Majors with an injury history of note. He suffered a lacerated spleen during an outfield collision in the minor leagues and had an emergency splenectomy, and since his big league debut he’s incurred a stress reaction in rib cage, a broken foot, a lower back strain, a high ankle sprain and a right shoulder strain — all over the course of about four years.

Dahl spent the 2017 season on the injured list but returned to enjoy productive 2018-19 campaigns. The 2020 season was a disaster, however, as he posted a .183/.222/.247 batting line in 99 plate appearances with the Rockies, who somewhat surprisingly non-tendered him in the offseason. The Rangers swooped in to add Dahl on a one-year deal worth a guaranteed $2.7MM, but he looked nowhere near the 2016-19 version of himself; in 220 plate appearances this season, Dahl has batted only .210/.247/.322.

Texas designated Dahl for assignment earlier this month, and no team saw fit to claim the remainder of his $2.7MM salary on outright waivers. Dahl rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency, and he’ll now join the Brewers in hopes of finding another big league opportunity with a third organization. Milwaukee would only owe Dahl the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster — if he’s called up at all before season’s end.

Kramer, 27, came to the Brewers via a July 4 swap that sent lefty Nathan Kirby to the Pirates. It was an intra-division swap of two formerly high-profile draft prospects who simply haven’t panned out as their organizations had hoped. Kramer improved upon the woeful numbers he’d posted with the Bucs’ top minor league affiliate in what will go down as a brief run with the Brewers’ Nashville affiliate, but his output was still below average overall. In 66 plate appearances with Triple-A Nashville, Kramer hit .245/.379/.321.

Brewers Designate Kyle Lobstein For Assignment

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The Brewers have designated left-hander Kyle Lobstein for assignment in order to open a roster spot for infielder Keston Hiura, per a club announcement. Hiura has been formally reinstated from the Covid-19-related injured list and will be active on the Brewers’ Triple-A Nashville roster.

Lobstein, 32, came to Milwaukee in a minor mid-July swap that sent cash back to the Nationals, who’d designated him for assignment. The former Tigers and Pirates hurler made his return to the big leagues earlier this season with Washington after a five-year absence, but he appeared in just three games, yielding three runs in 1 1/3 innings.

With the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate, Lobstein pitched quite well, compiling a 1.69 ERA with a very strong 29.8 percent strikeout rate, a 9.5 percent walk rate and an elite 69.4 percent ground-ball rate. Things didn’t go as well with Milwaukee’s top affiliate in Nashville, however, as Lobstein has been tagged for 5.40 ERA with nine strikeouts, four walks, three hit batters and a diminished 52.1 percent grounder rate in 13 1/3 innings.

In 129 1/3 Major League innings overall, Lobstein carries a 5.22 ERA with a 13.3 percent strikeout rate, an 8.9 percent walk rate and a 49.8 percent ground-ball rate, although his improved strikeout numbers in the minors in recent years suggest he’s made some changes from earlier in his career when he was struggling as a starter in Detroit. The Brewers will have a week to place him on outright waivers or release him now that the trade deadline has passed.

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