Rockies Activate Antonio Senzatela, Yency Almonte
The Rockies announced they’ve reinstated right-handers Antonio Senzatela and Yency Almonte from the COVID-19 injured list. Senzatela will get the ball for this afternoon’s game against the Cubs. In corresponding moves, infielder Rio Ruiz has been optioned while left-hander Zac Rosscup was returned to Triple-A Albuquerque.
Senzatela and Almonte landed on the IL on July 16, with the Rockies dealing with coronavirus spread upon their return from the All-Star Break. Both players wound up missing a little less than three weeks. Senzatela now returns to Colorado’s starting rotation, where he’s been a fixture for most of the past five seasons. This year, he’s tossed 94 1/3 innings of 4.58 ERA ball despite a 15.7% strikeout rate that’s one of the league’s lowest. He’s continued to be particularly stingy in terms of handing out free passes, with a tiny 5.1% walk rate, and he’s racked up groundballs at a huge 54% clip.
Rosscup was selected to help shoulder the pitching workload due to the virus spread. Players selected as COVID replacements can be removed from the active and 40-man rosters without being exposed to waivers, so the veteran lefty will now head back to Triple-A. He made four appearances during his big league stint, allowing one run over three innings of relief with four strikeouts and a walk.
Rangers Select Yonny Hernandez
The Rangers announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Yonny Hernandez from Triple-A Round Rock. He’ll take the active roster spot of outfielder Eli White, who is headed to the 10-day injured list with a right elbow strain. The Rangers transferred outfielder/designated hitter Willie Calhoun from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Hernandez, 23, will get his first big league opportunity after hitting .250/.424/.323 in 261 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. Hernandez has swiped 21 bases in 31 tries and seen action at each of shortstop (285 innings), third base (183) and second base (85) so far in 2021. That gaudy OBP is the result of a 20.3 percent walk rate, which exemplifies the plate discipline Hernandez has shown throughout his pro career to date. Since debuting as a 17-year-old back in 2015, Hernandez has drawn more walks (15.2 percent) than strikeouts (13.7 percent) in 1904 professional plate appearances.
Hernandez ranks 27th among Texas farmhands over at FanGraphs, where Eric Longenhagen tabs him as a versatile role player with a good glove and a keen eye but a fairly weak contact profile. He’s never ranked among the team’s top 30 farmhands at Baseball America, although BA credited him with the best strike zone discipline of any prospect in the Rangers system in each of the past two offseasons.
Red Sox Acquire Delino DeShields Jr.
The Red Sox have acquired outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. from the Rangers in exchange for cash, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reports (via Twitter). While the July 30 trade deadline has passed, DeShields is eligible to be traded by virtue of the fact that he’s on a minor league contract and has not been on a Major League roster so far in 2021. It’s the second post-deadline trade of a notable name who’d been on a minor league deal all season; the Brewers picked up righty John Axford from the Blue Jays in exchange for cash earlier in the week.
DeShields, who’ll turn 29 in less than two weeks, will bring the Sox plenty of speed and provide some outfield depth. He’s had a solid season in Triple-A, batting .263/.392/.368 with five homers, nine doubles, a triple and 16 stolen bases (in 18 attempts). The former No. 8 overall draft pick has walked at a gaudy 16.4 percent clip and fanned in 20.3 percent of his 368 trips to the plate so far in Triple-A this year.
Of course, DeShields has quite a bit of big league experience under his belt as well. He was the most frequently used option in center field for the Rangers from 2015-19 and spent the 2020 season in Cleveland after being shipped to the Indians as part of the Rangers’ ill-fated Corey Kluber acquisition. DeShields had a promising debut campaign as a 22-year-old back in 2015, but his bat never came around as hoped. He’s played in 576 big league games and tallied more than 2000 plate appearances, but the resulting .246/.326/.340 output has been 21 to 24 percent worse than league-average in that time, by measure of wRC+ and OPS+, respectively.
Boston has been giving the bulk of the at-bats in center field to top prospect Jarren Duran, but he’s struggled through his first 53 big league plate appearances, hitting at a .180/.208/.360 clip with a 37.7 percent strikeout rate. Even if the Sox decide they want to give Duran some more time in Triple-A, however, that doesn’t mean DeShields will immediately be called upon. Enrique Hernandez could certainly shift back to center field, and the Sox could also play Alex Verdugo there. With Kyle Schwarber nearing a return from the injured list, he’d be an option in left field should the Red Sox want to temporarily slide Verdugo over; he’s played 225 innings in center already in 2021.
Still, DeShields gives Boston some experienced depth. Perhaps more importantly, he’ll be an interesting option to come up when rosters expand to 28 players in September. It’s commonplace for contending clubs to acquire fleet-footed depth options who can serve as pinch-runners and defensive replacements for the final stretch of the season, although that tactic’s prevalence could drop now that September roster expansion has been considerably reduced. We’ve also seen teams employ dedicated pinch-runners and defensive replacements into the postseason, however, and DeShields will give the Sox an option to consider in that role.
Athletics Sign Khris Davis
It’s reunion season in Oakland. The A’s announced Wednesday that they’ve signed outfielder/designated hitter Khris Davis to a minor league contract and assigned him to their affiliate in the Arizona Complex League.
Davis, of course, was a mainstay in the Athletics’ lineup from 2016-20, logging a trio of 40-homer campaigns as the team’s primary designated hitter along the way. Davis rather remarkably posted a .247 batting average in four consecutive seasons with the A’s, complementing that with healthy walk rates and top-of-the-scale power. Davis led Major League Baseball in home runs from 2016-18. Add in the 2019 season, and only Nelson Cruz and Nolan Arenado surpassed him in total long balls.
The slugger had long made clear that he hoped to remain in Oakland, and the A’s took the rather rare (for them) step of extending Davis and buying out multiple free-agent seasons. Unfortunately, the two-year, $33MM contract proved to be a misstep, as Davis’ bat fell off not long after signing the deal. He hit just .200/.303/.329 through 99 plate appearances in 2020, the first season of that extension, and Oakland flipped him to the Rangers in an offseason deal that brought Elvis Andrus to the A’s and carried payroll benefits for both clubs. Things didn’t go well for “Khrush” in Texas, either, as he slashed just .157/.262/.333 in 61 plate appearances before being designated for assignment and released.
Of course, any mention of Davis’ decline needs to take his health — or lack thereof — into account. Davis played through hip, oblique and hand injuries in 2019 as his downturn at the plate began, and while he didn’t make excuses for his dwindling power numbers, he eventually acknowledged that his injuries had impacted his swing when asked. Davis explained that he’d begun to choke up a bit to compensate for a lack of strength in his hand, which had conversely impacted his power game. Whether Davis was fully healthy in either of the two subsequent seasons can’t be certain, but he’s yet to regain the prodigious power or remarkable consistency at the plate that he displayed in his peak form.
It might be a long shot to see the now-33-year-old slugger return to those heights, at least in 2021, but the A’s will take a no-risk look and try to get one of their former lineup cornerstones back on track in the minor league ranks. Their openness to doing so should come as no surprise; Oakland designated hitters have combined to bat just .217/.292/.380 this season. The A’s were linked to Cruz in trade rumblings last month, but the AL East-leading Rays made the best offer for the now-former Twins slugger and acquired him about a week prior to the July 30 trade deadline.
Minor MLB Transactions: 8/4/21
Today’s minor moves:
- The Yankees announced they’ve returned outfielder Greg Allen to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Because he was selected as a COVID-19 replacement, he can be removed from the active and 40-man rosters without being subject to waivers. Allen played well in fifteen games after being called up on July 16, slashing .270/.417/.432 over 48 plate appearances.
Giants Activate Tommy La Stella, Place Anthony DeSclafani On Injured List
The Giants announced they’ve reinstated infielder Tommy La Stella from the 60-day injured list (via Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle). Starter Anthony DeSclafani is going on the 10-day IL, retroactive to August 3, with right shoulder fatigue. To open 40-man roster space for La Stella, reliever Conner Menez was designated for assignment.
La Stella returns after a three month absence. He initially landed on the IL with a left hamstring strain and then suffered a right hand fracture while rehabbing. It’s been a tough first season in San Francisco for La Stella, who has thus far been limited to 75 plate appearances of .235/.297/.353 hitting. That’s far off the quietly excellent .289/.356/.471 line the lefty-swinging La Stella put up with the Angels and A’s between 2019-20.
Despite the slow start, the Giants are surely happy to have La Stella back in the lineup. San Francisco signed the 32-year-old to a three-year, $18.75MM contract over the winter. There’s little question the front office believes in his ability to return to his prior form. La Stella figures to rotate between second and third base, at least until Evan Longoria returns from his own lengthy IL stint. That’ll free up Kris Bryant to see more time in the outfield and offer manager Gabe Kapler a quality left-handed bat to mix in with the right-handed hitting Donovan Solano and Wilmer Flores at those positions.
In addition to La Stella, San Francisco figures to bring back Longoria and Brandon Belt in the not too distant future. They’ll be welcome reinforcements for the 67-40 Giants, who hold MLB’s best record and lead the Dodgers by 3.5 games in the National League West.
It doesn’t seem there’s much cause for alarm with DeSclafani despite the ominous-sounding diagnosis. Kapler told reporters (including Andrew Baggarly of the Athletic) the expectation is that he’ll miss just one start. The righty struggled in 2020 — his final season with the Reds — but has had a bounceback campaign in the Bay Area. DeSclafani has tossed 126 1/3 innings of 3.28 ERA/4.03 SIERA ball with average or better strikeout (23.3%), walk (6.5%) and groundball (45.0%) rates. He’s already thrown nearly 100 more innings than he did in Cincinnati last season, so the Giants are surely keeping a close eye on his workload to keep him healthy for the stretch run.
Menez is something of a surprising cut, as the southpaw has pitched quite well in his big league time this season. He’s tossed 14 innings with a 3.86 ERA, punching out a decent 24.2% of opposing hitters with a massive 59.1% grounder rate. However, he’s struggled mightily in 22 frames with Triple-A Sacramento, managing just a 6.95 ERA and walking an alarming 15.9% of opposing hitters in the minors.
Triple-A struggles aside, it wouldn’t be surprising to see another team add Menez off waivers. The 26-year-old has a fine 4.04 ERA/4.34 SIERA over parts of three major league seasons and can still be optioned for the remainder of this year.
Dodgers Designate Yefry Ramirez For Assignment
The Dodgers announced they’ve designated right-hander Yefry Ramírez for assignment. The move clears space on the 40-man roster for Cole Hamels, who has officially signed a major league contract.
Ramírez was just selected to the roster earlier this week, and he loses his spot after a single big league appearance. He’s otherwise spent the entire season with Triple-A Oklahoma City, where’s made 15 appearances (12 starts). Ramírez pitched to a 5.49 ERA in that hitter-friendly league, striking out a solid 25% of batters faced but issuing walks at an alarming 11.1% clip.
The 27-year-old has pitched in parts of three big league seasons, seeing action with the Orioles and Pirates in addition to his briefest of stints in L.A. Ramírez will now be made available to other clubs via waivers, although any claiming team would have to keep the out-of-options hurler on the big league roster or designate him for assignment themselves. Having previously been passed through outright waivers in his career, Ramírez would have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency if he clears.
Pirates Sign Keury Mella
The Pirates have signed right-hander Keury Mella to a minor league contract, reports Jake Crouse of MLB.com (Twitter link). He has been assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis. Mella was released by the Diamondbacks last week.
Mella has seen big league action in each of the past five seasons, albeit without ever carving out a consistent role on a staff. He’s never logged more than ten MLB innings in a given campaign, and his overall body of work consists of 28 2/3 frames of 7.22 ERA/5.11 SIERA ball. The 28-year-old made two appearances with the D-Backs this season, allowing six runs in 1 2/3 innings before being passed through outright waivers.
Over parts of four Triple-A campaigns, Mella has worked to a 4.55 ERA across 201 2/3 innings, starting a little more than half his appearances. He’s worked exclusively in relief this season, though, tossing 29 innings of 4.34 ERA ball in a hitter-friendly environment in Reno. Mella’s 22.7% Triple-A strikeout rate is a bit below-average, but he’s done well in avoiding walks and induced grounders on nearly half the balls in play against him.
In other Pirates roster news, the club activated left-hander Steven Brault from the 60-day injured list, as previously reported. He worked four innings of one-run ball against the Brewers this afternoon in his season debut. To create 40-man roster space, Pittsburgh transferred righty Chase De Jong from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list. De Jong is out for the season after undergoing surgery on his left knee last week.
Marlins Designate Deven Marrero For Assignment
AUGUST 4: Chisholm has been reinstated from the IL, suggesting he’s tested negative for the virus. Marrero was designated for assignment in a corresponding move (via McPherson).
AUGUST 3: The Marlins announced they’ve placed middle infielder Jazz Chisholm on the COVID-19 injured list. Infielder Deven Marrero has been selected to the roster to replace him.
Chisholm has been experiencing virus-like symptoms, reports Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald (Twitter link). There’s no indication that he’s actually tested positive for the virus at this point. The 23-year-old is hitting .254/.317/.430 with eleven home runs across 307 plate appearances so far this season.
Marrero has been on and off the roster a few times, picking up seven plate appearances. He has spent most of the season with Triple-A Jacksonville, hitting .252/.327/.397 with the Jumbo Shrimp.
Nick Tropeano Elects Free Agency
Nick Tropeano has elected free agency after being passed through outright waivers by the Mets, according to the MLB.com transactions tracker. New York designated the 30-year-old for assignment last Friday to clear roster space to accommodate their deadline day acquisitions.
As a player who had previously been outrighted in his career, Tropeano had the right to elect free agency while retaining the remainder of his $1.1MM salary for this season. He’s now free to explore opportunities around the league.
Tropeano saw a bit of big league time with the Giants and Mets this season, tossing eight innings of three-run ball. He only struck out two batters in that tiny sample of work, but the right-hander showed far better bat-missing ability in some time with the Pirates last year. Over 15 2/3 frames with Pittsburgh, Tropeano pitched to a 1.15 ERA with a strong 28.8% strikeout rate and 14.9% swinging strike rate.
Given his decent performance over the past couple seasons, Tropeano should have little trouble finding another opportunity on the open market. While he broke in as a starting pitcher with the Astros and Angels, Tropeano has worked exclusively in relief over the past two years, managing a cumulative 1.52 ERA/3.52 FIP over 23 2/3 innings.