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Astros Select Jake Meyers, Designate Nivaldo Rodriguez For Assignment

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The Astros announced a number of roster moves today. Phil Maton — acquired yesterday from the Indians — was added to the active roster, while Jake Meyers had his contract selected. To make room on the active roster, Bryan Abreu was optioned to the taxi squad and Brandon Bielak was optioned to Triple-A. To create a spot on the 40-man roster, right-hander Nivaldo Rodriguez was designated for assignment, tweets Mark Berman of Fox 26.

Meyers, 25, is the most interesting addition of the bunch here, despite his lack of prospect status and unheralded beginnings as a 13th-round pick. His revelatory play in Triple-A this season seems to be one of the driving factors in Houston’s decision to trade Myles Straw for Maton. It’s certainly not standard operating procedure for a first-place team like the Astros to deal their starting centerfielder for a middle reliever in the middle of a playoff race — especially with Straw being cheap and controllable through 2025.

But Meyers raked in Triple-A, slashing .343/.408/.598 with 16 home runs for the Sugar Land Skeeters. He brings a less extreme version of Straw’s positive approach at the plate, but with the added benefit of some power potential. Meyers has walked at an 8.2 percent clip while striking out just 19.4 percent of the time. He has benefited from a .389 BABIP, and the power marks – .255 ISO, .598 SLG — are way above his career averages prior to this season.

Defensively, he has split his time evenly between all three outfield spots this year. Back in June, Kevin Goldstein of Fangraphs noted that he profiles as an above-average defensive centerfielder, though without Straw’s arm. If his power proves to be for real, Meyers ought to be an upgrade in centerfield, assuming he can outbid Chas McCormick for playing time. The 26-year-old McCormick has a head start on the starter’s job with a 113 wRC+ through 178 plate appearances this season.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, will be left exposed to waivers as a result of Houston’s trade deadline additions. The 24-year-old righty has nine career appearances between this season and last. He logged 16 innings, allowing eight earned runs on 19 hits and 10 walks while serving up five long balls. Given the need for pitching league-wide, there’s certainly a possibility somebody takes a chance on Rodriguez either as a starter or a reliever with multi-inning potential.

A’s Place James Kaprielian On 10-Day Injured List, Designate Domingo Acevedo, Jacob Wilson For Assignment

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The A’s made a number of roster moves today to make room for the additions of recently acquired Yan Gomes and Josh Harrison. Aramis Garcia was optioned to Triple-A, and James Kaprielian was placed on the 10-day injured list with a shoulder impingement. To make room on the 40-man roster, Domingo Acevedo and Jacob Wilson were designated for assignment, per Matt Kawahara of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter links).

Kaprielian was supposed to start tomorrow’s ballgame. Daulton Jefferies will get the call-up to take his place, so another roster move will need to be made at that point, tweets Kawahara. Jefferies made his debut in a two-inning outing last season but has spent the entirety of 2021 at Triple-A thus far. He’s made 12 starts with a 5.19 ERA spanning 59 innings.

Kaprielian, meanwhile, came up and seized a rotation spot this season. He’s marked a 3.24 ERA/4.15 FIP across 72 1/3 innings with a 26.5 percent strikeout rate and 9.1 percent walk rate. The Athletics don’t expect the shoulder issue to be significant, so the hope is that he’ll be able to return to the rotation before long.

Acevedo and Wilson will now be exposed to waivers. Acevedo, 27, made three appearances with the big league club, while Wilson was just 1-for-7 in limited playing time.

More significantly, perhaps, is Garcia’s demotion, as he’s likely to remain in Triple-A for some time as Gomes takes over the backup role to Sean Murphy. Garcia came over from Texas as part of the Elvis Andrus/Khris Davis deal that also saw Oakland swap out Jonah Heim. Garcia was intended to serve as a stopgap backup, but he hit just .205/.239/.318 in 94 plate appearances.

Braves Option Orlando Arcia, Sean Newcomb

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Deadline acquisitions Richard Rodriguez and Jorge Soler are in Atlanta and active for tonight’s ballgame, per the team. To make room for their arrival, Orlando Arcia and Sean Newcomb have been optioned to Triple-A.

Arcia came over from the Brewers midseason and had mostly played left field for the Braves — his first outfield appearances in the Majors save for one game in center last season. Arcia doesn’t carry enough bat to hold down the position long-term, however, and the Braves added Soler, Eddie Rosario, and Adam Duvall to go along with Joc Pederson in the outfield corners. Arcia hit just .204/.264/.347 in 53 appearances with the Braves.

Newcomb has been up and down this season. Despite a 5.68 ERA, however, he has a 3.79 FIP in 25 1/3 innings in the Majors with a career-best 27.3 percent strikeout rate and career-worst 17.4 percent walk rate. Because Newcomb has already been optioned this season, he’s an obvious candidate for the demotion here, with only Edgar Santana as the only other real option from the Braves’ veteran bullpen.

Rodriguez saved 14 games for the Pirates this season, but he was acquired to step into a setup role in Atlanta. That’s a role Rodriguez is familiar with, as he had just five career saves coming into this season.

Soler’s usage, too, will be an issue worth monitoring in Atlanta. The slugger doesn’t offer much with the glove and therefore fits awkwardly as an everyday player on a National League club. He has struggled mightily at the plate as well this season, slashing just .192/.288/.370. That said, he is just two years removed from leading the American League with 48 home runs in 2019.

Nationals Expected To Activate Josiah Gray, Mason Thompson

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In trading away much of their current roster before yesterday’s trade deadline, the Nationals prioritized talent that was close to Major League ready. The hope and expectation was that many of the players acquired over the past few days will soon join Juan Soto, Victor Robles, and company in DC to begin shaping the next Washington contender.

As such, it is expected that Mason Thompson — acquired from the Padres in the Daniel Hudson deal — will be activated and placed on the active roster later today, while Josiah Gray — a key piece in the Max Scherzer trade — will be activated to join the rotation later this weekend, per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (Twitter links). They won’t need a corresponding roster move to add Thompson, as the Nats played with only a 25-man roster for yesterday’s game.

Gray immediately becomes the most interesting starter in the Nationals’ rotation — as well as the most important. There’s little reason to hold him in the minors for any length of time, except for the fact that the 24-year-old has very little pitching experience in the grand scheme of things and only 15 2/3 innings at Triple-A. Looking to maximize the three-year window following this season before Juan Soto hits free agency, the Nats have little time to waste in letting Gray try to establish himself as a pro-ready starter.

Besides, the Nationals have very few options in the upper minors, and they need to fill two rotation spots after trading Scherzer and Jon Lester. Gray will slot right into the rotation behind Patrick Corbin and Joe Ross, with Erick Fedde and Paolo Espino likely to hold down the other two spots.

The same is true in the bullpen, where the departures of Brad Hand and Hudson leave glaring holes. Kyle Finnegan has stepped in as the closer for now, but in the long-term, the rest of the bullpen is largely up for grabs. Tanner Rainey has been off all season, though they certainly hope he can find himself again before the year is out. Wander Suero has long been a middle reliever who sometimes plays up into a setup role for manager Dave Martinez. Will Harris should be a key man, but he can’t seem to stay healthy.

Thompson, 23, should have every opportunity to carve out a role for himself. Baseball America ranked him as the Padres’ 15th-ranked prospect in the midseason report — and he figures to be considerably higher in a talent-poor Nationals system. BA pegged him for middle or late relief, noting a 94-98 mph heater, 12-to-6 curve, and above-average change-up.

All in all, it’s prove yourself season in Washington, where Thompson, Gray, as well as Lane Thomas, Carter Kieboom, Luis Garcia, and probably Keibert Ruiz should have the next two months to prove they are ready to be regular Major Leaguers.

Diamondbacks Re-Sign Jon Duplantier

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July 31: As anticipated, the Diamondbacks did in fact re-sign Duplantier on a minor league contract, per the team.

July 28: The Diamondbacks have released right-hander Jon Duplantier, writes Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The move clears a spot on the D-Backs 40-man roster.

Arizona is hoping to bring Duplantier back on a minor league deal, according to Piecoro. The righty recently suffered a season-ending lat strain while pitching in the minors. Injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers, so the D-Backs’ only options to clear a 40-man roster spot were to place Duplantier on the 60-day injured list (entitling him to big league pay and service time) or to release him. The organization has apparently chosen the latter course of action.

It’s not uncommon for players in this kind of situation to eventually re-sign on a minor league pact. Franklin Perez re-upped with the Tigers in May, for instance, a few days after being released when he underwent season-ending shoulder surgery. As a free agent, though, Duplantier would have the right to explore options with other organizations — assuming he clears release waivers.

Duplantier was once one of the better pitching prospects in baseball, appearing on Baseball America’s preseason top 100 lists in both 2018 and 2019. A series of injuries has derailed his progress to this point, and he’s tallied just 49 2/3 major league innings to date. Duplantier made four starts for the D-Backs this year, allowing 19 runs across 13 frames.

Nationals Sign First-Rounder Brady House

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As reported yesterday, the Nationals signed first-round pick Brady House. His deal is worth $5MM, per Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (via Twitter). The slot value for the 11th overall selection is $4.55MM.

House’s signing represents a bit of good news for Nats fans amid their sell-off yesterday. The high school shortstop was long considered one of the top prospects in the draft, but he ended up slipping to the Nats at number 11, largely because of signing concerns. Many of the small market teams picking ahead of the Nationals went with draft picks they could sign to below-slot deals.

The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked House as the 11th best prospect in the class, but he was the low man. ESPN had him as high as sixth on their draft board, Fangraphs at ninth, and Baseball America at seventh. The Nats represented a potential floor, then, at number 11 where they got him.

House brings a big bat, but there are some concerns about his hit tool, and most expect him to eventually move to third base. Still, his ceiling is tremendous, and for the Nats, he represents good value.

The Nats farm system looks much more robust today than it did yesterday with House joining trade acquisitions like Keibert Ruiz and Josiah Gray. Prior to those acquisitions, House was probably going to be near the very top of the Nats’ prospect chart. Now, he’ll slot in further down, but he’ll still be a top-ten prospect from the jump.

House represents a class of his own in some ways, however, as most of the prospects the Nationals targets should be in the big leagues within the next year or two. House’s timeline is probably further out than that. High school prep athletes tend closer to the three-to-five-year development path.

Deadline Day Roster Moves

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After what was arguably the wildest trade deadline in years with dozens of deals around the league, multiple teams made follow-up roster moves. Trades end up squeezing some players off of rosters, or creating holes that need to be filled. This post will itemize the many 40-man roster moves that teams made after a dizzying array of blockbuster deals earlier in the day.

AL East

AL Central

  • Pablo Sandoval was released by the Indians. This was just hours after he was acquired in the Eddie Rosario trade. Based on his release, it’s clear that he was only included as salary offset.
  • The Tigers selected the contract of reliever Ian Krol. The left-hander is back after being designated for assignment earlier in the week.

AL West

NL East

NL Central

NL West

  • The Diamondbacks claimed outfielder Jake Hager off waivers from the Mariners. This will be Hager’s fourth club on the season, having been previously designated for assignment by the Mets, Brewers and Mariners. Arizona also selected the contracts of infielder Drew Ellis and left-hander Miguel Aguilar.
  • The Dodgers announced that they claimed catcher Chad Wallach off waivers from the Marlins. Wallach was recently designated for assignment when Brian Anderson was reinstated from the IL.

Dodgers Reinstate Corey Seager From Injured List

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The Dodgers announced they’re activating star shortstop Corey Seager from the 60-day injured list prior to this evening’s game against the Diamondbacks. He’s in tonight’s starting lineup, hitting cleanup and playing shortstop.

The star shortstop has been out since being hit on the hand with a pitch from Ross Detwiler in mid-May. X-rays revealed a fractured right hand for Seager that was expected to cause him to miss at least a month. Seager ended up more than doubling that timeline, missing 2 1/2 months. In the meantime, the Dodgers went out and acquired another star shortstop in Trea Turner.

Turner recently tested positive for COVID-19 and was placed on the COVID-IL, just a day before being traded. So, Seager can be slotted into the six-hole for now. But it’s unclear how the team will proceed once they have both players on the roster at the same time. Seager spoke to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic and didn’t seem to be able to shed light on the situation, telling Ardaya that the team has not discussed the situation with him.

Being a free agent at season’s end, the Dodgers have no investment in Seager maintaining as a shortstop for the long-term. Turner, on the other hand, will still be under team control through 2022, having one year of arbitration remaining. Turner also is the better fielder, according to DRS, with Turner at a 10 for his career at shortstop and Seager at -8. UZR is reversed though, having Seager at 5.4 and Turner at -5.6.

Regardless of how it plays out, it’s a good problem to have for the Dodgers. Both players are among the best shortstops in the league. Before going on the IL, Seager had put up a wRC+ of 118. That’s down from his career mark of 129 but still well above the league average of 100. Turner, for his part, has a wRC+ of 137 this year, well above his career number of 121.

White Sox Acquire Craig Kimbrel For Nick Madrigal, Codi Heuer

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The Cubs and White Sox swung a crosstown blockbuster, with the South Siders adding star reliever Craig Kimbrel in exchange for second baseman Nick Madrigal and right-hander Codi Heuer. Kimbrel will pair with Liam Hendriks to give the Sox a lethal one-two punch at the back end of the bullpen.

Kimbrel becomes the second reliever dealt between the crosstown rivals in as many days. The Sox also picked up Ryan Tepera from the Cubs yesterday. Obviously, adding Kimbrel is a far more impactful development, as the 32-year-old has been arguably the best reliever in baseball over the course of the season.

While the Cubs’ three-year, $43MM free agent investment in Kimbrel originally looked like a misstep, he’s completely turned the tables around in 2021. Through 36 2/3 innings across 39 appearances, the eight-time All-Star has incredibly pitched to a 0.49 ERA/1.83 SIERA. He’s among the top two relievers (minimum 30 innings pitched) in ERA (1st), SIERA (2nd- 1.83) strikeout rate (1st- 46.7%), strikeout/walk rate differential (2nd- 37.2 percentage points). Only his new teammate, Hendriks, bests him in SIERA and K% minus BB%.

The reinvigorated Kimbrel can remain in Chicago through 2022. He’s playing out the final guaranteed season of his contract on a $16MM salary (around $5.6MM of which is still owed) and is controllable next season via $16MM club option. Entering the year, it seemed likely he’d be bought out for $1MM, but that price now looks like a bargain.

Picking up the top reliever on the trade market, as one might expect, came at a hefty price. The White Sox move two players directly off the big league roster, including their starting second baseman for much of the season. Madrigal, a former top five overall pick and highly-regarded prospect, made his big league debut last season. He’s immediately stepped in and performed well, hitting .317/.358/.406 (114 wRC+) over his first 324 big league plate appearances.

Madrigal doesn’t hit for power, but he’s perhaps the game’s best contact hitter. The right-handed hitter has amazingly gone down on strikes in just 7.4% of his plate appearances. That propensity for putting nearly everything into play has led to high enough batting averages to make Madrigal an above-average offensive player despite the lack of extra-base impact. He’s also a capable defensive second baseman, so Madrigal brings value on both sides of the ball.

Unfortunately, Madrigal won’t play again this season. The 24-year-old suffered a significant right hamstring tear in early June. He underwent season-ending surgery shortly thereafter, ending what proved to be his final season with the White Sox. He’s expected to be back to full strength by Spring Training 2022 and would seemingly step in as the Cubs regular second baseman from that point on.

Madrigal didn’t accrue a full year of service time last season, so he’ll be controllable through 2026. He does seem likely to qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player after the 2022 season, but he remains a long-term pickup for the Cubs who should solidify the middle of the infield and potentially hit near the top of the order for a few seasons.

Heuer looks likely to jump right into the big league bullpen. The hard-throwing 25-year-old has pitched in the majors for two seasons, tossing 62 1/3 combined innings of relief. Heuer has averaged a blistering 97.1 MPH on his fastball and worked to a 3.75 ERA/3.60 SIERA as a big leaguer, although he’s struggled a bit in 2021 after a fantastic rookie campaign. He’s controllable for the next four seasons, reaching arbitration by 2023.

Michael Cerami of Bleacher Nation first reported the White Sox were acquiring Kimbrel. Bob Nightengale of USA Today was first to report that Madrigal and Heuer were going to the Cubs in return.

Giants To Acquire Kris Bryant

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The Giants made a major splash at the trade deadline buzzer, acquiring slugger Kris Bryant from the Cubs for prospects Alexander Canario and Caleb Kilian.  ESPN’s Jeff Passan broke news of the trade, while Francys Romero of LasMayores was first on Canario and journalist Marc Delucchi had Kilian.

Drafted second overall in 2013 out of the University of San Diego, Bryant won the 2015 National League Rookie of the Year with the Cubs and followed that with the 2016 NL MVP award as the club finally won a championship.  The Cubs famously waited until April 17th to call Bryant up back in 2015, effectively granting them a seventh year of control over the player by a margin of one day.

Though Bryant would never return to the lofty 6-8 WAR heights of his first three seasons, he settled in comfortably as a 130 wRC+ type bat, with the exception of an injury-marred 34-game 2020 season.  Bryant’s bounceback season was punctuated by his fourth All-Star selection earlier this month.

As early as his sophomore season, the Cubs began deploying Bryant at positions other than his primary spot of third base.  This year, manager David Ross has gotten Bryant at least 80 innings at both corner infield positions as well as all three outfield spots.  Third base makes sense for Bryant in San Francisco, with Evan Longoria out until at least August 6th with a shoulder injury.  Once Longoria returns, Bryant could see time in left field and perhaps center.

The Giants have surprisingly been the best team in baseball this year, and they lead the NL West by a three-game margin over the Dodgers.  Giants President of Baseball Operations Farhan Zaidi may have felt some pressure after the Dodgers completed a blockbuster trade with the Nationals for Max Scherzer and Trea Turner today, also adding Danny Duffy in a deal with the Royals yesterday.  So the Giants have added the big bat of Bryant to an offense that already ranked third in the NL with 4.81 runs scored per game.  The Giants have a front office connection to the Cubs, as GM Scott Harris spent seven years in their baseball operations before joining San Francisco in November 2019.

Cubs fans might be disappointed to see a Bryant trade fail to return a top 100 prospect, but the player’s $19.5MM salary and impending free agency kept teams from overbidding.  Canario, 21, was assigned a 50 grade by MLB.com.  Prior to the season, Baseball America had Canario as a 55, a player with plus raw power but questionable plate discipline and defense.  Canario suffered a torn labrum back in November, but has since posted a .235/.325/.433 line in 274 Low-A plate appearances.  FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen gave him a 45 grade, concluding, “He has huge ceiling if the hit/approach component improves, but I wonder if the compressed developmental timeline created by his presence on the 40-man and potential lingering effects from the injury might make that tough.”

Kilian, a 24-year-old righty, was promoted from High-A to Double-A back in May.  In 11 starts at that level, he owns a 2.43 ERA, 26.2 K%, and 3.3 BB%.  MLB.com assigned him a 40 grade, noting that “he could develop into a No. 4 starter.”

The Bryant trade was just one part of an extensive fire sale held by Cubs GM Jed Hoyer, who also traded Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo, Craig Kimbrel, Jake Marisnick, Trevor Williams, Joc Pederson, Ryan Tepera, and Andrew Chafin this month.

Tim Dierkes contributed to this post.

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