Athletics Sign Cameron Rupp To Minor League Deal
The Athletics have inked Cameron Rupp to a minor league deal, as was first noted on MLB.com’s transactions page. It doesn’t appear that there was a formal announcement from the organization, but Rupp has already logged a pair of games with Triple-A Las Vegas. He was released from a minor league pact with the Tigers last week.
Rupp, 30, hit .254/.329/.366 in 79 plate appearances with Detroit’s Triple-A affiliate but is best known for a five-season stretch with the Phillies from 2013-17. Rupp hit a combined .234/.298/.407 with 39 home runs, 57 doubles and a pair of triples through 1127 plate appearances in his time with the Phils, serving as their primary backstop for the final two seasons of his tenure there.
While Rupp has some pop in his bat, as evidenced by a career .173 ISO (slugging minus batting average), he’s been too strikeout prone at the dish (28.7 percent). Behind the plate, he’s thwarted 31 percent of stolen-base attempts against him in his career, which is slightly above the league average, while drawing questionable framing marks — particularly in 2017.
The Athletics have received perhaps surprising production from 31-year-old Josh Phegley behind the plate this season (.282/.313/.491), which has led to Phegley receiving considerably more playing time than veteran Nick Hundley. The 35-year-old Hundley inked a minor league contract this winter and broke camp with the A’s this season, but he’s hitting just .200/.228/.327 through his first 57 plate appearances.
The signing of Rupp comes not long after the A’s received some unwelcome news on top catching prospect Sean Murphy, who suffered a torn meniscus that required surgical repair (as initially reported by The Atheltic’s Melissa Lockard, on Twitter). That procedure should sideline Murphy into mid-June, if not longer, so Rupp will team up with Beau Taylor to hand catching duty in Vegas for the time being. Offseason signee Chris Herrmann is also recovering from knee surgery — his coming back in March — thus further depleting the organization’s depth at catcher.
Minor MLB Transactions: 5/19/19
We’ll use this post to track the latest minor moves from around baseball…
- The Blue Jays have agreed to a minor-league deal with left-handed pitcher Buddy Boshers, tweets Scott Mitchell of TSN. Boshers, who formerly pitched in the bigs with the Angels and Twins, is the owner of a 4.59 ERA in 86 1/3 career innings. He spent last season toiling in Triple-A with the Astros and Pirates organizations, posting a 3.32 ERA. Per Mitchell, the 31-year-old has has been pitching in the Mexican League; however, he’ll now return to affiliated ball, joining the Jays’ Triple-A affiliate in Buffalo.
Mariners Designate Mike Wright
The Mariners have designated right-handed pitcher Mike Wright for assignment, according to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (Twitter link). In a corresponding move, right-handed reliever David McKay has been recalled from Triple-A. The move leaves the team with an open spot on the 40-man roster.
The news—marking the second time Wright has been designated in the last month—comes in the wake of an ugly outing last night, in which Wright was shelled to the tune of five runs in two innings amidst a 18-4 drubbing at the hands of the Twins. Despite the unsightly 9.00 ERA Wright has posted in his brief stint with the Mariners, who acquired the 29-year-old in late April, Wright’s peripherals seem to indicate better underlying performance than during his stay in Baltimore. In seven games with Seattle, he has pitched to a 3.29 FIP, a much better mark than the 7.68 FIP that earned him a one-way ticket out of Baltimore.
Nonetheless, it evidently was not enough to compel the Mariners to keep him around, and Wright could once again find himself on the move should a team choose to take a chance on his stuff. If not, Wright could remain in the Mariners organization and serve to provide minor-league depth. Of course, this is the latest disappointing development in a rocky career for Wright, who has posted a 6.08 ERA in 253 MLB innings.
Meanwhile, 24-year-old David McKay will join the Mariners’ active roster and is slated to make his Major League debut. The right-hander has appeared in 14 games for Triple-A Tacoma, striking out 34 batters in 21 1/3 innings of work. Acquired early last season from the Royals for cash, McKay features a fastball/slider combination that could make him a suitable relief arm in the middle innings.
White Sox Sign Odrisamer Despaigne
The White Sox have signed right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne to a minor league contract, per an announcement from their Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte. Francys Romero of Las Mayores was first to report the news.
Prior to Sunday, Despaigne had spent the entire season with the Reds’ Triple-A team in Louisville, where he logged a 3.92 ERA/4.60 FIP with 8.7 K/9, 3.48 BB/9 and a 53.4 percent groundball rate in 41 1/3 innings. Despaigne’s brief Reds tenure concluded Thursday when he opted out of the minor league deal he signed over the winter.
Considering the struggles of Chicago’s pitching staff, Despaigne could make it back to the bigs this year if he shows well with Charlotte. The 32-year-old is an experienced major leaguer who has piled up a combined 349 2/3 innings, 106 appearances and 47 starts of 4.94 ERA/4.35 FIP ball in stints with the Padres, Orioles, Marlins and Angels. Despaigne struggled at the major league level in Miami and Anaheim in 2018, though, thus relegating him to the minors this season.
Giants Designate Aaron Altherr
The Giants have designated outfielder Aaron Altherr for assignment and activated left-hander Drew Pomeranz from the 10-day injured list, Maria Guardado of MLB.com was among those to report.
This is the second time this month that a team has booted Altherr from its 40-man roster. The Phillies did it previously when they designated Altherr on May 4, leading the Giants to claim him off waivers last weekend. Even though San Francisco’s outfield has been a mess this season, the club didn’t give Altherr much of an opportunity, allowing the 28-year-old just one at-bat before cutting him.
In fairness to the Giants, Altherr hasn’t exactly made a case for a big league roster spot over the past couple years. Altherr was a solid offensive producer in Philadelphia in 2017, when he hit .272/.340/.516 (121 wRC+) with 19 home runs in 412 plate appearances, but he has only batted .165/.272/.304 with eight long balls across 316 PA since then. Altherr’s 60 wRC+ is tied for eighth worst among hitters who have amassed at least 300 trips to the plate dating back to last season.
Minor MLB Transactions: 5/18/19
The latest in minor moves from around the game…
- Cory Spangenberg, designated for assignment Tuesday by Milwaukee, cleared waivers and has been outrighted to AAA-San Antonio, tweets MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. It’s a bit of a surprise that Spangenberg wasn’t claimed, given his versatility and near-league-average offensive performance when afforded full-time play. The former tenth overall pick’s plate discipline continues to slide, however, and this year his strikeout rate had plummeted to a career-worst 33.9% at San Antonio. In 329 plate appearances for San Diego last season, the 28-year-old slashed .235/.298/.362 with a 32.4% strikeout rate, though his output in 2015 and ’17 for the team – his two previous seasons uninterrupted by injury – was far better. Spangenberg has MLB experience at nearly every non-catcher position on the diamond, so any prolonged hot streak should afford him another big-league opportunity in the near future.
- The Royals have requested unconditional release waivers on 1B Frank Schwindel, tweets Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star. Schwindel, 26, was in his seventh season in the KC system but had plunged to unfortunate depths in ’19, slashing just .186/.237/.286 over 76 plate appearances in the surface-of-the-moon environs of the Pacific Coast League. Schwindel was designated for assignment by Kansas City on Tuesday.
Braves Select Jerry Blevins, Release Jonny Venters
The Braves are again shaking up the bullpen, selecting the contract of lefty Jerry Blevins, who’d been designated and outrighted earlier in the week after clearing waivers, to replace fellow lefty Jonny Venters, who’s been issued his release by the club. (Twitter link via MLB.com’s Mark Bowman).
The latest chapter in the renaissance project for three-time Tommy John surgery survivor Venters, 34, didn’t go as planned. Though the lefty threw just 4 2/3 IP for a shaken Atlanta pen, he allowed three homers and walked eight over the frame. His average fastball velocity still registers at a competitive 93.0 MPH, so he may yet have some juice left in the tank, but it seemingly won’t be deployed for the team with whom he initially made his mark.
Blevins, 35, has been on a whirlwind tour in the last week, and he’ll again find himself at SunTrust Park for the back half of Atlanta’s weekend series with Milwaukee. Blevins has been left-handed kryptonite over the course of his 13-year MLB career, holding southpaws to a sickly .215/.271/.315 career mark. His numbers, though, have slipped considerably over the last two seasons – the lefty’s been homer prone for nearly the first time – and he hasn’t held lefties in comparable check.
It’s the latest in an early-season lefty exodus from the Atlanta ‘pen, as the club had already sent down penciled-in set-up man A.J. Minter and designated Jesse Biddle for assignment.
Cubs Claim Chandler Shepherd
The Cubs have claimed righty Chandler Shepherd, per Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. Shepherd was designated for assignment by Boston yesterday morning.
Shepherd, 26, transitioned to a full-time starter last season for Boston’s AAA-Pawtucket affiliate after having spent the majority of his four-year professional career in the bullpen. The experiment’s continued this season, to less-than-sparkling results: though the righty’s strikeout rate has jumped to an encouraging 9.10 men per nine, he’s allowed 11 homers in just 29.1 IP out of the Pawtucket rotation, with little of corner-painting command he’d so often exhibited in years prior.
Shepherd will report to AA-Tennessee, per Wittenmyer, where his role is as yet undetermined. FanGraphs’ Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen laud his “standout curveball” but project him as a “likely” long reliever in the majors.
Minor MLB Transactions: 5/17/19
We’ll track some minor moves from around the league here…
- Southpaw Jerry Blevins was outrighted by the Braves, Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweets. Blevins had been designated for assignment recently; whether he’ll accept the assignment isn’t yet clear, but he has the right to decline. The veteran reliever only saw six appearances with the Atlanta organization and they didn’t go very well. He suffered a big drop-off in strikeouts last season. That being said, Blevins has compiled nearly five hundred innings of MLB pitching with a 3.57 ERA and 9.2 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9; it certainly wouldn’t be surprising to see him back up to the majors this year.
- The Red Sox signed right-hander Dylan Thompson to a minor league contract, per an announcement from the independent American Association (Twitter link). Thompson had been slated to open the season with the AA’s Winnipeg Goldeyes before his contract was purchased by the Red Sox. A former Rockies farmhand, Thompson spent the past three seasons pitching for the AA’s Sioux Falls Canaries — primarily as a reliever in 2017 but exclusively as a starter in 2018. While his overall numbers don’t immediately jump out, the right-hander’s sinker movement is eye-opening, to say the least (as depicted in GIF form by Rob Friedman, on Twitter). Whether Thompson can parlay that wiffle-esque movement into success in affiliated ball remains to be seen, but he’ll make for an interesting addition to the lower levels of Boston’s system. He’s opened the year with Class-A Advanced Salem and allowed a pair of runs on four hits and three walks with two strikeouts in three innings.
- Left-hander Tyler Lyons accepted his outright assignment after clearing waivers this week, per an announcement from the Pirates‘ Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis. Lyons, 31, was dominant out of the Cardinals’ bullpen as recently as 2017 — 2.83 ERA, 11.3 K/9, 3.3 BB/9, 0.50 HR/9 in 54 innings — but has struggled since that excellent showing. The southpaw yielded 16 runs in 16 2/3 innings last season with St. Louis and was rocked for five runs in four innings with the Pirates earlier this season. He had the option of rejecting his assignment in favor of free agency but will remain in the Pittsburgh organization as he works toward another opportunity later in the year.
Rays Notes: Wood, Pruitt, Bemboom
The Tampa Bay Rays activated righty Hunter Wood from the injured list, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). In a corresponding move, Austin Pruitt was optioned back to Triple-A Durham.
Wood gives the Rays another long option to soak up the innings left behind in the wake of Tyler Glasnow‘s injury. Before hitting the injured list with shoulder soreness, Wood had yet to surrender a run in 6 1/3 innings, including a two-inning “start” as an opener. He threw three innings in his first appearance of the season, earning the save in a 5-1 win against the White Sox. Wood’s fastball clocked in at 94.3 mph in 41 innings last season, and the Rays hope to see some of that velocity return after averaging only 92.3 mph over his first four appearances, effective as he was over that span. Wood joins Yonny Chirinos, Jalen Beeks, Casey Sadler, and Ryne Stanek in the long man/opener mix for Tampa.
Pruitt had a rough go of it in a short stint with the big league club this year: 6 earned runs in only 7 1/3 innings with 8 hits and 2 home runs to only 4 strikeouts. Results haven’t been a whole lot better for the 29-year-old in in Triple-A this season either, where he sports a 6.23 ERA in seven appearances. Like Wood, Pruitt has the ability to throw multiple innings in a single go, and his FIP and xFIP numbers have been good the last two seasons, but the results have yet to show in the more public-facing ERA column. Wood provides more upside at this stage, but Pruitt is sure to return to Tampa at some point this season if he can stay healthy.
Meanwhile, the Rays had yet another catcher hit the deck. Rookie Anthony Bemboom will avoid surgery, but not the injured list, per Topkin (via Twitter). Manager Kevin Cash suggests Bemboom will miss 4-6 weeks with a sprained ligament after only 5 plate appearances with Tampa. In his stead, Erik Kratz will become Blake Snell‘s fourth different receiver in his last five starts, along with Bemboom, Mike Zunino, and Michael Perez, who is the closest of the three to returning from his oblique injury. Still, it’ll be Kratz and Travis d’Arnaud behind the dish for the next couple of weeks at the least.