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Rangers Place Jon Gray On 15-Day Injured List

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The Rangers are placing right-hander Jon Gray on the injured list due to a groin strain, manager Bruce Bochy announced this morning (X link via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). The team is terming it a “mild” strain, but it’ll nevertheless be enough to sit Gray down for at least the next 15 days. In a corresponding move, Texas will select the contract of right-hander Jesus Tinoco from Triple-A Round Rock. Left-hander Cody Bradford is being transferred from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to accommodate Tinoco’s addition. Bradford has already missed six weeks with a back strain and stress fracture in his ribs.

Gray joins an an entire rotation’s worth of starters on the injured list in Texas. The Rangers are also without Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Tyler Mahle, Nathan Eovaldi and the aforementioned Bradford at the moment. That’ll leave Texas with a rotation including Andrew Heaney, Dane Dunning, Michael Lorenzen, Jose Ureña and a yet-to-be-determined fifth option. (Tinoco is a reliever and won’t step onto the starting staff.) The top depth options on the 40-man roster include Jack Leiter and Owen White. While Leiter has thrived pitching in Triple-A, both of those once-vaunted prospects has struggled in the big leagues this season.

Subtracting Gray from the roster would be a notable blow even without that litany of other injuries. The former No. 3 overall draft pick is out to perhaps the best start of his career, pitching to a tiny 2.21 ERA through his first 57 frames of the season. Gray’s 23.7% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 44.4% ground-ball rate are all at or slightly better than the league average. His ERA is being helped out by a microscopic 3.3% homer-to-flyball rate that’s helped him average just 0.32 homers per nine frames this season. But even metrics that normalize home run rate (e.g. his 3.68 SIERA) suggest Gray has still been a decidedly above-average hurler thanks to that strong blend of whiffs, grounders and walks (or lack thereof).

Tinoco, 29, will return for a second stint with the Rangers. He pitched in the Texas organization in 2022, famously giving up Aaron Judge’s record-breaking 62nd home run late in the season. That’s a down note in what was otherwise a strong year. In 20 2/3 frames with the Rangers he logged a 2.18 ERA — albeit with lackluster strikeout and walk rates of 21.4% and 11.9%, respectively.

Tinoco spent the 2023 season with the Seibu Lions in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball and handled himself well for the most part, but he returned stateside on a minor league pact with the Rangers over the winter. He’s gotten out to a decent start in Round Rock, pitching to a 3.80 earned run average and fanning just over 30% of his opponents in 21 1/3 innings. Overall, Tinoco has pitched in parts of four MLB seasons and compiled 66 2/3 innings with a 4.05 ERA, 18.1% strikeout rate, 13.9% walk rate and 44% grounder rate. Command has clearly been an issue for him throughout his professional career, and that’s been the case again in 2024, evidenced by an 11.2% walk rate in Round Rock.

Mariners Acquire Mike Baumann

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May 23: Baumann reported to the Mariners’ roster today. The team announced that right-hander Cody Bolton has been optioned to Triple-A Tacoma to open a spot on the 26-man roster.

May 22: The Orioles and Mariners announced a trade late Wednesday evening. Seattle acquired reliever Mike Baumann and catcher Michael Pérez in exchange for younger catcher Blake Hunt, whom the O’s have optioned to Triple-A Norfolk. Baltimore had designated Baumann for assignment over the weekend. Hunt and Baumann will each occupy spots on their new teams’ 40-man rosters. Pérez was on a minor league contract and will not assume a 40-man spot. Seattle’s roster is at capacity, while the O’s count is up to 39.

Baumann changes teams for the first time in his career. Baltimore drafted the right-hander in the third round back in 2017. A starting pitcher for most of his minor league tenure, he kicked to the bullpen in 2022. Baumann has turned in solid results over the past couple seasons. He tossed a career-high 64 2/3 innings of 3.76 ERA ball last season and has allowed 3.44 earned runs per nine through 17 appearances this year.

While Baumann’s run prevention marks have been good, his strikeout and walk profile is middling. He had a league average 22.3% strikeout percentage with a lofty 12.1% walk rate in 2023. His strikeout rate is down to 19.5% over 18 1/3 innings this season, while his 11% walk percentage remains higher than average. Baumann’s 9.9% swinging strike rate is a couple points below the league mark for relievers.

That certainly contributed to Baltimore’s decision to DFA him, but the more immediate driver was a lack of roster flexibility. Baumann is out of options, so the O’s couldn’t send him to the minors. He was one of six Baltimore relievers who can’t be optioned, and two who can be sent down (Yennier Cano and Keegan Akin) have been far too valuable to take out of the MLB bullpen.

Seattle has four out-of-options relievers of their own, but they can send down one of Eduard Bazardo or Cody Bolton to plug Baumann into the bullpen. Despite lacking huge swing-and-miss tallies, he should deepen their middle relief group. The Jacksonville product has induced ground-balls at a solid 46.4% clip. He averages north of 96 MPH on his fastball and mixes in a knuckle-curve and slider with regularity. Baumann has between one and two years of major league service. He’s controllable for four seasons beyond the current campaign and won’t be eligible for arbitration until the 2025-26 offseason.

The Mariners liked Baumann enough to part with Hunt, who is a more intriguing player than teams typically land for someone they’d designated for assignment. A former second-round pick of the Padres, he went to the Rays as part of the Blake Snell blockbuster. Hunt topped out at Triple-A in the Tampa Bay farm system. Despite a .256/.331/.484 showing in 2023, the Rays decided not to add him to their 40-man roster last fall. Rather than watch him depart for nothing in minor league free agency, Tampa Bay flipped him to Seattle for recent draftee Tatem Levins.

Seattle added Hunt to the 40-man to keep him in the organization. The 25-year-old has spent the season in Triple-A Tacoma, where he’s out to an excellent .293/.372/.533 start in 86 plate appearances. Hunt has already connected on four homers while striking out in only 11.6% of his trips to the plate. He slots in behind Adley Rutschman and James McCann on the organizational depth chart. There’s a chance Hunt makes his MLB debut at some point this year. Even if he spends the rest of the season in Norfolk, he could compete for next year’s backup catching job if the Orioles let McCann depart in free agency.

Pérez is a 31-year-old journeyman who signed a minor league deal with Baltimore over the offseason. He’s hitting .221/.294/.325 over 21 games in Norfolk. Pérez has appeared in parts of six MLB campaigns and owns a .179/.248/.306 slash at the highest level. Including him in the deal allows Seattle to send an experienced, glove-first veteran to Tacoma after Hunt’s departure. He’s behind Cal Raleigh and Seby Zavala on the organizational depth chart.

Brad Keller Elects Free Agency

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Right-hander Brad Keller has elected free agency after going unclaimed on outright waivers, tweets Daryl Van Schouwen of the Chicago Sun-Times. The White Sox had designated him for assignment on Sunday.

Keller signed a minor league pact with Chicago about halfway into Spring Training. He made three starts for their Triple-A team before being called up in late April. He started two of five appearances at the major league level, pitching to a 4.86 ERA through 16 2/3 innings. Three of Keller’s first four outings were solid, but he gave up four homers in as many innings against the Yankees on Saturday. The Sox decided to go in a different direction, eventually recalling rookie right-hander Nick Nastrini to take the rotation spot.

The 28-year-old Keller has pitched in parts of seven major league seasons. All of that time has been spent in the AL Central. The Royals plucked him out of the Arizona farm system as a Rule 5 pick back in 2017. Keller turned out to be one of the better Rule 5 selections in recent history. He posted a 3.08 ERA as a rookie and turned in 28 starts of 4.19 ERA ball during his second season. His results have fallen off following a strong showing in the abbreviated 2020 season.

Keller allowed more than five earned runs per nine in both 2021 and ’22. He was carrying a 4.57 mark with 14 more walks than strikeouts through 45 1/3 innings last year when he was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome. Kansas City let him walk in free agency last winter.

Teams seeking rotation depth could offer Keller a minor league deal. While his recent production hasn’t been great, he’s still adept at keeping the ball on the ground. He racked up grounders at a 56.1% clip during his brief run with the Sox. He has only had one season where opponents got the ball in the air more than half the time they put it in play against him.

Angels Re-Sign Amir Garrett To Minor League Contract

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Amir Garrett is returning to the Angels on a minor league deal, tweets Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. The veteran reliever will head back to Triple-A Salt Lake, the place where he opened the 2024 season.

Garrett first signed with the Halos after being released by the Giants in Spring Training. He threw 7 1/3 innings in Salt Lake, striking out 10 while issuing four walks. Opponents only managed three hits and two runs over those eight appearances. The Angels called Garrett to the big leagues at the end of April. He had a tougher go in six MLB outings, surrendering three runs on four hits and five walks through 5 1/3 frames. After Garrett gave up a tie-breaking home run to Alec Burleson in a loss to the Cardinals last week, the Angels designated him for assignment.

The 32-year-old cleared waivers and declined an outright assignment in favor of free agency. It didn’t take long for him to circle back on a new deal with the Angels. That’s not uncommon for veterans who go unclaimed on outright waivers. Reliever Jackson Stephens re-signed with the Braves this afternoon days after electing free agency, for example.

Garrett has high-octane stuff and has missed plenty of bats throughout his seven-plus seasons in the majors. Sky-high walk rates tend to be the tradeoff, though, as he has handed out free passes to more than 15% of opponents in each season since 2021. Garrett will again team with Adam Kolarek as experienced non-roster lefties in Triple-A. Matt Moore and José Suarez are the two southpaws currently in Ron Washington’s bullpen. Kenny Rosenberg has pitched in a swing capacity over the last couple seasons. He’s on the 40-man roster and on optional assignment to Salt Lake, where he has been working out of the rotation.

Mariners Select Jhonathan Díaz

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The Mariners announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Jhonathan Díaz from Triple-A Tacoma, then optioned him to Tacoma. Ryan Divish of The Seattle Times relays on X that the lefty had an opt-out in his minor league deal, which is why he got added to the 40-man but not the active roster. They had an open 40-man spot and thus didn’t need to make a corresponding move.

Díaz, 27, signed a minor league deal with the M’s in January. He has since made nine appearances for Tacoma, eight starts, logging 51 innings with a 3.18 earned run average. He has struck out 26.2% of batters faced while giving out walks just 4.3% of the time. He has also kept 56.3% of balls in play on the ground. The fact that all that took place in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League makes it all the more impressive.

The lefty also has 35 1/3 innings of major league experience, which came with the Angels from 2021 to 2023. He had a 4.48 ERA in that time, though with his strikeout and walk rates matching at an unimpressive 14.4% level. He tossed 210 1/3 minor league innings over that same period of time with a 4.45 ERA, 24% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate.

The Mariners are clearly intrigued by the recent form Díaz has shown and didn’t want him to get away. He still has options and they had an open spot on the 40-man, they were able to simply add him there and keep him in Tacoma, preventing him from returning to the open market.

The M’s have a strong rotation right now composed of Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Logan Gilbert, Bryan Woo and Bryce Miller. On optional assignment, they have Emerson Hancock and Levi Stoudt as depth options, with Díaz now joining them as guys who could be recalled for a spot start or as an injury replacement.

Xander Bogaerts To Miss Significant Time Due To Shoulder Fracture

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The Padres announced that they have placed infielder Xander Bogaerts on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 21, with a left shoulder fracture. Outfielder David Peralta was selected to take Bogaerts’ place on the active roster. To open a spot for Peralta on the 40-man, right-hander Luis Patiño was transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune previously relayed on X that Bogaerts would be going on the IL and a follow-up tweet provided more information about the fracture. At this point, it doesn’t appear as though surgery is required, though Bogaerts will need to miss time as the bone heals, with more tests planned for today. “Late summer” is floated as a possible return time, which leaves a lot of vagaries about the months to come, though Acee says Bogaerts will be out at least two months in a column at the SDUT.

On Monday, Bogaerts appeared to injure himself when diving to field a grounder off the bat of Ronald Acuña Jr. (video link from MLB.com.) The initial imaging was negative, as relayed on X by Acee on Monday, but it seems subsequent tests have revealed a fracture.

The veteran infielder wasn’t off to a good start this year, currently hitting .219/.265/.316 for the season, but has been far better in the past. He hit .285/.350/.440 for the Friars last year and produced similarly for the Red Sox in the five prior seasons.

The Padres would have been expecting Bogaerts to right the ship in the coming months but that won’t happen now, at least not soon. The club is below .500 at 25-26 but nonetheless currently holds the final Wild Card spot in the National League. They will have to try to cling to that spot without that Bogaerts turnaround in the weeks to come.

The club recently acquired infielder Luis Arráez, largely with the plan of putting him in the designated hitter slot. But he’s played second base since Bogaerts hurt himself and could stay there for the foreseeable future. Arráez is one of the best contact hitters in the game but is generally considered a poor defender at the keystone. Bogaerts just recently moved to the position from shortstop and has -2 Defensive Runs Saved this year but four Outs Above Average.

Offensively, the club may now rotate various hitters through the DH slot if Arráez is going to be playing the field regularly. The past two games have seen Manny Machado and Donovan Solano DHing, with Jurickson Profar in there today.

The 36-year-old Peralta joins the outfield mix alongside Profar, Fernando Tatis Jr., Jackson Merrill and José Azocar. It was just over a week ago that Peralta opted out of his minor league deal with the Cubs, which led to a minor league deal with the Padres over the weekend.

With Triple-A Iowa, Peralta was drawing walks at a 14.1% rate but slashing just .217/.341/.348 for a wRC+ of 84. He’s also coming off a down year in the majors, as he hit .259/.294/.381 with the Dodgers last year for a wRC+ of 82.

But Peralta has hit .279/.335/.450 overall in his career, which translates to a wRC+ of 108. He’s also been considered an above average defender in the outfield, mostly in the corners. His lackluster results last year may have been due to a flexor tendon injury, which popped up around the All-Star break and later required surgery. The Padres will surely be hoping for Peralta to return to his pre-2023 results.

Peralta is in left field tonight as Profar is in the DH slot. As mentioned, manager Mike Shildt could give various players DH time for semi-rest days going forward. Though with the Arráez trade, president of baseball operations A.J. Preller has shown he’s not afraid of a midseason deal, even if we’re nowhere near the deadline yet. Perhaps another move will be forthcoming as a response to the Bogaerts injury. But for now, it’s a tough development for a club in an extremely tight playoff race.

As for Patiño, he underwent Tommy John surgery just over three weeks ago and is going to miss the remainder of the season.

Braves Re-Sign Jackson Stephens On Minor League Deal

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The Braves have re-signed righty Jackson Stephens to a new minor league contract, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to Triple-A Gwinnett. Stephens previously cleared waivers and rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency. Ultimately, he’ll stick with the club for the time being, though it’s possible the new deal has new opt-out language down the road.

Stephens pitched 3 1/3 innings for Atlanta earlier this season, allowing a run on five hits and a walk with two strikeouts. The 30-year-old right-hander has spent the past three seasons in the Braves organization, with much of that time coming in Gwinnett. Since 2022, Stephens has a 3.52 ERA in 69 big league innings (3.78 FIP, 4.13 SIERA). Stephens’ 19.7% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate are less appealing than that baseline earned run average, but he’s nevertheless generally been effective with the Braves. He’s posted similar mid-3.00s ERA marks with Gwinnett dating back to 2022 as well.

An 18th-round pick by the Reds back in 2012, Stephens ranked among Cincinnati’s most promising arms through 2018. He pitched in two seasons with the team that drafted him, recording a 4.83 ERA in 63 1/3 innings from 2017-18. Stephens spent the entire 2019 campaign in the minors and became a free agent after the Reds outrighted him following that season. He was out of baseball for the shortened 2020 season (and canceled minor league season) and then spent the 2021 season with the Mexican League’s Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos before joining the Braves in the 2021-22 offseason.

Born and raised in Oxford, Alabama — just 90 miles west of Atlanta — it’s not that surprising that Stephens has come to feel at home in the Braves organization. He could certainly have found a minor league deal elsewhere — perhaps with a club that has a less-established bullpen group in the majors — but the proximity to home and the familiarity he’s developed over three years in the organization both likely appealed to him. He’ll head back to Gwinnett and try to pitch his way back onto the big league roster this summer.

Royals Release Zach Davies

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The Royals have released veteran right-hander Zach Davies from his minor league contract, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. He’s pitched decently with Triple-A Omaha while the major league rotation has been a strength in Kansas City, so it’s possible Davies had a mid-May out clause in his minor league pact.

Davies, 31, signed with Kansas City back on April 8. He’d spent spring training with the Nationals but allowed 14 earned runs in 14 innings over four starts and was cut loose. To some extent, he’s turned things around in Omaha, logging 21 innings (five starts) with a 4.29 ERA. A 12.9% strikeout rate and 9.7% walk rate combine to create skepticism about Davies’ work with the Royals’ top affiliate. He’s never been one to miss many bats, but those rates are subpar even by his own modest standards.

In 1048 1/3 big league innings, Davies carries a 4.36 ERA (4.48 FIP, 4.80 SIERA). He had a particularly strong run with the Brewers and Padres from 2015-20, posting a 3.79 ERA and 4.18 FIP in 683 2/3 innings. Things have gone awry since then.

While Davies pitched more or less in line with his career norms in a 2022 season with the D-backs, that solid campaign was bookended by disastrous showings: a 5.78 ERA in 32 starts for the Cubs in ’21 as well as a 7.00 ERA in 18 starts with the ’23 D-backs. Overall, Davies’ last three seasons have resulted in a combined 5.43 ERA. An apparent dip in his command has been the main culprit; Davies had a 6.9% walk rate from ’15-’20 but has seen that number spike to 10.3% since. He’s also become far more homer-prone, suggesting some imprecision even within the strike zone.

At the moment, Royals starters rank fourth in the majors with a 3.09 ERA and trail only the Phillies for the MLB lead in innings pitched. The quintet of Cole Ragans, Brady Singer, Seth Lugo, Michael Wacha and Alec Marsh has provided Kansas City with the sort of starting pitching stability the club has lacked for years. Those five have started all but two of the team’s games this season. Daniel Lynch IV and Jonathan Bowlan each got one start while Marsh was on the 15-day IL with an elbow contusion he sustained when hit by a comebacker. He’s since returned from that brief IL stay.

With that strong output from the big league staff, there was no obvious path to the big leagues for Davies in Kansas City. However, with so many pitching injuries popping up around the sport, he’ll likely draw interest from other clubs seeking to deepen their rotation group. The Red Sox, Rays, Rockies, Marlins and Davies’ former Brewers club all have multiple starters of note on the injured list, for instance.

Rangers Sign Nabil Crismatt To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers have signed right-hander Nabil Crismatt to a minor league deal, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News on X. The righty will report to Triple-A Round Rock in the coming days.

Crismatt, 29, returned to free agency earlier this week. He has bounced on and off the Dodgers’ roster a couple of times this year. He signed a minor league deal with that club in the winter and was added to the roster in late March. He pitched in one game before being designated for assignment and accepting an outright. He was selected again in late April and made four more appearances before losing his roster spot yet again.

Around those transactions, the results in his small sample of work have been decent. Crismatt has allowed two earned runs in seven major league innings so far this year, striking out six opponents without issuing a walk. His 12 2/3 Triple-A innings this year have produced a 5.68 ERA, though with some positive signs. He has struck out 28.8% of batters at that level with no walks given out. The high ERA is on account of three home runs surrendered, a 55.6% strand rate and .353 batting average on balls in play.

He had a frustrating 2023 season but was in good form in the two seasons prior to that. Last year, a hip strain cost him a couple of months of the season and he struggled when on the mound. He had an 8.31 ERA in 13 MLB innings as well as a 6.86 ERA in 59 Triple-A innings.

He spent 2021 and 2022 as a long reliever with the Padres. He threw 148 2/3 innings over 95 appearances with a 3.39 ERA. His 21.6% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate were close to average but he got ground balls at a strong clip of 50.6%.

The Dodgers frequently churn players through the final spots of their bullpen, which has put Crismatt on the transaction logs a few times. This time, he’ll switch organizations and see if he can carve out a role in Arlington. The Rangers currently have ten pitchers on the injured list, though Dane Dunning is expected to come off the IL and start today’s game. That will still leave them with Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer, Tyler Mahle, Cody Bradford, Nathan Eovaldi, Brock Burke, Carson Coleman, Austin Pruitt and Josh Sborz on the shelf.

Crismatt has some decent numbers this year and also has the impressive track record during his time with the Padres. If the Rangers need a fresh arm at some point in the coming weeks, perhaps Crismatt will get the call. If he does so, he’s out of options but also has less than three years of major league service time, meaning he could be retained beyond this season if he holds a roster spot at the end of the year.

Rays To Designate Erasmo Ramirez For Assignment

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The Rays are expected to designated right-hander Erasmo Ramirez for assignment, per a report from Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times last night. Ramirez’s departure is set to be the corresponding move for the return of righty Ryan Pepiot from the 15-day injured list ahead of his scheduled start against the Red Sox tonight.

Ramirez, 32, is a veteran of 13 MLB seasons who first made his big league debut back in 2012 as a member of the Mariners. From 2012-18 Ramirez split his time between the starting rotation and the bullpen in both Seattle and Tampa, pitching to a slightly below average 4.36 ERA with a 4.54 FIP across 192 appearances in that seven year stretch, 92 of which were starts. Ramirez posted a 6.7% walk rate during that time while generating grounders at a solid 44.4% clip, but he struck out just 18.5% of batters faced while allowing a hefty 13.8% of his fly balls to leave the yard for home runs. Ramirez’s final season with the Mariners in 2018 was a particularly difficult one, as he was torched to the tune of a 6.50 ERA in ten starts with the club.

Those difficulties led Ramirez to bounce around the league, making brief appearances in Boston, Queens, and Detroit over the next three seasons before finally returning to a regular role with the Nationals in 2022. Ramirez took to the nation’s capital quite well as he posted a strong 2.92 ERA in 86 2/3 innings of work that came almost exclusively out of the bullpen. While the righty’s strikeout rate of 17.6% remained below average, he allowed free passes to just 4% of batters that season while seeing his groundball rate tick up to 45.2%. The showing was enough for the Nationals to sign him to a one-year big league deal worth $1MM for the 2023 campaign, assuring him of a spot in the club’s bullpen entering Spring Training.

Unfortunately, the decision to retain Ramirez didn’t work out, as his peripherals regressed slightly in all areas during the 2023 campaign. Those dips in underlying performance combined with an unusually low 62.2% strand rate left Ramirez’s results on the field to swing from well above average to well below as he allowed a 6.41 ERA with a 5.05 FIP in 60 1/3 innings of work split between the Nationals and the Rays, the latter of whom signed the righty to a minor league deal midseason after he was released by Washington.

Ramirez continued his second stint in Tampa by re-signing with the club on a minor league deal this past offseason and was selected to the roster in mid-April, but the 34-year-old has looked unimpressive in ten appearances. He’s allowed a 4.20 ERA with a whopping 6.08 in 15 innings of work while striking out just 13.6% of batters faced, walking an elevated 9.1%, and generating groundballs just 38.1% of the time. Once Ramirez is officially DFA’d, the Rays will have one week to either trade Ramirez or attempt to pass him through waivers, although the righty has more than enough service time to reject outright waivers and test free agency should he go unclaimed.

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