Twins Select Mike Morin
The Twins announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Mike Morin and placed left-hander Adalberto Mejia on the 10-day injured list due to a calf strain. Minnesota had an open 40-man roster spot, so an additional corresponding move to accommodate Morin’s selection isn’t required.
It’s an early birthday present for Morin, who’ll turn 28 tomorrow. The former Angels, Royals and Mariners righty signed a minors pact with the Twins in the offseason and has thrown well in the early portion of the season with Triple-A Rochester, notching a 3.00 ERA with a 12-to-3 K/BB ratio in 12 innings of relief.
Morin had a terrific rookie campaign with the Angels back in 2014 when he logged a 2.90 ERA with 8.2 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, 0.46 HR/9 and a 43.9 percent ground-ball rate. That strong season has been far and away the best of his career to this point, as Morin has limped to a combined 5.56 ERA in 115 MLB frames since that time. He’s persistently maintained strong K/BB numbers and done a good job keeping the ball in the yard, however, and fielding-independent metrics have continually suggested that his bottom-line results should be better than they are. Morin has been plagued by a slightly elevated BABIP but more notably a 56.4 percent strand rate that is nearly 20 percent south of the league average.
Morin is out of minor league options, so the Twins won’t be able to send him back down unless they first pass him through waivers. He’ll replace Mejia, a former top prospect who has struggled perhaps more than anyone on the Twins’ staff to this point in the season. Through 11 1/3 innings, the lefty has been torched for 11 earned runs on 11 hits and nine walks with 11 strikeouts. Twins relievers, on the whole, rank 21st in the Majors with a 4.78 ERA and 4.62 xFIP (but 13th with a more palatable 4.21 FIP).
Craig Gentry Retires
Outfielder Craig Gentry, a veteran of 10 big league seasons, has retired at the age of 35, agent Bob Garber tells MLBTR. Gentry was with the Giants during Spring Training and signed a minor league contract with the Rockies last month. He played in only three games with Colorado’s Triple-A affiliate (and collected seven hits), however, before deciding to spend more time with his family rather than pursue a return to the Majors.
Though he was never a star or even an everyday player, the fleet-footed Gentry enjoyed a solid run as a defensive-minded platoon outfielder with the Rangers and A’s from 2011-14 — during which time he hit .278/.353/.355 with four homers, 35 doubles, nine triples and 75 steals. Paired with his strong glovework in the outfield, that performance checked in at 8.5 wins above replacement, per Fangraphs, and 9.6 WAR according to Baseball-Reference. Most recently, Gentry appeared in 145 games with the Orioles from 2017-18, hitting at a .265/.326/.362 clip in a familiar reserve outfielder’s role.
Gentry’s career will come to a close with a .262/.333/.339 batting line in 601 MLB games and 1402 plate appearances between the Rangers, A’s, Angels and Orioles. Defensive metrics were always bullish on him, as evidenced by a career +53 Defensive Runs Saved mark and a +31.9 Ultimate Zone Rating across all three outfield slots. The 2006 10th-round pick earned about $7MM in his playing career. Best wishes to Gentry in his post-playing days.
Minor MLB Transactions: 5/1/19
We’ll track Wednesday’s minor transactions from around the league here…
- Left-hander Justin Nicolino has been released by the Twins organization, per the Triple-A International League transactions log. Signed to a minor league contract over the winter, the former Marlins southpaw posted a 5.12 ERA with a 13-to-8 K/BB ratio in 19 1/3 innings with the Red Wings prior to returning to the open market. Now 27, Nicolino was once a well-regarded prospect but has never managed to put together a consistent strikeout pitch. He’s averaged just 5.4 strikeouts per nine innings in Triple-A and 3.8 K/9 in the big leagues. To his credit, Nicolino has a career 4.01 ERA in Triple-A and 4.65 mark in the Majors despite that lack of missed bats — thanks largely to his strong control. Most recently, Nicolino spent the ’18 season with the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate, pitching to a 4.69 ERA with 5.8 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 39.4 percent grounder rate in 134 2/3 innings.
Giants Select Stephen Vogt, Option Ty Blach
5:08pm: The move is official. Vogt will take the 40-man spot that was opened earlier today when pitching prospect Logan Webb was placed on the restricted list due to an 80-game PED suspension. In order to open a spot on the active roster, San Francisco has optioned left-hander Ty Blach to Triple-A Sacramento.
10:15am: The Giants will select the contract of veteran backstop Stephen Vogt today, he tells Janie McCauley of the Associated Press (Twitter link). Corresponding roster moves aren’t yet known.
Vogt, 34, will return to the majors for the first time since the 2017 campaign. He ultimately missed the entirety of the 2018 season with a shoulder injury that required shoulder surgery and at one point looked to be career threatening.
Through 1,808 career plate appearances at the game’s highest level, Vogt owns a .251/.310/.416 slash line. At his peak with the Athletics, he was among the game’s best-hitting catchers for a brief stretch and was named to a pair of American League All-Star teams.
Vogt has shown signs that he’s ready to be a contributor in the majors once again. He’s off to a strong .241/.389/.500 slash with four home runs through 72 plate appearances with the Giants’ top affiliate. Better still, he has drawn 14 walks against 11 strikeouts. The Giants already have a pair of catchers on the roster in Buster Posey and Erik Kratz, so it’s not clear how Vogt will factor into the catching mix just yet, but he’ll at the very least give the Giants an additional veteran bat off the bench.
Mets Place Jeurys Familia On Injured List, Select Ryan O’Rourke
The Mets are placing right-hander Jeurys Familia on the 10-day injured list due to a shoulder injury, the team announced to reporters today (Twitter links via Anthony Rieber of Newsday and Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News). Familia has already received an injection in his ailing shoulder. In his place on the active roster, the Mets will select the contract of left-handed reliever Ryan O’Rourke. New York has an open 40-man spot, so an additional corresponding move will not be necessary.
Per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (Twitter link), Familia alerted the Mets to the discomfort in his shoulder this morning. He subsequently underwent an MRI that revealed a Bennett lesion/bone spur.
There’s no clear timetable on his return to the club at present, though the ailment helps to explain the rough start to the season for the 29-year-old. In 14 1/3 innings, Familia has been tagged for 11 runs (10 earned) on 16 hits and a sky-high 13 walks against 15 strikeouts. His current 95.5 mph average fastball is a career-low and down 0.7 mph from last season, and the extreme difficulty throwing strikes is out of character for the righty as well; over the past half decade prior to 2019, Familia had averaged 3.4 walks per nine innings pitched.
Familia signed the second-largest contract of any reliever this offseason at three years and a total of $30MM, but he’s clearly not off to the start he’d envisioned. With him on the shelf for a yet-undetermined period of time, it stands to reason that Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman will be tasked with serving as the primary right-handed setup men to closer Edwin Diaz. Gsellman leads Mets relievers with 18 2/3 innings pitched, though the Mets’ rigid use of their relievers could shoehorn him into a more limited eighth-inning role.
The 31-year-old O’Rourke will be returning to the Majors for the first time since the 2016 season. The southpaw saw 47 innings worth of action with the Twins in 2015-16, but Tommy John surgery wiped out his 2017 season and much of his 2018 campaign. O’Rourke spent last year in the Orioles organization but was only able to toss 14 1/3 innings of rehab work in the minors by season’s end. He landed with the Mets on a minor league deal early in the offseason.
So far in Syracuse, O’Rourke has pitched to a 4.61 ERA with a 14-to-6 K/BB ratio in 13 2/3 innings of work. Lefties are just 3-for-16 with a pair of walks and nine strikeouts in 18 plate appearances against him (.188/.278/.188), and that type of performance against same-handed opponents is rather characteristic of the 6’3″, 230-pound O’Rourke. In his two seasons with Minnesota, he dominated left-handed batters, limiting them to an embarrassing .134/.244/.239 slash in 80 plate appearances. Right-handed hitters, however, fared much better against O’Rourke, hitting him at a .250/.350/.390 clip.
Brewers Outright Alex Wilson, Jake Petricka
The Brewers have outrighted right-handed relievers Alex Wilson and Jake Petricka, per a club announcement. Both were designated for assignment recently.
Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel suggests on Twitter that the veteran hurlers will accept their assignments to Triple-A, though that is not yet official. Both would have the ability to decline and become free agents if they prefer; with more than five years of MLB service they’d each also be able to keep any guaranteed money.
Wilson is playing on a $750K base salary under the minors deal he inked with the Milwaukee organization. It’s not known whether he signed an advance consent clause upon being added to the MLB roster. Petricka agreed to a split contract when he inked with the Brewers.
Neither pitcher was at his best in the early going for the Brewers. Wilson was clobbered for a dozen earned runs in 11 1/3 frames. Petricka allowed only three earned in eight innings but managed an ugly 3:6 K/BB ratio.
Padres Promote Cal Quantrill
TODAY: Quantrill’s contract has been selected. Reliever Phil Maton was optioned down, while righty Miguel Diaz was shifted to the 60-day injured list to create 40-man space.
YESTERDAY: The Padres will promote pitching prospect Cal Quantrill to the majors this Wednesday, according to MLB.com’s AJ Cassavell. He’s expected to start the club’s game that day in Atlanta.
Quantrill, 24, was the eighth overall pick in the 2016 draft and commanded top-100 leaguewide prospect billing entering the 2017 and 2018 campaigns. His rise up the rankings stalled out after a suboptimal ’18 effort, though there’s still plenty of reason to hope he’ll be a quality MLB hurler.
This promotion represents a continuation of the Friars’ strategy for managing their bevy of unproven young talent and designs on contention. Quantrill may only be up briefly to begin — the five members of the existing rotation are expected to continue working in a starting capacity — but could be called upon several times throughout the year to help spread innings around. It’s certainly also possible that he could command more opportunities in the majors based upon his own showing.
Quantrill has still yet to master the upper minors, which is likely why he was bypassed when the San Diego organization brought up a series of other young pitchers this year. He’s now carrying a 4.68 ERA in 25 innings over five starts on the year at Triple-A, though that comes with a solid combination of 8.6 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 along with a 48.6% groundball rate. Quantrill should be ready for a full workload after reaching 148 innings in 2018.
In the event that Quantrill is able to command an active roster spot for the rest of the season, he could accrue as many as 152 days of service. That’d be enough to set him up for future Super Two qualification but not enough to reach a full year of service (which requires 172 days). The club will need to add Quantrill to the 40-man roster before activating him.
White Sox Select Contract Of Evan Marshall
The White Sox have selected the contract of right-hander Evan Marshall, per a club announcement. Reliever Thyago Vieira was optioned down to create roster space.
Marshall, 29, is still looking to recapture the success he had in his debut season of 2014. He has appeared in each of the ensuing four campaigns, but since that time has managed only a 7.89 ERA with 6.0 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9 in 43 1/3 frames.
There certainly is some promise in Marshall’s initial showing this year at Triple-A. He has yet to permit a run in ten frames while carrying a 13:1 K/BB ratio.
Jesus Sucre Accepts Outright Assignment
The Orioles announced Tuesday that catcher Jesus Sucre accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Norfolk after clearing outright waivers. He’ll remain in the organization but will no longer require a 40-man spot for the time being.
Sucre, who was designated for assignment over the weekend as part of a series of roster moves, inked a minor league pact with the O’s back in February but broke camp as the team’s primary backstop. In 67 plate appearances prior to that DFA, he hit .210/.269/.242 with a pair of doubles.
He’s never been much with the bat, as evidenced by a lifetime .222/.260/.302 slash line in 721 Major League plate appearances, but the defensive-minded Sucre went 4-for-8 in thwarting stolen-base attempts in his short time with the Orioles. Framing metrics weren’t particularly bullish on Sucre in his tiny sample of work this season, but he’s received quality marks in that regard in the past.
With Sucre joining Chance Sisco in Triple-A, the Orioles are relying on Austin Wynns and Pedro Severino behind the plate, though that duo’s grip on their respective 25-man roster spots is hardly ironclad. Severino, a waiver claim who is out of minor league options, has hit well in 47 PAs but had a career .560 OPS prior to being claimed by Baltimore. Wynns, meanwhile, is already 28 and has never hit much above the Double-A level. That said, with Sisco struggling in Norfolk, it doesn’t seem that there’s any current impetus for a change behind the plate at the big league level.
Tigers Place Josh Harrison On IL, Select Harold Castro
The Tigers announced Tuesday that they’ve placed second baseman Josh Harrison on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 27, due to a left shoulder contusion. In his place, the club has selected the contract of infielder Harold Castro. Lefty Matt Moore was moved from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list in a corresponding 40-man roster move.
Harrison, 31, inked a one-year deal worth $2MM with the Tigers this winter, reuniting him with Pittsburgh double-play partner Jordy Mercer in the Detroit infield. He’s off to an ugly start to the season, however, hitting .156/.212/.233 through his first 99 trips to the plate. Harrison’s strikeout rate hasn’t spiked to a worrisome degree, though, and over the course of a full season one would imagine that his .181 average on balls in play will bounce back even as his hard-hit and line-drive rates have fallen off from their 2018 levels.
Castro, 25, made his big league debut with the Tigers last season but tallied just 10 plate appearances (with three hits) in September before being outrighted off the 40-man roster following the season. He stuck around with the Tigers, though, and will now get another crack at the Majors on the heels of a strong start in Toledo. Through 76 PAs, Castro is hitting .353/.392/.544 with three homers and four doubles. It’s possible that his newfound spot on the 40-man roster will be in jeopardy once Harrison is ready to go, though Castro does still have three minor league option years remaining, so the organization could also keep him on the 40-man as a valuable depth option who can be shuttled between Toledo and Detroit over the course of the season.