Rays Select Contract Of Ricardo Pinto
The Rays have selected the contract of righty Ricardo Pinto, as MLB.com’s Juan Toribio was among those to tweet. Righty Jose De Leon was optioned. To create 40-man space, infielder Yandy Diaz was placed on the 60-day injured list.
Pinto, 25, will get his second crack at the big leagues after previously appearing with the Phillies back in 2017. His 25-appearance debut didn’t go well, as he was tagged for 26 earned runs in 29 2/3 innings.
Since joining the Rays organization over the offseason, Pinto has worked as a bulk guy. He has spent most of the year at Triple-A, where he carries a 4.13 ERA with 8.3 K/9 and 4.0 BB/9 over 104 2/3 innings. It remains to be seen how extensively the Rays will utilize Pinto. He could hold a job for the month of September or be designated in a few days if the club has other ideas for his roster spot.
Nationals Designate Matt Grace; Activate Elias, Strickland
The Nationals announced today that they have designated lefty Matt Grace for assignment. His roster spot was needed for the activation of fellow southpaw Roenis Elias from the injured list.
In other news, the club has formally activated righty reliever Hunter Strickland. Backstop Spencer Kieboom was optioned back down to Double-A.
The Nats could’ve kept Grace around had they waited two more days. At that point, both pitchers could’ve occupied the same active roster. But it may well be that the club already anticipates needing a 40-man roster spot for the addition of another player.
A variety of veteran hurlers remain stashed at Triple-A or on the injured list. Greg Holland, J.J. Hoover, Justin Miller, and Sam Freeman are just a few of the reliever possibilities. And the Nats would need a 40-man spot to activate Jeremy Hellickson if and when he’s ready.
Grace certainly hasn’t helped his own cause this season. He has been a regular part of the middle-relief rotation over the past three years but has never been blitzed like this. Through 46 2/3 innings in 2019, Grace has coughed up 11 long balls and owns a 6.36 ERA with 6.8 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9.
Acquired at the deadline, Elias made just one appearance before hitting the IL with a hamstring injury. He had been a solid performer for the Mariners dating back to the start of the 2018 campaign. Elias was added to function as the Nats’ new top setup lefty.
Indians Sign Ryan Lavarnway
The Indians announced Friday that they’ve signed veteran catcher Ryan Lavarnway to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Columbus.
Lavarnway, 32, appeared in five games with the Reds this summer amid a series of injuries to Cincinnati’s catching corps, hitting .278/.316/.722 with a pair of homers in 19 plate appearances. He’s a lifetime .211/.270/.343 hitter at the MLB level and a .271/.363/.426 hitter in parts of nine seasons of Triple-A ball.
The Indians have both Roberto Perez and Kevin Plawecki as catching options on the big league roster, but Lavarnway will become a candidate to get a look once rosters expand on Sunday. He’ll provide some direct competition to Columbus catcher Eric Haase, who previously appeared a good bet to join the Indians as a September call-up.
Minor MLB Transactions: 8/30/19
Here are Friday’s minor moves from around the game…
- The Twins released veteran infielder Ivan De Jesus Jr. from his minor league deal, per the Triple-A International League transactions log. The 32-year-old has split the 2019 season between the Twins and White Sox systems, hitting a combined .235/.337/.325 through 194 plate appearances. He’s seen action both in Double-A and Triple-A, primarily logging innings at second base and third base. At one point, De Jesus was considered a well-regarded prospect with the Dodgers, but he never established himself in the Majors despite multiple stints with three different clubs. In parts of four MLB seasons, De Jesus hit .242/.303/.327 through 545 plate appearances. His most recent look in the bigs came with the 2016 Reds.
Reds Release Ryan Lavarnway
The Reds have released catcher Ryan Lavarnway, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Lavarnway had been with the organization since signing a minor league contract July 18 – the same day the Yankees released him.
Now 32 years old, Lavarnway came through the ranks as a high-end prospect for the Red Sox, who grabbed him in the sixth round of the 2008 draft. Lavarnway hasn’t matched the hype he garnered during his younger days, though, and has been a member of several organizations as a result. Along with Boston and Cincinnati, Lavarnway has appeared at the major league level with Baltimore, Atlanta, Oakland and Pittsburgh, combining for a nonthreatening .211/.270/.343 line with nine home runs in 445 plate appearances.
The Reds actually received impressive production from Lavarnway, albeit over only 19 trips to the plate, as he collected five hits and a pair of homers in their uniform. But Lavarnway never seemed likely to stick for long in Cincinnati, as he came up just to fill in for then-injured catchers Tucker Barnhart, Curt Casali and Kyle Farmer. The club deemed Lavarnway expendable when it designated him for assignment to clear room for Farmer activation’s from the injured list on July 28. Lavarnway then wound up spending a few weeks with the Reds’ Triple-A team in Louisville, where he hit .225/.319/.500 and totaled three long balls in 47 PA.
Danny Coulombe Opts Out Of Brewers Contract
Left-hander Danny Coulombe has exercised a release clause within his minor league deal with the Brewers and is now a free agent, the team announced (Twitter link). Coulombe signed with Milwaukee back in July, a few weeks after being released from a previous minors contract with the Yankees.
For the entire 2019 season, Coulombe has a cumulative 4.79 ERA over 35 2/3 relief innings at the Triple-A level, also missing a month on the injured list while with New York’s Triple-A affiliate. Despite a 15.1 K/9, Coulombe has been badly hurt by home runs, allowing nine long balls over his limited number of innings. (His walk rate also ballooned to 6.0 BB/9 when with the Yankees, though that number shrunk to a far more respectable 1.4 BB/9 over 13 frames in the Brewers’ farm system.) Home runs had generally not been much of a problem for Coulombe prior to last season, when his HR/9 spiked to 1.9 over 23 2/3 innings on the Athletics’ big league roster.
Between the homer issues and a lack of need for left-handed relief in the Brewers’ pen (Alex Claudio and Drew Pomeranz are on hand, not to mention closer Josh Hader), it’s safe to infer that Coulombe knew he wasn’t going to be called up when rosters expand on September 1, so he has left the Brewers in search of another opportunity elsewhere. There’s perhaps room for him to catch on with a team as a lefty specialist, as Coulombe has held Triple-A left-handed hitters to just a .580 OPS this season, to go along with his solid work (.631 OPS in 287 PA) against lefty swingers at the Major League level.
Coulombe has yet to appear in the majors this season after amassing 153 appearances for the Dodgers and A’s from 2014-2018. He has a career 4.27 ERA, 8.4 K/9, and 2.20 K/BB rate over 143 1/3 IP in the Show, including a workhorse year for Oakland in 2017 that saw him appear in 72 games.
Minor MLB Transactions: 8/29/19
The latest minor moves from around the sport…
- Right-hander Felipe Paulino has asked to be released from his minor league contract with the Astros, as per the ALPB News Instagram page. Paulino will rejoin the Sugar Land Skeeters of the independent Atlantic League, returning to the club after spending the last two-plus months in Houston’s farm system. The brief stint at Triple-A Round Rock didn’t go well, as Paulino posted a 9.58 ERA over 20 2/3 innings. The 35-year-old Paulino last appeared in the majors in 2014, and has since pitched in the affiliated minors, Japan, Mexico, and (for the last three years) Sugar Land.
Athletics Designate Wei-Chung Wang For Assignment
The Athletics announced Thursday that they’ve designated left-hander Wei-Chung Wang for assignment and placed designated hitter Khris Davis on the paternity list. Wang’s spot on the 40-man roster will go to infield prospect Sheldon Neuse, whose previously reported promotion to the big leagues is now official. Davis can be on the paternity list until Sept. 1, and at that point rosters will expand, so it’s likely that Neuse will be with the MLB club through season’s end.
Wang, 27, has pitched to an aesthetically pleasing 3.33 ERA through 27 innings with the A’s this season, but he’s also managed just a 16-to-11 K/BB ratio with a 30.5 percent ground-ball rate in that time. His success has been propped up by a .231 average on balls in play and an 84.5 percent strand rate — neither of which seems particularly sustainable over a larger sample. Oakland isn’t short on lefty options in the ‘pen, either; Ryan Buchter has been a constant in the bullpen for much of the past two seasons, and he’s joined there by deadline acquisition Jake Diekman and recently promoted top prospect A.J. Puk. That depth had relegated Wang to Triple-A Las Vegas, where he’s logged a 4.78 ERA with 24 strikeouts, eight walks and five homers allowed in 26 1/3 innings.
Although this season’s performance has been mixed both in Triple-A and at the MLB level, Wang does sport a career 3.20 ERA with 7.8 K/9 against 1.7 BB/9 in 115 2/3 innings of Triple-A pitching. If he goes unclaimed on outright waivers, he’ll have the right to reject an assignment to the minors in favor of free agency by virtue of the fact that he’s been outrighted off a 40-man roster in the past.
Even if Wang is claimed by another club, the former Rule 5 pick is in his final option season, thus hurting his chances of sticking with a team into the 2020 season. Any club could take a flier on Wang via outright waivers and give him a September bullpen audition, but because he’ll be out of options in Spring Training, he’d need to either break camp with a club or once again be placed on waivers.
Nationals Release George Kontos
Veteran right-handed reliever George Kontos has been released by the Nationals, per an announcement from Paul Braverman of the Fresno Grizzlies PR department (Twitter link). He’d been with the Grizzlies since signing a minor league pact back in late May.
Kontos, 34, has had a tough year in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. It’s worth noting that more than a third of the total runs he’s allowed came between two meltdown appearances, but that doesn’t exactly discount the fact that his bottom-line results haven’t been pretty. In 46 innings with Fresno, he’s posted a 6.07 ERA with 7.2 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 1.37 HR/9 and a 38.6 percent ground-ball rate.
A veteran of eight MLB seasons, Kontos pitched for four clubs from 2017-18, tallying a 3.68 ERA and an 85-to-27 K/BB ratio in 93 innings of work between the Giants, Pirates, Yankees and Indians. He’s best known for his time as a solid middle reliever/setup piece for the Giants, with whom he won a pair of World Series rings (posting a sub-3.00 ERA in both 2012 and 2014). Kontos logged 309 2/3 innings as a Giant from 2012-17, recording a tidy 3.05 ERA with averages of 7.3 punchouts and 2.6 walks per nine innings pitched along the way.
Minor MLB Transactions: 8/28/19
Here are the latest minor moves from around the game …
- Outfielder Aaron Altherr was outrighted recently by the Mets after he was designated for assignment, per the International League transactions page. Altherr has the requisite service time to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, but doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of this season’s $1.35MM salary. It’s been a brutal season for Altherr, who has gone just 5-for-61 with five walks through 66 plate appearances between the Phillies, Giants and Mets. As a player with three-plus years of service who’s been removed from the 40-man roster, Altherr will have the right to become a free agent and explore the open market this winter.
- The Blue Jays have released swingman Nick Kingham after he cleared waivers following his own DFA, also per the International League transactions page. Kingham was on the injured list when he was designated for assignment, and injured players cannot be placed on outright waivers. With August trades eliminated, the only possible outcome for Kingham was to be released by the Jays. The former top prospect has tallied 55 2/3 frames between Pittsburgh and Toronto this season but been clobbered for a 7.28 ERA with a 46-to-25 K/BB ratio and 11 home runs allowed in that time.
- Southpaw Adam McCreery was released recently by the Angels, per Baseball America’s most recent transactions report. He had originally been outrighted after being designated for assignment. McCreery is a 26-year-old reliever who has a single MLB appearance under his belt. This year, he owns a 3.63 ERA in 44 2/3 Triple-A innings, with 50 strikeouts against 28 walks. He’s averaged 11.3 K/9 throughout parts of six minor league seasons but has never been able to limit free passes at a sufficient rate.
- Also per Baseball America, the Royals have signed lefty Jake Brentz after he was released by the Pirates. Brentz, 24, is a former 11th-round pick who had spent the past several seasons in the Pittsburgh organization. Bentz has a history of swings and misses along with struggles with free passes. In 50 1/3 total innings in the upper minors this year, including three with his new team, he owns a 4.47 ERA with 9.8 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9.