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Cardinals Select Masyn Winn

By Anthony Franco | August 17, 2023 at 11:51pm CDT

The Cardinals announced they’ve selected the contract of top shortstop prospect Masyn Winn. In a corresponding move, St. Louis is placing center fielder Lars Nootbaar on the 10-day injured list with a lower abdominal contusion, tweets John Denton of MLB.com. The Cardinals already had two vacancies on the 40-man roster.

Winn was St. Louis’ second-round pick out of a Texas high school three years ago. The canceled minor league season kept him from playing in a professional game until 2021. Winn has rapidly climbed the minor league ladder, spending most of last season in Double-A at age 20. He stole 28 bases while hitting .258/.349/.432 in 86 games against generally older competition, cementing himself as one of the sport’s top prospects heading into last winter.

The Cards assigned Winn to Triple-A Memphis this year. He has spent the entire season there, posting a .283/.356/.465 batting line in 494 plate appearances. The slash stats are aided by an offense-heavy Triple-A environment. Of the 107 International League hitters with 300+ trips to the plate, Winn ranks 57th in on-base percentage and 43rd in slugging.

That production is partially weighed down by a very slow start to the year. Winn hit only .223/.287/.321 in April but has an OPS of .763 or better in every subsequent month. The right-handed hitter has feasted on southpaws, hitting .353/.425/.639 with the platoon advantage. His production against same-handed pitching is more modest — .258/.331/.401 — but that’s a small concern for a 21-year-old hitter at the top minor league level.

Winn has shown advanced contact skills, drawing walks at a decent 8.9% clip while striking out in only 16.8% of his plate appearances. He has connected on 17 home runs, 15 doubles and seven triples and gone 17-19 in stolen base attempts.

In addition to those promising offensive traits, Winn has a chance to be an impact middle infield defender. Prospect evaluators credit him with elite arm strength and the athleticism to stick at shortstop. While the Cards gave him 25 starts at the keystone in Memphis to broaden his flexibility, Winn has logged more than 2300 professional innings at shortstop.

Given the well-rounded profile and his upper minors success despite being so young, Winn is unanimously regarded as one of the top minor league talents. Baseball America ranked him the game’s #30 prospect on their recent update; Kiley McDaniel of ESPN slotted him 16th on his own refresh of the sport’s top prospects earlier in the week. Evaluators peg Winn’s power potential as solid-average while praising the rest of his profile.

The 5’11” infielder is generally viewed as the Cards’ potential long-term starting shortstop. St. Louis dealt Paul DeJong to the Blue Jays at the deadline. Tommy Edman has been the primary shortstop of late but is capable of moving around the diamond. Nootbaar will be out of action for at least the next week and a half after fouling a ball off his groin last night, while second baseman Nolan Gorman hit the 10-day IL this afternoon because of a lower back strain. Edman can cover the keystone or center field while the Cards give Winn regular run at shortstop over the season’s final six-plus weeks.

Along with the injuries to Nootbaar and Gorman, the calendar itself opened a path to Winn’s promotion. Players enter a season with rookie eligibility so long as they’ve spent fewer than 46 days on an MLB active roster and tallied 130 or fewer big league at-bats. Beginning Friday, there’ll be 45 days left in the regular season. Assuming the Cards limit his playing time to keep him from topping 130 at-bats, he’ll retain his rookie eligibility into 2024.

Before 2022, a player’s rookie status wouldn’t matter much to clubs in timing their promotions. The Prospect Promotion Incentive in the ’22 collective bargaining agreement now makes that a factor in some cases. A position player who had appeared on at least two Top 100 lists at BA, ESPN and MLB Pipeline the preceding offseason can earn his club a bonus draft choice if a) the team carries them on the MLB roster for a full service year and b) the player wins Rookie of the Year or finishes top three in MVP voting during his pre-arbitration seasons.

Winn will certainly meet the prospect criteria next winter. Whether the Cardinals carry him on the MLB roster for all of 2024 and if he plays well enough to merit award consideration can’t yet be known. By waiting until August 18 to bring him up, however, the Cardinals are keeping that possibility open (again assuming Winn stays under 131 at-bats through season’s end).

If he’s in the majors through year’s end, Winn will conclude this season with 45 days of service. He won’t be eligible for arbitration until after the 2026 campaign at the earliest and is controllable through at least 2029. Future assignments to the minors could push that trajectory back further.

The more immediate focus for both Winn and the club will be on his initial exposure to big league pitching. He’ll have a month and a half to try to stake an early claim to the shortstop job heading into 2024. St. Louis has Edman, Gorman and Brendan Donovan (who’s out for the season after undergoing elbow surgery) also in the middle infield mix. If Winn puts a strong foot forward over the coming weeks, perhaps that’d increase the front office’s willingness to part with a middle infielder in an offseason trade as they look for ways to overhaul three-fifths of their rotation.

Katie Woo of the Athletic first reported Winn’s promotion.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

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Newsstand St. Louis Cardinals Top Prospect Promotions Transactions Lars Nootbaar Masyn Winn Nolan Gorman Tommy Edman

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Rockies Outright Cole Tucker

By Anthony Franco | August 17, 2023 at 8:00pm CDT

The Rockies have sent utility player Cole Tucker outright to Triple-A Albuquerque, per the transaction log at MLB.com. He cleared waivers after being designated for assignment on Monday.

Tucker had a brief stay in Denver, appearing in three games while spending a week on the MLB roster. The return of Charlie Blackmon this week pushed him off the club. Tucker has been one of the better players in the Pacific Coast League this season, hitting .311/.419/.459 over 58 games. He’s only hit five home runs but is walking at a huge 15.7% clip against a decent 19.1% strikeout rate.

A former first round pick of the Pirates, Tucker has appeared in parts of five big league campaigns. He never established himself as a regular in Pittsburgh, posting well below-average offensive numbers in each of his limited looks. Through 477 career plate appearances, he owns a .214/.263/.316 batting line.

This is the second time in Tucker’s career in which he has gone unclaimed on outright waivers. As a result, he has the ability to test free agency in lieu of a return to Albuquerque. It isn’t clear whether he plans to do so.

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Colorado Rockies Transactions Cole Tucker

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Rays Release Ryan Thompson

By Darragh McDonald | August 17, 2023 at 5:51pm CDT

The Rays announced that right-hander Ryan Thompson has cleared release waivers and has been unconditionally released. He’s now a free agent and can sign with any club.

Thompson, 31, is enduring a frustrating season but has been much better in previous years. From 2020 to 2022, he made 108 appearances for the Rays, allowing 3.50 earned runs per nine innings over those. His 23.1% strikeout rate was roughly average, but his 6.5% walk rate and 52.5% ground ball rate were both strong.

This year, however, has been a bumpy ride. He landed on the injured list in mid-April due to a right lat strain and went on to struggle a bit after he returned, sporting a 6.60 ERA on May 21. The Rays then optioned him to Triple-A and he has been on and off the active roster since then, getting recalled and then optioned three more times since. He has a 3.26 ERA in 19 1/3 Triple-A innings this year, with a concerning walk rate of 13.9% but a huge 30.4% strikeout rate in that small sample.

He had been on the minor league injured list since early August due to a minor elbow issue but recently had a clean MRI, per MLBTR’s Steve Adams. He was still on the IL when he was designated for assignment yesterday, meaning the club had little choice but to release him. Injured players can’t be put on outright waivers and the trade deadline went by a couple of weeks ago, leaving a release inevitable.

He’ll now head to the open market in search of his next opportunity. Despite the challenging year, he figures to get interest based on his previous results. He came into this year with exactly three years of service time and a full slate of options. Since he’s spent a lot of time on optional assignment this year, he won’t reach four years of service and can be retained for three years beyond this one via arbitration. He’ll burn one of his options but will still be optionable for two future seasons.

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Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Ryan Thompson

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Mets Select Abraham Almonte

By Darragh McDonald | August 17, 2023 at 4:35pm CDT

The Mets announced some roster moves today, placing infielder Mark Vientos on the 10-day injured list due to left wrist tendonitis, retroactive to August 16. Outfielder Abraham Almonte has been selected to take his place on the active roster. To open a spot for Almonte on the 40-man, left-hander Josh Walker has been transferred to the 60-day injured list.

Almonte, 34, has been on and off the Mets’ roster lately. Signed to a minor league deal in the offseason, he was brought up to the big leagues last week before being designated for assignment and outrighted a few days later after taking just 12 plate appearances in four games. He has enough service time that he could have rejected the outright assignment but seems to have accepted and will now make a quick return to the majors.

Prior to getting called up, he was having a strong season in the minors. He hit .244/377/.548 in 167 plate appearances, walking at an 18% clip and producing a wRC+ of 128. He’s often hit well in the minors but has struggled to replicate that production in the majors. Dating back to 2013, he’s hit .234/.301/.373 for a wRC+ of 82 in 1,375 trips to the plate in the show. He figures to join the outfield mix alongside Brandon Nimmo, DJ Stewart, Rafael Ortega and Tim Locastro.

Vientos has always crushed minor league pitching but has hit just .188/.240/.286 in his first 167 major league appearances. Despite that tepid output, the Mets will be challenged to cover third base in his absence with Eduardo Escobar having been traded to the Angels and Brett Baty also on the IL. Some combination of Jonathan Araúz, Danny Mendick and Jeff McNeil figure to be slotted into that position as well as second base. It’s unclear how long Vientos is expected to be out for.

Walker, 28, was first added to the club’s roster in May. He’s since made 13 appearances with an ERA of 8.10 in that small sample. He landed on the injured list a few days ago due to a right oblique strain and it seems it’s significant enough to end his season. Today’s transfer means he’s ineligible to return until the middle of October. Barring a miracle postseason run by the Mets, he won’t be back this year.

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New York Mets Transactions Abraham Almonte Josh Walker Mark Vientos

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Guardians Designate Daniel Norris For Assignment, Select Zack Collins

By Darragh McDonald | August 17, 2023 at 3:45pm CDT

The Guardians made a series of roster moves today, with Zack Meisel of The Athletic among those to relay them. Catcher Zack Collins has been selected to the roster while left-hander Tim Herrin has been recalled. In corresponding moves, Cam Gallagher was placed on the seven-day concussion injured list while lefty Daniel Norris was designated for assignment.

Gallagher was removed from last night’s game with a potential head injury, per Tom Withers of the Associated Press. It appeared to stem from being struck by a foul ball earlier in the contest, per Bally Sports Cleveland. It seems the issue is significant enough that the club will give him a breather for at least a week.

The Guards have had Gallagher and Bo Naylor as their catching duo in recent days, with David Fry having been placed on the IL due to a left hamstring strain last week and Mike Zunino released earlier in the summer. With Gallagher now set to miss some time, the club needed an extra backstop and has opted for Collins.

The 28-year-old signed a minor league deal with the Guards in the offseason and has been with Triple-A Columbus all year so far. In 109 games at that level this season, he’s hit .255/.364/.437 for a wRC+ of 101. He’s struck out in 31.5% of his plate appearances but walked at a 14.5% clip and launched 15 home runs.

That’s somewhat similar output to what he’s done in the majors so far. In 150 games dating back to 2019 with the White Sox, Blue Jays and Pirates, he’s been punched out at a 33.6% clip while walking in 12.9% of his trips to the plate. He has 11 home runs in 459 plate appearances while slashing .185/.295/.327 for a 74 wRC+. He has generally received poor marks for his defense in the big leagues, with -23 from Defensive Runs Saved so far and a score of -16.7 from the FanGraphs framing metric.

Collins is out of options but can be retained for future seasons via arbitration if he continues to hang onto his roster spot. He came into this year with a service time tally of two years and 95 days. He won’t have enough time to reach the three-year mark this year and could therefore be controlled for four future seasons.

In order to get Collins onto the 40-man, the Guards have bumped off Norris. The 30-year-old southpaw signed a minor league deal with Cleveland in the offseason and has twice now been selected and then designated for assignment shortly thereafter. He’s made six appearances for the Guards with a 3.38 ERA but has been helped by a .172 batting average on balls in play in that time. He has a 5.60 ERA in 53 Triple-A innings this year.

With the trade deadline now in the rearview, the Guards will have to put Norris on waivers in the coming days. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency, but he accepted his outright when he was DFA’d in June and could perhaps do the same again this time around.

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Cleveland Guardians Transactions Cam Gallagher Daniel Norris Tim Herrin Zack Collins

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Cubs, Richard Bleier Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | August 17, 2023 at 1:29pm CDT

The Cubs have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran left-handed reliever Richard Bleier, reports Patrick Mooney of The Athletic. Bleier, who was released by the Red Sox last week, is headed to Triple-A Iowa for the time being.

The 36-year-old Bleier went from Miami to Boston this winter in an offseason trade sending Matt Barnes and cash the other way. Both teams involved in the swap hoped that a change of scenery would benefit the two veteran relievers, but it didn’t pan out for either. Bleier was roughed up for a 5.28 ERA in 30 1/3 frames with the Sox and also missed time with a shoulder injury, while Barnes yielded a 5.48 ERA in 21 1/3 innings before requiring season-ending hip surgery.

Looking beyond the current season, Bleier has regularly posted strong ERA marks despite one of the game’s lowest strikeout rates. He logged a sub-2.00 ERA in each of his first three big league seasons and a sub-3.00 ERA in two of the next three, so even with this year’s struggles, the soft-tossing southpaw owns a lifetime 3.27 mark in 330 1/3 innings. Bleier, however, averages just 89.2 mph on his fastball and has a career 13.6% strikeout rate. He’s gotten by thanks largely to a spectacular 3.9% walk rate, 60.9% ground-ball rate and consistently low exit velocities. That said, his results have worsened as he’s progressed into his mid-30s.

For the Cubs, there’s no real risk in taking a look at Bleier in Triple-A to see if they can get him back to form. The Red Sox are on the hook for this year’s $3.5MM salary and the $250K buyout on his 2024 club option, meaning Chicago will only owe him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster. Because he’s signed before Sept. 1, Bleier would be postseason-eligible for the Cubs, in the event that they reach the playoffs and that Bleier pitches well enough to merit consideration for such a spot. The Cubs don’t presently have a lefty in their bullpen — Drew Smyly is likely headed back to the rotation following Marcus Stroman’s injury — so if Bleier performs decently in Des Moines there could be a spot for him at the big league level (particularly when rosters expand to 28 players on Sept. 1).

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Chicago Cubs Transactions Richard Bleier

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Rays Designate Hector Perez For Assignment, Activate Andrew Kittredge

By Steve Adams | August 17, 2023 at 12:45pm CDT

The Rays announced Thursday that they’ve designated right-hander Hector Perez for assignment. His spot on the roster will go to fellow righty Andrew Kittredge, who has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list.

Perez, 27, was only selected to the big league roster yesterday — a move intended to give the Rays a fresh arm in the bullpen. With Kittredge’s return looming, a short stay on the roster for the out-of-options righty always seemed like a possibility. That Perez pitched in yesterday’s game and allowed four of the five batters he faced to reach base surely didn’t help his cause. Yesterday’s appearance marked Perez’s second career big league stint, though his other — a 2020 cup of coffee in Toronto — was similarly brief. The Jays gave him 1 2/3 innings back in 2020, during which he allowed a pair of runs.

All told, Perez has completed just two innings in the Major Leagues and allowed three runs on six hits and four walks with one strikeout in that time. He has a career 3.78 ERA and 26.7% strikeout rate in the minors, however, including a 4.08 ERA and 30% strikeout rate (albeit against a 13% walk rate) in 53 innings at the Triple-A level so far in 2023. Players who’ve been designated for assignment can no longer be traded now that the deadline has passed, so Perez will be placed on outright waivers or release waivers within the next five days. He’s been outrighted previously in his career, so he can refuse a minor league assignment and explore other opportunities if he goes unclaimed on outright waivers.

The 33-year-old Kittredge will be returning from a 14-month absence following last June’s Tommy John surgery. Prior to his injury, he’d emerged as one of Tampa Bay’s best relievers, pitching to a 2.17 ERA with a 24.2% strikeout rate, 4.9% walk rate, 51.9% ground-ball rate and 0.99 homers per nine over the life of 99 2/3 innings from 2020-22. Along the way, he picked up 14 saves and seven holds.

Kittredge’s return is a massive boost for the Rays’ bullpen, but it won’t do much to stop the bleeding in a rotation that has now lost Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs to season-ending surgeries. Rasmussen underwent flexor surgery earlier this season, while both Springs and McClanahan required Tommy John procedures to repair ligament damage in their elbow. The still-recent revelation that McClanahan would require Tommy John surgery is a particularly brutal blow, given both his status as a legitimate No. 1 starter and the timing of the injury; he’ll likely miss the entire 2024 season as well (or at the very least the vast majority of it).

Kittredge will join Pete Fairbanks, Jason Adam and Colin Poche as a viable late-inning option for manager Kevin Cash. He’s also no stranger to working as an opener, if the Rays prefer to opt for some bullpen games in light of their injury woes. Kittredge has “started” 15 games in his career but never gone more than three innings. He’s frequently worked two innings to open a game for the Rays. Currently, Tampa Bay’s rotation consists of Tyler Glasnow, offseason signee Zach Eflin, deadline acquisition Aaron Civale and reliever-turned-starter Zack Littell.

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Tampa Bay Rays Transactions Andrew Kittredge Hector Perez

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Nick Wittgren Elects Free Agency

By Anthony Franco | August 17, 2023 at 11:00am CDT

Aug. 17: Wittgren has now formally elected free agency, the Royals announced.

Aug. 16: Royals reliever Nick Wittgren is expected to elect free agency, reports Anne Rogers of MLB.com (Twitter link). He was optioned to Triple-A Omaha this afternoon when Kansas City selected John McMillon onto the big league club.

An optional assignment doesn’t typically allow a player to become a free agent. Players with over five years of major league service, however, have to consent to being optioned. Wittgren has between five and six years of service time, so he’ll have the ability to look elsewhere rather than head back to Omaha. Assuming he indeed chooses free agency, the Royals’ 40-man roster count will drop to 39.

Wittgren signed a non-roster pact with K.C. last December. He worked to a 1.25 ERA over 21 2/3 frames with Omaha, leading the Royals to select his contract at the end of May. The right-hander has since made 27 appearances, working 29 innings in generally low-leverage situations. He owns a 4.97 ERA in that stretch.

That’s marginally better than Witttgren’s run prevention marks of the past two seasons, though it’s quite a bit worse than the combined 2.97 ERA he posted in 112 appearances from 2018-20. Wittgren posted solid strikeout numbers during that peak but has seen the whiffs drop off significantly of late. He fanned a below-average 14.1% of opposing hitters with Kansas City on the heels of a 12.7% strikeout rate with the Cardinals a season ago.

Still, Wittgren should at least find minor league interest elsewhere on the strength of his early-season Triple-A production. He fanned over 24% of batters faced in Omaha, where he kept his walks to a modest 7.6% clip. Wittgren has been a solid strike-thrower throughout his career, walking 7% of opponents through 329 1/3 MLB innings.

Should he sign elsewhere by September 1, Wittgren would be eligible for postseason play. He’d have reached free agency at season’s end if the Royals had kept him on the major league roster. With the club clearly in evaluation mode, it’s sensible they’d prefer to give some innings to the hard-throwing McMillon down the stretch.

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Kansas City Royals Transactions Nick Wittgren

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Diamondbacks Outright Kristian Robinson

By Steve Adams | August 17, 2023 at 9:44am CDT

Outfielder Kristian Robinson, whom the Diamondbacks designated for assignment over the weekend, went unclaimed on waivers, tweets Jesse Friedman of PHNX Sports. The team has apparently assigned Robinson back to its Rookie-level affiliate in the Arizona Complex League, as he’s already suited up for a game there since his DFA.

Once a high-profile amateur signing out of the Bahamas who was considered to be among the sport’s top 100 prospects, Robinson’s career has been slowed by legal issues (as MLBTR’s Anthony Franco outlined earlier this year when Robinson was reinstated from the restricted list). A then-19-year-old Robinson pled guilty to felony assault charges stemming from an altercation in April of 2020 but eventually agreed to a plea deal that would reduce the charge to a misdemeanor, contingent on him completing an 18-month probation window. Robinson was unable to renew his work visa (and thus unable to play in the D-backs system) during that probationary period, which ended this spring.

Since returning to the Diamondbacks after a three-year absence from playing in minor leagues, the now-22-year-old Robinson has appeared in 45 games between Rookie ball, Class-A and High-A. In 193 plate appearances, he’s slashed .276/.383/.460 with seven homers, three doubles, three triples, 19 steals (in 22 tries) and an 11.4% walk rate. That impressive performance isn’t without some statistical red flags, however. Robinson has punched out in an alarming 31.1% of his plate appearances, and the bulk of those stats have come against younger competition in A-ball and Rookie ball. He’s yet to really be tested against more advanced pitching, which makes the already sky-high strikeout rate all the more concerning.

Now that he’s gone unclaimed on waivers, he’ll remain in the D-backs’ system but no longer occupy a spot on the 40-man roster.

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Arizona Diamondbacks Transactions Kristian Robinson

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Astros, Andrew Knapp Agree To Minor League Deal

By Anthony Franco | August 16, 2023 at 7:26pm CDT

The Astros are in agreement on a minor league pact with catcher Andrew Knapp, the club informed reporters (including Chandler Rome of the Athletic). He’ll report to Triple-A Sugar Land.

Knapp had been released from a minor league pact with the Tigers last week. The switch-hitting backstop had a respectable 70-game run with their top affiliate in Toledo, hitting .253/.337/.397 through 267 plate appearances. He struck out in just over a quarter of his trips but walked at a solid 10.1% clip.

While he didn’t get to the majors in Detroit, the former second-round draftee has seen a fair bit of MLB action. Knapp has played parts of six campaigns, five of which came in Philadelphia. He got brief stints with each of Pittsburgh, Seattle and San Francisco last year. In 325 career games, Knapp is a .209/.310/.313 hitter. Statcast has given him below-average grades for his framing and blocking. He has a modest 18.8% caught stealing rate at the MLB level but has cut down a solid 28.2% of baserunners this year in Triple-A.

Knapp brings plenty of experience as a non-roster option in the upper minors. There’s little need for catching help at the big league level, where Martín Maldonado is ensconced as the top option and backup Yainer Diaz is having a strong rookie season. The only other catcher on the 40-man roster is César Salazar, a 27-year-old with 13 games of big league experience. Knapp adds a veteran presence as injury insurance. Since he’s in the organization before September 1, he’d be eligible for postseason play if the Astros qualify.

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Houston Astros Transactions Andrew Knapp

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