Phillies Promote Seranthony Dominguez, Place Adam Morgan On DL
The Phillies have announced that pitching prospect Seranthony Dominguez is joining the active roster for the first time. To open a spot, the organization placed lefty Adam Morgan on the 10-day DL with a back strain.
Dominguez may not be a top-100 prospect in the game — or even a top-10 organizational prospect in a deep system — but he’s quite an interesting young player. The 23-year-old righty had never pitched above the High-A level entering the current season, due in part to some injuries as well as the fact that the Phils were allowing him to develop as a starter.
Entering the current campaign, though, the club decided to put the rotation work on hold, giving Dominguez a shot to show what he could do in a relief role. It’s still early, of course, but the results have been eye-popping — so much so that the youngster has now blown through both of the highest levels of the minors and onto the MLB roster in the span of about a month.
When healthy, Dominguez shows an upper-nineties heater that’s accompanied by a useful slider and a promising change-up. He has had some challenges with repeating his mechanics and staying in the zone over full starts. But in the bullpen, thus far, Dominguez has been lights-out.
Over 16 2/3 innings in 11 appearances on the year, most of those coming at Double-A, Dominguez carries a 2.08 ERA with an 18:2 K/BB ratio. He has permitted only eight hits, none of which left the yard. And Dominguez has at times generated a healthy number of groundballs, which is another aspect of his game worth watching.
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the Phils deploy their new weapon. Given his history as a starter and multi-inning usage this year, it’s certainly possible he’ll be allowed to work multiple frames at times. Of course, the club will no doubt first look to allow him to get his feet wet.
It is not clear at this point how long Morgan will be out, but his roster spot might have been in some jeopardy were it not for the injury. The out-of-options former starter is only allowing 2.45 earned runs per nine, but that’s probably not the best measure of the quality of his work, as he has mostly been deployed against lefties and has thrown only 11 innings over 17 appearances.
Morgan is an interesting player in his own right. He has been tough to square up (.274 xwOBA vs. .275 wOBA) and has compiled 10.4 K/9. And he’s sustaining a big velo jump that he showed last year upon moving to the pen. But Morgan’s corresponding boost in swinging strikes has not carried into 2018 (he’s down to 9.6% from 16.5% last year) and he’s doling out far too many free passes (eight to this point).
Minor MLB Transactions: 5/7/18
Here are Monday’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Angels acquired minor league right-hander Max Cordy from the Twins in exchange for cash, Matt Eddy of Baseball America reports. Minnesota selected the now-24-year-old Cordy in the final round of the 2015 draft. He’s yet to advance beyond A-ball, though he does come with a track record of missing bats and inducing huge ground-ball rates (north of 60 percent) in the low minors. Cordy has averaged 5.5 walks per nine innings pitched since being drafted and is off to a rough start in Class-A Advanced this season, owning a 7.15 ERA in 11 2/3 innings.
- The Orioles picked up minor league catcher Wilson Garcia from the Phillies in exchange for cash, also via Eddy. The 24-year-old Garcia is a career .281/.314/.386 hitter in the minors, but he’s yet to move past A-ball. Garcia seemingly throws quite well, given a 40 percent caught-stealing mark in his career to date. Baltimore assigned him to their Class-A Advanced affiliate in Frederick.
- Right-hander Luis Santos cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Buffalo by the Blue Jays, per the team’s transactions log on their official web site. The 27-year-old was clobbered for six runs in 1 2/3 innings in his lone MLB appearance this season before being designated for assignment. Santos did post a 2.70 ERA and a 16-to-4 K/BB ratio in 16 2/3 innings in the Majors last season, and he has a career 3.90 ERA with 8.1 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9 in 117 2/3 innings of relief at the Triple-A level.
Reds Release Patrick Kivlehan
The Reds have released infielder/outfielder Patrick Kivlehan from their Triple-A affiliate, Matt Eddy of Baseball America reports in his latest transactions roundup. The 28-year-old had been with the organization since 2016.
Kivlehan spent the entire 2017 season in the Majors with the Reds, tallying a career-high 204 plate appearances but struggling to a .208/.304/.399 batting line. He did manage to walk at a 10.8 percent clip and slug nine homers, five doubles and a triple while posting a quality .191 ISO in that time. However, Kivlehan also punched out in 29.9 percent of those 204 plate appearances as well.
Thus far in the 2018 season, that power was nowhere to be found at the Triple-A level. Through his first 47 PAs, Kivlehan hit just .167/.255/.167 with 15 strikeouts against two walks. Kivlehan, a career .251/.306/.424 hitter in Triple-A, has extensive experience at third base, first base and in left field. He’s also spent more than 100 innings in center field and left field, and he made a quick two-inning cameo at second base with Cincinnati’s top affiliate in 2018 as well.
Giants Sign Ryan Hanigan
The Giants have signed catcher Ryan Hanigan to a minor league contract, Jon Heyman of FanRag tweets.
The 37-year-old Hanigan was most recently with the Indians, who signed him to a minors pact in February but released him a month later. While Hanigan has enjoyed some success during his time in the majors, which began with the Reds in 2007, he hasn’t been able to find a big league deal since the Red Sox declined his $3.75MM option after the 2016 season. Nevertheless, he did reach the majors last year as a member of the Rockies, with whom he hit .267/.324/.347 in 112 plate appearances.
Given the Giants’ depth behihnd the plate, returning to the bigs in San Francisco looks as though it’ll be a tall order for Hanigan. Backup Nick Hundley has been outstanding this year behind all-world starter Buster Posey, and the Giants also have promising prospect Aramis Garcia in Double-A (he’s on their 40-man roster) and veterans Hector Sanchez and Trevor Brown at Triple-A.
Dodgers Sign Danny Espinosa
The Dodgers have signed veteran middle infielder Danny Espinosa to a minor league deal, according to Alex Freedman, the communications director for their Triple-A team in Oklahoma City (Twitter link). Espinosa has already joined OKC, per Freedman.
Espinosa, who had been on the market since opting out of a minors pact with Toronto on April 30, could provide LA with some emergency infield depth. The 31-year-old’s primarily a second baseman, but he also offers extensive experience at shortstop, where the Dodgers will go without the great Corey Seager for the rest of the season. Seager underwent Tommy John surgery last month, forcing the Dodgers to move center fielder Chris Taylor to short to replace him. The injury-laden club has also been without second baseman Logan Forsythe and third baseman Justin Turner, though Espinosa hasn’t seen much action at the latter spot.
While Espinosa was a solid regular at times with the Nationals from 2010-16, a period in which he posted two seasons of at least 2.7 fWAR, his career went off the rails last year. The switch-hitter divided 2017 among three teams (the Angels, Mariners and Rays) and hit a paltry .173/.245/.278 (41 wRC+) with 109 strikeouts in 295 plate appearances. He wasn’t much better at the beginning of this season with the Jays’ Triple-A club, as he batted just .232/.271/.286 (51 wRC+) with 15 strikeouts in 60 PAs before exiting the organization.
Minor MLB Transactions: 5/6/18
The latest minor moves from around baseball:
- The Braves have selected right-hander Luke Jackson‘s contract from Triple-A and optioned fellow righty Lucas Sims, Gabe Burns of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports on Twitter. Jackson’s now back on Atlanta’s 40-man roster after the club outrighted him two weeks ago. The 26-year-old appeared in two of the Braves’ games this season before they booted him from their roster, allowing two earned runs on two walks and one hit in 1 1/3 innings. Jackson has experienced some success in the minors this year, on the other hand, having pitched to a 3.86 ERA with 12.54 K/9, 5.79 BB/9 and a 50 percent groundball rate across 9 1/3 frames.
Twins Place Jason Castro On DL, Select Bobby Wilson
The Twins have placed catcher Jason Castro on the 10-day disabled list with a right knee meniscus tear and selected the contract of fellow backstop Bobby Wilson from Triple-A, per a team announcement. To make room for Wilson on its 40-man roster, Minnesota moved right-hander Ervin Santana to the 60-day DL.
Castro’s injury could perhaps keep him on the shelf for several weeks. For now, though, the plan is for him to avoid surgery in favor of a cortisone shot, Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press tweets. Regardless, Castro’s DL placement continues what has been a disappointing second season in Minnesota for the lefty-hitter, who has slashed a meager .143/.257/.238 (39 wRC+) in 74 plate appearances. However, as has often been the case during his career, the 30-year-old has stood out behind the plate as a pitch framer.
With Castro, Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano on the DL and Jorge Polanco amid an 80-game suspension, the Twins will have to go without three regulars as they continue trying to dig out of an early season hole. Further, the 11-17 club is down to the uninspiring duo of Wilson and Mitch Garver as its 25-man catcher options. Wilson, 35, inked a minors deal with the Twins last offseason after spending the 2017 season at the Triple-A level with the Dodgers. He previously appeared in the majors with five teams (the Angels, D-backs, Rangers, Rays and Tigers), combining to bat .214/.268/.319 (60 wRC+) in 849 PAs.
The absence of Santana this season has been one obvious reason for the Twins’ struggles. The longtime quality starter turned in 211 1/3 innings of 3.28 ERA pitching for the playoff-bound Twins last year, but he underwent a procedure on his right middle finger Feb. 6 and hasn’t recovered as quickly as expected. Santana, 35, was originally supposed to come back within 10 to 12 weeks, which would’ve put him on track for a mid-April to early May debut. Instead, the earliest Santana will be able to take the hill for the Twins is May 28, Berardino notes.
White Sox Place Yoan Moncada On 10-Day DL
The White Sox have placed young second baseman Yoan Moncada on the 10-day DL, per a club announcement. He’ll be replaced by fellow infielder Jose Rondon.
At the moment, it does not seem as if there’s much reason to expect a lengthy absence for Moncada. He has been diagnosed with hamstring tightness, an issue that has forced him out of two recent ballgames. But Moncada said yesterday that he felt he’d only need a few days off, as James Fegan of The Athletic tweeted.
It’s certainly understandable that the Sox would take a conservative course with Moncada, who’ll turn 23 later this month. He’s off to a strong start, turning in 132 plate appearances of .263/.359/.509 hitting with six home runs and four stolen bases. Moncada has also graded as a positive overall with the glove and on the bases.
That output does come with a worrisome 37.1% strikeout rate for a player who’ll probably always swing and miss a fair bit. Though he’s also walking in 12.9% of his plate appearances, Moncada surely won’t maintain a .407 batting average on balls in play. Of course, it’s certainly worth noting as well that he’s legitimately stinging the ball when he does make contact, with a 95.0 mph average exit velocity that’s among the best in baseball.
The 24-year-old Rondon, meanwhile, will get his second crack at the majors after a brief call-up with the Padres in 2016. He has been off to a nice start at Triple-A, turning in a .290/.347/.473 slash, though he’s also striking out at a significantly higher rate (24.8%) than he has in prior seasons as a professional. Rondon came to Chicago in a swap with the Friars in January of this year.
Mets Designate Matt Harvey
TODAY: The move is now official, thus starting the seven-day clock on Harvey’s period of DFA limbo. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by righty Hansel Robles.
YESTERDAY: The Mets will designate Matt Harvey tomorrow, GM Sandy Alderson tells reporters including MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (via Twitter). The decision was made after Harvey declined to accept a minor-league assignment — as he has the ability to do given his MLB service time.
It’s stunning, on the one hand, to see the end of Harvey’s tenure in New York take place in this manner. As recently as 2015, after all, he was considered one of the game’s very best starters. But ongoing injury problems combined with performance lapses — along with some off-field issues and not-infrequent tension with the organization — led to this moment.
In Alderson’s words, the decision represents “the end of an era.” But it was also “a long time coming,” per the team’s top decisionmaker, as conveyed by Tim Britton of The Athletic (via Twitter). Alderson says that the team was guided by considerations of “pragmatism and realism,” while suggesting the ultimate driver of Harvey’s fall from grace was his slate of poor fortune in the health department.
While Harvey’s time is up with the Mets, he’ll surely find an opportunity elsewhere. He only just turned 29, after all. But with a $5.6MM salary this year, and free agency beckoning thereafter, it may be hard for Alderson to find a taker for the salary. The club will have seven days to work out a swap — perhaps involving an underperforming player from another organization — or otherwise put Harvey on waivers. Whether by way of trade, claim, or signing, it’s possible to imagine plenty of other organizations weighing a crack at getting Harvey back to being a useful pitcher — if not something approaching his former glory.
Looking back at the stats, Harvey’s peak was much shorter than it seemed. In 65 starts between 2012 and 2015, on both sides of a 2014 season lost to Tommy John surgery, he worked to a 2.53 ERA in 427 innings. In the three seasons since, Harvey has limped to a 5.93 ERA with a pedestrian 6.9 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9 over just 212 1/3 frames.
What’s most frustrating, in some regards, is the fact that Harvey made it back from the TJ procedure. He was great in 2015 after a long layoff. With the Mets pushing down the stretch in a breakout campaign for the organization, though, an innings controversy arose that involved two of the game’s most famous names (agent Scott Boras and surgeon Dr. James Andrews) that aren’t affiliated with an MLB organization.
Harvey ended up pitching a career-high 189 1/3 innings in the regular season before spinning another 26 2/3 in the postseason — at least one too many, as it turned out. He has never been the same since. In the ensuing campaign, Harvey exhibited a reduction in fastball velocity that has continued ever since. After averaging 96.6 mph in his 2015 campaign, Harvey is now down to 93.0 in the current season. His swinging-strike rate has similarly collapsed. Harvey ultimately underwent a procedure to address thoracic outlet syndrome and has dealt with other arm troubles. And, as already noted, the results have been uniformly poor.
The timing of the demise left Alderson wondering whether the innings thrown in 2015 were the root cause of the ensuing health and performance problems (also via Britton, on Twitter). Though the GM is no doubt correct that there’s no way of knowing with any degree of certainty, Harvey himself wrote that he was aware of the risks when he decided to keep taking the ball back in 2015.
Perhaps a new organization will have ideas on finding a new path for Harvey, if not reversing the deterioration of his mound work. But the former first-rounder’s tools not only carry reduced specs, but show ongoing signs of rust. Indeed, pitching coach Dave Eiland says that Harvey’s stuff was deteriorating as his arm stiffened up throughout the course of the 2018 season, as James Wagner of the New York Times reports on Twitter.
Eiland’s assessment was ultimately borne out on the field. When he lost his rotation spot, Harvey carried a 6.00 ERA on the year. After four relief appearances, it had reached 7.00 earned per nine. His most recent outing was the most demoralizing yet, as Harvey allowed five opposing baserunners to cross the plate on three hits and three walks while recording a single strikeout in two frames. Despite the many highlights that came before, it seems now that will be the last image of Harvey as a member of the Mets.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Blue Jays Promote Anthony Alford, Remove Jake Petricka From Active Roster
2:15pm: The move is now official; Petricka has indeed been optioned.
2:05pm: The Blue Jays are promoting outfield prospect Anthony Alford, according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). Toronto has removed reliever Jake Petricka from the active roster, per Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter), though the precise mechanism is not yet clear.
Alford had previously received an exceedingly brief promotion in the 2017 season. But he suffered a fractured hamate bone almost immediately upon reaching the bigs. He ended up recording 68 days of MLB service on the year, but very little of it came on the active roster.
The 23-year-old has long been regarded as a high-end prospect. He has received consensus top-100 leaguewide billing entering each of the past three seasons (including the present one). Alford has drawn praise for his broad and fairly well-developed skillset despite limited time as a professional.
Thus far in 2018, however, Alford has struggled. He has recorded just six hits (one for extra bases) in his 42 plate appearances at Triple-A. Of course, he also was still working back to health after opening the year on the DL owing to a hamstring strain.
Given the struggles out of the gate, it’s a bit surprising at first glance to see this move. That said, the Jays may simply be looking to buttress their position-player unit temporarily while dealing with the absences of Steve Pearce and Randal Grichuk. With Curtis Granderson exiting yesterday’s contest with a tight hamstring, the club may simply have taken the easiest path to adding another outfielder for a few days.
As things stand, then, it’s not at all clear that Alford is set to receive a full run at the MLB level. If he does, though, he could finish the current season with over one full year of service. (In addition to the time he had already, Alford added another twenty days due to the DL stint.) Should that come to pass, he’d reach arbitration eligibility in 2021 and free agency in 2024. If not, those milestones would occur one year further (at the soonest).
For Petricka, the departure comes the day after his contract was purchased and he made it onto the active roster. He gave up one earned run on three hits, while recording two strikeouts, in 1 1/3 innings yesterday. Petricka does have options remaining, so it’s possible he’ll remain on the 40-man while heading back to Buffalo.