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Rangers Trade Ariel Jurado To Mets

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The Mets announced this afternoon that they’ve acquired right-hander Ariel Jurado from the Rangers in exchange for a player to be named later and (not or) cash considerations. Outfielder Ryan Cordell was designated for assignment to open a spot on the team’s 40-man roster. Jurado has been assigned to the Mets’ alternate training site in Brooklyn.

Jurado, 24, was designated by assignment in Texas back on Friday when the team selected Greg Bird and Jimmy Herget to the big league roster. The former top prospect has logged 177 innings with the Rangers over the past two seasons but struggled considerably at the MLB level. Opposing hitters have clobbered him for a 5.85 ERA and posted a combined .305/.351/.502 slash against him in 782 plate appearances. Jurado has averaged 5.2 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and 1.42 HR/9 to go along with a 47.9 percent ground-ball rate.

Obviously, that’s not a pretty collection of numbers, but Jurado has a solid minor league track record. He’s largely skipped over Triple-A — though he pitched well in the 22 2/3 frames he did log there — but put together a more palatable 3.96 ERA with 5.6 K/9, 1.9 BB/9 and 0.92 HR/9 in 302 1/3 innings of Double-A ball. Baseball Prospectus rated Jurado as the game’s No. 72 prospect back in 2017, and he’s consistently generated ground-ball rates comfortably north of 51 percent. Infield defense isn’t exactly the Mets’ strength, of course, but the organization is in need of some pitching depth after seeing Noah Syndergaard (Tommy John surgery) and Marcus Stroman (calf tear) go down with injuries. Offseason additions Rick Porcello and Michael Wacha have both struggled early as well.

Cordell, 28, went 1-for-4 with a stolen base and a pair of strikeouts in his short time with the Mets. Jake Marisnick’s hamstring injury opened the door for the former Rangers/White Sox/Brewers prospect to make the club as a reserve outfielder behind J.D. Davis, Brandon Nimmo and Michael Conforto. However, the Mets’ recent acquisition of Billy Hamilton apparently rendered Cordell superfluous in the club’s eyes.

Cordell has appeared in parts of three big league seasons, hitting a combined .205/.267/.333 in 291 trips to the dish. Those struggles notwithstanding, he’s put together a respectable minor league track record and is capable of playing all three outfield spots, so a club needing some depth might take a look at Cordell if he’s available on the waiver wire. New York will have a week to trade Cordell, release him or attempt to run him through waivers.

Braves Place Albies, Adams On Injured List; Markakis Activated

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The Braves announced this morning that they’ve placed second baseman Ozzie Albies and first baseman Matt Adams on the 10-day injured list. Albies is dealing with a bone contusion in his right wrist, while Adams is hobbled by a hamstring strain. In a pair of corresponding moves, Atlanta reinstated outfielder Nick Markakis from the restricted list and recalled catcher Alex Jackson from their alternate training site.

Albies, 23, has gotten out to a slow start this season, hitting at just a .159/.196/.273 clip through his first 46 plate appearances. That, and the fact that he batted left-handed against a left-handed pitcher in last night’s game, seem like clear evidence that the issue has been hampering him of late. Jeff Schultz of The Athletic tweets that the Braves expect Albies’ wrist troubles to be a season-long issue; that’s not to say they expect him on the IL all year, of course, but rather that the issue likely won’t fully heal until he can rest it in the offseason. For now, there’s no timetable on Albies’ return to the active roster. Charlie Culberson and Johan Camargo can handle second base in his absence.

Adams strained his hamstring on the basepaths in last night’s game. He’s gotten out to a slow start as well, hitting just .212/.234/.425 with a pair of home runs. One of those long balls came against a lefty, but the Braves have unsurprisingly limited Adams to just three plate appearances against southpaws. He is, after all, a lifetime .211/.239/.381 hitter against same-handed opponents.

As for Markakis, he’ll return in rapid fashion after an unexpected about-face on his decision to opt out of the 2020 season. He’d previously cited the absence of fans and teammate Freddie Freeman’s struggles with Covid-19 symptoms in his decision to sit the current season out. He only just returned to the club a week ago, so there’s likely some rust that’ll need to be shaken off. Thankfully for the Braves, they have a relatively deep outfield mix that features Marcell Ozuna, Ender Inciarte, Ronald Acuna Jr., Adam Duvall, Scott Schebler, the aforementioned Culberson and now Markakis. That’ll give manager Brian Snitker ample time to ease Markakis back into the fold as he ramps back up with the big league club.

By recalling Jackson, the Braves give themselves not only a third catcher behind Travis d’Arnaud and Tyler Flowers, but also a potential backup at first base and in the outfield corners. Jackson opened the season as the club’s catcher after both d’Arnaud and Flowers exhibited Covid-19 symptoms and went 2-for-7 with a double and four strikeouts. He was optioned back to the team’s alternate site after d’Arnaud and Flowers ultimately tested negative.

Mets Place Robinson Cano On Injured List, Activate Billy Hamilton

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10:41pm: Cano will be on the shelf “until at least mid-August,” DiComo tweets.

6:15pm: The Mets have placed second baseman Robinson Cano on the 10-day injured list due to a Grade 2 left adductor strain and selected the contract of Billy Hamilton, who’ll be on the bench for tonight’s game (Twitter links via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). DiComo adds that Jeff McNeil (intercostal strain) and Amed Rosario (quad tightness) are both day-to-day.

There’s no telling just how long Cano will be sidelined at this point, but any type of Grade 2 strain (as opposed to a more mild Grade 1 strain) is cause for concern regarding an extended absence. His injury is particularly unfortunate for the Mets given that the 37-year-old had gotten out to a blistering start. In his first 39 plate appearances, Cano was hitting at a torrid .412/.462/.559 clip with a homer and two doubles. While it’s inevitable that he’d have cooled off to some extent, Cano also ranked among the game’s best in terms of hard-hit rate and average exit velocity, and his swinging-strike rate was among the lowest in MLB.

Despite the addition of the designated hitter in the National League, Cano has been the team’s primary second baseman. Yoenis Cespedes had been serving as the regular designated hitter, but he opted out of the remainder of the season over the weekend. With Cano, Jed Lowrie and Jeff McNeil all on the injured list, regular second-base duties for the Mets seem likeliest to fall to top prospect Andres Gimenez and veteran Brian Dozier, who inked a minor league deal late in Summer Camp and was selected to the Mets’ roster last week. Dozier is batting sixth in tonight’s lineup against lefty Patrick Corbin, but the makings of a natural platoon with the left-handed-hitting Gimenez are present. Of course, that’s contingent on Rosario returning to the lineup; Gimenez and Dozier could each draw regular starts as double play partners while Rosario is out.

As for Hamilton, he was acquired over the weekend in a trade that sent recently outrighted reliever Jordan Humphreys to the Giants. He’ll jump right onto the Mets’ big league roster and provide some speed and elite glovework off the bench. Brandon Nimmo is still lined up for everyday work in center, and he’ll be flanked by J.D. Davis and Michael Conforto to begin most games. Hamilton’s role is perhaps the same role the Mets envisioned for offseason acquisition Jake Marisnick, but he’s currently on the injured list with a hamstring strain.

Marlins Place 13 Players On Injured List

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The Marlins announced today that they’ve placed 13 players on the injured list. Those going on the IL include right-handers Sandy Alcantara, Jeff Brigham, Robert Dugger, Yimi Garcia, Jordan Holloway, Nick Neidert and Ryne Stanek; left-handers Adam Conley, Caleb Smith and Alex Vesia; infielders Sean Rodriguez and Miguel Rojas; and catcher Chad Wallach.

Miami also made official a previously reported slate of roster moves. Lefty Richard Bleier was acquired from the Orioles in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. Right-hander James Hoyt was acquired from the Indians for cash. The club also claimed relievers Justin Shafer and Josh D. Smith from the Reds, claimed reliever Mike Morin from the Brewers and claimed reliever (and former Marlin) Brian Moran from the Blue Jays. Veteran infielder Logan Forsythe signed a one-year, Major League deal.

As for internal moves, the Fish called up right-hander Jorge Guzman, outfielder Monte Harrison and righty Jordan Yamamoto. The club also selected the contracts of left-hander Dan Castano, right-hander Josh A. Smith, right-hander Nick Vincent, catcher Ryan Lavarnway and infielder Eddy Alvarez. Outfielders Matt Joyce and Lewis Brinson were activated from the injured list.

It’s a dizzying sequence of moves brought about by the Covid-19 outbreak that decimated the organization’s Major League roster. Miami ultimately wound up with a reported 18 players and two coaches testing positive, and the outbreak caused scheduling delays with the Phillies, Yankees, Blue Jays and Nationals in addition to the Marlins. Miami was left with a depleted roster and forced to scramble to simply cobble together a roster and continue its season.

The losses of Alcantara and Smith will remove two of Miami’s top rotation options from the mix for the time being, while Rojas was the team’s starting shortstop. Stanek had been expected to occupy a high-leverage late-inning role, and Conley is one of the team’s most experienced bullpen pieces.

Mariners Place Kendall Graveman On Injured List, Select Joey Gerber

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The Mariners announced Tuesday that they’ve placed right-hander Kendall Graveman on the 10-day injured list due to neck spasms and selected the contract of right-hander Joey Gerber from their alternate training site. Seattle also recalled southpaw Taylor Guilbeau from their alternate site and optioned fellow lefty Zac Grotz. Graveman’s placement on the IL is retroactive to Aug. 3.

Graveman, 29, had a rocky debut effort with the Mariners on July 27 but looked sharper on Aug. 2 before departing the game with some discomfort in his neck. He signed a one-year deal with Seattle over the winter after missing most of the 2018 season and all of the 2019 campaign due to Tommy John surgery.

Prior to his injury, Graveman was a solid mid-rotation piece for the division-rival Athletics, who acquired him as part of their return in what ended up being a lopsided Josh Donaldson swap with the Jays. Graveman proved to be the most productive member of Oakland’s return — though the A’s still have Franklin Barreto — pitching to a 4.11 ERA and 4.44 FIP through 407 frames fom 2015-17. At his best, Graveman racks up grounders and limits free passes and long balls — but he’s struggled a bit with both walks (five) and homer (two) in his first 8 2/3 frames this season.

The Mariners didn’t provide a timetable on Graveman’s return, although there’s no indication that he’s dealing with a significant injury. Seattle opened the season with a six-man rotation that also included Marco Gonzales, Yusei Kikuchi, Justus Sheffield, Taijuan Walker and Justin Dunn, so they can simply drop to a more conventional five-man outfit in Graveman’s absence should they choose.

Turning to the 23-year-old Gerber, he’ll be in line for his big league debut whenever he first takes the mound. The 2018 eighth-rounder hasn’t yet reached the Triple-A level, although he’d surely have done so in 2020 had there been a minor league season. Gerber was excellent in Double-A last year and has more generally impressed at every minor league stop in his career to date. He’s a pure bullpen prospect who, in 74 2/3 frames since being drafted, has worked to a 2.42 ERA with a whopping 13.6 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9. Gerber didn’t allow a homer across three Mariners Class-A affiliates and only yielded two in 22 2/3 innings of Double-A work in 2019.

Padres Promote Luis Patino

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3:40pm: Patino’s contract has been selected to the Major League roster, per a club announcement. Righty David Bednar was optioned to the Padres’ alternate training site in a corresponding move.

12:10pm: The Padres are set to promote top pitching prospect Luis Patino. It appears the ADN Barranquilla Twitter account first posted the news, which has since been confirmed by other outlets.

Patino is just twenty years of age, but he’s widely considered one of the most electric young arms in baseball. He’s expected to work out of the bullpen to begin his tenure, MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell tweets.

Though he lacks extensive experience in the upper minors, Patino did reach Double-A last year after an impressive run at the High-A level. He’s still ironing out his full secondary arsenal, but possesses the kind of elite stuff that ought to play right out of the gates, especially in a relief role.

The 2020 season sprint creates opportunity for the Friars, who have started out with a nice 7-4 stretch. The up-and-coming club is hoping to hit on a variety of talented but fairly inexperienced players. Patino now joins that mix.

The timing of the promotion is such that Patino cannot accrue enough service time to reach a full year. Accordingly, the San Diego club can control his rights through at least 2026. He will, however, likely qualify for arbitration after the 2022 campaign as a Super Two player — if he can grasp ahold of a permanent roster spot from this point forward.

Athletics Promote James Kaprielian

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The Athletics announced Tuesday that they’ve placed right-hander Jordan Weems on the 10-day injured list with a strained right lat and recalled right-hander James Kaprielian from their alternate training site.

Oakland already has a deep rotation — Sean Manaea, Jesus Luzardo, Mike Fiers, Frankie Montas, Chris Bassitt — so it seems that Kaprielian’s Major League debut will be made out of the bullpen. It’s been a long time coming for the former first-round pick and top 100 prospect, whom the A’s acquired in the trade that sent Sonny Gray to the Bronx.

Kaprielian, now 26 years old, was selected with the No. 16 oveall pick out of UCLA by the Yankees back in 2015. The 6’3″, 225-pound righty was impressive early in his pro career, but an elbow issue cost him most of the 2016 season. He made it back to pitch in the Arizona Fall League that year, which seemingly put him on track for a healthy 2017 season.

That, however, didn’t prove to be the case at all. Tommy John surgery early in 2017 would wipe out Kaprielian’s entire ’17 campaign, and the win-now Yankees bit the bullet when they traded the still highly regarded righty to Oakland in the aforementioned Gray deal. Oakland hoped to be acquiring a high-end talent when his stock was down due to injury, but he missed the 2018 season as well while recovering from that surgery.

Kaprielian finally made his organizational debut with the A’s in 2019, and he enjoyed strong results across three minor league levels. In 68 frames between Class-A Advanced, Double-A and Triple-A, Kaprielian worked to a combined 3.18 ERA with 9.9 K/9, 2.1 BB/9 and 1.06 HR/9.

It’s been a half decade since Kaprielian was drafted, and between his considerable injury troubles and the shortened 2020 season, he’s still thrown just 97 1/3 professional innings. But he’s been working at the Athletics’ satellite camp in Stockton and been deemed ready for a big league look by the club’s decision-makers. A spot in the rotation could eventually be in the fold for the righty in the future, but for the time being he’ll slot into the bullpen and await his first pitch off a big league mound.

White Sox Place Carlos Rodon On Injured List, Designate Luis Alexander Basabe

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The White Sox have placed left-hander Carlos Rodon on the 10-day injured list due to left shoulder soreness, per a team announcement. In his place, they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Brady Lail from their alternate training site. Outfield prospect Luis Alexander Basabe was designated for assignment to open space on the 40-man roster for Lail. In other Sox news, MLBTR has learned that they’ll add right-handed pitching prospect Andrew Dalquist, their 2019 third-round pick, to the 60-man player pool.

Rodon exited last night’s start early after displaying a worrying drop in velocity. The former No. 3 overall pick came out firing with fastballs in the 91-93 mph range in the first inning but topped out at just under 86 mph in the second inning. For a pitcher who has averaged better than 93 mph in his career with the heater, that type of drop is alarming — particularly given that he’s only just returning from 2019 Tommy John surgery. The Sox haven’t provided a more in-depth diagnosis or timeline for his recovery, though they’ll presumably provide more info the next time GM Rick Hahn or manager Rick Renteria meets with reporters.

As for Basabe, the 23-year-old was at one point a well-regarded outfield prospect. He joined the White Sox organization in the Chris Sale blockbuster, although he was a clear third piece behind headliners Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech. (Righty Victor Diaz was also sent to Chicago in that swap.) Basabe had a miserable first year with the White Sox before rebounding to hit .258/.354/.445 with 15 homers, 21 doubles, eight triples and 16 steals between Class-A Advanced and Double-A in 2018.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go well for Basabe in a second stint in the Double-A Southern League this past season. In 291 plate appearances, he slashed just .246/.324/.336 with a glaring 29.2 percent strikeout rate. The Southern League is a pitcher-friendly setting, but Basabe’s overall output was nevertheless below the league average. His strikeout totals and continued middling success rate on stolen bases — 60.4 percent over the past two seasons — surely worked against him as well.

Basabe can still be optioned for the remainder of the 2020 season, but he’ll be out of minor league options in 2021. Given his pedigree and the bit of flexibility he still carries as an optionable player in 2020, another team could have interest in taking a flier on him. However, he’s looked mostly overmatched at the Double-A level, so there’s a chance the Sox could succeed in passing him through waivers and keep him in the organization without requiring a 40-man spot.

As for Dalquist, he’s only pitched three innings with the White Sox’ Rookie-level affiliate, so he won’t be viewed as a 2020 option. Still, there’s plenty of value in allowing the 19-year-old to work with the team’s staff and other more experienced players at the satellite site. He ranks seventh among ChiSox farmhands at Baseball America and 12th at both MLB.com and FanGraphs, so it’s not a surprise that the front office wants to continue to get him some valuable developmental reps in the only setting that’s really available to them this season.

Rays Activate Austin Meadows

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The Rays can look forward to a significant lineup boost. The team has activated outfielder Austin Meadows from the COVID-19 injured list, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets.

Meadows has yet to make his season debut. He had already been cleared to rejoin the team but needed a few weeks to ramp up to regular-season readiness.

To create an active roster spot, the club optioned righty Trevor Richards. He was a nice pickup for the Tampa Bay organization last year but had been knocked around early in 2020.

Meadows will now get back to work trying to build off of his enormously impressive showing in his first full MLB campaign. He launched 33 home runs, swiped a dozen bags, and posted a 142 wRC+ over 591 plate appearances last season.

60-Man Pool Additions: Orioles, Brewers

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Here are the latest additions to 60-man player pools from around the majors:

  • Joining the Orioles’ 60-man player pool are righty Kyle Bradish, outfielder Ryan McKenna, and southpaw Bruce Zimmermann. Bradish, a fourth-round pick of the 2018 draft, had a solid year at the High-A level in 2019 and came to the Baltimore organization in the Dylan Bundy swap. The latter two will each be eligible for the Rule 5 draft this fall if they’re not added to the 40-man roster beforehand. McKenna had a tough season last year at Double-A, where slashed just .232/.321/.365 in 567 plate appearances. The 25-year-old Zimmermann topped out at Triple-A in 2019, scuffling in seven starts. But he earned his way there with 101 1/3 impressive frames at Bowie, over which he carried a 2.58 ERA with 9.0 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9.
  • The Brewers have brought outfielder Hedbert Perez and righty Justin Topa into their alternate training site, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports on Twitter. It’s a rather interesting duo. The former only just turned 17 years of age and is obviously still a long ways away from the majors. The organization obviously sees quite a lot of potential. Topa is already 29 but sits in the upper nineties with his fastball, so this’ll be an opportunity for the Milwaukee organization to see if he could ultimately be an option at the MLB level. Last year, Topa worked to a cumulative 3.38 ERA with 9.2 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 over forty frames split between the High-A and Double-A levels.
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