Rangers Outright Spencer Patton To Triple-A
The Rangers announced that right-hander Spencer Patton has been outrighted off the 40-man roster and assigned to Triple-A Round Rock. Patton was designated for assignment earlier this week.
Now in his fifth MLB campaign, Patton has a 3.86 ERA and 52.6% grounder rate over seven innings this season, all in April. He then missed just under three weeks on the injured list due to an oblique strain, and was assigned to Triple-A after his activation.
This is Patton’s second stint in Texas, as the 34-year-old broke into the big leagues with the Rangers in 2014-15. An offseason trade to the Cubs saw Patton contribute 21 1/3 innings of 5.48 ball to the 2016 World Series champs, and that was also Patton’s last Major League experience prior to a four-year stretch in Nippon Professional Baseball. Patton performed well with the Yokohama BayStars, as his 3.68 ERA over 205 2/3 relief innings in Japan caught the attention of big league scouts, and eventually led to the Rangers signing Patton to a split contract in February 2021.
The return to the majors was largely successful, as Patton had a 3.83 ERA, 27.9% strikeout rate, and 8.7% walk rate over 42 1/3 frames with Texas last season. However, Patton has seemingly become an odd man out of the bullpen picture for now, though by passing through the waiver wire unclaimed, he’ll remain in the Rangers organization and wait for another call at some point this summer.
Mariners Place Ty France On 10-Day IL With Flexor Strain
3:47PM: The Mariners have officially announced France’s IL placement, which is retroactive to June 24. Infielder Drew Ellis was called up from Triple-A to take France’s spot on the active roster.
8:45AM: Mariners first baseman Ty France tells Daniel Kramer of MLB.com that he has a Grade 2 flexor strain in his left arm and will be placed on the 10-day injured list.
France was playing first base on Thursday when Sheldon Neuse hit a ground ball that resulted in a close play at the bag. As France reached for the throw, he and Neuse made contact, with Neuse’s body appearing to bend France’s wrist back. France dropped to the ground in obvious pain and left the game.
Losing France will undoubtedly be a blow to the Mariners, as he has been the club’s best hitter over the past two years. Acquired from the Padres in a seven-player deal at the 2020 deadline, France hit .291/.368/.445 last year. That resulted in a 129 wRC+, the highest such mark among qualified Mariners on the year. This season, he’s taken his game to an even higher level, as he’s currently hitting .316/.390/.476, which gives him a 157 wRC+. That’s easily the best mark among qualified hitters on the team and the 11th-best in all of baseball this year.
Subtracting that kind of production would hurt any lineup, but the Mariners will face a particular challenge, given the lack of obvious options to step up and take his place. France has started all but three of Seattle’s game at first base this year, with Abraham Toro getting one and Dylan Moore getting the other two. Toro is having a miserable season, currently sitting on a line of .167/.217/.307. He’s also the team’s utility infielder, being used to give the occasional off-day to players like Adam Frazier and Eugenio Suarez, making him ill-suited to take over everyday action at first. Moore is hitting .170/.342/.330 in a part-time role. Despite the low batting average, his 14.2% walk rate is helping him to a wRC+ of 107, though that might be harder to maintain with full-time at-bats. Evan White, who once seemed like the club’s first baseman of the future, is currently on the 60-day IL. Kramer recently noted that he’s not close to a return and won’t be able to fill in.
Despite an aggressive offseason and high expectations coming into the season, the Mariners are in a tight spot right now. Their 33-39 record places them six games out of a playoff spot as of today. The trade deadline is just over a month away, making the next batch of games very important for teams to determine how aggressive they want to be as the August 2 deadline approaches. The Mariners will now have to navigate at least ten days of that stretch without their best bat.
Daniel Hudson Suffers Season-Ending ACL Injury
TODAY: The Dodgers confirmed that Hudson suffered a torn ACL, and placed the righty on the injured list. Right-hander Mitch White was called up from Triple-A and infielder Hanser Alberto was activated from the paternity list, while outfielder Stefen Romero was designated for assignment.
Romero’s contract was selected earlier this week when Alberto went on the pat list. Unfortunately for Romero, his few days on the L.A. active roster didn’t result in any game time, so Romero still hasn’t officially appeared in an MLB game since the 2016 season. Since last playing with the Mariners in 2016, Romero performed well in five seasons in Japan.
JUNE 24: The Dodgers’ bullpen was dealt a massive blow Friday, as setup man Daniel Hudson was diagnosed with what is very likely a season-ending injury to the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, manager Dave Roberts announced to reporters after tonight’s game (Twitter link via Juan Toribio of MLB.com). Hudson will undergo an additional wave of testing to confirm the diagnosis, but the team believes he’s suffered a tear of the ligament. Hudson sustained the injury when he attempted to field a grounder but instead collapsed at the front of the mound.
Hudson’s loss is a gut-punch for a Dodgers club that will already be without right-hander Blake Treinen until after the All-Star break due to shoulder troubles. Hudson has stepped up and filled Treinen’s role as the team’s top setup option, pitching to a brilliant 2.22 ERA with a 30.9% strikeout rate against a 5.1% walk rate. He’s turned in a career-high 53.2% ground-ball rate as well, due in no small part to throwing his slider at a career-high 42.3% clip. A massive 80 percent of the sliders put into play against Hudson have been grounders so far this year.
The injury is extra difficult for Hudson due to the nature of his contract. The 35-year-old righty inked a one-year, $7MM contract with Los Angeles that contains a $6.5MM club option for the 2023 campaign. Based on how Hudson had pitched in the season’s first few months, that option looked like a lock to be picked up. Now, coming off a major knee injury, that seems considerably less likely. The contract also allowed Hudson to boost the value of that option based on his number of games finished, and with eight already under his belt, he had a decent chance of pumping up that option value a bit.
Even with Treinen out for much of the season, Dodgers relievers have still combined for a 3.40 ERA that ranks ninth in the Majors. They’ve been even better by measure of FIP, ranking third in the game at 3.25 entering play Friday. Nevertheless, with Hudson out of the picture, the Los Angeles bullpen is now primarily composed of inexperienced arms with minimal big league track records.
Righty Evan Phillips has been brilliant in 2022 (1.95 ERA in 27 2/3 innings) but entered the season with a 6.68 ERA in 67 career frames. It’s a similar story with right-hander Yency Almonte. The Dodgers have again received strong results from righty Phil Bickford and lefty Alex Vesia, but each is only his second full big league season. Brusdar Graterol is having a fine season but doesn’t miss bats at the level one might expect for someone with his velocity. Former Cy Young winner David Price has been solid in a relief role this year, and former division rival Reyes Moronta has shown promise as he looks to reestablish himself after a pair of injury-ruined seasons.
That group all leads to multi-time All-Star Craig Kimbrel, who hasn’t gotten the results he or the Dodgers hoped for at the time of the trade that saw the Dodgers and White Sox swap AJ Pollock for Kimbrel. The 34-year-old Kimbrel fired a scoreless inning tonight and boasts a 33.3% strikeout rate against a 10.4% walk rate in 23innings. However, after a strong start to the season, Kimbrel has given up runs in eight of his past 15 appearances. Tonight’s outing dropped his ERA to 4.30, and it should be pointed out that he’s currently plagued by a sky-high .404 average on balls in play (despite a very low 30.9% hard-hit rate). Kimbrel is probably due for some positive regression, but with him in something of a slump and the team’s top two setup options derailed by injury, the bullpen appears more questionable than expected.
Of course, this year’s Aug. 2 trade deadline is still more than five weeks away, so the Dodgers will have no shortage of time to address the issue, should they see fit. And with Walker Buehler, Andrew Heaney and Dustin May all currently on the injured list, the Dodgers could also be on the lookout for rotation reinforcements once the trade market heats up, too.
Reds Claim Michael Papierski Off Waivers From Giants
The Reds announced that they have claimed catcher Michael Papierski off waivers from the Giants and optioned him to Triple-A Louisville. The Reds recently placed Jeff Hoffman on the COVID-related IL, opening up a spot on the 40-man roster for this claim.
Papierski began this season in the Astros organization but went to the Giants in May as part of the Mauricio Dubon trade. A week later, he was selected to the big league roster as Curt Casali was placed on the concussion IL. Once Casali returned a week later, Papierski was optioned back to the minors. When the Giants claimed Yermin Mercedes off waivers from the White Sox recently, Papierski was designated to create room for him.
Papierski got into five MLB games with San Fran but wasn’t able to manage a hit in ten plate appearances. In 40 Triple-A games between the Astros’ and Giants’ organizations, he’s hit .210/.297/.308. That only amounts to a wRC+ of 53, though more encouraging signs can be found in his 10.3% walk rate and 16.4% strikeout rate, both of those being better than average. His .223 BABIP suggests some positive regression could be forthcoming.
Tyler Stephenson, the Reds’ primary catcher, landed on the IL earlier this month with a thumb fracture. He’s yet to even begin a rehab assignment, suggesting he’s not close to a return. Since he’s been gone, the club has been using Aramis Garcia and Chris Okey behind the plate, both of whom currently have a wRC+ below 25. Papierski will head to Louisville to alongside fellow catcher Mark Kolozsvary, to provide the club with some extra catching depth.
Guardians Select Tanner Tully
The Guardians announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Tanner Tully. To create space on the active roster, right-hander Yohan Ramirez was optioned to Columbus. The 40-man roster already had a vacancy, thanks to Oscar Mercado being designated for assignment earlier this week.
This will be Tully’s second stint with the Guardians, though this one will be more official. As the club was dealing with a COVID outbreak in April, Tully was one of several players select to join the team and help fill in. Three days later, he was returned to the minors. As a COVID replacement player, Tully was deemed eligible to be removed from the 40-man roster without first being exposed to waivers.
Tully, 27, was able to make his MLB debut in that short window of time where he was on the roster. He made one appearance, logging two innings with one earned run. He’s been working out of the rotation in Triple-A, starting all 12 of his appearances. He’s thrown 63 2/3 Triple-A innings on the year with a 5.23 ERA. His 14.9% strikeout rate is well below average, but his 3.5% walk rate is quite good. He’ll likely be deployed as a long man out of the bullpen.
Twins Place Trevor Larnach On IL With Core Muscle Strain
The Twins announced that outfielder Trevor Larnach has been placed on the injured list with a core muscle strain. Fellow outfielder Mark Contreras has been recalled to take his place on the active roster.
This is yet another challenge for a Twins team that has seen its outfield and DH mix deal with a number of injuries this season. Alex Kirilloff, Kyle Garlick, Miguel Sano, Luis Arraez and Larnach himself have all missed time on the IL this year. Royce Lewis, blocked at shortstop by Carlos Correa, attempted to quickly convert himself into an outfielder in order to stay in the lineup before he, too, was sidelined by injury.
Larnach has seemed to take a step forward this year. The former first round pick made his MLB debut last year and hit a modest .223/.322/.350 for a wRC+ of 89. He’s added a bit more pop this season, slashing .231/.306/.406 for a 102 wRC+. His 10% walk rate is better than average, but it comes with a 31.7% strikeout rate, which is certainly not ideal.
After seeming to be running away with the AL Central in the season’s early going, the Guardians have caught up and made a race out of it. Cleveland’s .545 winning percentage is just barely ahead of Minnesota’s .542. With Byron Buxton dealing with a knee injury recently, the club may have to use an outfield of Max Kepler, Gilberto Celestino and Nick Gordon for the time being. The club hasn’t provided a timeline on Larnach’s absence.
Angels Designate Juan Lagares For Assignment
Angels outfielder Juan Lagares has been designated for assignment, per an announcement from the team. His spot on the active and 40-man rosters will go to fellow outfielder Monte Harrison, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Salt Lake.
Selected to the big league roster late last month for his second stint with the Halos, Lagares has appeared in 20 games this year but managed only a .183/.210/.250 batting line. While he’s always been a defensive-minded outfielder, Lagares’ production at the plate has taken a major downturn over the past several seasons; dating back to the 2019 campaign, he carries a .222/.267/.341 output in 674 trips to the plate.
The Angels will have a week to trade Lagares, pass him through outright waivers or release him. He’d have the ability to reject an outright assignment to Salt Lake if he clears waivers.
Harrison, 26, once rated as one of the best outfield prospects in all of baseball. One of four players traded from Milwaukee to Miami in the lopsided Christian Yelich blockbuster, he made his MLB debut in 2020 but has yet to make much of an impact in the big leagues, where he’s batted .175/.230/.263 in a tiny sample of 62 plate appearances.
Harrison’s prospect sheen began to fade as he faced mounting strikeout concerns in the upper minors. He’s fanned in a whopping 35.1% of his plate appearances at the Triple-A level, including exactly 35% of his 200 trips to the plate this season. Harrison is only hitting .213/.305/.368 in Salt Lake this season, but he’s nevertheless gone 20-for-23 in stolen base attempts and will bring some speed, defense and a right-handed bat to the Angels’ bench. Scouting reports on Harrison, at his peak, praised his plus raw power, but he’s never topped 21 home runs in a single season.
Cubs Designate Jonathan Villar For Assignment
The Cubs announced Friday that they’ve designated infielder Jonathan Villar for assignment in order to clear a spot on the active and 40-man roster for fellow infielder David Bote, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list.
Villar, 31, signed a one-year, $6MM contract with the Cubs this winter on the heels of a solid showing with the Mets. The versatile switch-hitter produced a .249/.322/.416 batting line in Queens last year (105 wRC+) and carried a .259/.327/.408 overall batting line from 2018-21. However, the 2022 season in Chicago hasn’t gone well at all, as Villar has limped to a career-worst .222/.271/.327 output through his first 166 plate appearances.
Villar’s struggles at the plate stem from a sudden downturn in his ability to do much of anything against fastballs. He entered the 2022 season as a career .251 hitter against fastballs, but he’s seen 231 fastballs this season and posted a disastrous .119/.174/.119 batting line in his 46 plate appearances that have ended with a heater. There’s perhaps some poor luck from a BABIP standpoint (.217), but Villar has also whiffed in 43.5% of those plate appearances and posted a career-worst 18.2% swinging-strike rate against fastballs — so the poor showing can’t be blamed entirely on small samples and batted-ball luck.
The Cubs have used Villar at second base (225 innings), third base (95 innings) and shortstop (17 innings) this season, but defensive metrics are down on him at all three spots. Villar has never rated well as a shortstop, so it’s not a surprise to see sparse usage and poor ratings there. However, he’s generally been a solid enough defender at second base — at least until the 2022 season. In this year’s 225 frames, he’s posted a staggering -7 Defensive Runs Saved mark and received a similarly damning grade from Statcast’s Outs Above Average (-5).
By designating Villar for assignment, the Cubs are effectively eating the roughly $3.4MM of his contract that has yet to be paid out. They’ll remain on the hook for that money unless another team claims Villar off waivers or acquires him in a trade — both of which seem quite unlikely, given the veteran’s struggles at the plate this year. The likeliest outcome is that Villar will be released and become a free agent. At that point, any of the league’s other 29 teams can sign him and owe him only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on their Major League roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the Cubs owe Villar.
Bote, 29, returns to the Cubs after missing the entire season to date while recovering from November shoulder surgery. The infielder separated his shoulder during a game last May, and while the injury didn’t immediately require surgery, it clearly hampered Bote at the plate. In 327 plate appearances, Bote posted a career-worst .199/.276/.330 batting line. The surgery originally came with a projected six-month recovery period, but Bote’s return comes closer to eight months out from the date of the procedure.
It’s been a rough couple of seasons for Bote, who back in 2019 signed a surprising five-year extension that came with a $16MM guarantee. It was something of a head-scratching move for the Cubs even at the time, as Bote was a part-time player who’d posted a .239/.319/.408 batting line as a rookie in 2018. The first year of the contract certainly made it look like a sound investment, as Bote slashed at a .257/.362/.422 rate and was an underrated contributor on a Cubs team that was in contention for much of the year. He’s hit just .200/.285/.353 in 472 plate appearances since that time, however, although the shoulder injury certainly offers some explanation for last year’s struggles, at least.
The Cubs owe Bote $2.5MM this season and will pay him salaries of $4MM and $5.5MM in 2023 and 2024. They also hold a pair of options, the first valued at $7MM and the second at $7.6MM.
Astros Activate Jake Meyers From 60-Day IL, Designate Dillon Thomas
The Astros announced they’ve designated outfielder Dillon Thomas for assignment in order to clear a 40-man roster spot for Jake Meyers, who is back from the 60-day injured list. Houston optioned Jose Siri to Triple-A Sugar Land to clear active roster space for Meyers.
Thomas, 29, went 0-for-2 with a walk and was a hit-by-pitch in four plate appearances during a very brief stint with the ‘Stros. He’s logged just 13 total plate appearances in the Majors, also stepping to the plate nine times as a member of the Mariners a year ago. The 2011 fourth-rounder (Rockies) has split the rest of the 2022 season between the Triple-A affiliates for the Angels and Astros, posting a combined .293/.395/.492 batting line — numbers that generally align with his career .277/.382/.462 output in parts of three seasons at that level. Houston will have a week to trade Thomas, pass him through outright waivers or release him.
Meyers’ return should be a boon for the Astros’ lineup. The 26-year-old made his big league debut in 2021 and impressed with a .260/.323/.438 batting line, six home runs and eight doubles in 163 plate appearances. He also turned in well above-average work in the outfield according to each of Defensive Runs Saved, Ultimate Zone Rating and Outs Above Average.
Were it not for a shoulder injury sustained during last year’s ALDS — one that eventually required surgery after a torn labrum was discovered — Meyers could very well have been the Opening Day center fielder. Time will tell whether he’s able to approximate last year’s solid debut effort, but if he can indeed do so, there’s an opening for the former 13th-rounder to solidify himself as a long-term solution for the Astros alongside Kyle Tucker in the outfield.
For the 26-year-old Siri, the 2022 season has been a struggle. After kicking down the door to the Majors with a .318/.369/.552 batting line in Triple-A last year and subsequently hitting .304/.347/.609 in 49 big league plate appearances, Siri went from minor league signee to a viable big league outfield option. Unfortunately, he hasn’t come anywhere close to that production this season, hitting just .185/.248/.315 in 141 turns at the plate. Siri is in his final minor league option year, creating some further urgency for him to turn things around at the plate.
Pirates Designate Jerad Eickhoff For Assignment
The Pirates announced they’ve selected reliever Austin Brice onto the MLB roster. Righty Jerad Eickhoff has been designated for assignment to open active and 40-man roster space.
Eickhoff, 31, appeared in just one game for the Pirates and was torched for 10 runs in 4 1/3 innings against the Cubs this week. Remarkably, that’s the second consecutive big league appearance in which Eickhoff has been tagged for 10 earned runs; he also yielded 10 runs (in 3 1/3 frames) to the Braves in his final outing of the year with the Mets last season.
Those two outings have combined to help balloon Eickhoff’s career ERA to 4.50 and mark the continuation of a recent decline in Eickhoff’s overall performance. While he was a solid rotation option with the Phillies from 2015-17, pitching to a 3.87 ERA over 376 1/3 innings during that time, Eickhoff has totaled just 87 2/3 Major League innings from 2018-22 and pitched to a collective 7.19 ERA along the way. The Pirates will have a week to trade Eickhoff, release him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He has enough service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he chooses.
Brice, meanwhile, will join the big league bullpen on the heels of a sharp 3.04 ERA through 26 2/3 innings in Triple-A Indianapolis. He’s posted strong strikeout and ground-ball rates in Indy (27.2% and 50.7%, respectively), but has also issued a walk to 11 of the 114 batters he’s faced (9.6%) and plunked another three. Brice is a veteran of parts of six Major League seasons — the best of which came with the 2019 Marlins (44 2/3 innings, 3.43 ERA). Overall, he carries a lifetime 5.17 ERA in 162 big league innings.