Orioles Select Cesar Valdez
The Orioles have selected the contract of reliever César Valdez, per a club announcement. To create space on the active and 40-man rosters, outfielder DJ Stewart has been placed on the 60-day injured list due to a right knee osteochondral defect.
Valdez is back with the big league club after being outrighted off the 40-man roster last month. The changeup specialist began the year in a high-leverage role, picking up eight saves while working to a 1.42 ERA over the first month of the season. He ran into some disastrous results from May onward, though, posting a 7.44 ERA in his last 32 2/3 frames before he was bumped from the roster.
Assigned to Triple-A Norfolk after he cleared waivers, the veteran has earned his way back with a strong showing. Valdez has tossed 12 2/3 innings of three-run ball with the Tides, racking up ground-balls at a massive 64.7% clip in that brief minor league showing. The 36-year-old still hasn’t accrued enough service time to be arbitration eligible, so the O’s could bring him back next season for scarcely more than the league minimum salary if they feel it worthwhile to devote him a 40-man roster spot all winter.
Stewart will undergo a cleanup procedure on his injured knee, manager Brandon Hyde told reporters (including Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com). He’s expected to be full-go for Spring Training in 2022. The 27-year-old picked up 318 plate appearances this season but posted below-average numbers on both sides of the ball. Stewart hit .204/.324/.374 while rating poorly as a defensive corner outfielder. As with Valdez, he’s yet to reach arbitration, so the O’s could keep him in the fold for almost no financial cost if they’re willing to keep him on the roster over the winter.
Rangers Outright Kohei Arihara
SEPTEMBER 21: Arihara has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Round Rock, the team announced. He’ll remain in the organization and look to pitch his way back onto the big league roster.
SEPTEMBER 19: The Rangers announced that right-hander Kohei Arihara has been designated for assignment. The move opens up a roster spot for Mike Foltynewicz, who returns to action after being reinstated from the COVID-related injury list.
Arihara was the Rangers’ biggest free agent expenditure of the 2020-21 offseason, as Texas spent a total of $7.44MM to obtain the righty on a two-year contract. $1.24MM of that money went towards a posting fee to the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters (Arihara’s NPB club), while Arihara himself received $6.2MM in salary — $3.6MM this season, and $2.4MM in 2022.
Now, it all looks like something of a sunk cost for the Rangers, since it seems quite unlikely that another team would absorb that cost by claiming Arihara off waivers. If Arihara signed elsewhere on a minor league contract, a new team would only owe him the prorated portion of a minimum salary, leaving Texas on the hook for the rest of the money.
The 29-year-old Arihara began his MLB career in impressive fashion, posting a 2.21 ERA over his first four starts and 20 1/3 innings. He struggled badly over his next three starts, however, due to what was eventually revealed as the development of an aneurysm in his throwing shoulder. Arihara underwent surgery to remove that aneurysm in May and didn’t return to the Rangers until September, with a 6.75 ERA coming in Arihara’s 12 post-surgery innings.
Given Arihara’s injury problems and the small sample size, it is hard to really evaluate his first MLB campaign. He had only a 13.5% strikeout rate, though he wasn’t a big strikeout pitcher even in his prime years in Japan. The righty’s 7.3% walk rate was also somewhat similar to his NPB numbers, but Arihara’s biggest issue was the home run ball. Arihara has given up 11 home runs over his 40 2/3 frames in the Show; for comparison’s sake, he gave up 89 homers over 836 innings with the Fighters.
While Arihara could clear waivers and accept an outright assignment to the Rangers’ farm system, today’s move could also very well spell the end of his time with the organization. Despite Arihara’s struggles, he did attract attention from such teams as the Padres and Red Sox last winter. Considering that Texas would be footing the bill, it wouldn’t be surprising to see either San Diego or Boston take a flier on Arihara on a minors deal.
Foltynewicz returns after just short of a month on the COVID-IL. The right-hander was also an offseason addition, joining the Rangers on a one-year, $2MM free agent deal and then delivering a 5.54 ERA over 130 innings. Foltynewicz’s 6.0% walk rate is a career best, though his 16.5% strikeout rate is a career worst and most of his Statcast numbers are decidedly below average.
Cubs Outright Dillon Maples
SEPTEMBER 21: Maples cleared waivers and has been sent outright to Triple-A Iowa, Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Sun-Times was among those to pass along. He doesn’t have the requisite service time to refuse an outright assignment, so he’ll remain in the organization for the rest of the season. However, Maples will qualify for minor league free agency this offseason unless he’s reselected to the 40-man roster before the end of the year.
SEPTEMBER 19: The Cubs have activated Nico Hoerner and Keegan Thompson from the 10-day injured list. To create two roster spots for the returning players, outfielder Nick Martini was optioned to Triple-A while right-hander Dillon Maples was designated for assignment.
Maples is out of minor league options, which is why Chicago had to take the DFA route to remove the 29-year-old from the active roster. A veteran of parts of five MLB seasons, Maples had an 8.49 ERA over 23 1/3 career innings for the 2017-20 Cubs before posting a 2.59 ERA in 31 1/3 frames in 2021.
However, Maples has benefited from a .203 BABIP, as his SIERA is 4.64 and his walk rate is an ungainly 18%. Control has been a persistent issue for Maples at both the Major League and minor league levels, and the Cubs seem to have seen enough.
“There’s some people in the organization that feel like we’ve just run out of time,” manager David Ross told NBC Sports Chicago’s Gordon Wittenmyer and other reporters. “We wish [Maples] the best in his career and hopefully for his sake he catches on with somebody, and he’s able to have a long, successful major-league career. It just doesn’t look right now at this time like it’s going to be with us.”
Thompson will start today’s game against the Brewers after missing a little over two weeks due to right shoulder inflammation. The right-hander has shuttled up and down from Triple-A Iowa a few times this season, with a 3.54 ERA to show for his first 48 1/3 career innings in the big leagues. Working mostly as a reliever, Thompson has managed that respectable ERA despite some unimpressive peripherals, including a 12.8% walk rate.
Hoerner suffered a right oblique strain at the end of July, and thanks to previous IL trips due to a left hamstring strain and a left forearm strain, Hoerner has played in only 39 games. The former top prospect has at least hit decently well (.312/.388/.388 in 152 PA) when he has been able to play, and the Cubs will certainly be interested in evaluating Hoerner over the season’s last two weeks to help determine his role with the 2022 team and beyond.
Giants Outright Reyes Moronta
The Giants announced Tuesday that right-hander Reyes Moronta has cleared outright waivers and been assigned to Triple-A Sacramento. He’s no longer on the 40-man roster.
It’s a bit of a surprising move on a number of levels. San Francisco didn’t formally designate Moronta for assignment, so there was no public indication prior to this announcement that he’d been placed on waivers and made available to the other 29 teams. Beyond that, Moronta once looked like a future high-leverage option for the Giants, though he’s seen several miles drop off his fastball since returning from surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder late in the 2019 season.
From 2017-19, Moronta pitched 128 1/3 innings out of the Giants’ bullpen, working to a 2.66 ERA with a strong 29.8 percent strikeout rate. His 13.6 percent walk rate was well north of the league average and a clear area for potential improvement, but Moronta’s average fastball velocity of 97.1 mph and that lofty strikeout rate were obvious sources of intrigue for what he could become with better command of his pitches. President of baseball ops Farhan Zaidi even suggested last season during Moronta’s recovery that he had closer potential.
That surgery indeed wiped out all of Moronta’s 2020 season, and he missed a good portion of the current campaign rehab with a flexor strain. He didn’t require surgery this time around, but Moronta was only activated from the 60-day injured list late last month. He hasn’t pitched particularly well since coming off the IL, either, working to a 7.98 ERA with more walks (18) than strikeouts (13) through 14 2/3 frames of Triple-A ball.
The decision to remove Moronta from the 40-man roster could very well spell the end of his time with the organization. Players with more than three years of MLB service who are outrighted off the 40-man roster during the season can become free agents at the end of the year. It’s technically possible that the Giants could add Moronta back to the 40-man between now and that point, but if that were in the plans, they probably wouldn’t have placed him on waivers in the first place.
In 132 1/3 innings at the big league level, Moronta has a 2.65 ERA and 3.44 FIP with a 29.5 percent strikeout rate and a 13.3 percent walk rate.
Braves Claim Chadwick Tromp
The Braves have claimed catcher Chadwick Tromp off waivers from the Giants and assigned him to Triple-A Gwinnett, per a team announcement. San Francisco had designated Tromp for assignment over the weekend.
Tromp, 26, has appeared in 33 games for the Giants over the past two seasons and posted a .215/.220/.418 batting line with five homers and a double in 82 plate appearances. That represents the entirety of his Major League experience to date. Tromp has also spent parts of four season in Triple-A, where he’s a .253/.316/.414 hitter.
Tromp has drawn solid framing marks both in Triple-A and his limited MLB time, and he’s thrown out one third of attempted base thieves in his professional career. He has two more minor league option years remaining beyond the current campaign, so he could potentially be a flexible depth option in Atlanta for the foreseeable future.
Of course, the Braves already have a good bit of catching depth within their system. Atlanta recently extended veteran Travis d’Arnaud on a two-year, $16MM contract that guarantees him $8MM in 2022 and 2023. The Braves also have a pair of well-regarded catching prospects in Shea Langeliers and William Contreras — the latter of whom has already made his MLB debut.
Speculatively, Tromp could give them an option early in the 2022 season if the Braves want both Contreras and Langeliers to be getting everyday at-bats in the minor leagues. That’s a long ways off, however, and he’d first need to survive the offseason on Atlanta’s 40-man roster, which is no sure thing.
Orioles Claim Joey Krehbiel, Designate Manny Barreda
The Orioles have claimed right-hander Joey Krehbiel off waivers from the Rays and designated right-hander Manny Barreda, per a club announcement. The O’s also announced that righty Dusten Knight, who was designated for assignment over the weekend, has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Norfolk.
Krehbiel, 28, pitched a scoreless inning during his lone appearance with the Rays this season, whiffing a pair and issuing a walk. He’s spent the rest of the 2021 season with Tampa Bay’s Triple-A affiliate, logging a 4.19 ERA with a sizable 29.5 percent strikeout rate and a tiny 5.1 percent walk rate through 43 innings. It’s the fourth season that Krehbiel has logged some time in Triple-A, and he’s fanned 26.1 percent of the opponents he’s faced at that level in his career. Krehbiel has just four big league innings under his belt, but he’s yet to allow a run in that time.
Barreda, 33 next month, recently had his contract selected and made his big league debut. He allowed four runs in 2 2/3 innings over the life of three appearances prior to today’s DFA — a brief debut for a player who has grinded through parts of 11 minor league seasons as well as five full seasons pitching in Mexico. He’s posted a 3.89 ERA in 39 1/3 innings between the Double-A and Triple-A affiliates for the O’s, and he carries a career 3.45 ERA in just over 500 minor league innings.
Like Barreda, Knight was another 30-something rookie who made his big league debut in 2021. He’s notched an even 3.00 ERA in 36 Triple-A frames this season but was tagged for 10 runs (nine earned) in 8 2/3 frames during his own brief look at the MLB level. He’ll remain with the Orioles organization for the remainder of the year, at least, but he’ll be a minor league free agent at season’s end.
Padres Outright Nick Ramirez
Sept. 21: The Padres’ Triple-A affiliate, the El Paso Chihuahuas, announced that Ramirez has been assigned outright to their roster after going unclaimed on waivers.
Sept. 17: The Padres announced they’ve designated reliever Nick Ramirez for assignment. The move creates a 40-man roster spot for Vince Velasquez, who has been selected to the big league club to start this evening’s game against the Cardinals. San Diego signed Velasquez to a minor league deal on Wednesday and announced at the time that he’d be added to the major league roster to make a start this weekend.
Ramirez signed a minor league deal with San Diego over the winter and was selected to the majors in mid-April. He’s been up-and-down over the course of the season, making thirteen MLB appearances and getting into 30 games with Triple-A El Paso. Often called upon to work multiple innings out of the bullpen, Ramirez has tallied 20 1/3 frames of 5.75 ERA ball at the big league level this year. He hasn’t missed many bats, striking out just 15.4% of opponents with a below-average 9.4% swinging strike rate. But Ramirez has avoided walks and induced ground-balls at a slightly above-average clip.
In the minors, Ramirez has had more success generating whiffs. He’s fanned an average 24.1% of batters faced with El Paso, although his ERA has been inflated by some poor sequencing and batted ball fortune. Opposing hitters have a .339 batting average on balls in play against Ramirez in the minors, and just over a third of the baserunners he’s allowed have come around to score, resulting in a similarly disappointing 5.23 ERA in Triple-A.
Ramirez appeared in the majors with the Tigers between 2019-20, logging 79 2/3 frames of relief during his rookie campaign. All told, the 32-year-old owns a 4.55 ERA in 110 2/3 innings at the highest level. The Friars will place Ramirez on waivers over the coming days. He’d have the right to elect free agency should he pass through unclaimed by virtue of the fact that he’s previously been outrighted in his career. Even if he were to accept an outright assignment, he’d qualify for minor league free agency at the end of the season if he’s not added back to the 40-man roster before then.
Indians Select Anthony Gose
The Indians are selecting the contract of outfielder-turned-pitcher Anthony Gose, as first reported by Indians Prospective (on Twitter). The left-hander will be appearing in the Majors for the first time since 2016 — and for the first time ever as a pitcher.
Gose, now 31 years old, was a two-way star in high school and a second-round draft choice by the Phillies back in 2008. He focused solely on developing as an outfielder, and by the 2011-12 offseason, Gose ranked as a consensus top 100 prospect in all of baseball. He played the 2011 season as a 20-year-old in Double-A (about four years younger than the league-average age) and slashed .253/.349/.415 with 16 home runs, 20 doubles, seven triples and 70 stolen bases — the second 70-steal season of his young professional career.
In 2010, the Phillies traded Gose to the Astros alongside J.A. Happ and Jonathan Villar in the trade that brought Roy Oswalt to Philadelphia. Houston immediately flipped Gose to the Blue Jays for corner-infield prospect Brett Wallace, who’d been a first-round pick in 2008 and was a highly regarded prospect himself at the time.
Gose made his big league debut with the Jays as a 21-year-old in 2012 but never really found his footing in Toronto. He spent three seasons as an oft-optioned member of the Jays’ outfield but managed just a .234/.301/.332 output in that time. The Blue Jays and Tigers swapped Gose for second baseman Devon Travis in the 2014-15 offseason, and Gose only found marginally more success in Detroit. He batted .254/.321/.367 in his first season as a Tiger but played just 30 games in his second season (2016).
Those struggles at the plate carried over into Triple-A, and beginning in 2017, the Tigers gave Gose the opportunity to work off the mound all the way down in Class-A Advanced. The transition wasn’t particularly smooth, as one might expect. Gose appeared in 11 games, allowing nine runs in 10 2/3 innings. He fanned 14 of the 45 hitters he faced (31.1 percent), but the Tigers removed him from their 40-man roster and he opted for free agency at season’s end.
Gose signed a minor league pact with the Rangers in the 2017-18 offseason and was selected by the Astros in the Rule 5 Draft just days later. He didn’t make it out of Spring Training with the ‘Stros before being returned to the Rangers. Gose made it to Double-A as a pitcher in the Rangers’ system and clearly intrigued the Indians’ baseball ops department enough to sign him as a minor league free agent the following offseason.
Gose has hung on with Cleveland ever since, but he hasn’t gotten a call to the big leagues until today. The lefty pitched for Team USA in the Olympics earlier this summer, and he’s had a generally solid season on the mound. Walks have been an issue since he made the move to the mound, and that’s true to an extent this season as well. Gose has worked to a 3.55 ERA with a hefty 34 percent strikeout rate but a bloated 19.4 percent walk rate.
However, most of those command issues came early in the season. Since returning from the Olympic team, Gose has yielded just one run in 14 frames. He’s walked six of the 52 batters he’s faced in that time (11.5 percent) and fanned a whopping 22 of them (42.3 percent). Given that recent run of dominance, it’s hardly a surprise that Cleveland is both rewarding Gose’s tenacity and also taking the opportunity to get a late look at him in the big leagues.
While Gose has appeared in parts of five big league seasons in the past, he has yet to even amass three years of Major League service time. As such, Cleveland would be able to control him all the way through the 2025 season — if he is indeed able to stick as a pitcher. Gose, by all accounts, has built his heater up to sit in the upper-90s and at times reach triple digits. Opponents are hitting just .172/.333/.328 against him so far in 2021 — including a .086/.192/.154 batting line since he returned from the Olympics.
It’s a frankly remarkable journey for Gose, who has been with four organizations in five years since attempting to reinvent himself as a pitcher. He’s pitched for clubs in the Puerto Rican Winter League and Dominican Winter League along the way after restarting his career as a 26-year-old in Class-A Advanced. He’ll now reap the benefits of that half-decade odyssey as he returns to the Major Leagues for what, in many ways, will be a second big league debut.
Rockies Outright Bernardo Flores Jr.
The Rockies announced that left-hander Bernardo Flores Jr. has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Albuquerque. He doesn’t have the requisite service time to reject an outright assignment, so he’ll remain in the organization.
Flores was originally drafted by the White Sox, with whom he spent the first few years of his career. The southpaw made his big league debut with Chicago last season, tossing two innings. He’s bounced between a couple organizations this year, landing with the Cardinals via waiver claim in April and moving to the Rockies a couple months later. He made one big league appearance with St. Louis but has yet to suit up in the majors with Colorado.
Instead, Flores has spent almost his entire tenure in the organization on the minor league injured list. He landed on the IL immediately after being claimed off waivers and just made it back with Albuquerque for the first time last week. The 26-year-old will look to work his way back onto the 40-man roster now that he’s returned to health. Flores has very little Triple-A experience, but he’s posted a quality 3.04 ERA over 156 2/3 career innings in Double-A.
Pirates Release John Nogowski, Ka’ai Tom
The Pirates have released first baseman John Nogowski and outfielder Ka’ai Tom, relays Mike Persak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). Both players had been with Triple-A Indianapolis after being outrighted last month. Each of Nogowski and Tom would have qualified for minor league free agency this offseason if not reselected to the 40-man roster before the end of the year. The Pittsburgh front office evidently determined neither player was in line for a promotion, so they’ve elected to cut both loose a few weeks early.
Pittsburgh acquired Nogowski from the division-rival Cardinals for cash considerations in early July. He tallied 143 plate appearances with Pittsburgh but scuffled after a hot start, ultimately posting just a .233/.301/.310 line. After being outrighted to Indianapolis, Nogowski hit an impressive .259/.406/.352 with thirteen walks and only ten strikeouts in 69 plate appearances. The right-handed hitter has shown that strong on-base ability throughout much of his minor league career, and he owns a .269/.388/.423 slash over 680 career trips to the dish at Triple-A.
Tom has spent the bulk of his career in the Indians’ organization. The A’s selected him in the Rule 5 draft last winter but bumped him from the big league roster after just nine games. The Pirates claimed Tom off waivers and gave him a bit more run, but the 27-year-old only managed a .152/.308/.261 showing in 117 plate appearances with the Bucs. Pittsburgh designated him for assignment and passed him through waivers.
Rule 5 draftees have to be kept on the MLB roster (or injured list) for the entirety of their rookie season or offered back to their original organization. The Pirates offered Tom back to Cleveland once he cleared waivers, but the Indians declined to bring him back into the system. He instead reported to Indianapolis but continued to struggle, hitting .190/.299/.310 in 67 plate appearances before being released.