Angels Designate John Curtiss For Assignment
The Angels announced that they’ve designated right-hander John Curtiss for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for prospect Griffin Canning, whose contract has now formally been selected from Triple-A Salt Lake. It was reported last week that Canning would make his MLB debut today.
Acquired in a minor January swap that sent infielder Daniel Ozoria to the Twins, Curtiss made just one appearance with the Angels, tossing 2 1/3 inning and allowing a run on two hits and three walks with a strikeout. It was only one appearance, but Curtiss averaged 92.1 mph on his heater in that outing — a substantial dip from the 95.2 mph he averaged as a rookie with the Twins in 2017.
Curtiss, long one of the more promising bullpen prospects in Minnesota’s system, has also struggled quite a bit in Triple-A early in the season. Through 8 2/3 innings, the 2014 sixth-rounder has been tagged for nine runs on 11 hits and eight walks with 11 strikeouts. The Angels will have a week to trade Curtiss, release him, or try to pass him through outright waivers. Even with his early 2019 struggles, Curtiss still has a career 3.16 ERA with nearly 11 strikeouts per nine frames at the Triple-A level (88 1/3 innings); given that success and the fact that he still has a minor league option remaining, he could draw interest from other clubs — assuming the velocity drop was a blip on the radar and not part of a larger-scale issue.
As for Canning, he’ll ascend to the Majors less than two years after being the Angels’ second pick in the 2017 draft. The Mission Viejo, Calif. native skyrocketed up three levels in the Angels’ system last season and has torn through Triple-A lineups early in 2019, pitching to a 0.56 ERA with a 17-to-2 K/BB ratio in 16 innings out of the rotation. He entered the year as a consensus Top 100 prospect and is viewed by the organization as a potential mid-rotation piece who could help to stabilize the rotation for years to come.
Mariners Option Mallex Smith To Triple-A
The Mariners announced Tuesday that they’ve optioned center fielder Mallex Smith to Triple-A Tacoma and recalled outfielder Braden Bishop in his place.
Certainly, that’s not the outcome Seattle hoped for when reacquiring Smith from the Rays as part of the offseason’s Mike Zunino swap. Smith, fresh off a .296/.367/.406 performance and controlled for another four years, was viewed as the hopeful center fielder of the future for the Mariners. That may very well be the case, but it had become increasingly difficult for the organization to look past the fleet-footed 25-year-old’s early struggles in 2019.
Smith has taken 110 plate appearances with the Mariners this year but managed only a .165/.255/.247 batting line in that time. His strikeout rate has skyrocketed from just 18 percent in 2018 to 30 percent in 2019, while his line-drive rate has fallen by nearly 10 percent as well. The drop in liners and hard-hit balls notwithstanding, Smith’s .234 average on balls in play still seems like it should bounce back, particularly given his considerable speed, but the contact issues he’s experiencing are something he’ll try to remedy in a lower-pressure environment in Tacoma.
From a service time perspective, the injury to Smith isn’t likely to change his trajectory. He entered the season with two years, 125 days of MLB service time already under his belt, meaning he need only acquire 47 days of service in 2019 to surpass the three-year mark and remain on track for free agency following the 2022 season. Smith has already acquired nearly that much service time, so he’s essentially a lock to reach three years of service time if he returns to the Majors at any point in 2019 (which seems quite likely). He’ll be arbitration-eligible in each of the next three offseasons.
With Smith in the minors for now, the Mariners can rely on Bishop in center field or slider Mitch Haniger from right field to center. In the latter scenario, Domingo Santana and Jay Bruce could man the outfield corners, with Daniel Vogelbach and Edwin Encarnacion working at first base and at designated hitter.
Josh Fields Opts Out Of Brewers Contract
The Brewers announced Tuesday that righty Josh Fields has been released from their Triple-A affiliate in San Antonio. Per Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel (on Twitter), Fields exercised the April 30 opt-out clause in the minor league deal he signed with Milwaukee last month.
The former Dodgers righty was off to a miserable start to the season in San Antonio, where he’d yielded eight runs (seven earned) on seven hits and four walks with five strikeouts in just 7 2/3 innings of work. Fields allowed runs in six of his first seven Triple-A appearances this year, though he did finish out that otherwise forgettable stint with three shutout innings across three appearances (one hit, no walks, three strikeouts), so perhaps he’s begun to turn a corner.
Since being acquired by the Dodgers in 2016, the now-33-year-old Fields has racked up 117 1/3 innings of relief and pitched to a terrific 2.61 ERA with 8.8 K/9, 2.6 BB/9 and 1.22 HR/9. Beyond that recent track record, Fields generally averages nearly 95 mph on his heater with strong swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates, all of which should be alluring to other clubs. He’s an extreme fly-ball pitcher thanks to a heavy reliance on a four-seam fastball, but Fields has allowed well less than a homer per nine innings pitched dating back to 2014 (even when factoring in an outlier 1.58 HR/9 mark in 2017).
Nationals Select Dan Jennings, Place Anthony Rendon On IL
The Nationals have announced a trio of roster moves. The club has selected the contract of southpaw Dan Jennings, creating 40-man roster space by designating righty Austin Adams for assignment and clearing an active roster spot by placing third baseman Anthony Rendon on the 10-day injured list with an elbow contusion.
While the Nats had resisted a move on Rendon, their best player, he wasn’t healing quite fast enough from a recent hit-by-pitch and the roster pressure proved too great. His placement is retroactive to April 27, meaning he’ll be eligible to return as soon as May 7.
Jennings, who recently inked a minors deal with the D.C. organization, will try to help steady one of the game’s shakiest middle-relief units. The 32-year-old has long been a steady hurler, with a 2.96 ERA over 344 frames in the past seven seasons.
As for Adams, who’s closing in on his 28th birthday, he has seen minimal opportunities in the majors over the past three seasons. It’s interesting that the club didn’t give him a lengthier audition given the volume of strikeouts he has racked up at Triple-A. After averaging 15.2 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9 in 46 1/3 frames last year with the Nats’ top affiliate, Adams has racked up a 20:3 K/BB ratio in an even ten frames so far in 2019.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/29/19
Here’s the day’s lone minor MLB roster move of note:
- The Angels have outrighted lefty Sam Freeman, per the team’s transactions page. It is not yet known whether the 31-year-old will accept or reject the assignment to Triple-A; he has the service time to make his own election. Freeman made just one appearance after being selected recently to the MLB roster. He continued to dish out a worrying number of walks, as he had in his initial action at Triple-A. Freeman has always battled with the free passes, though that issue hasn’t prevented him from throwing 228 2/3 innings of 3.62 ERA ball at the game’s highest level.
Brewers Select Jay Jackson, Designate Alex Wilson
The Brewers have selected the contract of right-hander Jay Jackson from Triple-A San Antonio and opened a spot on the roster by designating right-hander Alex Wilson for assignment, per a club announcement. The Brewers also placed righty Aaron Wilkerson on the 10-day injured list due to a left foot contusion and recalled left-hander Donnie Hart from San Antonio in his place.
Jackson’s promotion marks the culmination of a lengthy journey back to the big leagues for the 31-year-old. The right-hander appeared in six games with the 2015 Padres, totaling 4 1/3 innings of bullpen work, but was cut loose that offseason in order to pursue an opportunity in Japan. The 2008 ninth-round pick could have stuck with the Padres that year in hopes of surviving the offseason and spending the next season as an up-and-down reliever, though there was no certainty or fiscal security associated with that route. Rather, Jackson took a chance on venturing overseas and not only found success, but became one of the most dominant relievers in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball over the next three seasons.
In three seasons with the Hiroshima Carp, Jackson pitched to a combined 2.13 ERA with 202 strikeouts against 70 walks in 182 innings as a member of the Carp. He explored the possibility of a return to the U.S. after his second season in Japan but, apparently not finding any offers to his liking, returned for a third season in NPB. Ultimately, the Brewers made Jackson a minor league offer to return to the organization — he’d pitched in their minor league system in 2014 — that the righty accepted.
It’s still early in the Triple-A season, but Jackson has torn through opposing lineups in the Pacific Coast League, pitching 8 2/3 innings of shutout relief with a 14-to-2 K/BB ratio and just four hits allowed. Given the inconsistencies in the Milwaukee ‘pen beyond Josh Hader and Junior Guerra, Jackson could very well have a legitimate opportunity to entrench himself in Craig Counsell‘s relief corps. Milwaukee has hopes that Jeremy Jeffress, recently activated from the injured list, can help to stabilize matters, but the team has already lost Corey Knebel to Tommy John surgery and designated both Wilson and Jake Petricka for assignment in the past 48 hours.
Wilson, 32, spent Spring Training as a non-roster invitee with the Indians after being non-tendered by the Tigers last December. He didn’t earn a spot in the Cleveland ‘pen, however, and later signed on with the Brewers on a big league deal once health concerns in the Milwaukee ‘pen began to mount.
Although he’s long been a steady presence in the Detroit bullpen, Wilson was tattooed for a dozen runs on 15 hits (three homers) and nine walks with 13 strikeouts in 11 1/3 frames with the Brewers. He started off with three strong outings in a row before being hammered for six runs his fourth time out, and the right-hander never managed to fully recover. Three of his past four outings have seen him yield a pair of earned runs.
The Brewers will have a week to trade Wilson, release him, or pass him through outright waivers (though he could reject an outright assignment and take free agency instead). His contract reportedly came with a fairly minimal $750K base salary, so even if there’s no 45-day advance consent clause in the deal, the financial loss is hardly prohibitive for the Milwaukee organization.
Ervin Santana Elects Free Agency
April 29: Santana has elected free agency, per an announcement from the White Sox. Daryl Van Schouwen tweets that the decision relievers the ChiSox from any further financial obligations regarding Santana, which seems to suggest that the veteran righty agreed to a 45-day advance consent clause as part of his contract.
Players with more than five years of service time earn the right to retain their salary even after being released or rejecting an outright assignment in favor of free agency. The 45-day advance consent clause, however, gives teams the option of cutting loose a veteran with six-plus years at any point within the season’s first 45 days (barring an injury) without being on the hook for the remainder of his salary. (Trade Rumors’ Zach Links examined 45-day advance consent clauses in depth a few years ago.)
April 26: The White Sox announced this morning that they’ve designated veteran right-hander Ervin Santana for assignment. His spot on the active roster will go to Eloy Jimenez, who has been reinstated from the bereavement list.
Santana’s stay with the Sox proved to be brief, as he made only three starts before the team shifted course today. The 36-year-old righty pitched just 13 1/3 innings for the Pale Hose, allowing 14 runs on 19 hits and six walks with only five strikeouts.
Chicago inked Santana to a minor league contract with a rather hefty $4.3MM guarantee at the MLB level in hopes that he could bounce back from an injury-ruined 2018 season. Santana underwent surgery to repair a tendon in his pitching hand in February of 2018, and lingering effects from that procedure limited him to just 24 2/3 ineffective innings with the Twins. Following that injury shortened campaign, Minnesota declined a $14MM option on the righty.
Prior to that injury, however, Santana was not only durable for the Twins but quietly one of the league’s more effective starters. Santana turned in 392 2/3 innings of 3.32 ERA ball with 7.2 K/9 against 2.6 BB/9 for the Twins from 2016-17. The 2017 campaign saw Santana toss five complete games — a rare feat in this era of baseball — including three shutouts. From 2010-17, Santana avoided any absences due to injury and averaged 30 starts and 192 innings per season (despite an 80-game PED suspension at the onset of the 2015 season).
It’s now uncertain whether Santana can reestablish himself as a viable rotation piece at the big league level, although given his track record and the sheer number of teams that could use rotation reinforcements, one would imagine that he’ll get the opportunity to do so. He’ll first have to clear release waivers — it’s unlikely that the Sox find a trade partner for the righty — but once he does, he can sign with any club on either a minor league contract or an MLB deal worth the prorated league minimum.
As for the Sox, they’ll look to internal options to help right the ship in what has been an awful rotation to begin the year. While Carlos Rodon has performed well through the season’s first month, each of Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Ivan Nova and Santana have pitched poorly. Dylan Covey, Jordan Stephens and top prospect Dylan Cease are all looming in Triple-A as potential options, or the team could simply plug Manny Banuelos into the fifth spot in the rotation moving forward. Some type of spot starter will likely need to be recalled in the coming days, however, as Giolito is on the shelf with a hamstring injury at the moment.
Rays Designate Andrew Moore For Assignment
The Rays announced Monday that they’ve designated right-hander Andrew Moore for assignment. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to top prospect Nate Lowe, who was officially selected to the big league roster earlier this morning.
Moore, a second-round pick of the Mariners back in 2015, arrived in Tampa Bay (alongside Tommy Romero) by way of the trade that sent Denard Span and Alex Colome to Seattle just under a year ago. He made nine starts and pitched 53 innings with the Mariners in his 2017 debut campaign but posted a lackluster 5.34 ERA with just 31 strikeouts (albeit against a particularly stingy eight walks).
While Moore fared reasonably well in Triple-A with the Rays last season following the swap (4.34 ERA in 83 innings), he’s an extreme fly-ball pitcher who hasn’t demonstrated an ability to miss bats at the upper levels of the minor leagues. Moore averaged just 5.8 K/9 in that Triple-A run with the Rays last season, and he’s off to a dreadful start in 2019, having served up a staggering 25 earned runs on 29 hits (nine home runs) and 10 walks with just 10 strikeouts in 17 1/3 innings.
Though his 2019 results are obviously unsightly, Moore isn’t far removed from being a reasonably interesting pitching prospect. Prior to his arrival at the MLB level in 2017, he’d been touted as a potential fourth or fifth starter who relied on plus control and an above-average-to-plus changeup to compensate for his rather average fastball velocity. If he clears waivers, the Rays will surely be glad to continue trying to coax that upside out of the 24-year-old. Moore is in his final option year, however, so a club looking for some upper-level rotation depth could conceivably show interest if it sees something correctable in Moore despite his 2019 struggles.
Rays Promote Nate Lowe
11:34am: The Rays have announced the promotion, though they’ve yet to reveal the corresponding roster moves. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports (via Twitter) that Christian Arroyo will be optioned to Durham, thus opening a 25-man spot, but there’s still the matter of a 40-man move to be addressed.
11:20am: The Rays are set to promote top first base prospect Nate Lowe to the big leagues, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). Lowe, who ranks as the game’s No. 90 overall prospect at Baseball America and the No. 3 first base prospect in the game per MLB.com, is not on Tampa Bay’s 40-man roster. A corresponding 40-man move will be necessary.
While he’s not related to recently extended second baseman Brandon Lowe, Nate Lowe is viewed by the Rays as a similarly vital young piece of the club. The 23-year-old is off to a terrific start with Triple-A Durham, where he has slashed .300/.444/.543 with three homers, eight doubles and nearly as many walks (17) as strikeouts (19) through 90 plate appearances.
MLB.com’s scouting report on Lowe lauds his plus-plus raw power — a trait he was finally able to tap into in game settings a season ago when he raked at a .330/.416/.568 clip across three minor league levels (topping out at Durham). In 2018, Lowe slugged 27 homers, 32 doubles and a triple with a 12.3 percent walk rate against just a 16.2 percent strikeout rate. He’s a below-average runner and limited to first base on the defensive spectrum, but last year’s .313/.395/.484 slash against lefties and .338/.425/.608 slash against righties suggests that he has the potential to be a true everyday option for the Rays at first base and/or designated hitter (as opposed to a platoon slugger).
It’s unlikely that the Rays would call up Lowe if they didn’t feel they had everyday at-bats available to the former 13th-round pick. But, with Ji-Man Choi and Yandy Diaz both performing quite well at first base and designated hitter, neither would appears to be in jeopardy of losing any playing time (barring a yet-unrevealed injury, of course). It’s possible, though, that Diaz could slide across the diamond to third base in place of the struggling Daniel Robertson, opening at-bats at first and DH to be shared among Lowe, Choi and others.
The maximum amount of service time that Lowe would be able to accrue this season is now 155 days, meaning he’ll fall shy of the requisite 172 days to notch a full season. Because of that, he’ll be controllable through the end of the 2025 campaign if he’s in the big leagues for good, and he’s also in line to be a surefire Super Two player after the 2021 season. That said, it’s still possible that he’ll be optioned back to the minors at some point and alter those trajectories.
Orioles Claim Shawn Armstrong
4:41pm: Per a team release, the Orioles have optioned right-handed pitcher Luis Ortiz to Triple-A Norfolk to make room for Armstrong on the active roster.
1:37pm: The Orioles have claimed right-handed pitcher Shawn Armstrong off waivers from the Mariners, per Greg Johns of MLB.com. Armstrong had been designated for assignment after the Mariners promoted Justus Sheffield. Armstrong will replace catcher Jesus Sucre on the 40-man roster. Sucre was recently designated for assignment by the Orioles. Roch Kubatko of MASN adds that Armstrong, who is out of minor league options, will be placed on Baltimore’s active roster.
For the Orioles, the addition of Armstrong essentially represents a swap for pitcher Mike Wright, who was recently designated for assignment and subsequently acquired by the Mariners in a minor trade.
Though he has struggled mightily early in 2019, Armstrong’s career numbers resemble those of a serviceable relief pitcher. He has appeared in 57 career games, striking out 56 batters in 61 2/3 innings and posting a 3.65 ERA. However, he has never appeared in more than 21 games in any season since breaking into the Major Leagues with the Indians in 2015. Walks have at times been an issue for the right-hander, having walked three batters in 3 2/3 innings this season. The 28-year-old joins an Orioles bullpen that has had great difficulty suppressing the long ball early this season. Though the O’s have given plenty of pitchers opportunities to claim a bullpen role, few have been able to provide steady production. Baltimore will look for Armstrong to solidify himself as a relief option for the rebuilding club.