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Marlins Select Deven Marrero, Shawn Morimando

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The Marlins are selecting infielder Deven Marrero and left-hander Shawn Morimando to the big league roster, relays Christina de Nicola of MLB.com (Twitter link). Second baseman Jazz Chisholm is landing on the COVID-19 injured list. Chisholm has been suffering from virus-like symptoms and stayed behind in Denver, where the Fish just wrapped up a series against the Rockies.

Both Marrero and Morminado have been yo-yoed on and off the roster this season. Miami has rather remarkably selected Marrero’s contract four times, designating him for assignment and passing him through outright waivers shortly after each of his first three calls. Most recently, Marrero was selected and DFA’d just last week — incidentally while Chisholm was on the COVID-19 IL for a day after not feeling well. The 30-year-old has only picked up seven plate appearances over his various big league stints; he’s hitting .252/.327/.397 this year with Triple-A Jacksonville.

Morimando is up for the third time. He’s made two appearances, allowing four runs in just two-thirds of an inning against the Phillies on May 24 but tossing five scoreless frames against the Braves on July 9. The 28-year-old has a 4.43 ERA over 63 innings with Jacksonville this season.

Diamondbacks Release Josh Reddick

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The Diamondbacks announced they’ve released veteran outfielder Josh Reddick. He had been designated for assignment last week.

A release was the anticipated outcome once Arizona bumped Reddick from the 40-man roster. The 34-year-old has more than enough big league service to reject an outright assignment, and the rebuilding Diamondbacks are long past focusing on the 2021 season. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic wrote last week that Reddick’s designation was part of a broader organizational plan to give some more run to younger players as the front office looks for more information about who could comprise their core in future years.

Upon clearing release waivers, Reddick will be free to sign elsewhere. He’ll presumably be looking at minor league offers, as he settled for a minors pact over the offseason before being selected to Arizona’s big league club in late May. He struggled to the worst offensive showing of his career — .258/.285/.371 over 158 plate appearances — in the desert.

Nevertheless, Reddick figures to find decent interest from other clubs willing to offer him a Triple-A opportunity. The left-handed hitter has generally been a productive player over the course of his career, and he posted league average offensive numbers between 2018-20. If Reddick signs elsewhere on or before August 31, he’d be eligible for a new team’s postseason roster.

Yankees Place Gleyber Torres On Injured List

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5:12 pm: The Yankees were relieved by the MRI results on Torres, according to Boone, who estimates the shortstop could be back within 10-20 days (via Marly Rivera of ESPN). Urshela, though, suffered some form of setback that’ll push back his expected return date for at least a few days (relays Lindsey Adler of the Athletic).

3:15 pm: The Yankees announced they’re placing shortstop Gleyber Torres on the 10-day injured list with a left thumb sprain. Utilityman Andrew Velazquez has been selected to the roster in a corresponding move.

Torres suffered the injury diving into the second base bag during the fourth inning of yesterday’s game against the Mariners. He stayed in for a few frames before being removed for a defensive replacement in the top of the ninth. Torres was sent for an MRI after the game, with manager Aaron Boone acknowledging the team had some concern it was a noteworthy issue. There’s no indication at this point that Torres will have to miss anything beyond the ten day minimum, but the injury is apparently severe enough for the organization to shut him down for the next week-plus.

It comes at an unfortunate time for Torres, who had heated up at the plate over the past couple weeks after a subpar first half. Altogether, the 24-year-old has a .253/.328/.351 mark with six home runs across 407 plate appearances this season. Torres’ power production has largely evaporated over the past couple years, but he’d shown signs of life coming out of the All-Star Break. Torres has popped three home runs and hit .300/.337/.500 over his past 90 plate appearances.

With Torres landing on the IL, the Yankees rather incredibly have twenty players on the injured list at the moment. A few of those players figure to return in the coming days after testing positive for COVID-19, but New York will have to make due for now without lineup regulars such as Torres, Gio Urshela, Gary Sánchez and Anthony Rizzo — as well as key starters Gerrit Cole and Jordan Montgomery. It’s particularly poor fortune for a Yankee club 2.5 games back of the Red Sox for the American League’s final playoff spot.

Torres, Urshela and Tyler Wade are the only players to see action at shortstop for the Yankees this season. It now seems Wade and the switch-hitting Velazquez could cover the position. Velazquez, signed to a minor league deal over the offseason, has a .156/.257/.219 line in 113 big league plate appearances between 2018-20. He’s had a very strong season at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, though, slashing .283/.367/.471 while logging significant action at each of shortstop, second and third base.

Indians Select Francisco Perez

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The Indians announced this afternoon they’ve selected the contract of left-hander Francisco Pérez. First baseman Bobby Bradley is landing on the 10-day injured list after missing the club’s past few games with a left knee injury. Cleveland already had two vacancies on the 40-man roster, so no additional move was needed in that regard.

Pérez is in line to make his big league debut after spending seven years in the minors. He signed as an amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic during the 2014-15 international signing period and has spent his entire career in the Indians organization. Pérez began his career as a starting pitcher but has worked exclusively out of the bullpen this season.

While Pérez has never appeared on an organizational top prospects list at Baseball America or FanGraphs, he’s been nothing short of dominant in the high minors this year. The 24-year-old has worked 45 1/3 innings of 1.19 ERA ball split between Double-A Akron and Triple-A Columbus. Along the way, Pérez has punched out a whopping 40% of batters faced, although he has walked an elevated 11.7% of opponents. That’s a new development for Pérez, who had posted average or better walk rates at every level until this season.

White Sox Activate Luis Robert, Release Luis Gonzalez

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The White Sox announced Monday that they’ve reinstated center fielder Luis Robert from the 60-day injured list. Outfielder/first baseman Gavin Sheets was optioned to Triple-A Charlotte in order to open a spot on the active roster. Minor league outfielder Luis Gonzalez was released in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster.

Gonzalez’s release may initially surprise some fans, given his standing as one of the organization’s 10 to 20 best prospects over the past few years, but he’s slated to undergo season-ending shoulder surgery, James Fegan of The Athletic tweets. Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, so the team’s only recourse was to either release Gonzalez or add him to the MLB roster and place him on the Major League 60-day injured list. The Sox will opt for the former path and presumably look to re-sign him to a new minor league contract, as is fairly common in these instances.

As for the dynamic Robert, he’ll return after missing more than three months due to a Grade 3 hip flexor sustained back in early May. The injury initially called for a rehab period of 12 to 16 weeks, and he’ll return on the shorter end of that timetable. Robert appeared in a dozen minor league rehab games — four in Class-A Advanced and eight in Triple-A — and notched a combined .268/.388/.390.

Robert, 24, won a Gold Glove and finished second to Kyle Lewis in American League Rookie of the Year voting. He’s played in 81 big league games to this point in his young career, batting .259/.320/.444 with 12 home runs, 17 doubles, a triple and 13 steals (in 16 attempts). Strikeouts have been an issue (30.6 percent), but Robert has been regarded as an elite prospect since he left Cuba and signed with the Sox for a $26MM bonus (that came with a $26MM overage penalty for Chicago, whose bonus pool was just north of $2.9MM at that point). He then inked a six-year, $50MM contract extension with a pair of club options before even suiting up for his first big league game.

The White Sox lost both Robert and Eloy Jimenez early in the 2021 season, but they’ve nevertheless been able to steamroll a feeble American League Central, building a 10.5-game lead  over the second-place Indians as of this writing. With Robert and Jimenez now back from injury and Craig Kimbrel at the back of the bullpen, the South Siders are as strong as they’ve been at any point this season. The division title has long looked like a foregone conclusion, but the return of their promising young outfielders and a few key deadline pickups have better positioned the Sox as a postseason threat.

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/8/21

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The latest minor league moves from around the sport…

  • The Orioles outrighted Pat Valaika to Triple-A after the infielder cleared waivers and accepted the move off the 40-man roster.  Baltimore designated Valaika for assignment earlier this week.  Now in his second season with the O’s, Valaika has seen quite a bit of action in a reserve role, and had most recently been getting starts at second base since Ramon Urias was moved over to shortstop.  Known more for his defensive versatility than his bat over his six MLB seasons with the Rockies and Orioles, Valaika showed some pop in 2020 but is hitting only .192/.251/.280 over 212 plate appearances this year.

Tigers Extend Jonathan Schoop

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The Tigers announced that infielder Jonathan Schoop has signed to a two-year contract extension.  Schoop has been scheduled to hit free agency this winter, but will now remain in the Motor City through the 2023 season.  The 29-year-old will earn $7.5MM in each of those two additional seasons for a total of $15MM in guaranteed money, and Schoop can also opt out of the deal following the 2022 campaign.  Schoop is represented by The Boras Corporation.

Schoop is in the midst of his second season in Detroit, having signed one-year free agent deals (for $6.1MM in 2020 and $4.5MM this year) in each of the last two offseasons.  Considering the Tigers have been rebuilding, Schoop seemed like a logical candidate to be dealt at either of the last two trade deadlines, but the team has instead pivoted and decided to retain Schoop as a building block.

In a statement released by the club, Tigers GM Al Avila described Schoop as “a constant professional since joining our clubhouse, and is the exact type of player we want to wear the Olde English ’D’.  His production on the field matches the value of his leadership with all of our players, and we’re looking forward to that contribution continuing for the next few seasons.  This is a big step towards bringing winning baseball back for our fans, and we know Jonathan will be a big part of that.”

The opt-out clause gives Schoop some flexibility, and he’ll only be turning 31 years old in October 2022.  If he keeps up his current numbers through next year, it seems quite possible that he’ll exercise that opt-out clause in search of a longer-term deal with the Tigers or another team.

Schoop has hit .286/.331/.470 with 26 home runs over 633 plate appearances and 151 games with the Tigers — solidly above-average (116 wRC+, 123 OPS+) production over essentially the equivalent of a full season.  After playing only second base in 2020, Schoop has seen more action as the regular first baseman this year, so Detroit has some flexibility in how it wishes to deploy Schoop in 2022 and beyond.

While there isn’t huge money involved, there is certainly a symbolic element to Schoop’s deal, as it marks the first extension for the Tigers since J.D. Martinez was inked to a two-year deal (buying out his remaining arbitration years) way back in February 2016.  As Avila’s statement indicates, the Tigers believe they are close to ending their rebuild, and even this season’s results bear some promise.  After a brutal 9-24 start to the 2021 campaign, Detroit has a very solid 44-35 record since, giving the club a shot at its first winning season since 2016.

This success seemed to change the equation for the Tigers, who had a pretty quiet trade deadline and seemed more inclined to see how far they could get with the current roster, in order to give their young core a taste of winning.  Since team president/CEO Christopher Ilitch recently suggested the team might raise payroll and look to add “high-impact players,” the 2021-22 offseason looks to be Detroit’s most exciting winter in quite some time, since the team conceivably has the payroll space to make multiple significant additions.  Schoop, Robbie Grossman, and Miguel Cabrera are the only players signed through the 2022 season, representing $44.5MM in salary.

Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link) was the first to report on the contract’s $15MM value, and the opt-out clause after the 2022 season.  Chris McCosky of The Detroit News. had the breakdown of Schoop’s annual salaries in each of the two seasons.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Giants Sign Tyler Chatwood, Matt Shoemaker To Minors Contracts

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The Giants have signed right-handers Tyler Chatwood and Matt Shoemaker to minor league contracts.  MLB.com’s official transactions page was the first to report the Chatwood deal, while the Shoemaker news actually came from Evan Longoria, who mentioned Shoemaker had joined the Triple-A team during an interview with Sean Cunningham of KXTV Sacramento.  Both hurlers were released within the last week, with the Blue Jays letting go of Chatwood and the Twins parting ways with Shoemaker.

Chatwood signed a one-year, $3MM free agent deal with Toronto this past offseason, and was initially a tremendous help for an otherwise injury-riddled Jays bullpen.  After allowing just one run in his first 17 innings of work, however, Chatwood was then scorched for 11 runs over his next four outings and 3 1/3 innings.  Another decent stretch followed, but two more rough performances on June 25 and July 1 closed the book on his tenure with the Blue Jays, as a neck strain went Chatwood to the injured list for much of July.

Shoemaker had a similar tale, as a one-year, $2MM free agent contract with Minnesota resulted in an ugly 8.06 ERA over 60 1/3 innings.  His 14.1% strikeout rate was near the bottom of the league and down dramatically from his previous 21.8% career average, while Shoemaker’s 9.5% walk rate was also subpar.  Shoemaker started his first 11 games and a move to the bullpen didn’t help, as he allowed eight runs in 2 2/3 innings of relief work on June 30, in his final appearance as a Twin.

The Giants have recently displayed a knack for reviving veteran pitchers, so it isn’t out of the question that Chatwood or Shoemaker could yet provide some quality work for the team before the 2021 season is out.  Since the Jays and Twins are on the hook for the rest of the two right-handers’ MLB salaries, San Francisco only owes the prorated portion of the Major League minimum salary to Chatwood or Shoemaker if they get called up to the big league roster.

Red Sox Sign Jose De Leon To Minors Contract

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The Red Sox signed right-hander Jose De Leon to a minor league deal earlier this week, as the right-hander announced himself on his Twitter feed.  De Leon was designated for assignment and then released by the Reds two weeks ago.

SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson tweets that the Pirates and Blue Jays also showed interest in De Leon’s services, and it isn’t surprising that multiple teams looked into taking a flier on the righty considering his past status as one of the game’s top pitching prospects.  Unfortunately for De Leon, his development was hampered by a Tommy John surgery that cost him the entire 2018 season, not to mention other injuries.

As a result, De Leon has only 48 Major League innings on his career resume since making his big league debut in September 2016.  De Leon has an unimpressive 8.44 ERA over his brief time in the majors, including an 8.35 ERA over 18 1/3 frames with Cincinnati in 2021.  Control (14.5% walk rate) has been a significant issue, though De Leon is missing a lot of bats with a 27.7% strikeout rate.

Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom is no stranger to De Leon, as Bloom was working in the Rays’ front office when Tampa Bay acquired the right-hander from the Dodgers back in January 2017.  There’s no risk for the Sox in seeing if their minor league development staff can sharpen up De Leon’s control and turn him into a real bullpen weapon, considering his obvious strikeout ability.

Dodgers Sign Tony Wolters To Minors Contract

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The Dodgers have signed catcher Tony Wolters to a minor league deal, J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group reports (via Twitter).  Wolters is expected to report to the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate.

Wolters had been playing in the Cubs’ farm system on another minor league deal, but the catcher was released earlier this week.  Since Chicago had previously outrighted Wolters off the 40-man roster twice this season, it was apparent he wasn’t in the team’s plans, especially when Wolters wasn’t recalled even after multiple other Cubs catchers went down to injury.

The 29-year-old will now get another shot in the NL West, as Wolters began his career by playing with the Rockies from 2016-20.  Between that action and his 14 games with the Cubs this season, Wolters hasn’t done much at the plate (.236/.322/.315 in 1262 career plate appearances) but he is a well-regarded defensive catcher.  Wolters and fellow veteran Tim Federowicz will provide some Triple-A depth behind the Dodgers’ established catching combo of Will Smith and Austin Barnes.

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