Mariners, Scott Heineman Agree To Minor League Deal
The Mariners have agreed to a minor league deal with outfielder Scott Heineman and assigned him to Triple-A Tacoma, reports the affiliate’s broadcaster Mike Curto (Twitter link). He’s expected to make his team debut tonight.
Heineman hasn’t played with an affiliated club this season, but he’s seen big league action in each of the prior three years. The right-handed hitter suited up with the Rangers from 2019-20 and played for the Reds last year. Altogether, he’s tallied 173 plate appearances and hit .172/.249/.325 with five home runs and four stolen bases.
The 29-year-old has obviously yet to find much MLB success, but he’s a .304/.369/.458 hitter in parts of three Triple-A seasons. That includes a .279/.353/.410 slash in 17 games for the Reds’ top affiliate in 2021, but Cincinnati granted him his release midseason. Heineman made the jump to Japan, signing with the Yomiuri Giants, but he only played in ten NPB games.
Heineman has experience at all three outfield spots, although he’s better suited for work in the corners. The M’s have Jesse Winker, Julio Rodríguez and Taylor Trammell as their primary outfield, with utilityman Dylan Moore seeing occasional work as well. Mitch Haniger and Kyle Lewis are both on the injured list, and Jarred Kelenic was optioned to Tacoma a few weeks ago. Seattle is awaiting the arrival of Justin Upton as he works his way into game shape, and Heineman will an experienced non-roster depth player to the upper minors.
Twins Expected To Select Chi Chi Gonzalez
The Twins are likely to select right-hander Chi Chi González onto the big league roster, according to various reporters (including Betsy Helfand of the St. Paul Pioneer-Press and Do-Hyoung Park of MLB.com). He’s expected to start tomorrow night’s game against the Blue Jays.
Minnesota just placed Sonny Gray on the 15-day injured list on account of a right pectoral strain this afternoon. That deals another blow to a rotation that is already without Joe Ryan because of COVID-19 protocols and lost Josh Winder and Chris Paddack (the latter for the entire season) to arm injuries last month. That leaves Dylan Bundy, Bailey Ober, Chris Archer and Devin Smeltzer as the top four arms in the rotation, although manager Rocco Baldelli said on Tuesday he hopes Winder can return next week (Park link).
That uncertainty in the starting staff may afford González the opportunity for a longer-term audition for a depth role, but it’s also possible he’s up for a one-off appearance. The Twins are headed to Toronto for a weekend series, and they’re likely to be without some players for that set. The Canadian government prohibits unvaccinated athletes from traveling across the border, and previous teams headed to Ontario have placed some players on the restricted list as a result.
Regardless, González is now set for his fourth consecutive season of MLB action. The 30-year-old pitched for the Rockies between 2019-21, posting an ERA of 5.29 or higher in each year. González posted worse than average strikeout and walk numbers throughout his time in Colorado, but that environment comes with its own set of challenges he won’t face in Minnesota. He at least managed to soak up innings for the Rox, and he’s off to a nice beginning to his tenure with the Twins.
Assigned to Triple-A St. Paul to open the season, the former first-round pick has started five of his eight outings. He’s tossed 36 2/3 innings of 3.44 ERA ball, striking out a decent 23.2% of batters faced against a 9.3% walk rate. Most impressively, the Oral Roberts product has induced grounders on more than 55% of batted balls against him in the minors. That’s a marked uptick over his career 42.4% figure in the big leagues, and the Twins will hope he can carry that new form over against MLB hitters.
KBO’s Hanwha Eagles Release Nick Kingham
The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization announced Thursday that they’ve placed former Pirates and Blue Jays righty Nick Kingham on release waivers. He’ll become a free agent upon clearing, while the Eagles (who just signed Yefry Ramirez) will be in the market for another pitcher. KBO clubs can roster up to three foreign players by rule (with a maximum of two pitchers).
Kingham’s release certainly wasn’t due to performance — he’s been excellent for the Eagles dating back to last season — but rather due to an arm issue that has plagued him throughout the season, as first reported by Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency. Kingham was shelved after just three appearances this year due to the injury, and Yoo writes that it flared back up in a recent bullpen session as he tried to work his way back. The team originally called the issue an upper arm strain, per Yoo, but I’m told that Kingham is dealing with bone spurs in his pitching elbow and will need surgery to remove them. That will sideline him for the foreseeable future but should have him ready to pitch for the 2023 season.
Given his former prospect pedigree and pre-injury success in the KBO, Kingham’s release is somewhat more interesting than the standard KBO release. Although he’s clearly not at full strength at the moment, he’s a former top-100 prospect who was pitching at a high level overseas prior to the injury. In 160 1/3 innings with the Eagles, Kingham posted a 3.13 ERA with a 22.5% strikeout rate, a 7.0% walk rate and a huge 62.6% ground-ball rate.
Obviously a release from the KBO, whether due to injury or performance, isn’t a typical path back onto the big league radar. Any Major League interest in Kingham will depend on both his recovery and the extent to which teams bought into the 6’5″ righty’s success. There’s been some clear, tangible change in his skill set at the very least, as Kingham never posted a ground-ball rate of even 50% in any full season (Major or Minors) but was at 60.5% in 2021 and 79.5% in his 16 1/3 innings this year. He’s reworked and ramped up the usage of both his changeup and curveball since signing overseas, which has contributed to the shift in his batted-ball profile.
Whether that leads to interest from big league teams — be it on a small Major League deal or a likelier non-guaranteed deal and Spring Training invite — remains to be seen. Barring that, Kingham ought to have renewed interest from clubs in both the KBO and Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He’ll pitch all of next season at age 31, so even if he ends up heading back to South Korea or jumping over to Japan, there’s still ample time for Kingham to put himself back in contention for a spot on a big league roster if he can continue to build on the strides he’s already made with the Eagles.
Blue Jays Place Hyun Jin Ryu On Injured List, Select Jeremy Beasley
1:45pm: The Blue Jays announced that Ryu has been placed back on the 15-day injured list due to renewed inflammation in his left forearm. Right-hander Jeremy Beasley‘s contract has been selected from Triple-A Buffalo in a corresponding move. He’ll take Ryu’s spot on the active roster (likely to fill a spot in the ‘pen as Stripling slides into Ryu’s rotation spot).
Beasley, 26, allowed eight runs in 9 1/3 innings for the Jays in 2021, but he’s posted a 1.01 ERA with a 31.6% strikeout rate and an 8.1% walk rate in 26 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level so far in 2022.
11:06am: Blue Jays lefty Hyun Jin Ryu was slated to undergo an MRI this morning after he exited last night’s game with recurring forearm tightness, manager Charlie Montoyo told reporters (Twitter link via TSN’s Scott Mitchell). It doesn’t seem there’ll be an official update on Ryu today, as Montoyo now says that Ryu is still being evaluated (Twitter link via Shi Davidi of Sportsnet). It’s likely that Ross Stripling will take Ryu’s next turn in the rotation, however.
It’s the second forearm issue of the season for the 35-year-old Ryu, who has struggled to a 5.33 ERA through just six starts and 27 innings thus far in 2022. Ryu spent about a month on the injured list with what the team termed forearm inflammation, and a recurrence and subsequent round of imaging is an obvious cause for concern. Montoyo told Mitchell and others that Ryu appears to be dealing with “kind of the same thing he had last time,” which doesn’t instill much confidence.
Should Ryu require another absence, the Jays are at least stocked to withstand the loss. Offseason signee Kevin Gausman and Alek Manoah have pitched with top-of-the-rotation results, while newcomer Yusei Kikuchi has been solid of late in the middle of the group. Last year’s marquee deadline pickup, Jose Berrios, has struggled through his first full season in Toronto despite his status as one of the AL’s most consistent performers in recent seasons. Stripling has pitched well in a swingman role and gives the Jays a better “sixth starter” option than most clubs currently have. Meanwhile, former top prospect Nate Pearson has embarked on a rehab assignment after a lengthy bout with mononucleosis.
Ryu is in the third season of a four-year, $80MM contract. His debut campaign in Toronto was nothing short of outstanding, as he started 12 games and pitched to a 2.69 ERA during the shortened 2020 season — good for a third-place finish in American League Cy Young voting. He was durable but less productive in 2021, taking the ball 31 times and notching a 4.37 ERA with a diminished strikeout rate over the life of 169 frames.
Padres To Release Robinson Cano, Select Nomar Mazara
The Padres are set to select the contract of outfielder Nomar Mazara, tweets Robert Murray of FanSided. The former Rangers top prospect-turned-journeyman inked a minor league pact with San Diego over the winter. The move comes in conjunction with the “imminent” release of floundering second baseman/designated hitter Robinson Cano, per Dennis Lin of The Athletic (Twitter link). Murray and Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported last night that Cano was likely to opt for free agency after declining to be optioned to Triple-A (as any player with five-plus years of Major League service can do). Whether he’ll be formally released or elect free agency is largely a moot point; the outcome is the same.
Mazara, now 27 years old, never developed into the perennial power-hitting threat many anticipated when he was a consensus top-100 prospect in 2015-16. He showed plenty of promise when he swatted 20 home runs as a 21-year-old rookie with the Rangers in 2016, but Mazara was essentially a league-average hitter with below-average offense for the first four years of his career in Texas.
A trade to the White Sox produced dismal results, as he hit just .228/.295/.294 in 42 games with Chicago the following season. Mazara signed with the Tigers after being non-tendered by the Sox, but he hit just .212/.276/.321 in 50 games with Detroit last season.
All in all, Mazara has been about 12% worse than league-average with the bat in his big league career, by measure of wRC+, but he’s having a monster season in Triple-A. Through his first 152 plate appearances this season, Mazara is hitting .367/.454/.641 with seven homers, 14 doubles, a huge 13.8% walk rate and a lower-than-average 19.1% strikeout rate.
Cano’s time with the Padres will prove to be brief, as he only signed with San Diego on May 13. However, the Padres’ hopes that the eight-time All-Star could right the ship following a .195/.233/.268 showing with the Mets didn’t pan out. Quite the opposite, in fact, as Cano turned in a calamitous .091/.118/.091 output in 34 plate appearances. Overall, Cano has gone 3-for-33 (all singles) with one walk and 10 strikeouts in a Padres uniform.
The swan dive in Cano’s production comes on the heels of a season-long absence in 2021 due to the second positive PED test of his 17-year Major League career. Given that context and the fact that he’ll turn 40 in October, it’s perhaps not much of a surprise that Cano has struggled in 2022, although the extent of his woes at the plate are nonetheless jarring.
Once Cano becomes a free agent, he’ll be free to sign with any club that has interest, though it’s difficult to fathom another team putting him directly on the big league roster. Should Cano wish to continue playing, he’d likely have to ink a minor league deal, but his apparent refusal to accept an assignment to Triple-A El Paso with the Padres calls into question whether he’ll be willing to go that route. The Mets still owe Cano $21.25MM for the 2023 season, while the Mariners (who originally signed him a decade-long, $240MM contract prior to the 2014 season) are kicking in $3.75MM as part of the trade that shipped him from Seattle to Queens.
Dan Winkler, Nick Tropeano Opt Out Of Deals With Rangers
Right-handers Dan Winkler and Nick Tropeano have opted out of their respective minor league contracts with the Rangers, reports Levi Weaver of the Athletic (Twitter link). Texas opted against selecting either onto the 40-man roster, so they’ll return to the open market.
Winkler signed his non-roster pact shortly after the lockout was lifted in March. The 32-year-old had pitched in the majors each season from 2015-21, including a 47-game stint with the Cubs last year. Winkler had a strong run of success early in his career with the Braves, but he’s struggled of late as he’s increasingly battled control concerns. Last season, he had a 5.22 ERA for the North Siders, walking 15.8% of opponents.
He has spent this season with the Rangers’ top affiliate in Round Rock, making 16 appearances. Over 18 innings, he has a 3.50 ERA with an excellent 32.1% strikeout rate. He’s partially offset that with a much too high 16% walk percentage, however, and those strike-throwing shortcomings were enough the Rangers decided to let Winkler test free agency rather than get a look in the MLB bullpen.
It’s been a fairly similar story for Tropeano, who signed his deal in January. A starting pitcher with the Astros and Angels early in his career, he’s worked out of the bullpen for the Angels, Pirates and Mets over the past few seasons. Tropeano had a nice seven-game run with Pittsburgh during the abbreviated 2020 campaign, but he only got five MLB appearances last year.
Working in long relief for Round Rock, the 31-year-old tallied 20 2/3 frames across 12 outings. He had a 3.05 ERA, but that was obscured by underwhelming peripherals. Tropeano doled out free passes to nearly a fifth of the batters he faced while striking out a league average 23.6% of opponents. The former fifth-round pick will try to iron out his control woes in a new environment.
Orioles Acquire Yaqui Rivera From Marlins
The Orioles announced they’ve acquired minor league right-hander Yaqui Rivera from the Marlins. He’s the player to be named later in the April deal that sent relievers Cole Sulser and Tanner Scott to South Florida.
Rivera, 18, was a recent signee of Miami’s out of the Dominican Republic. He made his professional debut last season with a few outings in complex ball and nine starts in the Dominican Summer League. Rivera, who has never appeared on an organizational prospects list at FanGraphs or Baseball America, missed some bats but also had an elevated walk rate — unsurprising tendencies for a pitcher so young.
The 6’2″ hurler is one of three young players the O’s added to the organization in the deal. Baltimore also picked up left-hander Antonio Velez, who has struggled with home runs over his first eight outings in Double-A this year, and low minors outfielder Kevin Guerrero. The 25-year-old Velez is certainly the most likely of the trio to make any kind of near-term impact in spite of his early struggles in Bowie; Guerrero and Rivera are long-term developmental fliers.
Sulser and Scott have each stepped into the big league bullpen in Miami, with the former assuming some high-leverage opportunities. It’s been a fairly similar start to the season for both, who each have quality swing-and-miss numbers but have struggled with control. Sulser owns a 4.50 ERA through 18 innings, and he’s seen his fastball velocity drop nearly two ticks on average relative to last season. Scott remains among the harder left-handed throwers in the game, but he’s dealt with strike-throwing issues throughout his career. He has a 5.40 ERA in 18 1/3 frames with the Fish.
Angels Release Austin Romine
The Angels have released catcher Austin Romine, according to his transactions log at MLB.com. Sam Blum of the Athletic tweets that the veteran backstop triggered an opt-out clause in his minor league deal. That left the Angels to decide whether to select him onto the 40-man roster or grant him his release.
Romine is one of a handful of veterans who have three automatic opt-out dates under the terms of the new collective bargaining agreement. Players who qualified for major league free agency at the end of last season — based on having six-plus years of big league service — who signed a minor league deal during the winter had opt-out possibilities on each of April 2 (five days before Opening Day), May 1 and June 1. Romine forewent his first two opt-out chances but triggered the final provision.
The 33-year-old will now head back out onto the open market in search of a new opportunity. As a catcher who has appeared in parts of 11 big league seasons, he shouldn’t have much trouble finding another minor league job elsewhere. A longtime backup with the Yankees, Romine has suited up with the Tigers, Cubs and Angels since leaving the Bronx. He’s a career .238/.276/.357 hitter over 437 MLB games.
Romine appeared in ten games with the Angels’ top affiliate in Salt Lake this season, hitting .273/.368/.394 with a homer in 39 trips to the plate. He also saw action in three big league contests as a designated COVID-19 substitute when the Angels lost both Max Stassi and Kurt Suzuki to the virus list last month. Romine was returned to the minors when that duo made it back onto the field, and Los Angeles will continue with the Stassi – Suzuki pairing.
Twins Sign Hunter Wood To Minor League Deal
The Twins have signed right-hander Hunter Wood to a minor league contract, per Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America.
Wood, 28, spent the 2021 season in the Rangers organization but made just five big league appearances before an elbow injury sidelined him for the remainder of the season. He eventually underwent surgery that installed an internal brace to address what was termed (by the team) as a “mild” sprain of his ulnar collateral ligament. That surgery, performed in late June, came with a projected recovery timetable of “at least” eight months.
Wood has appeared in parts of four seasons between Tampa Bay, Cleveland and Texas, pitching to a combined 3.34 ERA in 91 2/3 innings with a 21.8% strikeout rate, an 8.1% walk rate and a 36.7% ground-ball rate. Of those marks, only the walk rate is better than league-average, but Wood has been excellent in terms of limiting hard contact when healthy, per Statcast (career 87.2 mph average exit velocity, 4.0% barrel rate and 29.5% hard-hit rate).
While he’s technically made 10 starts in the Majors, Wood has totaled just 17 frames during those “starts.” The Rays used him as a frequent opener from 2018-19, but Wood’s longest career outing in the big leagues is three innings, so he’ll likely continue to work in short-relief stints for the Twins once he’s fully mended from surgery and assigned to a minor league affiliate. Eventually, Wood figures to serve as bullpen depth in Triple-A, and vie for a spot in the big league bullpen when a need inevitably arises. Were he to make it back to the big leagues, Wood could be controlled for four more years beyond the current season, but he has a ways to go before that’s even a legitimate consideration.
Brewers Select Jason Alexander
JUNE 1: Milwaukee has officially selected Alexander’s contract, optioning Luke Barker to Triple-A Nashville in a corresponding move. To create 40-man roster space, they’ve transferred reliever Jake Cousins from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list.
Cousins went on the IL on May 1 with an elbow effusion, and he’ll now be out of action through at least the end of July. It seems unlikely he’ll be back when first eligible anyhow, as he recently told Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (Twitter link) he received a platelet-rich plasma injection and would be shut down from throwing entirely for at least a month.
MAY 31: The Brewers are planning to start right-hander Jason Alexander tomorrow night against the Cubs, tweets Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. He is not yet on the club’s 40-man roster, so the Brew Crew will have to make a corresponding move.
Alexander, 29, is set to make his MLB debut. The younger brother of former Dodgers reliever Scott Alexander, Jason Alexander went undrafted in 2017. He signed with the Angels as a free agent, working his way as high as Triple-A but never getting onto the 40-man roster. Los Angeles released him in 2020, and he hooked on with the Marlins the following April.
The California native made just six appearances in the upper levels of the Miami farm system as he missed some time due to injury. He signed a minor league deal with Milwaukee in December and has spent the first couple months with their top affiliate in Nashville. Over nine outings (seven starts), Alexander has worked to an excellent 2.64 ERA through 47 2/3 innings. His 17.5% strikeout rate is below-average, but he’s posted a hefty 63.3% ground-ball rate and only walked 6.3% of opposing hitters.
Milwaukee has been hit by a couple key rotation injuries of late, forcing them to dip into their starting pitching depth. Both Freddy Peralta and Brandon Woodruff have landed on the injured list, forcing Aaron Ashby into regular action alongside Corbin Burnes, Eric Lauer and Adrian Houser. The fifth spot is uncertain, with well-regarded prospect Ethan Small making a spot start yesterday during a doubleheader. Alexander will now get a chance to audition for a role himself.