Rays Acquire Erik Kratz, Designate Aaron Slegers
The Rays have acquired catcher Erik Kratz and cash considerations from the Giants in exchange for either a player to be named later or cash, per an announcement from the Giants. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times was the first to report that Kratz had been dealt to Tampa, adding that he expected right-hander Aaron Slegers to be designated for assignment to make room for Kratz on the 40-man roster (Twitter links). MLB.com’s Juan Toribio confirmed that Slegers is indeed headed for DFA limbo.
Kratz was designated himself by the Giants earlier this week, and the veteran will now suit up for the ninth different team in 10 Major League seasons. Kratz will back up Travis d’Arnaud, himself a recent acquisition, on a Rays team that has seen its catching depth depleted in recent days. Mike Zunino, Michael Perez, and now rookie Anthony Bemboom have all been sidelined with injuries, with Bemboom hitting the IL earlier today due to a sprained left knee. It’s probably safe to assume that Kratz’s time with the Rays could be short as players begin to return from injury, though that might still be some weeks away, and d’Arnaud himself is no guarantee to stay healthy.
The money changing hands in the deal should indicate that the Rays won’t be on the hook for much of the approximately $900K that Kratz is still owed for the remainder of the season.
Slegers has a 5.90 ERA over 29 career MLB innings, all with the Twins from 2017-18. After going to the Pirates on a waiver claim in the offseason, he was acquired by the Rays at the end of Spring Training, and Slegers has managed only a 6.15 ERA over 33 2/3 innings for Triple-A Durham this season.
Odrisamer Despaigne Opts Out Of Reds Contract
Right-hander Odrisamer Despaigne has opted out of his minor league contract with the Reds, MLBTR has learned. Despaigne inked the deal back in January, and would’ve earned $875K in guaranteed money had he reached Cincinnati’s Major League roster.
Over eight starts and 41 1/3 innings for Triple-A Louisville this season, Despaigne had posted a 3.92 ERA, 8.7 K/9, and 2.50 K/BB rate. Those numbers present a solid recovery from a very rough 2018 season that saw Despaigne post a 6.69 ERA over 39 frames for the Marlins and Angels, plus more shaky numbers in those two clubs’ respective farm systems.
Despaigne’s Louisville performance would surely have earned him a call-up in any other season in recent Reds history, though Cincinnati looks to finally be on track after years of pitching futility. Both the Reds’ rotation and bullpen rank solidly within the top ten in several league-wide statistical categories, leaving less opportunity for Despaigne to crack the roster. On the plus side, the 32-year-old probably shouldn’t have much trouble landing a contract elsewhere, given Despaigne’s good Triple-A numbers and the number of pitching-needy teams who can offer a clearer path to the Majors.
Tigers Designate Reed Garrett For Assignment
The Tigers have designated right-hander Reed Garrett for assignment, the team announced. Righty Sandy Baez is on the way up from Triple-A to take the open spot on Detroit’s 25-man roster prior to Friday’s game.
Garrett was selected out of the Rangers’ organization during last December’s Rule 5 Draft, and would be offered back to Texas (for $50K) if no other organization claims him off waivers during the DFA period. As per Rule 5 regulations, a claiming team would also have to keep Garrett on their 25-man roster for the remainder of the 2019 season in order to fully take over his rights from the Rangers.
Originally a 16th-round pick for Texas in the 2014 draft, Garrett struggled to keep runs off the board as a starting pitcher in the Rangers’ farm system, but 2018 was a breakout season for him as a reliever. Garrett posted a combined 2.04 ERA, 3.05 K/BB rate, and 8.9 K/9 over 61 2/3 innings at the Double-A and Triple-A levels last year, making him an intriguing selection for a rebuilding Detroit team that really had nothing to lose in taking a flier on a bullpen arm.
Unfortunately for both Garrett and the Tigers, his success in 2018 didn’t carry over to the Major Leagues. The 26-year-old struggled to a 6.28 ERA over 14 1/3 innings out of the Tigers’ bullpen, with more walks (12) than strikeouts (nine) recorded.
Blue Jays Option Teoscar Hernandez, Outright Socrates Brito
The Blue Jays announced Thursday that outfielder Teoscar Hernandez has been optioned to Triple-A Buffalo and that fellow outfielder Socrates Brito cleared waivers and has been assigned outright to Buffalo following his recent DFA. Infielder Richard Urena is up from Triple-A in place of Hernandez.
Toronto has held high hopes for Hernandez since acquiring him from the Astros back in 2017, but while he’s shown flashes of his potential, the 26-year-old has yet to establish himself as a consistent producer. Hernandez treated the Jays to about a half season’s worth of production last year, hitting at an impressive .268/.319/.550 pace with 12 homers, 16 doubles and five triples through the season’s first 54 games (238 plate appearances). Hernandez routinely lit up Statcast leaderboards with premium exit velocity readings and hit some prodigious home runs, but he slumped badly in the season’s second half and has seen his quality of contact take a nosedive in 2019.
So far this season, Hernandez is hitting just .189/.262/.299 with a near-30 percent strikeout rate. He’s connected on three home runs but has seen his average exit velocity dip from a hearty 91.8 mph to just 89 mph in 2019. His hard-hit rate, as measured by Statcast, has plummeted from 45.9 percent all the way to 34.9 percent, and he’s seen both his ground-ball and infield-fly rates increase over last season as well.
The endpoint here is arbitrary, but dating back to the middle of last June when his struggles seemingly begun, Hernandez is hitting .206/.279/.366 with a 35.2 percent strikeout rate through 426 plate appearances. That’s a far cry from his encouraging first two and a half months in 2018, and the Jays will hope that some time against lesser competition in a lower-pressure setting can get Hernandez back on track. If he can rebound, there’s still room for him to be a long-term option in the outfield or at designated hitter, but he’ll need to pare back the strikeouts and rediscover the frequent hard contact he made last season when he was in the 97th percentile of all big league hitters in terms of barreled-ball rate.
Brito, meanwhile, was designated for assignment last week after hitting just .077/.163/.128 in 43 plate appearances with the Jays. He’s already bounced from the D-backs to the Padres to the Blue Jays in a series of DFAs, but he went unclaimed this time around and will join Hernandez in attempting to get back on track in Triple-A.
Twins Option Trevor Hildenberger, Will Select Austin Adams
The Twins announced following Wednesday’s game that they’ve optioned struggling righty Trevor Hildenberger to Triple-A Rochester. While no corresponding move was announced, La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports that the Twins are set to select the contract of right-hander Austin Adams from Rochester. SKOR North’s Darren Wolfson tweeted earlier in the afternoon that Adams was a potential replacement option. Because Adams is not on the 40-man roster, Minnesota will need to make an additional move to accommodate the promotion.
Hildenberger, 28, was a significant factor in the Twins’ 2017 Wild Card run when he emerged as a late-blooming rookie and turned in a 3.21 ERA with 9.4 K/9 against 1.3 BB/9 in 42 innings of work down the stretch. He largely maintained that pace with a 3.33 first-half ERA in 2018 before cratering in the season’s second half when he allowed 27 runs in his final 27 innings of work.
The 2019 has been a smaller-scale replica of that 2018 campaign; Hildenberger allowed just two runs on nine hits and four walks with 11 strikeouts in 9 2/3 innings in April but has been clobbered for 11 runs in just 4 2/3 innings this month. While he’s never thrown hard, it’s also not a good sign that the righty’s average fastball is down 1.2 mph from last year’s levels (dipping from 89.6 mph to 88.4 mph). In fairness to Hildenberger, he’s been plagued by a sky-high .460 average on balls in play, which certainly hasn’t helped his cause. For now, he’ll look to right the ship in a lower-pressure setting and return to help the club later in the season.
As for Adams — not to be confused with the former Nationals reliever of the same name whom the Mariners acquired earlier this month — it’ll be the 32-year-old’s first big league action since the 2016 season. Adams was a 2009 fifth-round pick of the Indians and spent parts of three seasons (2014-16) in the Cleveland ‘pen, meaning Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey, a former Indians AGM, is likely quite familiar with the righty.
He hasn’t had much success in the Majors outside of a 3.78 ERA in 33 2/3 innings with the 2015 Indians, but Adams is currently sporting a 28-to-6 K/BB ratio in 14 innings of work with Triple-A Rochester. He’s been tagged for three homers in that time and has a 4.50 ERA on the whole, but the K/BB ratio and Adams’ whopping 58.5 percent ground-ball rate are genuinely intriguing. Perhaps most intriguing of all is the fact that the Twins and Mariners will square off in a four-game series beginning tomorrow, thus setting the stage for an Austin Adams vs. Austin Adams bullpen showdown.
Carlos Torres Opts Out Of Padres Deal
Veteran right-handed reliever Carlos Torres has opted out of his minor league contract with the Padres, MLBTR has learned.
Torres, 36, inked a minor league pact with the Padres back in January, and while he struggled in Spring Training, he’s had a solid start to his season in Triple-A El Paso. Through 25 1/3 frames, Torres is sporting a 2.49 ERA with a 23-to-10 K/BB ratio and a 50.7 percent ground-ball rate.
Torres has appeared in the Majors in each of the past eight seasons and in 10 of the past dating back to 2009. While he tossed only 9 2/3 innings in the Majors last year, all with the Nationals, he was a big league regular from 2012-17, pitching to a 3.73 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in a total of 449 innings between the Rockies, Mets and Brewers. Over that stretch, Torres averaged 56 appearances and 75 innings per season. It was a small sample of work, but last year’s 93 mph average fastball was actually an improvement over his career average of 91.7 mph.
Given his track record at the MLB level, solid showing to this point in the Pacific Coast League and the sheer number of clubs eyeing bullpen depth, Torres should be able to latch on with another club’s Triple-A affiliate at the very least.
Braves Designate Jesse Biddle For Assignment
The Braves announced that they’ve designated left-hander Jesse Biddle for assignment on Wednesday and placed center fielder Ender Inciarte on the 10-day injured list due to a lumbar strain. Biddle’s 40-man roster spot will go to top prospect Austin Riley, whose previously reported promotion has now been made official. Atlanta also recalled Touki Toussaint from Triple-A Gwinnett to round out tonight’s series of roster moves.
Biddle, 27, gave the Braves 63 2/3 innings of 3.11 ERA ball with 9.5 K/9, 4.4 BB/9, 0.85 HR/9 and a 55.6 percent ground-ball rate in 2018, but virtually nothing has gone right for the southpaw so far in 2019. Through 15 appearances and a span of 11 2/3 frames, Biddle has served up seven earned runs (and another four unearned runs) on 18 hits and 10 walks with 11 strikeouts. As I noted last week, Biddle’s struggles were compounded by the fact that he’s out of minor league options, thus preventing the Braves from merely optioning him to Gwinnett to sort things out. Given the team’s win-now status, a move of this nature felt almost inevitable.
Given last season’s success and the fact that he’s a lefty who still pumps fastballs at an average of 94.1 mph, it’s possible that another club will take a run at correcting the control issues that have torpedoes Biddle’s season. Hard-throwing lefties in their mid-20s that have had some degree of MLB success are hard to come by, after all, and if a team can straighten Biddle out he’d be controllable all the way through the 2023 season.
As for the other moves, Riley will step into left field with Ronald Acuna Jr. shifting into center field in place of Inciarte. The 22-year-old Riley had already slugged a ridiculous 15 home runs on the season and has more broadly been one of the best hitters in all of minor league baseball. He’ll likely get some work at his natural position, third base, on days when Josh Donaldson gets a breather.
Blue Jays Claim Jimmy Cordero
The Blue Jays have claimed righty Jimmy Cordero off waivers from the Nationals, as Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca was among those to cover on Twitter. Cordero was sent to Triple-A on optional assignment.
Despite the Nats’ bullpen malaise, other teams are interested in their relievers that have failed to receive MLB looks this year. Cordero follows Austin Adams (traded to the Mariners) in landing on another 40-man roster after being dropped from the D.C. list. Even as it deals with a struggling pitching staff, the Nationals have been forced to make some tough choices to address injuries to its position-player group.
Cordero will also hope also to follow Adams in getting a promotion with his new organization. He wasn’t able to capitalize on a chance last year, recording as many earned runs and walks as strikeouts (a dozen apiece) in 19 frames. No doubt the Jays also noticed that he pumped 98 mph heat and managed an 11.8% swinging-strike rate. Through 12 innings at Triple-A thus far in 2019, Cordero carries a 6.00 ERA with a 17:9 K/BB mix.
Tigers Release Cameron Rupp
The Tigers released Cameron Rupp from Triple-A Toledo earlier this week, as per the International League’s transactions page. According to MLB.com’s Jason Beck (Twitter link), Rupp became expendable after catching prospect Jake Rogers was promoted from Double-A to Toledo, and veteran Bobby Wilson returned from injury.
After receiving regular work behind the plate for the Phillies in 2015-17, Rupp has spent the last 14 months on a whirlwind tour of different organizations as he looks for a path back to the big leagues. Since being released by Philadelphia in March 2018, Rupp has been a member of five different teams (the Rangers, Twins, Mariners, Giants, and Tigers) on minor league assignments. Most recently, San Francisco dealt him to Detroit for cash considerations in March as the Tigers looked to add some veteran catching depth in Spring Training.
Rupp’s defense and pitch-framing has never been particularly highly rated, though he does possess some decent power, particularly for a catcher. The 30-year-old has 39 homers and a career .234/.298/.407 over 1127 Major League plate appearances, all with the Phillies.
Giants Select Shaun Anderson’s Contract
TODAY: Anderson’s contract has been officially selected, with Beede heading down to Triple-A in the corresponding move. (Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle was among those to report the news.)
YESTERDAY: The Giants are set to select the contract of righty Shaun Anderson, as Kerry Crowley of the Bay Area News Group was among those to report on Twitter. He’s expected to start the club’s contest on Wednesday.
It isn’t clear yet what the Giants will do to clear roster space. Neither is it known whether Anderson is likely to receive more than a single start’s worth of MLB action.
Anderson, 24, was a third-round pick out of the University of Florida back in 2016. He came to San Francisco as part of the mid-2017 deal that shipped Eduardo Nunez to Boston. Thus far in 2019, Anderson carries a 4.11 ERA in 35 innings over seven starts at Triple-A, with 9.5 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9. The 6’4″, 225-pound righty is generally regarded as one of the Giants’ best pitching prospects, ranking fourth in the system both at MLB.com and on Baseball America’s preseason rankings. He’s viewed as a potential mid-rotation starter who may not have a true plus offering but possesses average or slightly better stuff across the board.
This move represents the latest change to the makeup of the Giants’ rotation mix. The club has optioned Dereck Rodriguez to Triple-A, bumped Derek Holland to the bullpen, and sent Drew Pomeranz to the injured list. Tyler Beede will absorb some of those innings, perhaps pitching behind opener Nick Vincent today. And now Anderson will get a show to show that he ought to be a part of the team’s long-term plans.