Reds Acquire Luis Cessa, Justin Wilson From Yankees
In a surprise transaction, the Yankees announced they’ve traded relievers Luis Cessa and Justin Wilson to the Reds in exchange for a player to be named later. Cincinnati designated Ashton Goudeau and Edgar García for assignment to open 40-man roster space.
The appeal for the Reds is in the addition of Cessa, who was a dependable bullpen arm throughout much of his time in the Bronx. The right-hander is capable of working multiple innings and has been an effective pitcher over the past few years. Since the start of the 2019 campaign, Cessa has tossed 141 innings of 3.64 ERA/4.34 FIP ball. He’s been even more effective this season, working to a career-best 2.82 ERA over 38 1/3 frames.
Cessa doesn’t have the bat-missing stuff of most relievers. His 19.3% strikeout rate is well below the 24.5% league average for bullpen arms, and his swinging strike rate is similarly underwhelming. That’s basically been true throughout Cessa’s entire big league tenure, though, and he’s found a fair amount of success by throwing strikes and avoiding especially damaging contact. The 29-year-old is inducing ground balls at a massive 56.8% clip this year, and Statcast shows he’s been among the top twenty percent of pitchers in suppressing opponents’ average exit velocity, hard contact and barrels.
While the Reds don’t look particularly likely to make the playoffs in 2021, the acquisition of Cessa gives Cincinnati a potential multi-year piece for a bullpen that has been one of the league’s worst this year. The 29-year-old is earning just $1.05MM this season (less than $400K of which remains to be paid), and he’s controllable through 2023 via arbitration. With the Reds no doubt hoping to contend in 2022 (and not yet giving up hope of a late push this season), picking up an affordable, long-term bullpen piece holds obvious appeal.
Wilson has a long track record of productivity, but he’s in the middle of a disappointing campaign. The southpaw put up an ERA below 4.00 each season from 2017-20, but he’s only managed a 7.50 mark through 18 frames so far this year. Wilson’s velocity has gone backwards, and his typically lofty strikeout rate has plummeted to 18.1%. Given their own bullpen struggles, Cincinnati figures to give him an opportunity to right the ship, but it’s likely the Reds agreed to take on Wilson’s salary to incentivize the Yankees to part with Cessa.
New York signed Wilson over the winter to a somewhat complex contract. The southpaw is making $2.85MM this year (about $1MM of which remains). He has a $2.3MM player option for next season. If he declines, Cincinnati would hold a $7.15MM club option ($1.15MM buyout) on his services. Given Wilson’s struggles this year, it seems he’d be trending toward exercising his player option — but doing so would entitle the Reds to a 2023 club option worth just $500K north of that year’s league minimum salary.
Goudeau bounced around waivers throughout last offseason. He now seems likely to wind up back on the wire after making five MLB appearances for the Reds this year. He’s tossed 31 innings across eight appearances (five starts) with Triple-A Louisville, working to a 4.65 ERA with a below-average 16.1% strikeout rate. García has also spent most of the campaign with the Bats. He’s been quite good in Triple-A but hit hard over his five big league outings.
From the Yankees perspective, the deal frees some payroll space and clears a pair of spots on the 40-man roster. In addition to getting themselves off the hook for Wilson’s 2022 player option, New York shaves around $1.4MM off their luxury tax ledger in 2021. With the Yankees just a few million dollars shy of the $210MM threshold, the extra breathing room could enable the front office to pursue upgrades before Friday’s trade deadline. Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic (Twitter link) suggests New York could look around the league for bullpen and/or shortstop additions, with a particular focus on left-handed bats.
Tyler Anderson Talks Between Phillies, Pirates Hit Late Obstacle
10:22 pm: The Pirates have raised some concerns about Hernandez’s medical evaluation, reports Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. It remains possible a deal sending Anderson to Philly still gets done, although that might require “modifications” to Pittsburgh’s return, per Salisbury.
4:52pm: Despite multiple reports indicating the deal had been finalized, the trade now looks to have hit a “snag,” tweets Jon Heyman of MLB Network. Mackey tweets that Anderson is now in Pirates gear and throwing in the Pittsburgh bullpen. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that there’s some sort of issue with one of the two prospects in the deal.
That said, Anderson still isn’t starting tonight’s Bucs game. Pittsburgh has announced Luis Oviedo will make his first MLB start in place of Anderson. There’s no indication yet that the trade sending Anderson to Philadelphia is completely off, and it remains possible that the two parties could simply amend the deal to push it across the finish line. The Post-Gazette’s Mike Persak tweets that righty Max Kranick is at PNC Park, likely to replace Anderson on the roster, though he may have been summoned before any late obstacles arose.
3:07pm: The two sides are in agreement on a trade, reports Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter link). The Phillies are sending 21-year-old catcher Abrahan Gutierrez and 20-year-old righty Cristian Hernandez to the Pirates in return. The deal is “final,” per Mackey.
2:42pm: The Pirates and Phillies are in “serious” talks on a trade that would send left-handed starter Tyler Anderson from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, reports Jayson Stark of The Athletic (Twitter link). The deal in question would send a pair of prospects back to Pittsburgh. FanSided’s Robert Murray first noted talks between Philly and Pittsburgh. Mike Persak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tweets that Anderson has been scratched from tonight’s start, which certainly suggests a move is imminent.
The potential return isn’t yet clear, though Stark characterizes the prospects being discussed as “second tier” and notes in a second tweet that catching prospect Rafael Marchan is not part of the proposed package.
That’s not exactly surprising, as while Anderson is a solid starter, he’s more the type of arm to stabilize a rotation than to push it to new heights. A free agent at season’s end, Anderson is playing on a one-year, $2.5MM contract and is still owed about $901K of that sum between now and the end of the year.
Anderson, 31, has made 18 starts for the Buccos this season and pitched at least five innings in all of them. That may not seem like a high bar, but the Phillies have routinely received short starts from the likes of Chase Anderson, Vince Velasquez and Matt Moore. A reliable source of five to six solid innings per outing is something the club could badly use — particularly with right-hander Zach Eflin currently on the shelf.
Thus far, Anderson has given the Pirates 103 1/3 innings of 4.35 ERA ball, although he’s been a bit more consistent than that number might appear at first glance. The lefty was shelled for nine runs in five frames against the Braves back on May 21 but has yielded three or fewer earned runs in 15 of his 18 starts. Setting aside that awful night against the Braves, Anderson carries a 3.75 ERA in his other 17 appearances.
Anderson doesn’t miss tons of bats (20 percent strikeout rate) or induce tons of grounders (37.3 percent), but Anderson has excellent control (5.8 percent walk rate) and has induced plenty of weak contact in the air. Among the 276 pitchers who’ve had at least 100 batted balls against them so far in 2021, Anderson’s average exit velocity of 91.7 mph on balls in the air sits in the 86th percentile.
When the Phils are at full strength, Anderson would step in as the team’s fourth starter behind Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola and the aforementioned Eflin. He may not be locked in as a postseason starter, should Philadelphia qualify, but he could be a multi-inning option in a short postseason series or potentially a Game 3 starter, depending on the health elsewhere in the rotation. He also takes one target off the board for the division-rival Mets, who are eyeing rental starters and had been connected to Anderson as recently as this morning.
Turning to the Pirates’ end of the deal, they’ll receive some far-off but promising youngsters who joined the Phillies via international free agency. Gutierrez was originally signed by the Braves but reentered the free-agent market after Atlanta was penalized for international signing violations. He’s climbed as high as Class-A in 2021 and is enjoying an excellent season there, batting .285/.418/.424 with five homers, nine doubles and a solid 30 percent caught-stealing rate in 48 games.
Baseball America ranked Gutierrez 26th among Phillies farmhands prior to the season, calling him a line-drive hitter with average power and good knowledge of the strike zone. He landed 32nd on FanGraphs’ rankings of the Phillies system.
Hernandez is another player who didn’t rank prominently on preseason rankings of the Phillies’ system but has likely elevated his status with a strong 2021 showing. He’s pitched 56 2/3 innings at A-ball — presumably throwing to Gutierrez with regularity — and notched a 3.49 ERA with a big 31.2 percent strikeout rate and a 9.3 percent walk rate. MLB.com tabbed him 29th among Phillies prospects entering the season, noting that despite a modest $120K bonus when he signed, he might emerge as the best arm of Philadelphia’s 2017-18 signing class. Their report on him cites an above-average fastball that reaches 97 mph, a solid slider and a still-developing changeup as reasons to be optimistic about the 6’3″, 180-pound righty.
Mariners Designate Vinny Nittoli For Assignment
The Mariners announced they’ve designated right-hander Vinny Nittoli for assignment. The move is apparently made with a trade in mind, as MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reported (Twitter link) shortly before the team announcement that Nittoli was likely to be designated to buy time before he’s officially traded.
Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto acknowledged that another deal(s) was in the works after acquiring infielder Abraham Toro and reliever Joe Smith from the Astros for relievers Kendall Graveman and Rafael Montero this evening. Because Montero had previously been designated for assignment, the Mariners needed to clear a 40-man roster spot before tonight’s game against Houston. With Nittoli seemingly imminently headed elsewhere, there’s no harm for Seattle in removing him from the 40-man before that deal gets done.
The Mariners selected Nittoli to the roster last month, allowing him to make his major league debut on June 23. Other than that one appearance, he’s spent the season with Triple-A Tacoma. Through 28 2/3 innings with the Rainiers, the 30-year-old pitched to a 4.40 ERA with stellar strikeout and walk rates (31.7% and 5.0%, respectively).
Mariners, Astros Swap Kendall Graveman For Abraham Toro In Four-Player Trade
In a rare and rather stunning swap between a pair of division rivals who are both in contention, the Mariners have traded closer Kendall Graveman and recently designated-for-assignment righty Rafael Montero to the Astros in exchange for young infielder Abraham Toro and veteran righty Joe Smith, according to both clubs. The trade is even more eye-opening when considering that the two clubs are gearing up to play each other in the second game of a three-game set tonight.
Trading Graveman at all registers as a moderate surprise, given the Mariners’ recent climb in the standings and stated desire to improve the 2021 roster. To see him traded to the division-leading Astros while the two squads are playing one another is downright jarring. That said, Graveman is a free agent at season’s end, and in Toro, the Mariners are acquiring five seasons of control over an infielder who has been considered one of Houston’s more promising young prospects for the past few years.
In speaking to the media about the trade, Seattle general manager Jerry Dipoto plainly acknowledged that as a standalone transaction, it’s a head-scratching move. But Dipoto also emphasized some patience, suggesting this move is but one of a sequence of trades designed to improve the Mariners’ chances both in 2021 and over the long-term down the road (Twitter thread via MLB.com’s Daniel Kramer). Dipoto suggested a subsequent trade or trades could come together as soon as tonight or in the coming days, but it seems as though this is but one of a series of moves for which the Mariners are angling; time will tell just how the moves look when judged in their totality.
Toro, 24, hasn’t yet pieced things together in limited big league action, but he’s decimated Triple-A pitching (.392/.497/.600 in 33 games) and posted strong numbers in pitcher-friendly Double-A settings (.282/.369/.468 in 148 games). The switch-hitting Toro provides the Mariners with a possible long-term option at third base, but he’s also logged considerable time at second base — another area where the Mariners have been known to be seeking help. That long-term fit isn’t likely to matter much to the clubhouse, however, and Divish rather unsurprisingly tweets that the decision to trade Graveman to their top division rival was not well-received among Seattle players.
That’s understandable on Seattle’s end, given just how dominant Graveman has become since transitioning to the bullpen late in the 2020 season. The former Athletics starter has bounced back from an injury-lost 2019 season to emerge as one of the American League’s more effective relievers. In 33 innings this season, Graveman has pitched to a 0.82 ERA with a 28.1 percent strikeout rate, a 6.6 walk rate and a 53.9 percent ground-ball rate. Dating back to his shift to the bullpen in 2020, he’s compiled 43 innings of 1.47 ERA ball.
Graveman is likely all the more appealing to the luxury-conscious Astros because of his affordable salary. He’s playing on a one-year, $1.25MM contract. Incentives have already boosted that base salary by $400K, and the contract overall contains a total of $3MM in reachable incentives. That said, $1.5MM of those are tied up in games finished, and manager Dusty Baker has already indicated that Ryan Pressly is likely to continue as his closer. Graveman could still collect six more stray games finished to reach his first of three would-be $500K bonuses tied to games finished, but it’s unlikely he reaches the 30 and 40 games finished needed to unlock the next pair of $500K bonuses. In all, the contract will likely top out paying him somewhere in the range of $2.65MM based on incentives tied to days on the roster, games finished and total innings pitched.
Montero’s inclusion in the trade is likely a pure accounting measure. The combined salaries of Montero and Graveman ought to clock in somewhere in the same ballpark as Smith’s $4MM salary and luxury-tax hit, though depending on the status of Graveman’s incentives, the Astros could come out either a bit ahead or a bit behind where they were previously projected.
Montero opened the season as the closer in Seattle but struggled early and has been mired in a catastrophic slump of late, yielding 16 runs in his past 11 innings. The ‘Stros may have their own ideas on how to help a reliever who was quite good with the Rangers in 2019-20 right the ship, but Montero’s inclusion doesn’t appear to be a key part of the swap. At best he’s a roll of the dice, and at worst he’s a financial counterweight who could be cut loose quickly if his struggles persist.
The same is largely true of Smith, who opted out of the 2020 season after signing a two-year deal in Houston and has been clobbered for a 7.48 ERA in 21 2/3 innings this year. Some of that has been attributable to a sky-high .413 batting average on balls in play, but Smith is sporting a career-low strikeout rate, a grounder rate that’s well off his peak levels and has also been quite homer-prone. As with Houston and Montero, perhaps the Mariners have an idea or two about how to get the veteran righty back on track, but the trade is much more about Graveman and Toro than about the struggling relievers accompanying those two players.
Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times first tweeted that Toro and a reliever were going to the Mariners in exchange for two players. MLB.com’s Brian McTaggart provided the full context on the trade.
Yankees Activate Aaron Judge
The Yankees have reinstated Aaron Judge and Kyle Higashioka from the Covid-19-related injured list, per a club announcement. They’ve also added recent trade acquisition Clay Holmes to the active roster. In a series of corresponding moves, the Yankees placed righty Yoendrys Gomez on the Covid list, optioned outfielder Estevan Florial and righty Albert Abreu to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, and transferred right-hander Michael King to the 60-day injured list.
Judge returns to the Yankees’ lineup batting second and will hope to help spur a rally in the standings for a Yankees club that currently trails the Red Sox by nine and a half games. The Yankees are a much more-manageable three and a half games out of the second Wild Card spot in the American League. The 29-year-old Judge has had another excellent season when he’s been on the field, batting .282/.375/.526 with 21 home runs in 360 trips to the plate.
Higashioka, meanwhile, has given the Yankees some power and a strong walk rate in a limited role as a backup. His .196/.278/.433 slash doesn’t exactly jump out, but he has more pop and a better walk rate than most reserve catchers you’ll find around the league.
King’s transfer to the 60-day IL rules him out until early September. He went on the 10-day IL back on July 8, and his 60-day minimum stay on the IL is retroactive to the date of the initial placement. In 48 1/3 innings this season, King has pitched to a 3.72 ERA with a 47-to-21 K/BB ratio.
Mets Select Jerad Eickhoff, Designate Roel Ramirez
The Mets announced Tuesday that they’ve re-signed Jerad Eickhoff and selected him to the Major League roster. Right-hander Roel Ramirez has been designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster. Eickhoff is in line to start tonight’s game against the Braves.
It’s been a tumultuous year for Eickhoff with the Mets. He’s been designated for assignment twice and elected free agency both times — only to quickly re-sign a new deal with the Mets and return to the MLB roster. Tonight will mark his third stint and fourth start of the season with the Mets. To this point, he’s given then 16 1/3 innings of 4.96 ERA ball with nine strikeouts and five walks. Given the Mets’ current search for rotation options and the looming return of Carlos Carrasco, it’s possible this will be another short stint for Eickhoff.
Speaking of short stints, the 26-year-old Ramirez was claimed off waivers from the Cardinals just six days ago. He made only one appearance with Triple-A Syracuse, yielding a pair of runs in an inning of work. He was a depth pickup for the Mets but will now likely hit waivers again within the next week following today’s DFA (if he’s not traded prior to Friday’s deadline).
Rockies Release Matt Adams
The Rockies announced Tuesday that they’ve released veteran first baseman Matt Adams. His spot on the roster will go to infielder Rio Ruiz, who has been recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque.
Adams, 32, appeared in 22 games with the Rox but was deployed largely as a pinch-hitter. He’s posted a .167/.250/.194 batting line in 40 plate appearances this season and had accumulated just five plate appearances since coming off the injured list 17 days ago.
Adams slugged 20 home runs with the 2019 Nationals but did so with a .226 batting average and a .276 on-base percentage. His last season of above-average overall production came back in 2018, when he slashed .239/.309/.477 with a career-high 21 homers. Overall, Adams is a .258/.306/.463 hitter in more than 2600 Major League plate appearances. Nearly all the damage he’s done has come against right-handed pitching, as lefties have carved him up to the tune of a .210/.241/.378 slash line.
Ruiz, 27, was a waiver pickup out of the Orioles organization in late May. Baltimore designated him for assignment after he’d struggled to a .220/.292/.380 batting line across multiple auditions from 2019-21. While he obviously wasn’t able to establish himself with the O’s, Ruiz has batted .314/.375/.523 (118 wRC+) in a hitter-friendly Albuquerque setting. The Rockies are surely encouraged by a tiny 14.1 percent strikeout rate in that time and will give him a look moving forward.
Adams’ release figures to be the first of multiple personnel changes on the Rockies’ roster this week. Colorado is widely expected to trade away some impending free agents, with Jon Gray, Trevor Story, Mychal Givens, C.J. Cron and Daniel Bard among the possible trade candidates on the roster.
Tigers Activate Michael Fulmer, Designate Ian Krol For Assignment
The Tigers announced Tuesday that right-hander Michael Fulmer has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. Lefty Ian Krol was designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster.
Fulmer hit the injured list late last month with what the team termed a cervical spine strain. His return comes just days before the trade deadline, so it’s possible he won’t have enough time to convince other clubs of his health, but prior to his injury Fulmer looked like one of the more obvious trade candidates around the league.
The now-28-year-old righty was acquired from the Mets in the 2015 Yoenis Cespedes blockbuster and promptly won American League Rookie of the Year honors as a member of the Tigers’ rotation in 2016. That season saw the righty pitch 159 innings of 3.06 ERA ball over the life of 26 starts. He struck out 20.4 percent of opponents along the way, posted a very strong 6.5 percent walk rate and an above-average 48.9 percent grounder rate.
Fulmer looked like the next in a long line of quality arms that had helped the Tigers to perennial contender status earlier in the decade, but injuries have largely derailed that outlook. He’s undergone ulnar nerve transposition surgery and Tommy John surgery since that Rookie of the Year campaign and has pitched a total of just 200 innings since Opening Day 2018 — including 40 frames this year.
After seeing diminished output as a starting pitcher, Fulmer reinvented himself in the bullpen this season. He’s been hammered for a 4.97 ERA in his handful of starts this season but had pitched to a 3.62 ERA with a sizable 29.7 percent strikeout rate and just a 5.1 percent walk rate out of the ‘pen. That bullpen ERA was sitting at 2.73 prior to his final outing prior to landing on the IL, when he served up three runs in an inning of work before alerting the team of the injury.
Fulmer is earning a reasonable $3.1MM salary this year and is controlled into the 2022 season via arbitration. That could pique the interest of contending clubs, but the extra year of control also means the Tigers needn’t simply accept the best offer that comes their way after he’s had maybe one or two innings to showcase his health. Fulmer could reestablish himself in the season’s final months and be shopped this winter, and it’s also possible that the Tigers could decide to hang onto him into next year as they look to field a more competitive club.
Krol, 30, returned to the Majors for his first look since 2018. He tossed 4 2/3 innings out of the Detroit bullpen and held opponents to a pair of runs on four hits and a pair of walks with four strikeouts in that time. He’d been on a nice run in Triple-A prior to his call-up and has a pair of quality big league seasons under his belt, but consistency has been hard for him to come by; he carries a 4.48 ERA in 194 2/3 Major League innings and has on three occasions posted single-season ERAs of 4.96 or higher. The Tigers can trade him in the next couple days if they find a suitor — otherwise Krol will be placed on outright waivers or released.
Marlins Designate Luis Madero For Assignment
The Marlins have designated righty Luis Madero for assignment, as The Miami Herald’s David Wilson was among to report. First baseman Lewin Diaz has been called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.
This is already the third time Miami has DFA’ed Madero since the start of May, though amidst the roster maneuvering, the right-hander did make his Major League debut. Madero has tossed four innings over three games for the Marlins, with one disastrous outing (five runs in one inning against the Diamondbacks on May 11) accounting for his 11.25 ERA.
Beginning his career as a 17-year-old in Arizona’s farm system in 2014, Madero pitched for the D’Backs, Angels, and was briefly in the Giants organization before joining the Marlins on a minor league deal last winter. Starting 92 of his 110 career games in the minors, Madero has a 4.34 ERA and 20.73% strikeout rate over an even 500 minor league innings.
Brewers Place Christian Yelich, Jace Peterson On COVID List
The Brewers have placed Christian Yelich and Jace Peterson on the COVID-related injury list, president of baseball operations David Stearns told MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy (Twitter links). Yelich has tested positive for COVID-19 while Peterson is on the list due to contact tracing. Stearns noted that Yelich had already been fully vaccinated and is exhibiting mild symptoms, though the outfielder is expected to be back after the mandatory 10-day quarantine period.
To fill the two open roster spots, Lorenzo Cain is being activated off the 10-day injured list and Pablo Reyes was called up from Triple-A. Cain was expected to return from the IL today, following an absence of almost two months while recovering from a hamstring strain.
The most important news is that Yelich is feeling relatively good following his positive test, though the former NL MVP will now be sidelined for the third time this season. Yelich had two earlier IL placements due to back problems, costing him close to five weeks’ worth of action. This nagging back issue has bothered Yelich for a few years, contributing to his below-average performance since the start of the 2020 season. After his last 522 plate appearances, Yelich has hit .221/.370/.397 — a far cry from his .327/.415/.631 slash line over 1231 PA in 2018-19.
The Brewers are known to be looking for hitting help prior to the trade deadline, and losing Yelich will only add to the team’s search. Peterson has also been a good addition to the roster over 50 games 161 PA this season, hitting .244/.373/.397 (good for a 109 OPS+ and 113 wRC+) after signing a minor league deal with Milwaukee this past winter.
It isn’t known what Cain will be able to provide after his second IL trip of the season, and the veteran has mostly been an offensive non-factor since the start of the 2019 season. Cain has hit only .256/.327/.369 over his last 762 PA, as he has been hampered by multiple injuries and also elected to sit out much of the 2020 season.