Diamondbacks Designate Matt Buschmann
The Diamondbacks have designated righty Matt Buschmann for assignment, per a club announcement. His roster spot was needed for southpaw Edwin Escobar, who was just claimed off waivers.
Buschmann, 32, had already been optioned back to Triple-A after making his MLB debut earlier in the year. He threw well in three appearances, allowing only one earned run on three hits and an intentional walk over 4 1/3 innings while retiring three via the strikeout.
The Triple-A level represents familiar territory for the minor league veteran. Buschmann has racked up 598 1/3 frames there over parts of eight seasons, most of them as a starter, working to a 5.08 ERA with 7.3 K/9 against 3.6 BB/9.
Diamondbacks Claim Edwin Escobar From Red Sox
The Red Sox announced on Friday that recently designated-for-assignment left-hander Edwin Escobar has been claimed off waivers by the Diamondbacks.
The 24-year-old Escobar came to the Red Sox alongside right-hander Heath Hembree in the 2014 trade that sent right-hander Jake Peavy to the Giants. Once rated among baseball’s Top 100 prospects by both Baseball America and MLB.com, Escobar’s star has faded since being acquired by the Sox. He worked to a 5.07 ERA in 49 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level last season and, most troubling of all, walked more batters (25) than he struck out (24). Escobar was also homer-prone with Pawtucket last season, surrendering eight long balls in those 49 2/3 frames. His control problems continued this past offseason in the Venezuelan Winter League, when he issued 19 free passes against just nine strikeouts in 27 innings of work.
The D-backs will hope that they can restore Escobar’s control and, in turn, see his production return to its lofty 2013 heights. That season, in 128 2/3 innings between Class-A Advanced and Double-A, Escobar posted a 2.80 ERA with excellent averages of 10.2 strikeouts and 2.1 walks per nine innings pitched.
Indians Designate Ross Detwiler, Activate Tommy Hunter
The Indians announced on Friday that they’ve activated right-hander Tommy Hunter off the disabled list and designated lefty Ross Detwiler for assignment in order to clear a spot on the active roster.
Detwiler, 30, signed a minor league deal with Cleveland and made the club out of Spring Training but has struggled in the early stages of the ’16 campaign, allowing three runs on three hits and four walks with three strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings out of the bullpen. Once a solid fifth starter for the Nationals, Detwiler was shifted to the bullpen in 2014, where he provided Washington with 63 innings of 4.00 ERA ball. That marked his last somewhat productive season in the Majors, though, as Detwiler was traded to the Rangers in the 2014-15 offseason and posted an unsightly 7.25 ERA in 58 1/3 innings split between the Rangers and the Braves.
Hunter, 29, signed with Cleveland this past offseason. While he originally had a reported two-year offer in the $11-12MM range agreed upon with the Yankees, New York backed out due to medical concerns, and Hunter would ultimately sign for a year and $2MM with the Indians. Hunter landed on the DL to open the season due to a groin injury and some lingering effects from offseason hernia surgery, but reports indicated that neither was the cause for New York’s apparent trepidation.
Hunter solidified himself as a reliable middle-relief/setup arm with a pair of strong seasons in Baltimore from 2013-14 (2.88 ERA, 6.9 K/9, 1.6 BB/9 in 147 innings), but he was somewhat surprisingly traded from the Orioles to the Cubs last summer despite the fact that he’d again posted solid numbers and the Orioles made other win-now moves (i.e. acquiring Gerardo Parra from the Brewers). Hunter struggled with the Cubs, surrendering 10 runs on 20 hits and three walks with 15 strikeouts in 15 2/3 innings. He’ll look to return to his 2013-14 form now as a member of a Cleveland ‘pen that has seen its share of struggles (most notably among closer Cody Allen and setup man Bryan Shaw). With a nice showing in Cleveland, Hunter could work his way back toward the multi-year deal that so narrowly eluded him this past winter.
Dee Gordon Receives 80-Game PED Suspension
10:39am: Gordon tested positive for the pair of substances in Spring Training, a league source tells ESPN’s Jayson Stark.
12:20am: In a stunning development, Marlins second baseman Dee Gordon has been hit with an eighty-game suspension for PEDs, according to a league announcement. He tested positive for the banned substances exogenous testosterone and clostebol.
Needless to say, the news represents a sudden turnaround for a player who had risen to become one of the game’s more celebrated personalities. Gordon, the 28-year-old son of longtime major leaguer Tom Gordon and brother of Twins’ prospect Nick Gordon, inked a five-year, $50MM extension with the Marlins over the winter after an excellent 2015 season.
Gordon will sacrifice about half of his $3MM salary for the present season under that contract. He’ll also obviously miss out on a chance to defend his National League batting and stolen base titles from a year ago. And if Miami manages to right the ship — an even taller order now with Gordon out — he won’t be eligible for postseason play.
It seems likely that the Fish will turn to Derek Dietrich to occupy at least a good portion of the time at the keystone. He has plenty of experience there, though he’s not much of a fielder. The left-handed-swinging 26-year-old is a promising hitter, though. Alternatively, the club could utilize Martin Prado at second while deploying Dietrich and/or Chris Johnson at third base.
Regardless, the overall mix is substantially weakened. Gordon was off to a slow start this year, but he doesn’t need to keep up quite his 2015 pace to be of value. He had already enjoyed a breakout in the season prior before being dealt by the Dodgers, but Gordon stepped up even further in his first year in Miami with a .333/.359/.418 slash, 58 stolen bases, and highly-regarded glovework.
To be sure, Gordon is not the lumbering slugger who is traditionally associated with performance enhancing drugs. But this represents the latest reminder that such substances aren’t reserved for bulking up; they can also improve athletic performance in other ways and, especially, aid in injury recovery.
Quite unlike the situation facing the Blue Jays with regard to Chris Colabello, who was also just suspended, the Marlins are committed to Gordon via the aforementioned contract. Miami will simply need to hope that he’s able to repair his image and maintain his performance on the field upon his return.
That’s the message given by club president David Samson, who said the organization was disappointed but would welcome Gordon back when his suspension ends. (Video via the Miami Herald.) The Marlins did not learn about the suspension until today, per Samson. Miami has obviously have placed high expectations on Gordon to “do whatever is necessary to make it up to our fans, to his teammates, and to this organization.”
Gordon apparently decided to drop his appeal at this time, making the suspension effective after tonight’s game, Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports tweets. (Notably, Gordon just finished helping the club to a four-game sweep of his former team.) It’s still not clear precisely when the positive test occurred, though it’s certainly possible that — as with Colabello — it took place at some point during Spring Training.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Orioles Sign Wandy Rodriguez To Minor League Deal
The Orioles have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran left-hander Wandy Rodriguez, Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com first reported (links to Connolly on Twitter). The 37-year-old Wasserman Media Group client will head to the extended Spring Training at the Orioles’ facility in Sarasota, Fla., according to Connolly. The O’s announced the deal minutes later.
Rodriguez was in Spring Training with the Astros this season but didn’t make the club. He had an offer to pitch for Houston’s Triple-A affiliate but elected to once again enter the open market, where he’s now found a new home with the O’s. Rodriguez spent half the season with the Rangers in 2015, pitching quite well from April through June after winning the fifth spot in Texas’ injury-depleted rotation. Rodriguez turned in a 3.20 ERA with a 50-to-23 K/BB ratio through his first 11 starts as a Ranger before melting down and yielding 24 runs over his next 21 2/3 innings. That dismal stretch led to a DFA and a subsequent release.
Rodriguez will presumably provide Baltimore with some rotation depth at the Triple-A level once he gets up to speed in extended Spring Training. Yovani Gallardo has already landed on the DL with a shoulder problem, and Kevin Gausman spent the early portion of the season on the disabled list as well. It’s also worth noting that Baltimore’s rotation depth took a hit when the club released Miguel Gonzalez late in March. In addition to the injured Gallardo and the aforementioned Gausman, the O’s have Chris Tillman, Ubaldo Jimenez, Mike Wright in their rotation, as well as right-handers Tyler Wilson and Vance Worley in the bullpen, each of whom has starting experience. The O’s also have Odrisamer Despaigne and David Hale at the Triple-A level, so Rodriguez is a ways down the depth chart for the time being. In parts of 11 big league seasons, Rodriguez has a career 4.10 ERA with 7.4 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 1557 1/3 innings.
Scooter Gennett Placed On DL; Brewers Select Hernan Perez’s Contract
11:20am: Manager Craig Counsell tells Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that Gennett has a “mild” strain of his oblique (Twitter link). Counsell’s early expectation is that Gennett will be out three weeks, which would be on the low end of the typical recovery time frame for oblique strains.
10:36am: The Brewers announced this morning that second baseman Scooter Gennett has been placed on the disabled list due to right oblique tightness. In his place, the club has selected the contract of infielder Hernan Perez from Triple-A Colorado Springs and transferred Matt Garza to the 60-day disabled list to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.
Gennett, 25, has been one of Milwaukee’s more productive hitters thus far, batting .258/.361/.516 with four homers through 18 games (72 plate appearances). There’s no timeline on his return just yet, though an oblique issue could conceivably sideline him for up to a month, depending on the severity of the issue. Jarrod Dyson recently missed six weeks with a Grade II oblique strain, though the club has labeled Gennett’s injury simply as “oblique tightness” for the time being.
Perez, also 25, was hitting .339/.364/.484 in one of the best hitters’ environments in the minor leagues, but he doesn’t have that type of track record in the Majors, where he has posted a collective .235/.251/.307 batting line in 351 trips to the plate. He’ll combine with Yadiel Rivera and Rule 5 pickup Colin Walsh to cover Gennett’s time at second base.
Garza’s transfer to the 60-day disabled list confirms that he won’t return to the club within his initial timeline of four to six weeks. The veteran right-hander hit the disabled list with a strained lat muscle earlier this month and has yet to pitch for the Brewers in 2016. Garza is in the third season of a four-year, $50MM contract with Milwaukee which also contains a complex fifth-year option that is largely dependent on the health of his right arm. (The $5MM club option turns into a $13MM vesting option if Garza throws 110 games over the course of the contract’s first four seasons but also shrinks to just a $1MM option if he spends more than 130 days of a season on the disabled list.) The Brewers owe Garza approximately $23.36MM over the remainder of that contract through the end of the 2017 season. He’s earning $12.5MM this year and will earn the same in 2017. At this point, his best-case scenario for a return would be early June. While Milwaukee may have had some hope of Garza pitching well for the first half of the season in order to emerge as a viable trade chip, he won’t have much time to build up value before this season’s Aug. 1 trade deadline rolls around.
Minor MLB Transactions: 4/28/16
Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…
- The Braves outrighted Danny Burawa off the 40-man roster and sent him from Triple-A Gwinnett to Double-A Mississippi on Wednesday, according to the MLB.com transactions page. The 27-year-old Burawa was claimed off waivers from the Yankees last August and pitched 12 1/3 innings in the Majors for Atlanta, logging a 3.65 ERA. He’s struggled in Triple-A to open the season, however, surrendering six runs (four earned) in seven innings with a troublesome 11 walks against five strikeouts. Following Burawa’s removal, Atlanta’s 40-man roster is now at 38 players.
- The Rangers have released former top prospect Cody Buckel, reports MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan (via Twitter). Buckel, a 23-year-old right-hander, ranked as the game’s No. 87 prospect prior to the 2013 season, according to MLB.com. However, he developed a staggering control problem that season, walking 35 batters in just 10 2/3 innings. Buckel wasn’t diagnosed with a major injury and seemingly never recovered from the yips he encountered that season, as he averaged 6.8 walks per nine innings pitched from 2014-16 in his time between the Rangers’ minor league affiliates and winter ball in Australia.
Tigers To Promote Michael Fulmer
The Tigers will promote right-hander Michael Fulmer to make his Major League debut against the Twins on Friday, reports MLive.com’s Chris Iott (via Twitter).
Fulmer, acquired from the Mets last summer in the trade that sent Yoenis Cespedes to New York, rated as the game’s No. 47 prospect entering this season, according to Baseball America. Other prospect outlets agreed, as ESPN’s Keith Law rated him 48th, MLB.com rated him 50th and Baseball Prospectus rated him 87th.
The 23-year-old Fulmer hasn’t exactly dominated at the Triple-A level, yielding seven earned runs on 16 hits and five walks with 20 strikeouts in 15 1/3 innings thus far. That marks his first action at the top minor league level, as the former No. 44 overall draft pick split the 2015 campaign between Class-A Advanced and Double-A, working to a combined 2.24 ERA with a 125-to-30 K/BB ratio in 124 2/3 innings. BA gives Fulmer credit for two plus pitches — his fastball and slider — and writes that he could be a No. 3 starter or, if durability issues persist, a shutdown arm at the back of the bullpen. Law is higher on Fulmer’s changeup than BA, calling solid-average as opposed to fringe-average. Law and MLB.com both give him praise for an average curveball as well. All of the scouting reports on Fulmer note that he was on the cusp of big league readiness.
Fulmer is already on the club’s 40-man roster, so the club needs only to clear a spot on the active roster for him. That will be accomplished by placing fellow right-hander Shane Greene on the 15-day disabled list, tweets Iott. Greene had been previously occupying the fifth spot in the rotation, and it’s conceivable that a strong showing from Fulmer will create a long-term opportunity for him. Left-handers Daniel Norris and Matt Boyd remain as alternatives in the Triple-A rotation, in the event that Fulmer falters or that further injuries arise among the Detroit starting staff.
Fulmer’s debut will come nearly four weeks into the regular season, meaning that the right-hander won’t be able to accrue a full year of service, even if he remains in the Majors for the long haul this year. He will, however, be a very likely Super Two player if he is in the Majors to stay, finishing the season with 158 days of big league service. The Super Two cutoff is typically in the 2.122 to 2.140 range, so unless Fulmer were to be sent down in the future, he’d be on pace to arbitration eligible four times, should he stick on the roster.
This marks the fifth time in the past week that a Top 100 starting pitcher has been promoted to make his big league debut. Since Saturday, we’ve seen Rays lefty Blake Snell, Braves righty Aaron Blair and Twins right-hander Jose Berrios make their big league debuts, while A’s southpaw Sean Manaea is slated to make his MLB debut on the same day as Fulmer.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Twins, Andrew Albers Agree To Minor League Deal
The Twins and left-hander Andrew Albers have agreed to terms on a minor league contract, MLBTR has learned (links to Twitter).
Albers, 30, was a 10th-round pick of the Padres back in 2008 but wound up pitching on the independent circuit in 2010. The True Gravity client parlayed impressive numbers in the Can-Am Association into a minor league deal with the Twins back in 2011 and rose through the club’s ranks quickly, reaching the Majors and tossing 60 innings for Minnesota in 2013. Albers recorded a 4.05 ERA with a 25-to-7 K/BB ratio in those 60 innings, and he spent the 2014 season pitching in the Korea Baseball Organization before returning to North America to pitch for the Blue Jays. Albers struggled at Triple-A and in a brief MLB stint with the Jays last season and again turned to the independent league over the winter. He made one start for the Atlantic League’s Lancaster BarnStormers and fired seven shutout innings, yielding just a hit and a walk with nine strikeouts before this new agreement.
Minnesota has seen its rotation depth compromised by injuries to Ervin Santana and Kyle Gibson, and three members of its Triple-A rotation — Tyler Duffey, Alex Meyer and Jose Berrios — are now at the big league level. Albers, it seems, will add an experienced minor league arm to Minnesota’s Triple-A affiliate in Rochester for the time being.
Athletics To Promote Sean Manaea
The Athletics will promote top pitching prospect Sean Manaea to start on Friday, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Manaea, a 24-year-old southpaw, came to Oakland last summer in the deal that sent Ben Zobrist to the Royals.
Since his arrival, Manaea has done nothing but impress. Already considered a top-100 prospect, he dominated at Double-A and started out the 2016 season at the highest level of the minors. Over 18 innings in three starts, he owns a 1.50 ERA with 10.5 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9.
Entering the year, Baseball America credited Manaea’s big fastball, inconsistent but intriguing slider, and promising but still-developing change. BA rated him just inside the top fifty pre-MLB assets in the game, while MLB.com (#65) and ESPN.com’s Keith Law (#59) placed him a bit further down on their own lists. He isn’t generally seen as a fully-finished product, with polish on the secondary offerings and command cited as areas for improvement, but he’s certainly has done enough to warrant a shot at the major league level.
Righty Jesse Hahn had seemed in line for a promotion as the club looks to replace the optioned Eric Surkamp, and he’s certainly the more experienced arm. But as Slusser explains, Hahn is dealing with a blister at present so wasn’t an immediate option.
Whether or not Manaea will get more than a spot start remains to be seen. Either way, he won’t have the chance to accumulate enough MLB time to achieve a full year of service. But if Manaea can stick at the major league level, he would line himself up for future Super Two status and an extra year of arbitration eligibility.
The young lefty is one of several notable arms to get their first call-ups in recent days. You can read up on all of the recent top prospect promotions right here.