Pirates Sign Shelby Miller To Minor League Contract
The Pirates have agreed to a minor league deal with right-hander Shelby Miller, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (Twitter link). Miller will be assigned to Triple-A after completing COVID-19 protocols.
Miller was designated for assignment and then released by the Cubs in May, as he was rocked for seven runs over two innings pitched for Chicago. These two rough innings represent the only MLB action for Miller in the last two seasons, as he opted out of the 2020 campaign. He was also a member of the Brewers organization in 2019-20, so Pittsburgh represents the fourth different NL Central team of Miller’s career.
Best known for his three-season heyday with the Cardinals and Braves from 2013-15, Miller has a 7.15 ERA in 185 innings since the start of the 2014 season, battling injuries (including a Tommy John surgery) and a lack of effectiveness. The Pirates will be the latest team to see if they can fix Miller, who is still only 30 years old.
The righty can provide the Bucs with some pitching depth, perhaps as a starter though Miller only had three abbreviated starts with Chicago’s Triple-A affiliate this season. At this point in Miller’s career, a turn to relief pitching might be advisable, though he didn’t fare well in relief duty with the Rangers in 2019.
Angels Place Justin Upton On 10-Day Injured List, Recall Kean Wong
The Angels placed outfielder Justin Upton on the 10-day injured list today, per Jeff Fletcher of the Southern California News Group (via Twitter). Upton’s been suffering from a sore back. To claim Upton’s roster spot, Kean Wong was recalled from Triple-A.
The Angels felt the sting of Upton’s absence today via some defensive miscues in the outfield as some players were forced to play out of position, notes Fletcher. Upton isn’t necessarily renowned as a defensive maven in left field, but he at least has plenty of experience playing the position. Taylor Ward was tasked with manning left field today, and in a classic Maddonian bit of maneuvering, starting pitcher Griffin Canning took on the defensive challenge late in Wednesday’s contest.
Beyond the defensive question, Upton’s bat will certainly be missed — he’s been on fire in June. Upton has a 199 wRC+ with a .338/.463/.531 slash line in 80 plate appearances this month. The hot streak has largely coincided with Upton taking over the leadoff spot in manager Joe Maddon’s lineup. Luis Rengifo has been given a few opportunities in that spot since Upton went down, while Shohei Ohtani took on the challenge in tonight’s game.
It doesn’t help that the Angels are already without outfielders Mike Trout and Dexter Fowler. In Trout’s case, there’s still no timetable for this return, per Fletcher. He has yet to resume any kind of baseball activities, suggesting the Angels will need to find a way to forge ahead without him for the time being.
Wong, 26, has hit .184/.205/.289 in 42 plate appearances with the Angels this season. He’s been significantly better in Triple-A, where he owns a .350/.388/.525 line in 85 trips to the plate.
Mets Place Jonathan Villar On 10-Day Injured List, Recall Travis Blankenhorn
The Mets placed infielder Jonathan Villar on the 10-day injured list with a sore right calf, per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (via Twitter). In a corresponding move, Travis Blankenhorn has been recalled from Triple-A. The Mets officially made the move after game one of today’s doubleheader against the Phillies.
Villar was somewhat of an afterthought as a winter addition this past offseason, but injuries to Jeff McNeil and J.D. Davis thrust Villar into a central role. Villar has started 47 of the Mets’ 70 games, mostly at third base, a position he hadn’t played since 2016. He’s been passable defensively, if not exactly a revelation with -2 Outs Above Average and -1 Defensive Runs Saved. Villar has long been considered a subpar defender, though capable enough and versatile, which is more or less exactly what he’s been on that end for the Mets this season.
Where Villar typically hopes to add the most value is on the offensive end. He’s delivered with a .246/.333/.410 line through 208 plate appearances, good for a 110 wRC+. Villar’s bat will be missed, though McNeil’s recent return should provide enough thump to maintain the status quo – if not improve upon it.
Luis Guillorme will likely take on some of Villar’s responsibilities. Despite a mark of -3 DRS in just 72 2/3 innings at third base this season, Guillorme is considered to be a glove-first contributor who should ultimately bolster the Mets’ defense in Villar’s absence. He doesn’t, however, offer as much with the bat. That said, he’s certainly been decent enough with a career 99 wRC+ and 118 wRC+ mark in 62 plate appearances this year.
Blankenhorn, 24, could also be an option. The well0-traveled Blankenhorn has often seen his name scrawled across the MLBTR pages this season. Since being recalled to the Twins active roster on April 20th, Blankenhorn was optioned, designated for assignment, claimed by the Dodgers, designated for assignment, claimed by the Mariners, optioned, DFA’d again, claimed by the Mets, and optioned again. The Pennsylvania native made a pretty good argument for keeping him permanently on the Mets roster, however, by slashing .389/.538/.944 in 26 plate appearances spanning seven games for the Syracuse Mets.
Minor MLB Transactions: 6/25/21
The latest minor moves from around baseball:
- The Mariners announced that left-hander Daniel Zamora has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Tacoma. The southpaw will remain in the organization as non-roster depth. Zamora has pitched in parts of three major league seasons with the Mets and Mariners, tossing 22 innings of 4.50 ERA/3.60 SIERA ball. He’s punched out a strong 28.5% of batters faced in his major league career, but Zamora hasn’t managed to consistently keep runs off the board at either the major league or Triple-A level.
Twins Select Danny Coulombe
The Twins have selected the contract of left-hander Danny Coulombe, according to a team announcement. In corresponding moves, Minnesota placed right-hander Luke Farrell on the 10-day injured with a right oblique strain, retroactive to June 23, and transferred righty Cody Stashak to the 60-day IL. Dan Hayes of the Athletic reported the series of transactions before the official announcement.
When he takes the mound, Coulombe will be appearing in his seventh different major league season. The 31-year-old made his debut with the 2014 Dodgers and spent much of 2015-18 as a frequently-utilized relief option for the Athletics. Coulombe’s time in Oakland was up-and-down, but at his best he flashed the ability to miss bats and work multiple innings out of the bullpen.
Coulombe played out the 2020 season with the Twins, appearing in a pair of big league games. He returned to the organization on a non-roster deal over the winter and has spent the 2021 season to date with St. Paul. He’s made fourteen relief appearances and tossed 20 1/3 innings with the Saints, working to a minuscule 1.77 ERA with elite strikeout and walk numbers (34.2% and 3.8%, respectively). That very strong work will earn him another look at the big league level.
Stashak is suffering from a left back disc injury. He was initially placed on the IL on June 8, meaning he won’t be eligible to return for at least 60 days from that date. The team didn’t provide any sort of timetable, but he’ll now be out of action until at least early August.
Indians To Sign Brad Peacock
The Indians are signing right-hander Brad Peacock to a minor league contract, reports Mandy Bell of MLB.com (Twitter link). The 33-year-old spent the 2013-20 seasons with the Astros.
Peacock was quite often a valuable swing man in Houston. He started 21 of his 34 appearances with the Astros’ 2017 World Series-winning club, pitching to a 3.00 ERA/3.76 SIERA. Despite that quality performance, Peacock found himself squeezed out of a loaded rotation the following season. He was equally effective in a relief role, working to a 3.46 ERA/2.40 SIERA across 65 frames in 2018. Peacock returned to starting in 2019, where he was again productive.
Unfortunately, Peacock’s 2020 season was almost entirely derailed by injury. He only made three relief appearances due to soreness in his throwing shoulder. Ultimately, he required arthroscopic surgery last October and spent the entire offseason recuperating. Peacock returned to health in April, but his market remained quiet until he threw a showcase in front of interested teams earlier this week.
Evidently, Cleveland’s brass was impressed enough with his form to add him to the organization. The Indians have been reeling from a series of injuries to their top trio of starting pitchers. Each of Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac and Aaron Civale are on the injured list at the moment. That’s left the Indians with an unproven, generally underwhelming starting staff. At 41-31, the Indians are nevertheless only two games back of the White Sox in the American League Central. They’re trying to hang in contention while weathering the injuries to their top starters.
Given that outlook at the big league level, it seems Peacock has a good chance to pitch his way back into a big league rotation relatively quickly. (The Cleveland bullpen is in much better shape health-wise and has been the strength of the team all year). Presumably, Peacock will report to Triple-A Columbus and build up into game shape as a potential starting option for Cleveland in the coming weeks.
Orioles Designate Mickey Jannis For Assignment, Select Konner Wade
The Orioles announced Friday that they’ve selected the contract of righty Konner Wade from Triple-A Norfolk and designated right-hander Mickey Jannis for assignment in a corresponding move. The O’s also optioned righty Dean Kremer to Norfolk and recalled lefty Alexander Wells.
Jannis was just selected to the major league roster earlier this week. The 33-year-old made his MLB debut Wednesday night against the Astros, but it didn’t go well. He worked 3 1/3 innings of mop-up relief but was tagged for seven runs on eight hits (including three homers), issuing four walks while striking out just one. It was a nightmare outing to be sure, but it also came against a Houston lineup that has been far and away the best in baseball this year. Before that tough debut, the knuckleballer earned a big league look by pitching to a 2.92 ERA in 24 2/3 innings with Norfolk. The O’s will have a week to trade him or place him on waivers.
The designation of Jannis frees up Wade to make a late-career MLB debut of his own. A 7th-round pick out of the University of Arizona in 2013, Wade has spent the past seven seasons climbing the minor league ladder. Most of that time was spent in the Rockies and Red Sox systems, but the 29-year-old signed a minor league deal with Baltimore over the winter. He’s spent the entire year in Norfolk, where he’s tossed 31 innings of 3.48 ERA ball, mostly as a multi-inning reliever. Wade has never been one to miss many bats, and that hasn’t changed this year (16.4% strikeout rate). But the righty also has a long history of quality strike-throwing, and that’s continued in 2021 (4.9% walk rate).
Kremer has spent much of the year in the O’s rotation. He’s struggled mightily, though, pitching to a 7.25 ERA with worse than average strikeout and walk numbers (20% and 10.7%, respectively) over 49 2/3 innings. That’s a disappointing follow-up to a decent four-start MLB look in 2020 for Kremer, who’s long been seen as one of the more promising pitchers in the Baltimore system.
Wells is a decently-regarded prospect in his own right. The 24-year-old doesn’t throw hard or miss bats, but he owns some of the best control in the minors. He has a 5.63 ERA across 32 Triple-A frames this season. Wells will be making his major league debut whenever he gets into a game.
Mets Claim Chance Sisco
The Mets have claimed catcher Chance Sisco off waivers from the Orioles, per team announcements from both clubs. The Orioles had designated him for assignment last week. The Mets moved J.D. Davis to the 60-day injured list to clear a roster spot for Sisco, who has been optioned to Triple-A Syracuse for the time being.
Today’s claim brings to an end Sisco’s tenure with the Orioles, who selected him in the second round of the 2013 draft. The left-handed hitting backstop raked up through Double-A over the next few seasons, eventually earning himself a place on top prospect lists. Baseball America ranked Sisco among the back half of the league’s top 100 minor league talents entering the 2017 and 2018 campaigns, with the expectation that Sisco would cement himself as a bat-first regular behind the dish.
To this point, however, Sisco hasn’t carried that offensive promise over to the highest level. He tallied 598 major league plate appearances with Baltimore over the past five seasons, managing just a cumulative .199/.319/.339 line. He’s popped sixteen home runs and walked at a strong 10.2% clip, but Sisco has become increasingly strikeout prone as he’s climbed to the highest level. He’s gone down on strikes in 32.3% of his MLB plate appearances. Advanced defensive metrics have panned his work behind the plate, which was also a concern for some scouts as he worked his way up the ladder.
While Sisco hasn’t yet proven a valuable big leaguer, there’s little harm for the Mets in placing a claim on an obviously talented player. He’s still just 26 years old and has a decent .264/.352/.421 slash line in 805 career plate appearances at Triple-A. As mentioned, he can also be optioned for the remainder of the year, so the Mets can keep him in Syracuse as high minors’ depth if he remains on the 40-man roster all season.
Davis’ transfer to the 60-day IL is largely a procedural move. It rules him out for 60 days from the time of his initial IL placement (May 3). He’ll be eligible to return on July 1. General manager Zack Scott told reporters (including Tim Britton of the Athletic) earlier this week that Davis could embark on a minor league rehab assignment within a week or two.
Diamondbacks Claim Brett de Geus
The D-backs announced Friday that they’ve claimed right-hander Brett de Geus off waivers from the Rangers, who’d designated him for assignment earlier in the week. The 23-year-old de Geus was the No. 2 pick in this past December’s Rule 5 Draft, going from the Dodgers to the Rangers.
It’s been a rough debut for de Geus, who has totaled 26 2/3 innings for Texas but been tagged for 25 runs in that time. He’s yielded 31 hits, including three home runs, issued 13 walks and plunked an alarming six batters. De Geus has punched out 26 hitters in those 26 2/3 frames, but a straight K/9 is a little misleading for a pitcher who has walked and hit so many batters; his 20.5 percent overall strikeout rate is well shy of the 24.6 percent league-average for a reliever.
While his MLB debut hasn’t gone particularly well, that’s not much of a surprise considering the fact that de Geus is a 23-year-old making the jump from A-ball to the Majors on the heels of a canceled 2020 minor league season. In May 2020, FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen tabbed de Geus as the No. 35 prospect in a deep Dodgers system, noting that a velocity spike upon moving to the bullpen had create some optimism about his chances of emerging as a viable MLB reliever.
Back in 2019, de Geus split the season between Class-A and Class-A Advanced, posting video-game numbers along the way. He combined for 61 2/3 innings of 1.75 ERA ball with a 29.8 percent strikeout rate, a 5.4 percent walk rate and a 56.1 percent ground-ball rate. He’s maintained those impressive ground-ball tendencies in the Majors, inducing grounders at a 55.6 percent clip with Texas.
Because de Geus was a Rule 5 pick, he’ll have to stick on the Diamondbacks’ roster for the remainder of the season or else again be placed on waivers. Were he to theoretically clear waivers if the D-backs exposed him to them a second time, he’d then need to be offered back to the Dodgers organization. Given the catastrophic nature of the Diamondbacks’ 2021 season, however, it shouldn’t be too hard for them to hang onto de Geus through the remainder of the year if they indeed want to permanently secure his rights. Arizona is currently 21-56, making them the only team in Major League Baseball with a sub-.300 winning percentage.
Pirates Trade Troy Stokes Jr., Jandel Gustave To Brewers
The Pirates and Brewers have agreed to a trade sending outfielder Troy Stokes Jr. and righty Jandel Gustave from Pittsburgh to Milwaukee in exchange for 17-year-old catcher Samuel Escudero, according to a team announcement out of Milwaukee. Stokes and Gustave have both been assigned to Triple-A Nashville for the time being.
It’s a bit of an oddball trade between two division rivals, as neither Stokes nor Gustave are on the 40-man roster for the rebuilding Pirates. Stokes, 25, was originally a fourth-round pick by the Brewers back in 2014 but made his way to the Pirates via a pair of waiver claims over the past couple seasons. He made his MLB debut earlier this season with Pittsburgh, appearing in eight games and 2-for-18, but he’s since been outrighted off the 40-man roster.
Stokes hasn’t been hitting particularly well in Triple-A Indianapolis since being removed from the 40-man roster. He’s logged 29 games and 84 plate appearances with a tepid .169/.298/.310 slash, dropping his career slash at the Triple-A level to .221/.333/.372 in 465 plate appearances. He’ll give some upper-level outfield depth to a team that traded Billy McKinney to the Mets last month and currently has Lorenzo Cain on the injured list. Milwaukee also recently designated outfielder Derek Fisher for assignment, and if he ends up elsewhere that’d only further deplete their outfield depth.
For the Brewers, the acquisition of Gustave could be the greater focus. Milwaukee’s acquisition of Willy Adames from the Rays bolstered its defense and lineup, but the Brewers had to part with righties J.P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen in order to get that deal done. Righty Trevor Richards came to Milwaukee in that deal and has thrown well, but they’re down a reliever on their depth chart following that swap.
President of baseball ops David Stearns suggested in an interview with The Athletic’s Will Sammon this week that looking for some complementary bullpen arms might be on the to-do list as the deadline approaches. “Where we’ve struggled is finding those complementary players who can round out a pitching staff and provide consistent performance,” Stearns told Sammon.
Acquiring Gustave certainly seems to mesh with Stearns’ comments. The former Astros and Giants righty was once a prospect of some note, going with the top pick in the 2014 Rule 5 Draft. Tommy John surgery limited him to five innings with the ‘Stros in 2017 and wiped out his entire 2018 campaign. He made it back to the big leagues with the Giants in 2019 and tossed 24 1/3 innings of 2.96 ERA ball, albeit with a lowly 14.1 percent strikeout rate and a 9.1 percent walk rate.
Gustave didn’t pitch in the Majors last year. Though he started the season on the Giants’ 40-man roster, he wasn’t added to their initial 60-man player pool and was designated for assignment in early August. He inked a minor league deal with Pittsburgh over the winter and has thrown well in Indianapolis, holding opponents to six runs on a dozen hits and five walks with 18 punchouts through 15 frames (3.60 ERA).
While Gustave hasn’t missed too many bats in the big leagues, he’s whiffed 29 percent of his opponents in Triple-A this season and 23 percent in parts of three career campaigns there. The right-hander carries a 3.43 ERA in 44 2/3 innings at the MLB level and a 4.39 mark in 98 1/3 innings of Triple-A work. At the very least, he gives the Brewers another depth arm with some experience should they need to tap further into the minor league reservoir.
As for the Pirates’ return, there’s not much publicly available data on the young backstop. The Brewers signed him as an amateur out of Venezuela back in January, and the Pirates have assigned him to their affiliate in the Dominican Summer League. Given that the Bucs are trading away a player who cleared waivers a month ago and a second non-roster player who was acquired on a minor league contract, getting even a far-off lottery ticket who’s just setting out on his pro career is a nice pickup.