Rangers Sign Yovani Gallardo
The Rangers have signed righty Yovani Gallardo to a minor-league deal, per a club announcement. He’ll report to Triple-A to begin his second stint with the Texas organization.
Gallardo has already spent time with the Brewers and Reds organizations this year. He was cut loose by each, though, after a middling spring with Milwaukee and then a messy three-appearance stint with the Cincinnati organization.
Now, the 32-year-old hurler will become the latest notable pitcher to seek a bounce back in Texas. He was acquired by the organization before the 2015 season in a swap that cost the Rangers future closer Corey Knebel. Gallardo originally launched his professional career after being drafted from a Texas high school, so there are multiple connections at play here.
That ’15 campaign is the last in which Gallardo has been effective. He worked to a 3.42 ERA in 184 1/3 innings for the Rangers, wrapping up an impressive run of success dating back to his debut season of 2007. Since, though, he has managed only 251 frames of 5.81 ERA ball with 6.5 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9.
Marlins Select Contract Of J.B. Shuck, Place Garrett Cooper On 60-Day DL
The Marlins announced on Friday that they’ve selected the contract of outfielder J.B. Shuck from Triple-A New Orleans. To clear room on the 40-man roster, first baseman/outfielder Garrett Cooper has been moved from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL. Outfielder Braxton Lee was optioned to New Orleans to create a 25-man spot for the veteran Shuck.
Cooper recently landed on the disabled list when he was hit on the wrist by a pitch, and while the initial injury report out of Miami was a contusion, it seems that the injury is likely worse than that given today’s shuffle. Indeed, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro tweets that Cooper has been diagnosed with a partially torn wrist tendon sheath.
That’s obviously unfortunate news for the 27-year-old, who had a clear path to a full-season showcase with the Fish. The rebuilding Marlins organization acquired Cooper over the winter from the Yankees and had planned to give him a shot at earning time in the corner outfield while also backing up Justin Bour at first base.
Cooper put himself on the map with a surprising minor-league breakout last year, leading to his acquisition by the Yankees and first crack at the majors. In his first 54 plate appearances at the game’s highest level, nine of which came early this season, he carries a .300/.333/.440 batting line.
The 30-year-old Shuck, meanwhile, will help fill in for at least the time being. He failed to spend any time in the majors last year, instead turning in 475 plate appearances of .259/.325/.368 hitting at Triple-A with the Twins organization. In just over a thousand trips to the plate in the majors, Shuck carries a .251/.299/.328 batting line with eight home runs.
Rays Designate Ryan Weber
The Rays have designated righty Ryan Weber for assignment, club broadcaster Neil Solondz tweets. The open roster spot will go to outfielder Johnny Field, whose contract was selected — as the team had announced already.
Weber had already been removed from the active roster to make way for Field, with the Rays initially optioning him out. Now, the 27-year-old will head to DFA limbo.
Weber has worked to a 5.11 ERA in 68 2/3 total MLB innings over the past four years. He missed a chunk of time in 2017 due to injury but did impress in his limited action at Triple-A. In 31 2/3 innings in six appearances, five of them starts, Weber worked to a 0.85 ERA with 5.4 K/9 against 1.1 BB/9.
Travis d’Arnaud To Undergo Tommy John Surgery; Kevin Plawecki Placed On Disabled List
Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud, who’d previously been diagnosed with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow, will undergo Tommy John surgery next week, the team announced on Friday.
Additionally, the Mets placed Kevin Plawecki on the 10-day DL due to a hairline fracture in his left hand, selected the contract of Jose Lobaton from Triple-A Las Vegas and optioned out righty Jacob Rhame in place of outfielder Brandon Nimmo.
To make room on the 40-man roster for Lobaton, d’Arnaud was placed on the 60-day DL. Plawecki is expected to be out three to four weeks, the team told reporters (Twitter link via Mike Puma of the New York Post).
Suffice it to say, it’s been a devastating 48 hours for the Mets, who just days ago were counting on d’Arnaud and Plawecki to shoulder the entirety of their catching work in 2018. Now, they’ll be without Plawecki for perhaps a month’s time, while d’Arnaud will be lost for the whole season. In their stead, the Mets will turn to Lobaton and Double-A backstop Tomas Nido to handle immediate catching duties. Lobaton is in tonight’s lineup.
However, for a club that started 10-1, the Mets understandably aren’t keen on merely relying on depth pieces and journeyman stopgaps as they await the return of Plawecki, who, while he has shown promise in the past, is no sure bet for a productive campaign.
To that end, the Mets are already on the lookout for catching help, per multiple reports. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com tweets that a small-scale move — something along the lines of a pickup of recently designated veteran Miguel Montero — could be in play for the Mets. FanRag’s Jon Heyman, meanwhile, tweets that the Mets are “seriously” looking at adding a catcher, though GM Sandy Alderson, at least publicly, spoke to the contrary (Twitter links via DiComo and Puma).
Alderson indicated that his club will “be aware” of what is available on the catching market but is not actively pursuing a Major League catching addition. Puma notes that Alderson did suggest that trades are more plausible early this season than in other years because of the number of teams that “aren’t trying that hard.”
One move that seems decidedly unlikely is a swap for J.T. Realmuto. DiComo and Newsday’s Tim Healey have both thrown significant cold water on the possibility, downplaying the notion that the Mets would be able to put together a sufficient package and also downplaying the Marlins’ willingness to move him. Healey notes that the Mets and Marlins haven’t spoken about Realmuto at all this week, noting that offseason talks for the star catcher failed to gain any traction.
More emphatically, Joe Frisaro of MLB.com tweets that the Marlins don’t have any intention of dealing Realmuto while he’s rehabbing from injury and, in the grander scope of things, don’t even plan on making him available at all this season. It seems that the Fish would prefer to hold Realmuto through the end of the 2018 season and market him again next winter when a wider base of clubs could likely inquire about his services. Of course, such plans can always change at the deadline if a few contenders find themselves with an acute need, thus creating the basis for a bidding war, but for the time being it doesn’t sound as if a Realmuto trade is even worth speculating upon.
As far as depth options go, the Mets have already acted quickly to pursue one such addition. Former Mets backstop Johnny Monell announced today on Instagram that he’s signed a new minor league deal with the team and will return to the club. The 32-year-old logged 57 plate appearances for the 2015 Mets and is a lifetime .278/.350/.460 hitter in parts of five seasons in Triple-A, which is where he’ll be headed.
Reds Designate Ariel Hernandez For Assignment
The Reds announced on Friday that they’ve designated right-hander Ariel Hernandez for assignment. His 40-man spot will go to righty Dylan Floro, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Louisville. Right-hander Tanner Rainey was optioned to Louisville to open a spot on the active roster for Floro, who’ll join the bullpen for tonight’s game.
Hernandez, 26, is best known for an electric fastball that he can run up into triple digits, though his big league debut in 2017 wasn’t particularly inspiring. Through 24 1/3 innings out of the Reds’ bullpen last year, the 6’4″, 230-pound righty posted a 5.18 ERA with and impressive 29 strikeouts against a disastrous 22 walks. He also served up six homers in that short time and posted a 42.9 percent ground-ball rate that was noticeably lower than his typically strong minor league marks.
That said, as a power arm with multiple minor league options remaining, Hernandez seems like the type of arm that could well command interest from other clubs — if not via trade then certainly on the waiver wire. It’s worth noting that Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper pointed out a spring velocity drop for Hernandez (Twitter link), which could very well have contributed to his DFA, though.
Floro, meanwhile, has 24 2/3 innings of big league experience and a 5.11 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9 to show for it. While Hernandez struggles with his control, Floro specializes in preventing free passes, having only yielded 1.5 walks per nine innings in 245 2/3 frames at the Triple-A level. The 27-year-old has averaged just 5.9 K/9 at that level, but he’s also routinely posted ground-ball rates in the mid-50s and notched an impressive 61.6 percent grounder rate in Triple-A last year.
Pirates Select Contract Of Richard Rodriguez, Recall Kyle Crick
The Pirates announced today that they’ve selected the contract of right-handed reliever Richard Rodriguez and recalled fellow righty Kyle Crick. Both players were pitching for the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Indianapolis. To make room on the big league roster, right-hander Clay Holmes and left-hander Josh Smoker were optioned to Triple-A.
Pittsburgh’s 40-man roster was at a count of 38 players prior to Rodriguez’s selection, so there’ll be no 40-man move necessary to accommodate him, and the team can even make another addition without needing to open further space. The 28-year-old Rodriguez, a longtime Astros farmhand, broke into the Majors with the Orioles in 2017 but tallied just 4 2/3 frames with Baltimore at the big league level.
Rodriguez, though, has carved up Triple-A hitters dating back to 2015, working to a 2.54 ERA with a 221-to-65 K/BB ratio in in 219 2/3 innings. His strikeout rate has steadily risen on a year-over-year basis, topping out at 10.2 K/9 in 2017, and he’s already whiffed nine in five shutout innings this season. Last year with the O’s, Rodriguez’s fastball sat at 93.8 mph in his brief big league audition.
As for Crick, he was one of two pieces acquired in the trade that sent franchise icon Andrew McCutchen from the Pirates to the Giants. The former supplemental first-rounder and top prospect shifted to the bullpen with quite a bit of success in 2017, punching out 12 hitters per nine innings with a 2.76 ERA in Triple-A. That prompted a big league call-up for Crick in San Francisco, where he’d go on to log a 3.06 ERA in 32 1/3 innings — albeit with much more pedestrian marks of 7.8 K/9 against 4.8 BB/9. Crick averaged 95.5 mph on his heater, though, and was superb at limiting hard contact in his time with the Giants (20.5 percent).
The Pirates undoubtedly hope that he can be a viable bullpen weapon in Pittsburgh, as the hard-throwing 25-year-old can be controlled through the 2023 season. He’d allowed one run with five strikeouts and no walks through four innings of relief thus far in Triple-A this year.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/13/18
Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league, all courtesy of Baseball America’s Matt Eddy unless otherwise noted…
- The Angels have added right-handed reliever Jordan Jankowski on a minor league contract. The 28-year-old got his first taste of the big league in 2017, tossing 4 1/3 frames for the Astros before landing with the Dodgers via waiver claim. Jankowski has averaged 11.9 strikeouts per nine innings in 177 1/3 Triple-A frames in his career, though he’s struggled with control since being selected in the 34th round of the 2012 draft as well.
- Former big league infielders Tyler Ladendorf and Darnell Sweeney have signed minor league pacts with the Blue Jays. Ladendorf, a former Twins second-rounder who was once traded to the A’s in exchange for Orlando Cabrera, logged 68 MLB plate appearances with Oakland from 2015-16 but hit just .123/.149/.154 in that brief time. He’s a career .258/.326/.350 hitter in Triple-A and has played second base, shortstop, third base and corner outfield as a pro. Sweeney, meanwhile, posted a .639 OPS in 98 plate appearances with the Phillies in 2015 after they acquired him from the Dodgers in the Chase Utley trade. He’s a career .258/.325/.394 hitter in Triple-A.
- The Giants released outfielder Daniel Carbonell, who they’d originally signed Carbonell to a four-year, $3.5MM contract back in 2014 after he left Cuba. Signed because of his defensive prowess and speed, Carbonell’s bat never came around, as he appeared in just two Triple-A games with the Giants after stalling out in Double-A. In 437 plate appearances at that Double-A level, the now-27-year-old Carbonell hit just .188/.227/.273.
Marlins Sign Dustin McGowan To Minor League Deal
The Marlins have finalized their minor league deal with right-hander Dustin McGowan, per Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo and MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro reported last week that the Fish were in talks with the ACES client on a new minor league deal after he was released by the Rays in Spring Training. Presumably, McGowan will head to Triple-A for the time being.
McGowan, 36, spent the 2016-17 seasons with the Marlins. In that time, he totaled 144 2/3 innings of 3.86 ERA ball with 7.9 K/9, 3.7 BB/9 and 1.2 HR/9 with a 53 percent ground-ball rate. A starter early in his career with the Blue Jays, McGowan has worked almost entirely out of the bullpen since 2013 — often tossing more than one inning per appearance — and logged a 4.08 ERA in 275 2/3 frames in that time.
[Related: Miami Marlins depth chart]
Miami entered the season with Brad Ziegler as its closer and a pair of quality setup pieces behind him in the form of Kyle Barraclough and Drew Steckenrider. Jarlin Garcia‘s move into the rotation, though, has only further muddled the bullpen picture behind that trio. Junichi Tazawa is missing bats early in the season but has also walked six batters (albeit two intentionally) in 7 2/3 innings. And the group of Tayron Guerrero, Odrisamer Despaigne, Chris O’Grady and Tyler Cloyd, each presently in the Miami relief corps, comes with little in the way of certainty.
McGowan probably won’t make any starts for the Marlins — he has just one start since 2015 — but his ability to work longer stints in relief makes him a sensible depth add for a Miami club with a thin bullpen mix and a highly inexperienced rotation.
Nationals To Sign Mark Reynolds
The Nationals have agreed to terms with veteran first baseman Mark Reynolds, according to Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). It’ll be a minor-league deal if Reynolds passes his physical, per Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post (Twitter link).
Reynolds, 34, had gone unsigned all winter despite reportedly having some contact with the Rockies. He had been the team’s regular first baseman for all of the 2017 season, turning in a useful (albeit Coors Field-aided) .267/.352/.487 batting line with thirty home runs over 593 plate appearances.
Now, Reynolds will head to an organization that does not appear to have much of an opening at the MLB level. Ryan Zimmerman — who played with Reynolds at the University of Virginia — is firmly ensconced atop the depth chart, with the left-handed-hitting Matt Adams supplementing him on the roster.
To be sure, Reynolds has spent time at other positions. The bulk of his time in the majors has come at third base and he has also appeared a few times in the corner outfield and even (quite briefly) at second. But it has been quite some time since Reynolds lined up at the hot corner, so it’s doubtful he’ll be considered more than a depth piece for the Nats for the time being.
Yankees Activate Aaron Hicks, Designate Shane Robinson
The Yankees announced that they’ve activated outfielder Aaron Hicks from the disabled list and designated fellow outfielder Shane Robinson for assignment in a corresponding move. Hicks will return to the lineup tonight as the designated hitter for the Yanks.
The switch-hitting Hicks will be a welcome addition to the Yankees’ lineup. Hicks went 2-for-4 on Opening Day for the Yankees this season before surprisingly landing on the DL due to a strained intercostal muscle the following day. Last year, the 28-year-old former first-rounder slashed .266/.372/.475 with 15 homers and 10 steals in 361 plate appearances over the life of 88 games, but oblique strains on both his right and left sides hampered his ability to stay on the field. Nonetheless, Hicks demonstrated enough for the Yankees to consider him their primary center fielder heading into 2018, and he’ll likely reclaim that role moving forward.
As for the 33-year-old Robinson, he always looked to be a short-term add for the Yankees, though it likely still stings to be cut loose after reaching three times and swiping a base in his lone game with the Yankees. The speedy veteran’s contract was only selected Tuesday, and he went 1-for-3 with a couple of walks in last night’s emotionally charged game against the Red Sox.
Robinson has been up and down between the Majors and Triple-A for much of his pro career, appearing at the big league level in each of the past seven seasons but never reaching 200 plate appearances in a year. Overall, he’s a lifetime .227/.296/.297 hitter in the Majors and a .281/.341/.388 hitter in more than 1600 Triple-A plate appearances.