Mariners Outright Ryan Court
The Mariners announced Wednesday that corner infielder/outfielder Ryan Court cleared waivers and has been outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma. Seattle had designated Court for assignment yesterday in making another wave of September call-ups.
Court, 31, made his MLB debut with the Mariners earlier this season, hitting .208/.240/.375 with a home run, a double and 11 strikeouts in 25 plate appearances. A 23rd-round pick of the Diamondbacks in 2011, Court has also spent time with the Red Sox and Cubs before landing with the Mariners’ top affiliate in 2019. He logged a .258/.364/.505 slash and 11 home runs with Tacoma before his call to the Majors and is a lifetime .262/.355/.423 hitter in 1187 plate appearances at the Triple-A level. He’ll be able to become a minor league free agent at the end of the season.
Rays Select Johnny Davis
The Rays announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of outfielder Johnny Davis from Double-A Montgomery. Left-hander Hoby Milner was placed on the 60-day injured list to create a roster spot. Milner is dealing with a “cervical neck injury” and will be shut down for at least three weeks before he’s reevaluated.
Davis, 29, will get his first look at the Major League level — a reality that would’ve seemed difficult to fathom even a month ago. Davis only signed with the Rays on Aug. 29, having spent the entire season to that point playing in the Mexican League. The former Brewers draft pick (2013, 22nd round) played only nine games of affiliated ball in 2018, splitting the rest of that season between the Kansas City T-Bones of the American Association and los Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos in the Mexican League.
Davis’ appeal to Tampa Bay is easy to see; he swiped 54 bases in 106 games in Mexico this season and has racked up 82 steals in just 161 career games in the Mexican League. He’s also appeared in parts of three seasons at the Double-A level (including five games with the Rays’ affiliate this year) and stolen 71 bases in 207 games. Davis a career .304/.364/.424 hitter in Mexico and a .262/.314/.337 hitter in Double-A, but his abilities with the bat are secondary, at best. He’ll give the Rays a valuable pinch-running/base-stealing option late in games as the club looks to hang onto the top Wild Card spot in the American League.
The Rays currently hold a 1.5-game lead over the Athletics for that top spot, with Oakland leading Cleveland by a mere half game for that second position. Taking an extra base late in games can prove vital — just ask the 2014-15 Royals — and Davis seems likely to take on a Terrance Gore/Quintin Berry-esque specialty role for at least the remainder of the regular season and perhaps for the postseason as well. Davis will indeed be postseason-eligible, given that he joined the organization prior to Sept. 1.
Twins Select Ronald Torreyes
The Twins have selected the contract of infielder Ronald Torreyes. Also heading onto the active roster is righty Kyle Gibson, who was activated from the injured list.
Torreyes will come up to help fill in for some missing pieces. He’ll take the 40-man spot vacated when outfielder Byron Buxton was placed on the 60-day injured list.
This’ll be the first time that Torreyes has appeared in the big leagues this season after seeing action in each of the past four campaigns. He’s a .281/.310/.375 lifetime hitter in the majors. In 330 plate appearances this year at Triple-A, he has turned in only a .256/.289/.406 batting line.
Giants Designate Williams Jerez
The Giants have designated lefty Williams Jerez, per a club announcement. That opens a roster space for the return of veteran hurler Johnny Cueto, who’ll start tonight after working back from Tommy John surgery.
The San Francisco organization carried Jerez on the 40-man all year long after picking him up in a late-spring trade. The 27-year-old permitted only a pair of earned runs in his six MLB innings, but allowed six free passes while striking out four.
Otherwise, Jerez turned in solid numbers at Triple-A this year, working to a 3.86 ERA with 9.8 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 over 56 frames. He was especially effective against opposing lefties, holding them to a .574 OPS.
Mariners Promote 4 Prospects, Designate Ryan Court
The Mariners announced the promotion of four prospects: righty Justin Dunn, outfielder Kyle Lewis, infielder Donnie Walton, and righty Art Warren. To create 40-man roster space, the club designated utilityman Ryan Court for assignment.
This multi-part move comes as no surprise, as the Seattle organization was reportedly preparing to call up Dunn (link) and Lewis (link) just yesterday. Both have ranked among the organization’s very best prospects.
Walton and Warren are lesser-known entities, but still hold promise of their own. Both ranked toward the back of the club’s latest top-thirty prospect list at MLB.com, though of course the import of such a designation varies depending upon the depth of a system.
Walton, 25, spent the season turning in good numbers at the Double-A level. Over 558 plate appearances, he slashed a sturdy .300/.390/.427 with 11 home runs. He’d have been eligible to be selected in this year’s Rule 5 draft but for the move to add him to the 40-man.
As for Warren, he already went through a winter of Rule 5 eligibility without being taken. This time, he’ll be protected by the M’s. At 26 years of age, Warren worked to a 1.71 ERA with 11.7 K/9 and 3.7 BB/9 in 31 2/3 innings as Walton’s teammate.
The 31-year-old Court finally got his first shot at the majors this year in Seattle, but wasn’t able to stake out a claim to a long-term job. It was still a rewarding season, as he logged his first MLB hit and first home run in a brief showing after entering the campaign in the indy ball ranks. Court is a .262/.355/.423 hitter in over a thousand plate appearances at the highest level of the minors.
Yankees Designate Adonis Rosa
The Yankees announced today that they have designated Adonis Rosa for assignment. His roster spot will go to fellow right-hander Ben Heller, who was activated from the 60-day injured list.
Rosa, 25, appeared in one MLB contest this year with the Yanks — his first as a professional. He spent most of the season in the upper minors, pitching to a cumulative 4.18 ERA with 7.7 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 103 1/3 innings. Clearly, the New York organization didn’t view him as a significant near-term contributor.
The Yankees also announced that outfield Mike Tauchman has been placed on the 10-day injured list. He is not expected to return to action this year.
Athletics Claim Beau Taylor, Designate Chris Herrmann
The Athletics announced today that they have claimed Beau Taylor off waivers from the Blue Jays. To clear 40-man space, the club designated fellow backstop Chris Herrmann for assignment.
Taylor, 29, lands back with the A’s after previously going from Oakland to Toronto through an August waiver claim. He had appeared in just one MLB contest with his new team and struggled at the plate in brief Triple-A action before being designated recently.
Before that recent stint, Taylor had spent his entire career with the Athletics — much of it at the Double-A level (307 games in parts of six seasons) — so he’s obviously a familiar face. He had put up career-best offensive numbers this year at Triple-A, slashing .257/.408/.461 in 240 PCL plate appearances before the mid-season move.
As for Herrmann, 31, he just hasn’t delivered the kind of offensive numbers the A’s anticipated when they inked him to a $1MM deal. Since returning from knee surgery, he has hit a meager .202/.280/.274 with a single long ball and 29 strikeouts in 94 trips to the plate.
Cubs Designate Randy Rosario
The Cubs have designated Randy Rosario, per a club announcement (h/t Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune, on Twitter). That’s the corresponding move for the previously reported promotion of top prospect Nico Hoerner.
In other news, the club has recalled James Norwood and optioned fellow righty Adbert Alzolay. Indications are that the club decided that Alzolay had thrown enough innings — just over eighty at all levels — on the heels of an injury-limited 2018 season. While there was no need to utilize the option to create active roster space, that’ll hit pause on Alzolay’s service clock.
Rosario, 25, had turned in good results for the Chicago organization in 2018, albeit with less-than-promising peripherals. The groundball-oriented southpaw ended up spending the bulk of the present campaign at Triple-A. Through 59 2/3 total innings at the MLB level, Rosario carries a 5.13 ERA with 6.3 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 along with a 53.6% groundball rate.
Athletics Promote Jesus Luzardo
Sept. 9: The Athletics have formally announced Luzardo’s promotion, adding that they’ve also recalled right-hander Daniel Mengden from Las Vegas. In order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Luzardo, outfielder Luis Barrera was recalled to the Majors and immediately placed on the 60-day injured list. The 23-year-old Barrera has been out since late June due to a right shoulder issue. He’s yet to play in the Majors but will receive MLB service time for the time he spends on the injured list between now and season’s end.
Sept. 8: The A’s are calling up top prospect Jesus Luzardo, MLB.com’s Martin Gallegos reports (Twitter link). The star left-hander is expected to join the team on Monday when they begin a series against the Astros. Another transaction will have to be made before Monday’s game to create space for Luzardo on the 40-man roster.
It had been widely expected that Oakland would call on the prized 21-year-old southpaw at some point during the playoff stretch, though had it not been for injuries, Luzardo would almost certainly have made his MLB debut months ago. Luzardo was sidelined by both a shoulder strain and then a lat strain in the early part of the season, and has only 43 total innings pitched in the minors in 2019. After a clean bill of health over the last few weeks of Triple-A action, however, Luzardo is finally ready for the Show.
His solid numbers in those four Triple-A outings (3.19 ERA, 4.25 K/BB rate, 9.9 K/9) have done little to quell expectations that Luzardo can provide an immediate help to the Athletics’ pitching mix. All of Luzardo’s Triple-A appearances came as a starting pitcher, though since the A’s are already using a six-man rotation, it’s more likely that the club will deploy the lefty as a multi-inning weapon out of the bullpen.
Oakland has taking something of a patchwork approach to its pitching situation all season, yet the results have spoken for themselves — both the Athletics’ starters and relievers rank within the top ten in several major statistical categories among all teams. As the A’s continue to fight for a wild card spot, however, the club wants as many arms as possible on hand given the lack of proven and reliable talent on hand. For much of the year, the A’s have been playing the waiting game until Sean Manaea, A.J. Puk, and Luzardo have been healthy and ready to contribute.
Though Luzardo hasn’t clocked many innings this season, it has done little to dim his status as one of the sport’s top minor leaguers, as midseason prospect rankings from Baseball America (9th), MLB.com (18th), and Fangraphs (24th) still placed Luzardo very highly on their boards. Originally a third-round pick for the Nationals in the 2016 draft, Luzardo came to the A’s — along with Blake Treinen and Sheldon Neuse — in the trade that sent Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson to Washington July 2017. Over 195 2/3 frames in the minors, Luzardo has a 2.53 ERA, 5.44 K/BB rate, and 10.8 K/9, while also showing an ability to keep the ball in the park with only an 0.6 HR/9.
It seems likely that Luzardo would have been more than a third-rounder had he not undergone Tommy John surgery during his senior year of high school. Despite that early surgery, however, Luzardo still generate a lot of heat on his fastball, hitting the 97mph mark during Spring Training and routinely reaching the mid-90’s. Despite that plus fastball, Baseball America ranks it as only his second-best pitch on the 20-80 scouting scale, as BA’s 60-grade for Luzardo’s heater was topped by a 70-grade changeup. MLB.com’s scouting report also praises Luzardo’s curveball, which “has improved and is at least above-average, a pitch he adds to and subtracts from at will.”
Assuming good health and a good showing in September (and, the A’s hope, in the playoffs), Luzardo projects to join Oakland’s rotation in 2020. Veterans Tanner Roark, Homer Bailey, and Brett Anderson are all free agents, paving the way for Manaea, Puk, Mike Fiers, Frankie Montas, Chris Bassitt, and Luzardo to all factor into the starting picture for next season. It’s a relatively inexperienced group with a lot of injury history, though starting pitching certainly looks like it could be a strength for the Athletics going forward, notwithstanding how the team has succeeded despite an uncertain rotation mix over the last two years.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Minor MLB Transactions: 9/9/19
We’ll track Monday’s minor moves from around the game here…
- Cubs outfielder Mark Zagunis has been outrighted off the 40-man roster, per the league transactions log at MLB.com. Zagunis, 26, was designated for assignment last weekend and went unclaimed on outright waivers. Once considered to be among the organization’s better prospects, Zagunis has had an ugly season in 2019. While his .294/.361/.475 batting line through 285 plate appearances in Triple-A appears sound, that was actually barely above the league average in this year’s explosive offensive environment (102 wRC+). Beyond that, Zagunis punched out in a third of his plate appearances and saw his offensive production buoyed by a .439 average on balls in play, suggesting that he’s highly unlikely to maintain that level of offense. A third-round pick in 2014, Zagunis has now appeared in parts of four Triple-A seasons and has typically handled himself well, but he’s a .200/.313/.273 hitter in a tiny sample of 64 Major League plate appearances and has fallen considerably down the organizational depth chart in the outfield.