Marlins Outright Sean Rodriguez
SEPT. 22: The Marlins announced that Rodriguez has been outrighted to their alternate site after clearing waivers.
SEPT. 20: The Marlins have designated utilityman Sean Rodriguez for assignment, the team announced. Utilityman Jon Berti has been activated from the 10-day injured list to take the open roster spot, while southpaw Braxton Garrett has also been added to the roster as the extra 29th player for today’s doubleheader with the Nationals.
Rodriguez was only activated from the injured list last Tuesday, as he had spent the rest of the season out of action for unspecified medical reasons. Rodriguez appeared in four games for the Marlins, recording two hits in 13 plate appearances and playing second base and left field. The 35-year-old has now been a part of 13 consecutive Major League seasons, the bulk of which with the Rays and Pirates from 2010-18. Rodriguez inked a minor league contract with Miami last winter.
The club is essentially swapping one multi-purpose bench piece for another in welcoming Berti back into the fold. Berti hit the 10-day IL on September 10 due to a right finger injury, so he’ll return after only a minimal absence. Over two seasons with the Marlins, Berti has already appeared at six different positions, and it seems likely he’ll mostly play second base the rest of the way this season in a semi-platoon with rookie Jazz Chisholm. Beyond his versatility, Berti has also been a useful hitter for the Fish, batting .267/.350/.392 with eight homers over his 401 PA in a Miami uniform.
Athletics Outright Daniel Mengden
The Athletics have outrighted hurler Daniel Mengden after he cleared waivers, Martin Gallegos of MLB.com was among those to report.
The A’s previously designated the right-handed Mengden for assignment Sept. 20, which came a little over a month after his most recent appearance on Aug. 18. Mengden threw 12 1/3 innings of five-run ball earlier this year, but he spent time on the COVID-19 injured list before the A’s designated him.
Now 27, Mengden debuted in 2016 and emerged as a respectable piece of the A’s staff the next season. In fact, from 2017-18, Mengden combined for a 3.80 ERA/4.57 FIP with 5.73 K/9 and 1.99 BB/9 over 158 2/3 innings and 29 appearances (24 starts). Mengden’s output has dropped since that two-year stretch, though, largely because of a major increase in walk rate. He has issued 4.25 free passes per nine, logged 6.5 K/9 and posted a 4.63 ERA/4.85 FIP over 72 innings since 2019.
Yankees Select Tyler Lyons
The Yankees have selected left-hander Tyler Lyons, placed right-hander Ben Heller on the 60-day injured list with a biceps nerve issue and optioned righty Michael King, Brendan Kuty of NJ.com tweets.
Lyons has been a member of the New York organization since August 2019, but he only threw 8 2/3 innings as a Yankee a year ago and hasn’t pitched for them this season. That said, the 32-year-old – a former Cardinal and Pirate – has been a fairly successful reliever in the majors, where he has logged a 4.20 ERA/4.04 FIP with 9.26 K/9 and 2.85 BB/9 in 281 innings. He could now factor into a Yankees bullpen that has a pair of higher-profile southpaws in Aroldis Chapman and Zack Britton.
Heller, meanwhile, has been a Yankee since they acquired him from the Indians as part of a trade for southpaw Andrew Miller in 2016. Heller hasn’t seen much action in the majors since then (31 1/3 innings), but he did throw six frames of two-run ball this year before his season came to an end.
Reds Activate Sonny Gray, Designate Nate Jones
The Reds have activated righty Sonny Gray from the 10-day injured list, the team announced. Gray is scheduled to start tonight’s game against the Brewers. To create roster space, right-hander Nate Jones has been designated for assignment.
A back strain sent Gray to the injured list on September 13 (retroactive placement to September 11), though fortunately for Gray and the Reds, the injury looks to have been a relatively minor one. Gray is now also lined up to start Sunday in what would be Cincinnati’s final game of the regular season, though that game is likely to be an all-hands-on-deck type of situation if the Reds need to win to clinch a playoff spot.
Heading into today’s action, the 28-27 Reds hold the seventh seed as a wild card in the NL postseason field, but the Brewers and Giants aren’t far behind at 26-27, with the eighth-seed Phillies sandwiched in between with an even 28-28 record. Cincinnati is also chasing the 26-25 Cardinals for second place in the NL Central, which guaranteed an automatic playoff berth.
Ironically, the Reds have gone 9-2 since Gray was retroactively placed on the IL, though there is no doubt he represents a major addition for Cincy down the stretch. Gray has a 3.94 ERA, 11.8 K/9, and 2.86 K/BB rate over 45 2/3 innings this season, with ERA indicators (2.92 FIP, 3.16 xFIP, 3.80 SIERA) generally showing that Gray’s 3.94 number is a bit inflated.
Jones struck out 23 batters and recorded a strong 3.83 K/BB rate over his 18 2/3 relief innings this season, but an ugly 2.4 HR/9 was largely responsible for Jones’ 6.27 ERA. On the plus side, the oft-injured Jones did stay healthy this year after missing much of 2019 due to forearm surgery, though he was obviously hoping for better performance for his hometown team. Jones signed a minor league deal with the Reds last winter.
Tigers Select Brandon Dixon’s Contract
The Tigers have selected the contract of utiltyman Brandon Dixon from their alternate training site, the team announced. There was already an open spot on Detroit’s active roster since infielder Sergio Alcantara was previously optioned to the alternate site, and a 40-man roster spot was opened for Dixon since second baseman Jonathan Schoop has been moved from the 10-day injured list to the 45-day injured list, which will officially end Schoop’s 2020 season.
This will be Dixon’s first bit of Major League action during the 2020 season, following 544 career plate appearances with the Reds and Tigers in 2018-19. Detroit claimed Dixon off waivers from Cincinnati following the 2018 season and Dixon went on to receive pretty regular playing time last year, hitting .248/.290/.435 over 420 PA and actually leading all Tigers batters with 15 homers.
Dixon has mostly played first base in the big leagues but he has also seen quite a bit of action around the diamond, starting multiple games as a corner outfield, second baseman, and third baseman. (He also has one game played in center field and even four pitching appearances in late-game mop-up duty during blowouts.) This versatility should help Dixon continue to get looks at the big league level, and he is a useful player for the Tigers to have on hand for depth purposes.
A sprained right wrist sent Schoop to the IL (retroactively) on September 13, but the infielder will now wrap up what could his only season in Detroit. Schoop signed a one-year, $6.1MM deal with the Tigers last winter and enjoyed a productive season, hitting .278/.324/.475 and eight homers over 177 PA, good for a 114 wRC+ and 115 OPS+.
Twins Activate Homer Bailey From 45-Day IL
The Twins have reinstated right-hander Homer Bailey from the 45-day injured list and optioned righty Sean Poppen to their alternate training site, per a team announcement. He’ll start tonight’s game. Minnesota’s recent outright of Zack Littell gave them a 40-man opening to accommodate Bailey’s return. They still have another 40-man spot to work with if they choose, as the Twins could move Brent Rooker, who recently fractured his forearm, to the 45-day IL as well.
Bailey, 34, signed a one-year, $7MM deal with the Twins on the heels of a bounceback 2019 effort split between the Royals and Athletics. The longtime Reds righty was limited to 231 2/3 innings of 6.25 ERA ball in his final four years in Cincinnati but turned in 163 1/3 innings between Kansas City and Oakland last year. Bailey logged a combined 4.57 ERA but a more impressive 4.11 FIP, averaging 8.2 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 along the way. His 10.8 percent swinging-strike rate was the second-best of his career.
This season, however, Bailey has made just one start for the Twins. It was a solid effort, as he held the Cardinals to a pair of runs on four hits and two walks with four strikeouts though five innings. But Bailey felt some discomfort in his right arm shortly thereafter, and he landed on the injured list with biceps tendinitis that has sidelined him since
The 2020 campaign will go down as a largely lost season for the veteran righty, but he’ll have the opportunity to make at least one start in the season’s final week — perhaps two — and could yet factor into the postseason pitching staff in some manner. It won’t be a great platform him as he ventures back out into free agency, but getting back to the mound and performing reasonably well would give him a bit of a boost on the open market this winter.
Wei-Yin Chen Signs With NPB’s Chiba Lotte Marines
It’s been nearly a year since veteran left-hander Wei-Yin Chen pitched in a professional game, but the former Orioles and Marlins hurler will be returning to the mound with the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. The Marines announced that they’ve signed the 35-year-old southpaw for the remainder of the 2020 season (hat tip to NPB Tracker’s Patrick Newman, on Twitter). He’s currently going through a two-week quarantine before joining the Marines, per Focus Taiwan. He’ll be formally introduced at an Oct. 5 press conference.
Chen had hoped to return to the big leagues in 2020, signing a minor league deal with the Mariners after being released by the Marlins following the 2019 season. Seattle cut him loose in June, however, prior to the return-to-play agreement between MLB and the MLBPA. The Taiwanese lefty wasn’t able to latch on with another MLB organization, so he’ll instead return to NPB, where he starred for the Chunichi Dragons for five seasons prior to his original MLB deal with the Orioles. In five seasons with the Dragons, Chen logged a 2.59 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and 0.7 HR/9, totaling 650 2/3 frames along the way.
That strong showing caught the eye of then-Baltimore GM Dan Duquette and his staff, who inked Chen to a three-year deal worth a bit less than $12MM (plus a club option for a fourth year). That investment paid off in spades, as Chen emerged as a fixture in the O’s rotation over the subsequent four years. From 2012-15, Chen turned in 706 2/3 innings of 3.72 ERA ball with a 4.14 FIP. His 7.0 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 marks were near-mirror images of his strikeout and walk rates in NPB. Chen averaged 29 starts and 177 innings per season in his four-year run with the Orioles, adding three postseason starts along the way (two very good ones and one rather poor outing against the Tigers).
Weighted metrics like ERA+ and ERA- painted Chen about 10 percent better than the league average in that time, given his tough home park, and he parlayed that quality run into a hefty five-year, $80MM deal with the Marlins. Miami lived to regret the deal, as the highly durable Chen was sidelined by an elbow sprain by mid-July in the first year of the contract (2016). He was limited to 33 innings in 2017 as he battled a UCL injury that ultimately did not require surgery. Chen returned to the Miami rotation in 2018 but struggled to a 4.79 ERA through 26 starts. He spent the 2019 campaign in the team’s bullpen but posted a 6.59 ERA, which led to an offseason DFA and his eventual release.
That release proved to be a blessing in disguise for Chen and a financial nightmare for the Marlins. Because he was cut loose in November — well before there was any talk of a shortened season — Chen is owed the entirety of his $22MM salary in 2020 rather than the prorated portion of that sum. His new deal with the Marines will tack about $290K onto that sum, per Nikkan Sports.
It’s always possible that Chen could make his way back to the Major Leagues if he’s able to revitalize his career in Japan, although given that he’s now 35 and a half decade removed from MLB success, that seems like a long shot. If Chen’s time as a Major Leaguer is through, he’ll wrap things up with a 59-51 record, a 4.18 ERA, 7.2 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 over the life of 1064 2/3 innings in the bigs.
Chen certainly didn’t justify the Marlins’ weighty investment in his left arm, but he was also an overwhelming bargain for the Orioles, who paid him just shy of $15.5MM in his four years there. It wasn’t a strong finish for Chen, but his overall body of work in the big leagues was quite solid — particularly given that half of it was spent in the AL East and pitching his home games at Camden Yards.
Minor MLB Transactions: 9/21/20
The latest minor moves from around baseball…
- The Marlins selected right-hander Brett Eibner before their loss to the Braves on Monday, per a team announcement. They also optioned right-hander Robert Dugger and lefty Braxton Garrett. The Marlins signed Eibner, a former outfielder, to a minor league contract at the beginning of August, and he has been on and off their 40-man roster since then. Eibner made two appearances for Miami earlier this season and combined for 1 1/3 innings of three-earned run ball.
Rockies Place Nolan Arenado On IL, Release Wade Davis
The Rockies announced that they’ve placed third baseman Nolan Arenado on the 10-day injured list with left AC joint inflammation and a left shoulder bone bruise, released reliever Wade Davis and recalled outfielder Sam Hilliard.
This will end the 2020 campaign for Arenado, a five-time All-Star who posted the worst numbers of his career this year. In fairness to Arenado, he only played 48 games and accrued 201 plate appearances, but no one expected the big-hitting 29-year-old to slash .253/.303/.434 – way down from the .295/.351/.546 line he owned entering the season.
It’s now possible Arenado has taken his last at-bat with the Rockies, as his dissatisfaction with team management was well-documented last offseason and may not have gotten any better since. Arenado has made it clear that he wants to win, but at 23-29, the Rockies are in line to miss the playoffs for a second straight season. Of course, from their standpoint, there may not be any incentive to move Arenado off such a disappointing showing by the 29-year-old. Regardless, 2021 could be the last guaranteed season for Arenado, whom the Rockies signed to an eight-year, $234MM contract before 2019. That deal includes a post-2021 opt-out clause, though Arenado may be leery of exercising it in and leaving so much cash on the table.
Davis, meanwhile, became a DFA casualty on Saturday, ending a horrid stint in Colorado for the former lights-out right-hander. On an annual basis, Davis became the highest-paid reliever ever when the Rockies signed him to a three-year, $52MM contract before 2018. Unfortunately for him and the Rockies, though, his tenure with the club couldn’t have gone much worse. Now 35, Davis mustered a miserable 6.49 ERA and lost about 2.5 mph on his fastball in 112 1/3 innings as a Rockie.
Pirates Select Jared Oliva
The Pirates have selected outfielder Jared Oliva‘s contract, per Adam Berry of MLB.com. They placed fellow outfielder Jason Martin on the 10-day injured list with an upper back strain and moved reliever Yacksel Rios to the 45-day IL in corresponding moves.
Oliva, who will turn 25 in November, could now get his first chance in the majors. The Pirates chose Oliva in the seventh round of the 2017 draft, and he made his Double-A debut last season. Oliva impressed at that level with a .277/.352/.398 line, six home runs and 38 stole bases across 507 plate appearances. He now ranks among the Pirates’ top 25 prospects at FanGraphs (No. 9), MLB.com (10) and Baseball America (23), with FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen writing last February that Oliva’s “on-base ability and speed might enable him to be a center field regular.”
The bottom-feeding Pirates need as many reasons for hope as possible, so Oliva could provide some reason for optimism as a rough season draws to a conclusion. The club’s outfield ranks 29th in the league in WAR (minus-1.5) and dead last in wRC+ (50), which helps explain why the Pirates own the majors’ worst record at 15-38.