Phillies Designate Enyel De Los Santos
The Phillies announced that right-hander Enyel De Los Santos has been designated for assignment. The move creates roster space for catcher Andrew Knapp‘s activation off the COVID-related injury list, and catcher Rafael Marchan has also been optioned to Triple-A.
De Los Santos has been shuttled up and down between the Phillies’ roster and Triple-A Lehigh Valley multiple times this season, with the righty posting a 6.75 ERA and a strong 30.7% strikeout rate over 28 innings out of Philadelphia’s bullpen. While his strikeout totals have increased by leaps and bounds this season at both the MLB and minor league levels, home runs have continued to plague De Los Santos in the big leagues. Since the start of the 2019 season, De Los Santos has allowed 11 homers in only 39 innings pitched for the Phils.
This marks the second time in as many seasons that the Phillies have designated De Los Santos, and he was able to clear waivers last year before being outrighted off the 40-man roster. De Los Santos is only 25 years old, so another team might be interested in taking a late-season flier to bring him into their organization, particularly with his improved strikeout numbers. De Los Santos whiffed 66 of 184 batters faced in Triple-A and the majors this season, good for a very impressive 35.9% strikeout rate.
Orioles Select Eric Hanhold, Move Matt Harvey To 60-Day IL
The Orioles announced that right-hander Eric Hanhold‘s contract has been selected from Triple-A. To create a 40-man roster spot, Matt Harvey has been moved from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day IL, which will officially end Harvey’s season.
Harvey went to the injured list earlier this week due to right knee inflammation, and the knee issue will cut short what has been an otherwise healthy season for the 32-year-old. That is a very notable silver lining given how injuries have plagued Harvey and stalled what once looked to be a very promising career, though beyond just staying on the field, Harvey didn’t have a great 2021.
Signed to a minor league deal with the O’s in February, Harvey earned the contract’s guaranteed $1MM salary after he was added to the team’s active roster prior to Opening Day. The righty has posted a 6.27 ERA/4.85 SIERA over 127 2/3 innings with Baltimore, with only a 16.3% strikeout rate that ranks in the seventh percentile of all qualified pitchers. While Harvey has a .331 BABIP and 60.4% strand rate, he has also allowed a lot of hard contract, so there hasn’t been too much misfortune baked into Harvey’s numbers.
Harvey will likely have to settle for another minor league deal from the Orioles or another team this winter as he looks to continue his career. With only a handful of games under his belt as a reliever at the MLB level, Harvey could potentially try to drum up interest by marketing himself as something other than a starter, perhaps opening himself up to long relief, swingman, or bulk pitcher roles to take advantage of his durability without being a full-fledged regular starting pitcher.
It was almost exactly two years ago to the day that Hanhold joined the Orioles organization, after Baltimore acquired him from the Mets via a waiver claim. Hanhold’s MLB resume consists of 2 1/3 innings with the Mets in 2018, and he has a 4.69 ERA over 340 career minor league innings. With only a modest 19.15% strikeout rate during his minor league career, Hanhold has relied on some strong grounder rates to retire batters.
Rays Place Chris Archer On Injured List, Designate Shawn Armstrong, Activate Nick Anderson And Brett Phillips
The Rays have made a flurry of roster moves, as first reported by Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links). Right-hander Chris Archer has been placed on the 10-day injured list with discomfort in his left hip, while fellow right Shawn Armstrong has been designated for assignment. To fill the two open roster spots, Tampa Bay has activated right-hander Nick Anderson from the 60-day injured list and outfielder Brett Phillips from the 10-day IL.
Archer was solid over four innings in yesterday’s 7-2 victory over the Tigers, allowing one run on a walk and two hits during his brief start. However, Archer’s hip issue forced him out of the game early, marking the second time in less than a month that the injury led to an early exit from a start.
Injures have been a constant for Archer in recent years, and yesterday’s start was only Archer’s sixth game of the season. After missing all of 2020 recovering from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, he spent over four months of the 2021 campaign on the IL due to forearm tightness.
While this latest trip to the IL might be just be a way to rest Archer and allow him to fully get over a nagging injury, it also has to call into question Archer’s availability for Tampa Bay’s playoff roster. Over the small sample size of 19 1/3 innings, Archer has a 4.66 ERA, 25.9% strikeout rate, and 9.6% walk rate — not eye-popping numbers by any means, though perhaps productive enough for a Rays team that seems poised to use a bullpen-heavy approach with their postseason pitching staff. Tampa will need as many quality arms as possible to keep everyone fresh for what the club hopes will be a more successful trip to the World Series.
That same logic applies to Anderson, who is finally set to make his 2021 debut after suffering a partial tear of his right elbow ligament near the end of Spring Training. It is a testament to the Rays’ incredible bullpen depth that their relief corps has remained among the game’s best even despite the absence of arguably their best reliever from 2019-20. A trade deadline pickup from the Marlins in July 2019, Anderson has been all but untouchable over 37 2/3 regular-season innings with Tampa, as he has posted a 1.43 ERA, a tiny 3.68% walk rate, and an absurd 49.26% strikeout rate.
The Rays leaned hard on Anderson during their postseason run last October, and it seems the increased usage took its toll on the right-hander. Anderson pitched in 10 of Tampa Bay’s 20 playoff games, and allowed runs in eight of his appearances. Most infamously, Anderson was the pitcher called in to replace a seemingly-cruising Blake Snell in Game 6 of last year’s World Series — Anderson immediately surrendered the Rays’ lead within two batters, putting the Dodgers ahead for good in the Series-clinching game.
Armstrong was a trade deadline pickup from the Orioles, and the veteran righty posted a 4.50 ERA over his 16 innings in a Rays uniform. Despite some solid peripheral numbers, Armstrong was again hurt by the home run ball, as he has already allowed five homers in his brief time with Tampa Bay. Armstrong has surrendered 10 homers in his 36 combined innings with Baltimore and Tampa this season, a jarring spike for a pitcher who gave up just 17 home runs over his 131 previous career frames as a big league pitcher.
Since Armstrong is out of minor league options, the Rays had to put him through DFA waivers in order to remove him from their roster. Armstrong has the right to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment to Triple-A, since he was already outrighted off the Orioles’ roster earlier this week. It is also possible another team simply claims Armstrong off waivers, in order to add another relief arm down the stretch.
Giants Outright Jake Jewell
The Giants announced that right-hander Jake Jewell has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A. Jewell’s presence on the waiver wire wasn’t publicly known, though this marks the third time Jewell has been on waivers this season, and the first time the 28-year-old hasn’t changed teams.
Jewell came to the Giants via a waiver claim from the Dodgers earlier this week, and Los Angeles also claimed Jewell when the Cubs designated him for assignment in late August. The righty has yet to see any big league action for either of the two NL West powers, as his 2021 statline remains 10 innings pitched (with a 9.90 ERA) for Chicago.
This also marks the second time the Giants have themselves outrighted Jewell off their 40-man roster. San Francisco previously claimed Jewell off waivers from the Angels back in January 2020 and then outrighted him later that month. Jewell ended up not seeing any action at all in 2020 thanks to the canceled minor league season, as the Giants never called him up to their MLB roster.
Originally drafted by the Angels back in the fifth round of the 2014 draft, Jewell had a 6.99 ERA over 28 1/3 frames for the Angels in 2018-19. The righty has a 4.78 ERA over 542 career innings in the minors, but a 3.88 ERA with a 24.8% strikeout rate over 97 1/3 Triple-A innings. Jewell’s strikeout rate has been on the rise since becoming a full-time reliever during the 2018 season.
Dodgers Outright Neftali Feliz
TODAY: Feliz cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A, according to Oklahoma City Dodgers communications director Alex Freeman (Twitter link).
SEPT. 9: The Dodgers have designated right-hander Neftali Feliz for assignment and reinstated fellow righty Tony Gonsolin from the 10-day injured list, per a team announcement. They’ve also optioned Mitch White to Triple-A and recalled right-hander Andre Jackson.
Feliz, 33, appeared in three games with the Dodgers and tossed three shutout innings, yielding just one hit without a walk and with one strikeout. His initial stay with the Dodgers will prove to be short, however, as is often the case with depth options the Dodgers summon from Triple-A. He’ll be placed on outright waivers or released in the next couple of days, though it stands to reason that the Dodgers would hope to retain him and at least attempt the outright route.
It’s been a dominant season for Feliz in the minors, as the 2010 American League Rookie of the Year has turned in a combined 2.13 ERA with a 40.1 percent strikeout rate and a 9.2 percent walk rate in 38 innings between the top affiliates for the Dodgers and the Phillies. Feliz was hit hard in a pair of appearances with the Phillies and quickly cut loose, at which point he latched on with the Dodgers. It’s possible that another club could claim Feliz, based on those dominant minor league numbers, but he’s a free agent at season’s end and would be ineligible for a new club’s postseason roster. Both of those factors should help the Dodgers’ chances of passing him through waivers.
Red Sox Place Danny Santana On COVID List, Select Jack Lopez
Just four days after Danny Santana was reinstated from the COVID-related injury list, the Red Sox have sent the utilityman back to the COVID-IL. Infielder Jack Lopez has had his contract selected from Triple-A, and Lopez will take Santana’s spot on the active roster.
Santana has tested positive for COVID-19, MLB.com’s Ian Browne reports (via Twitter), so he will miss at least 10 days while quarantined. Santana previously spent only two days on the COVID-IL due to symptoms, rather than any positive tests. He now becomes the latest Red Sox player to test positive in what has been a long-lasting outbreak within the Boston clubhouse. While some players have started to return to action, Santana is the tenth Sox player currently on the team’s COVID list.
After an elbow injury limited Santana to 15 games with the Rangers in 2020, health issues have again plagued the utilityman in his first season in Boston. Between a foot infection, a left quad strain, a left groin strain, and his two COVID-IL stints, Santana has appeared in just 38 games for the Red Sox, and batted only .181/.252/.345 in 127 plate appearances. Santana’s minor league contract became a guaranteed deal worth $1.75MM when he made the big league roster, though a reunion between Santana and the Sox doesn’t seem very likely in 2022.
This is the second time Lopez has been selected to Boston’s roster in the midst of this coronavirus outbreak, resulting in the 28-year-old getting to make his Major League debut after nine seasons in the minors. A 16th-round pick for the Royals in the 2011 draft, Lopez has spent much of his career in Kansas City’s farm system before moving to the Braves’ organization in 2019 and then signing with the Sox this past offseason. Lopez hit .167/.231/.333 in his first 15 PA as a big leaguer.
Twins Select Jovani Moran, Place Randy Dobnak On 60-Day IL
The Twins announced that left-hander Jovani Moran‘s contract has been selected from Triple-A. In the corresponding moves, Randy Dobnak was moved on the 60-day injured list (thus officially ending Dobnak’s season) and southpaw Andrew Albers was optioned to Triple-A.
Moran was a seventh-round pick for the Twins in the 2015 draft, and the 24-year-old is now on the verge of his Major League debut. Ranked by MLB Pipeline as the 26th-best prospect in Minnesota’s farm system, Moran has pitched almost exclusively as a reliever since the start of the 2017 season, and emerged with strong performances at both the Double-A and Triple-A levels in 2021. Moran has a 2.41 ERA over 67 1/3 combined innings at the two levels, along with a very impressive 41.8% strikeout rate. While recording strikeouts has never been a problem for Moran, though control has been a bit more an issue — his 12.26% walk rate this season roughly matches his career average.
Moran’s fastball sits in the 91-94mph range, though he is best known for his outstanding changeup. According to Pipeline’s scouting report, “some see it as a double-plus pitch,” to the point that Moran doesn’t often use his third pitch (a somewhat medium-grade slider). For a Twins team that will be looking for pitching in all forms this winter, Moran certainly has an opportunity in these final few weeks to get himself into the bullpen picture for 2022.
Dobnak was placed on the 10-day IL earlier this week due to a right middle finger sprain, the same injury that saw the right-hander miss over two months of the season in an earlier 60-day IL stint. The injuries further exacerbated an already rough season for Dobnak, who posted a 7.64 ERA over 50 2/3 innings out of both the Twins’ rotation and bullpen.
Red Sox’ Connor Seabold To Make Major League Debut
2:50 pm: Brad Peacock has been returned to Triple-A as the corresponding roster move, per Cotillo (via Twitter). Peacock made two appearances, allowing nine runs in 5 1/3 innings.
11:09 am: Right-hander Connor Seabold will be added to the Red Sox active roster to make his first career start tonight against the White Sox, per Chris Cotillo of Masslive.com (via Twitter).
Seabold will start in place of Nick Pivetta, who is on the COVID-related injured list. Seabold and Pivetta came to Boston together in a trade with the Phillies last August. The deal sent relievers Heath Hembree and Brandon Workman to Philadelphia – neither of whom remain with the team.
The 25-year-old Seabold was Boston’s 8th-ranked prospect by Fangraphs at the start of this season. He is their 12th-ranked prospect by Baseball America, who wrote in their scouting report, “Seabold’s three-pitch mix includes a 90-93 mph fastball that sometimes ticks up slightly higher, an excellent changeup with sink and fade and a below-average slider that plays up because of command and deception.”
The Red Sox currently hold the top wild card spot, but their grip is loose. The Yankees trail by just a half game, while the Blue Jays, Athletics, and Mariners are all within a game of New York. Seabold will be thrown right into the fire as the Red Sox continue to deal with a long list of positive COVID-19 tests.
Rays Place Wander Franco On 10-Day Injured List
2:45pm: Manager Kevin Cash says the timeline for Franco’s return is two-to-three weeks, per Topkin (via Twitter). That would get Franco back to the field before the end of the season.
TODAY, 10:40am: As expected, the Rays placed Franco on the 10-day injured list, recalling shortstop Taylor Walls to take his place on the roster. In addition, Randy Arozarena was reinstated from the paternity list and Josh Lowe was optioned back to Triple-A, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links). Franco will have an MRI done later today to determine the extend of his hamstring strain.
SEPT. 10: Rays shortstop Wander Franco left this evening’s game against the Tigers in the first inning due to right hamstring tightness. After the game, manager Kevin Cash told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) the expectation is that Franco will require a stint on the injured list.
Presumably, Franco will go for further testing to determine the extent of the injury and a projected timetable for his return. With an eight and a half game cushion in the AL East, the Rays shouldn’t have much issue weathering the loss of the star rookie for the next few weeks. But it’d obviously be disastrous news for Tampa Bay if the injury were to threaten his readiness for the start of postseason play a little less than a month from now.
The game’s consensus top prospect entering the season, Franco has demonstrated exactly why he’s so highly-regarded over his first couple months in the majors. Tampa Bay selected the switch-hitter to make his big league debut in late June. Franco started off slowly over his first couple weeks, but the 20-year-old’s recent run of play has been historic. He’s reached base safely in each of his past 39 games (including tonight’s contest, in which he singled in his only plate appearance). In MLB history, only Hall of Famer Frank Robinson has posted a longer on-base streak (43 games in 1956) at such a young age.
Altogether, Franco owns a .285/.347/.463 line (126 wRC+) over his first 271 big league plate appearances. He’s walking and hitting for power at essentially league average rates, but Franco has demonstrated excellent bat-to-ball skills. His 12.9% strikeout rate is almost ten percentage points lower than the league average, an impressive achievement for any player — let alone one as young as Franco.
The Rays do have ample infield depth to cover shortstop while Franco’s on the shelf. Fellow top prospects Vidal Bruján and Taylor Walls have logged some big league time this year and could be recalled from Triple-A Durham. Joey Wendle could also slide over from his typical third base position on occasion, with Yandy Díaz capable of manning the hot corner and Ji-Man Choi playing first base in such a scenario.
Phillies Designate Vince Velasquez For Assignment, Reinstate Matt Joyce
The Phillies made a number of roster moves today, most notably designating righty Vince Velasquez for assignment, per the team (Twitter links).Velasquez has been on the injured list with a blister issue. Regardless, it’s a disappointing result for Velasquez, who never quite lived up to expectations in Philly, despite six seasons on the roster. This season, Velasquez has a 5.95 ERA/5.58 FIP in 81 2/3 innings.
Time will tell if this is the end of the road for Velasquez and the Phils; the other 29 teams will have the opportunity to claim him off waivers, though that might be unlikely given his current injury status and the fact that he will be a free agent at the end of the season.
In terms of their other moves, Matt Joyce was reinstated from the 60-day injured list to claim one available roster spot. Joyce has just 62 plate appearances this season with much of his usage coming as a pinch-hitter.
Adonis Medina and Mickey Moniak were also recalled from Triple-A. Moniak has 32 plate appearances with the big league club this year. He will see some time as an extra outfielder. Medina will potentially take on some of Velasquez’s former repsonsibilities as a fifth starter. The Phillies may not go with a traditional fifth starter, but Medina could be used as a multi-inning reliever.
Heading out,Enyel De Los Santos and Ramon Rosso were optioned to Triple-A, while Travis Jankowski was placed on the 10-day injured list with a right foot contusion. Jankowski had been the primary alternate in the outfield, but that role will now be taken on by Joyce and Moniak.