Astros Shuffle Rotation With Valdez, Odorizzi Set To Return
Astros skipper Dusty Baker announced several changes to his team’s pitching staff during his Wednesday media session, revealing that lefty Framber Valdez will return from the injured list to make his season debut Friday and Jake Odorizzi will be activated to start Saturday’s game (all Twitter links via Jake Kaplan of The Athletic). That’s the good news, but Baker also announced that righty Lance McCullers Jr. is headed to the 10-day IL due to shoulder soreness. The team does not believe the issue to be serious at this point.
The Astros have also selected the contract of right-hander Ralph Garza from Triple-A Sugar Land. Injured righty Josh James was moved from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL to open a roster spot. Lastly, Baker said right-hander Cristian Javier will be moved to the bullpen to accommodate the returns of Valdez and Odorizzi.
It’s a broad-ranging series of roster moves and role changes that carry significant implications for the Astros’ outlook moving forward. The 27-year-old Valdez broke out as one of the team’s best starters in 2020 and was expected to occupy a key role near the top of the rotation in ’21, but a broken ring finger sustained on a comebacker in Spring Training placed his very season in jeopardy. Valdez opted not to undergo surgery that could have cost him the bulk of the year, and he’ll now return to the mound after missing approximately two months of action.
Valdez stepped up in the wake of Justin Verlander‘s injury last year, logging 70 2/3 frames with a 3.57 ERA and even better FIP (2.85) and SIERA (3.23) marks. He fanned a hearty 26.4 percent of his opponents against just a 5.6 percent walk rate — all while inducing grounders at a 60 percent clip that ranked among the game’s best. That combination of missed bats, precise control and grounders is a time-honored recipe for success, and he’ll now look to build on last year’s performance to cement himself as one of the club’s best rotation arms.
Odorizzi, 31, inked a three-year deal with the Astros over the winter (the third of which is a player option that’s unlikely to be exercised but was included as a means of manipulating the luxury tax). He made a pair of starts for the ‘Stros earlier this season after a short ramp-up before being placed on the IL with a pronator muscle strain. Those first two outings didn’t go well, but Odorizzi will look to put that pair of outings and an injury-ruined 2020 season with the Twins behind him.
It appears the return of Odorizzi and Valdez will be utilized by the Astros as a means of managing the 24-year-old Javier’s workload. He’s been quite good thus far in 2021, pitching to a 3.14 ERA with a 29.9 percent strikeout rate and a 10.8 percent walk rate. However, the 48 2/3 innings he’s thrown are already just six shy of his entire 2020 total, and there are still more than four months of regular-season play remaining (plus, the Astros hope, additional October ball to be played). A move to the ‘pen will allow the ‘Stros to more carefully monitor his overall innings count this year.
The role change doesn’t necessarily rule out a return to the rotation later in the season, and based on Javier’s first 103 big league innings, it’d be a shock if the organization didn’t view him as a starter moving forward. He’s pitched to a combined 3.32 ERA with a 27.5 percent strikeout rate and 9.6 percent walk rate through 21 appearances (19 of them starts). With Verlander and Zack Greinke both slated to reach free agency this winter, there could be a fairly straightforward path to rotation work for Javier in 2022 and beyond.
Turning to the other IL moves announced today, the move of James to the 60-day IL is a procedural one that doesn’t really impact his timeline back to the Majors. He’s been out all year while recovering from hip surgery and was said during Spring Training to be targeting a June return. Today’s placement on the 60-day IL merely means that he can’t be activated until May 31, which wasn’t going to happen anyhow.
The departure of McCullers will be felt in the short-term, as he’s logged an excellent 2.96 ERA through his first 51 2/3 frames this year. The right-hander elected to forgo free agency in favor of a five-year, $85MM extension offer from the Astros during Spring Training, and at least to this point, the 27-year-old looks like a pitcher capable of living up to that deal.
Garza, 27, isn’t considered to be among the team’s top-ranked prospects but has tossed 6 2/3 shutout innings in Sugar Land, yielding just a hit and three walks with 11 punchouts along the way. He’s spent parts of four seasons in Triple-A, pitching to a combined 3.80 ERA with a 26.2 percent strikeout rate. He’ll join the club’s bullpen for now.
Rangers Select Jason Martin
The Rangers announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of outfielder Jason Martin from Triple-A Round Rock. He’ll take the active roster spot of David Dahl, who is headed to the 10-day injured list with a left rib cage contusion. Righty Kohei Arihara, who is slated to undergo shoulder surgery, was transferred from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster.
Martin, 25, is out to a fast start in Triple-A after inking a minor league deal with Texas over the winter. The former Pirates farmhand is hitting .302/.413/.755 with seven home runs and three doubles through his first 63 trips to the plate — a far cry from the lackluster Triple-A output he produced in a pair of seasons with the Pirates’ top affiliate in Indianapolis.
Pittsburgh gave Martin brief MLB looks in both 2019 and 2020, but he hit only .200/.294/.244 in 51 plate appearances. This will be his first opportunity in the Majors with any other organization. The 2013 eighth-rounder was originally drafted by the Astros but flipped to Pittsburgh as part of the Gerrit Cole trade. The Pirates placed him on waivers at the end of the 2020 season, and he opted for free agency after going unclaimed.
The 27-year-old Dahl sustained his injury in yesterday’s game when he crashed into the right field wall as he tracked a Jared Walsh fly-ball that eventually left the yard. Formerly one of the Rockies’ top prospects — one of the top prospects in all of baseball, for that matter — Dahl’s career has been ravaged by injuries that led Colorado to non-tender him this winter rather than pay him a raise in arbitration. The Rangers took a chance on a $2.7MM deal for the former No. 10 overall pick, but he’s floundered thus far with his new team, hitting just .208/.242/.340 through 154 plate appearances.
Cubs, Dee Strange-Gordon Agree To Minor League Deal
The Cubs are in agreement with veteran infielder Dee Strange-Gordon on a minor league contract, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). The Rep 1 Baseball client will head to Triple-A Iowa and give the Cubs some additional depth in the infield following last night’s hamstring strain for Nico Hoerner — an injury that could very well send Hoerner back to the injured list.
NBC Sports Chicago’s Gordon Wittenmyer tweets that Hoerner underwent an MRI this morning. Meanwhile, Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register reports that outfield Rafael Ortega is leaving the Cubs’ Iowa affiliate to either join the taxi squad or the big league club, which could serve as further evidence that an IL trip for Hoerner is on the horizon.
Strange-Gordon appeared in 33 games with the Mariners in 2020 but tallied only 82 plate appearances with a dismal .200/.268/.213 batting line. The 33-year-old was a two-time All-Star with the Marlins from 2014-15, when he was among baseball’s most prolific threats on the basepaths, but his base-stealing and overall offensive prowess have taken considerable steps back in the years since.
The Mariners acquired Strange-Gordon from the Marlins with the idea of putting him in center field, but despite his excellent speed Strange-Gordon never seemed to take to the position switch. Seattle moved him back to second base in 2019 after he posted poor defensive numbers in center field during the 2018 campaign.
Strange-Gordon batted .308/.341/.375 with an NL-best 60 steals in 2017, but his three seasons with the Mariners proved forgettable, as he managed only a .266/.293/.343 output. He signed a minor league deal with the Reds over the winter but didn’t land an Opening Day roster spot and was eventually released. He briefly signed with the Brewers organization as well, but Milwaukee went in another direction for its infield needs, acquiring Willy Adames from the Rays. Strange-Gordon was released the next day despite having batted .333/.375/.500 in 10 games and 45 plate appearances with the Brewers’ Triple-A club in Nashville.
Diamondbacks, Dario Agrazal Agree To Minor League Deal
The D-backs recently agreed to a minor league deal with right-hander Dario Agrazal, per Baseball America’s Chris Hilburn-Trenkle. Arizona also added righty Josh Lucas, per the report. They’ll add some depth to a club that currently has Zac Gallen, Taylor Widener, Luke Weaver and J.B. Bukauskas on the injured list.
Agrazal, 26, started 14 games for the 2019 Pirates and pitched to a 4.91 ERA through 73 1/3 innings. That’s his only big league experience to date, although he’d have gotten an opportunity with the Tigers in 2020 were it not for injury. Detroit claimed Agrazal off waivers from Pittsburgh after the ’19 campaign and announced him as part of last summer’s Opening Day roster, but Agrazal was diagnosed with a forearm strain just days after the season began. That injury wound up shelving him for the entire season.
While he doesn’t miss many bats, Agrazal sports a 51 percent ground-ball rate in parts of seven minor league seasons and, more impressively, has walked just 88 of the 2513 hitters he’s faced in parts of seven minor league seasons (3.5 percent). He carries a 3.62 ERA in 608 2/3 innings spread across those seven campaigns and has worked almost exclusively out of the rotation.
Lucas was with the A’s, Cardinals and Orioles from 2017-19 but hasn’t found much success at the MLB level, posting a 5.54 ERA in 37 1/3 frames. He’s been primarily a bullpen arm who, like Agrazal, generates grounders at an above-average clip. In parts of 10 minor league seasons, he’s pitched to a 3.61 ERA. Lucas actually made his debut with Arizona’s top affiliate this week, tossing a scoreless frame in his first outing before being tagged for four runs yesterday.
Mets Acquire Billy McKinney
The Mets announced that they have acquired outfielder Billy McKinney from the Brewers for minor league left-hander Pedro Quintana. New York also transferred righty Jordan Yamamoto to the 60-day injured list.
McKinney will add some much-needed outfield depth to a Mets club dealing with a rash of injuries in that area (and just about everywhere else). Michael Conforto, Brandon Nimmo, Kevin Pillar and Albert Almora Jr. are all on the injured list, and Johneshwy Fargas is about to join them on the shelf. As a result of its injuries, the team went with a starting alignment of Dominic Smith in left, Cameron Maybin in center and Brandon Drury in right during its win over the Rockies on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old McKinney, whom the Brewers designated for assignment on May 22, comes with a fair amount of major league experience at both corner outfield spots. The former first-round pick (No. 24 to the Athletics in 2013) has seen time with the Yankees, Blue Jays and Brewers since he debuted in 2018, and he has hit .226/.285/.422 with 21 home runs in 511 plate appearances. He picked up 100 PA with Milwaukee this year but batted just .207/.260/.359 with three homers. McKinney has no minor league options left, so the Mets won’t be able to send him down without possibly losing him.
Quintana, still just 17 years old, joined the Mets in the winter as a free agent from Venezuela. There’s otherwise little information on Quintana that’s available, but the Brewers think he’s worth taking a chance on in exchange for an outfielder whom they deemed expendable.
Yamamoto went to the 10-day IL on the 23rd with shoulder soreness, and his shift to the 60-day version means he won’t return until at least the end of July. Acquired from the Marlins in the offseason, Yamamoto has made two appearances this year and allowed six runs (five earned) over 6 2/3 innings.
Cubs Designate Jason Adam For Assignment, Place Matt Duffy On Injured List
The Cubs have placed infielder Matt Duffy on the 10-day injured list due to a lower back strain and selected the contract of infielder Patrick Wisdom in his place, the team announced to reporters (Twitter link via Russell Dorsey of the Chicago Sun-Times). In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Wisdom, Chicago has designated right-handed reliever Jason Adam for assignment.
The veteran Duffy, 30, has proven to be one of the best minor league signings any team made this winter. He’s stepped in frequently at third base for the Cubs — Kris Bryant has spent more time in the outfield as a result — and delivered a very solid .278/.378/.356 slash through his first 106 plate appearances.
While he clearly hasn’t hit for much power, Duffy has been a tough strikeout (17 percent), drawn 11 walks (10.4 percent) and gone 3-for-3 in stolen base attempts while playing strong defense. Suffice it to say, he’s been an important piece so far for a Cubs team that, at 24-22, sits one and a half games back in the NL Central.
Adam’s DFA is the culmination of a highly unfortunate sequence. The right-hander was a bright spot in the Chicago bullpen last season and got out to a nice start in 2021. However, he was placed on the Covid-19 list after Chicago’s bullpen coach tested positive, and Adam was shelled for five runs without recording an out in his return. Adam was optioned out to Triple-A Iowa, where he suffered a dislocated ankle while shagging fly-balls prior to a recent minor league game. The injury required surgery that could put an end to his season.
Injured players can’t be placed on outright waivers, so there’s a good chance that Adam’s DFA will ultimately result in the Cubs requesting unconditional release waivers on him. It’s common, but not a given, for players in this situation to quickly re-sign a minor league deal with the organization (as we saw with the Tigers and righty Franklin Perez a couple weeks back).
It’ll be interesting to see whether another club tries to find a way to bring Adam into the fold despite the fact that he may not pitch again in 2021. From 2019-20, he pitched a combined 35 1/3 innings of 3.06 ERA ball between the Blue Jays and Cubs, striking out 26.2 percent of opponents. His 2021 season in Chicago was particularly intriguing, as he punched out a whopping 36.1 percent of his opponents. Adam is something of a Statcast darling, thanks largely to a 99th-percentile spin rate on a four-seamer that has averaged just shy of 95 mph over the past three seasons.
Wisdom, 29, is an experienced Triple-A slugger whose start with the Cubs in 2021 has been a mixed bag. He’s just 4-for-25 in a tiny sample of 34 plate appearances but has slugged three home runs, hit a double, drawn six walks and been plunked by a pair of pitches. The resulting .160/.353/.560 slash is rather unusual, but he’s a career .250/.329/.479 hitter in parts of five Triple-A seasons. He’s homered four times in 88 MLB plate appearances but has an overall .219/.299/.397 batting line with a massive 38.6 percent strikeout rate.
Red Sox Outright Austin Brice
The Red Sox announced Tuesday that right-hander Austin Brice has been outrighted to Triple-A Worcester after he went unclaimed on waivers. He was designated for assignment last week when Boston selected Danny Santana‘s contract. While Brice has the requisite service time to reject the assignment and elect free agency, doing so would mean walking away from the remainder of this season’s $870K salary, so he’ll likely head to Worcester and hope to pitch his way back into the team’s big league plans.
Brice, 29 next month, has shown plenty of promise throughout his big league career but never put it together outside of a solid 2019 effort in Miami. He has, at various times, flashed not only the ability to miss bats at a high level but also shown strong ground-ball tendencies and posted solid walk rates. He’s never been able to get all three of those traits to align in a single season, however.
With the 2019 Marlins, Brice tossed 44 2/3 innings of 3.43 ERA ball with roughly average strikeout and ground-ball tendencies, but his time in Boston hasn’t gone well. He’s been clobbered for a 6.32 ERA with the Sox, and his overall career mark now sits at 5.18. Brice has had consistent success in Triple-A whenever he’s pitched there (career 2.70 ERA), so if he can get back in track in his fourth stint at that level, it’s possible he’ll return to the big league bullpen later this year.
Brewers Claim Jake Hager
The Brewers announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed infielder/outfielder Jake Hager off waivers from the Mets, who’d designated him for assignment over the weekend. Hager has been assigned to Triple-A Nashville. Milwaukee had space on its 40-man roster, so a corresponding move isn’t necessary.
Hager, 28, made his big league debut with the Mets in 2021, going 1-for-8 in a brief five-game stint. This will be his second stint with the Brewers organization, having spent the 2018-19 seasons with Milwaukee’s Double-A and Triple-A affiliates.
Hager has spent the bulk of his career at shortstop, although he’s begun to diversify his defensive repertoire in recent seasons. The Mets, due in no small part to the rash of injuries they’ve incurred at the big league level, got Hager some work in the outfield corners and even trotted him out to center for one game with their Triple-A affiliate. Hager has just 67 innings of outfield work in his professional career but has ample experience at all four infield positions.
Blue Jays To Promote Alek Manoah
The Blue Jays are promoting right-handed pitching prospect Alek Manoah, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports. He’ll start Wednesday against the Yankees.
It was a quick rise up the ranks for Manoah, the 11th overall pick in the 2019 draft. The former West Virginia star was excellent in Low-A ball that year, though he was unable to build on that last season because of the lack of a minor league campaign. However, Manoah picked up where he left off this season prior to his first major league promotion. The 23-year-old has dominated in his Triple-A debut with 18 innings of seven-hit, one-run ball and 27 strikeouts against three walks.
As one would expect based on his professional production, Manoah is among the game’s highest-regarded prospects. Outlets such as The Athletic, Baseball America, MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus have all placed him in their top 100 lists of late, with MLB.com writing that the 6-foot-6, 260-pounder’s three-pitch repertoire – a fastball, slider and changeup – could pave the way for a solid career as a starter.
While it remains to be seen whether Manoah will be able to stick in the bigs this year, Toronto could use the boost in its rotation. Hyun Jin Ryu, Robbie Ray and Steven Matz have combined for good production across 26 outings, but the Jays have gotten little else from their starters in 2021.
Cardinals Place Miles Mikolas On 10-Day IL Due To Forearm Tightness
MAY 24: Mikolas will visit Dr. James Andrews on Wednesday for a second opinion, Jones tweets.
MAY 23: Mikolas has been placed on the 10-day injured list, the Cardinals announced. Right-hander Junior Fernandez was called up from Triple-A in a corresponding move.
MAY 22, 9:38 pm: Mikolas is headed for an MRI tonight, manager Mike Shildt told reporters (including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News Democrat).
8:03 pm: Cardinals righty Miles Mikolas left this evening’s start against the Cubs before the fifth inning after a visit from the trainer. The team later announced he was removed with right forearm tightness. Daniel Ponce de Leon was called on to replace him.
Mikolas’ start today marked his return to a big league mound for the first time in nineteen months. He missed the entire 2020 season after undergoing surgery to repair the flexor tendon in his right forearm. Expected to return at the start of this year, Mikolas ultimately wound up delayed nearly two months by a shoulder issue. Any pitcher exiting in the middle of a start with forearm tightness is concerning, since that can often be a precursor to Tommy John surgery. Given Mikolas’ recent injury history, it’s especially alarming.
The 32-year-old did make three successful rehab starts with Triple-A Memphis before getting back on a big league mound. In this evening’s game, Mikolas’ fastball was in the 89-92 MPH range, topping out at 92.7 MPH. That’s below the 93-94 MPH he averaged on his heater in 2018-19, although it hadn’t seemed particularly surprising his velocity would be down a bit given his long layoff from pitching.
The Cardinals already had a five-man starting staff of Jack Flaherty, Kwang-hyun Kim, Adam Wainwright, Carlos Martínez and John Gant before Mikolas’ return. If this latest issue ends up forcing him back to the injured list, those players figure to continue taking the ball every fifth day.