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Cubs Designate Eric Hosmer For Assignment

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The Cubs announced a series of roster moves today, with Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic among those to relay them on Twitter. Infielder Nico Hoerner has been activated off the injured list, Edwin Ríos was recalled from Iowa and outfielder Mike Tauchman has had his contract selected. In corresponding moves, Cody Bellinger has been placed on the 10-day injured list retroactive to May 16 with a left knee contusion, Keegan Thompson has been optioned to Iowa and first baseman Eric Hosmer has been designated for assignment.

Hosmer, 33, signed an eight-year, $144MM deal with the Padres going into the 2018 but then saw his production tail off once the ink on that deal was dry. He had a career batting line of .284/.342/.439 prior to that deal but has hit just .263/.323/.406 since then. That latter line amounts to a wRC+ of 98, indicating he’s been a couple of ticks below league average. Since first baseman are generally expected to produce more on the offensive side of things, that’s been an obviously disappointing performance.

He was frequently the subject of trade rumors during him time in San Diego and eventually was flipped to the Red Sox at least year’s deadline with the Padres eating almost all of the remaining money on his deal, with Boston on the hook for just the league minimum. Boston was then encouraged enough by the developments of first base prospect Triston Casas that they released Hosmer in the offseason.

The Cubs then agreed to bring Hosmer aboard, which was a move that had no financial risk since the Padres were still responsible for most of the $39MM remaining on the final three years of his contract. It was seen by many that Hosmer would be a sort of placeholder, hopefully playing at a serviceable level until some younger player such as Matt Mervis eventually forced their way into the major league plans. Mervis was called up a couple of weeks ago and is hitting just .220/.256/.317 so far but Hosmer isn’t doing much better, currently slashing .234/.280/.330 for a wRC+ of 67. It seems the Cubs will use Hosmer’s at-bats on other players and let him seek out his next opportunity.

Hosmer will inevitable be released in the coming days and return to the open market. He hasn’t been able to provide much value lately but he might still get interest based on his previous work and the fact that he’d be essentially free in terms of dollars. He also appears to be respected around the game for intangibles like his clubhouse presence and leadership, which could also appeal to certain clubs.

Turning to the other moves, Bellinger seemed to injure himself by colliding with the wall in Houston while making a catch on Monday. The club took a few days to see how his situation developed but has decided to let him rest for at least another week. He was non-tendered by the Dodgers after last season due to his struggles in both 2021 and 2022 but is in better form so far this year. After signing a one-year, $17.5MM deal with the Cubs this winter, he’s hitting .271/.337/.493 in addition to stealing nine bases and playing quality defense. Christopher Morel is in center field tonight and could perhaps stay there until Bellinger comes back.

Tauchman, 32, could also be in that mix, as he’s been playing all three outfield slots in Triple-A this year. He’s also walked in an incredible 20.4% of his plate appearances, leading to a .278/.427/.443 slash line and 129 wRC+. He has 257 games of major league experience under his belt, having played for the Rockies, Yankees and Giants from 2017 to 2021. His career batting line is currently .231/.326/.378 for a wRC+ of 90. He spent 2022 with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization, hitting .289/.366/.430 in 144 games there.

Yankees, Michael Feliz Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees have agreed to a minor league contract with reliever Michael Feliz, the Leones de Yucatán of the Mexican League announced yesterday (Twitter link). According to the MLB.com transaction tracker, Feliz has first been assigned to the organization’s Florida complex. After some time there building up, he’s likely to head to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

Feliz had signed with Yucatán over the offseason. He pitched nine times and tallied 8 1/3 innings in the Mexican League, allowing just one run with an excellent 13:2 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Along the way, the 29-year-old impressed Yankees’ scouts to get another look in the affiliated ranks.

No stranger to affiliated ball, Feliz has appeared in parts of 12 minor league campaigns. He was a prospect of some regard in the Astros’ farm system and made his major league debut with Houston in 2015. The righty was on and off the MLB roster for the next few seasons before being dealt to the Pirates as part of the Gerrit Cole trade return. He had the best season of his career with Pittsburgh in 2019, tossing 56 1/3 innings of 3.99 ERA ball while punching out 30.6% of opposing hitters.

The past few seasons haven’t been as effective. Feliz has struggled to throw strikes consistently and bounced around the league in journeyman fashion. He’s suited up for Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Boston (on two separate occasions) and Oakland going back to 2021. He’s thrown a total of 31 MLB innings over the last three-plus years while bouncing around on waivers.

Feliz’s only major league work last season was a 3 1/3-inning relief outing for the Red Sox. Feliz otherwise spent the year in Triple-A, splitting the season between Boston’s and Minnesota’s affiliates. He worked to a 2.74 ERA over 49 1/3 combined innings, striking out a solid 26.4% of batters faced against a 9.6% walk rate.

Yankees Acquire Greg Allen From Red Sox

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8:28pm: New York officially announced the acquisition of Allen in exchange for minor league right-hander Diego Hernandez and cash. Hernandez, an 18-year-old native of Mexico, signed with New York as an undrafted free agent last year. He spent 2022 in the Dominican Summer League, starting five of 12 games.

7:17pm: The Yankees are acquiring outfielder Greg Allen from the Red Sox, reports Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). Allen had been in the Boston organization on a minor league contract. Abraham adds the trade was due to an upward mobility clause in Allen’s deal which required the Red Sox to either promote him or trade him if another club offered an immediate big league roster spot.

While neither team has yet announced the trade, that suggests Allen is likely to step onto New York’s MLB roster in the next couple days. The Yankees will have to create a spot on the 40-man roster, though that can be done by transferring Carlos Rodón to the 60-day injured list. IL transfers are backdated to the time of the original placement (in Rodón’s case, Opening Day) and there’s no chance he’ll be ready for MLB action by next week.

Once official, it’ll be Allen’s second stint as a Yankee. The switch-hitting outfielder appeared in 15 games for New York two years ago. He played well, hitting .270/.417/.432 over 48 trips to the plate. Allen’s modest pre-2021 track record led the Yankees to place him on waivers despite that small-sample production. The Pirates claimed him and kept him on the roster for the majority of last season, but he slumped to a .186/.260/.271 line with a 31.3% strikeout rate in 134 trips to the plate. That brought his career slash to .232/.299/.336 in exactly 800 plate appearances over four teams.

Pittsburgh ran Allen through waivers at the end of the year. He caught on with the Red Sox on an offseason minor league pact and has impressed over 37 games for their Triple-A affiliate in Worcester. He’s hitting .250/.407/.388 in 151 trips to the plate. Allen has walked at a robust 13.9% clip and kept his strikeouts to a far more manageable 19.2% rate than he had in the majors last season. He’s also gone a staggering 23-23 in stolen base attempts. No other minor league player has run more often without yet being thrown out.

Allen has always had plus speed and strong basestealing instincts. He’s 45-53 in that regard in his major league career, an excellent 84.9% success rate. The introduction of more favorable rules for baserunners (larger bases, a pitch clock and pickoff limitations) should only make things easier for him in that regard. Allen’s athleticism hasn’t translated into universally strong defensive grades, however. Public metrics have pegged him as an above-average corner outfielder but given him mixed reviews over his 966 major league innings in center field.

The 30-year-old is out of minor league option years. Assuming the Yankees add him to the MLB roster, they’ll have to keep him in the majors or designate him for assignment. He’ll add another veteran depth outfielder behind Aaron Judge and Harrison Bader. New York has tried a number of different players in left field, giving the bulk of that time to Oswaldo Cabrera and Aaron Hicks. None of Cabrera, Hicks, Willie Calhoun nor Isiah Kiner-Falefa has contributed much offensively. Cabrera is the only member of that group who still has remaining minor league options.

Padres To Place Manny Machado On IL

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The Padres are placing third baseman Manny Machado on the 10-day injured list, per Kevin Acee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. Machado had been recently diagnosed with a small fracture in his hand. Infielder/outfielder Brandon Dixon has been recalled in a corresponding move.

Machado was hit on his left hand by a pitch on Monday and initial X-rays came back negative, but a subsequent CT scan revealed the small fracture. The club took a few days to see how the issue developed but have evidently decided to give Machado a bit of a breather to let him heal up. IL placements can be backdated by three days, meaning Machado could be back in a week if he feels better by then.

The 30-year-old is off to a bit of a slow start this year, hitting just .231/.282/.372 through his first 170 plate appearances on the season. But he has a .263 batting average on balls in play for the year, well below his career mark of .300 and the .297 league average this year. Given his career batting line of .280/.339/.489, it would have been fair to expect some positive regression in the weeks to come but that will now have to wait.

It’s not entirely clear how long Machado will be sidelined. Manager Bob Melvin said this evening that Machado could be back when first eligible for a road series against the Yankees next weekend (via Annie Heilbronn of the Union-Tribune). There’s still some uncertainty regarding that timeline, though, as the primary issue is whether there’ll be too much pain for last year’s NL MVP runner-up to grip the bat.

While Machado has been out, the Friars have kicked Ha-Seong Kim over from second to third base. Rougned Odor stepped in at second base twice earlier in the week. Tonight, the Padres are plugging Dixon into the lineup at first base and moving Jake Cronenworth back to the keystone. Odor and Dixon figure to receive the biggest uptick in playing time for as long as Machado is out.

Reds Sign Ryan Meisinger To Minor League Deal

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The Reds have signed right-hander Ryan Meisinger to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts.

Meisinger, 29, was an 11th round selection of the Orioles in the 2015 draft and worked his way up to the majors with that club in 2018. He has 31 innings of major league experience to this point, spread between the Orioles, Cardinals and Cubs. He posted a 7.26 ERA in that time with a 21.7% strikeout rate, 13.8% walk rate and 37.6% ground ball rate.

Last year, Meisinger signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks but was released after posting a 6.14 ERA in 14 2/3 Triple-A innings. He then signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, registering a 7.06 ERA in 43 1/3 innings for them.

The righty hasn’t had much recent success but has decent Triple-A numbers in his career overall. Across parts of four seasons, he has a 3.37 ERA in 117 2/3 innings at that level, striking out 30.3% of batters faced while walking 9.1%.

The Reds have a bunch of relievers on the injured list right now, with Tejay Antone, Fernando Cruz, Casey Legumina, Reiver Sanmartin and Tony Santillan all out of action. Meisinger will look to position himself to get the call when a fresh arm is needed. If he gets a spot on the 40-man, he has a couple of options and less than a year of service time, meaning he would provide the Reds with a good deal of roster flexibility and cheap control.

Red Sox Sign Bradley Zimmer To Minor League Deal

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The Red Sox have signed outfielder Bradley Zimmer to a minor league deal, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. Zimmer had been with the Dodgers on a minor league deal until being released this week.

Zimmer, 30, was a first round draft selection of Cleveland in 2014 and a top 100 prospect as a minor leaguer. Unfortunately, he hasn’t yet been able to put it together as a hitter, currently sporting a career batting line of .213/.298/.333 in 975 major league plate appearances. He’s struck out in 33.9% of those while walking at just a 7.8% rate. Zimmer signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers this winter but hit just .219/.322/.343 in 121 Triple-A plate appearances, striking out at a 38% clip.

Despite the poor production at the plate, Zimmer still has plenty of appeal in the other parts of his game, as his speed and defense are both generally considered elite. He has 42 stolen bases in his brief major league time and also has strong grades from advanced defensive metrics. He’s accrued 15 Defensive Runs Saved, 14 Outs Above Average and a grade of 7.8 from Ultimate Zone Rating in his career.

The Red Sox have been dealing with uncertainty in center field for much of the season. Once Trevor Story required elbow surgery in the offseason, the club planned to move Enrique Hernández in from center to cover shortstop. They then signed Adam Duvall to cover center but he fractured his wrist after just eight games. Jarren Duran has stepped up and taken the job by hitting .361/.418/.588, but his .464 batting average on balls in play suggests he’s due for some regression. Zimmer will give the club a bit of extra depth at the position and try to earn his way back to the big leagues.

Mets Select Gary Sanchez, Place Tim Locastro On 60-Day IL

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May 19: The Mets announced that they’ve selected Sanchez’s contract, optioned Perez to to Syracuse and placed outfielder Tim Locastro on the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot for Sanchez. Locastro has a sprained ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb. New York also announced that Nido is heading out on a rehab assignment with the team’s Port St. Lucie affiliate, so further changes to the catching corps could be on the horizon.

May 18: The Mets are selecting the contract of veteran catcher Gary Sánchez, reports Andy Martino of SNY (Twitter link). He’s expected to be formally added to the roster before tomorrow’s game against the Guardians. The Mets will need to create a spot on the 40-man roster before the contest.

Sánchez signed a minor league deal with the Mets a little over a week ago. It was his second non-roster pact of the season. He’d initially signed with the Giants shortly after Opening Day but never got a big league look thanks to significant struggles with their top affiliate in Sacramento. He opted out and caught on with New York thereafter.

The two-time All-Star’s deal with the Mets allowed him to opt out if he wasn’t added to the MLB roster by tomorrow. He’s fortunately gotten out to a much better start for their Triple-A club in Syracuse than he had with Sacramento. He mashed at a .318/.531/.545 clip with a homer, two doubles, eight walks and nine strikeouts in seven games there. His overall Triple-A batting line for the season is a modest .208/.386/.286 thanks to the tough first month, but he’s clearly acquitted himself nicely in his brief time with his new organization.

With the opt-out date looming, reports earlier in the week suggested the Mets were strongly considering calling Sánchez up. Now that they’ve done so, he’ll be guaranteed a prorated $1.5MM salary (roughly $1.1MM through season’s end). Even with the Mets paying a 110% tax on that figure, bringing their total expenditure to around $2.31MM, that’s a reasonable sum for a capable #2 catcher.

Sánchez isn’t going to supplant highly-regarded rookie Francisco Álvarez as the starter. He’ll add an experienced depth option to the bench, offering some extra right-handed power for skipper Buck Showalter. Sánchez is no stranger to New York, of course, as he starred for the Yankees for the first four seasons of his career. His offensive production has fallen off since the start of 2020, as he carries a .195/.287/.394 line in a little under 1100 plate appearances through the past three years.

A much maligned defensive catcher over his time in the Bronx, Sánchez garnered respectable reviews from public metrics last year during his lone season with the Twins. Statcast rated him around league average as a pitch framer and blocker. He threw out a solid 28% of attempted basestealers. If he can carry over roughly average defense with some power and plate discipline, he’d be a solid backup catcher.

New York is without offseason signee Omar Narváez and expected backup Tomás Nido due to injuries. They’ve been relying on journeyman Michael Pérez as Álvarez’s backup of late. A career .180/.250/.308 hitter, Pérez has one remaining minor league option year. Unless the Mets elect to carry three catchers, he’s likely to be optioned to Syracuse or designated for assignment.

Dodgers Select Tyler Cyr

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The Dodgers announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Tyler Cyr, with fellow righty Andre Jackson optioned in a corresponding move. The club already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster after designating Dylan Covey for assignment yesterday.

The Dodgers’ relief corps has been getting run through the gauntlet this week, leading to various roster moves as they try to restock with fresh arms. It started on Monday when started Noah Syndergaard lasted just four innings it what eventually turned into a 12-inning game that saw the club use six relievers. Then Clayton Kershaw was also bumped after four frames on Tuesday, leading to the relievers throwing another five. The Dodgers selected Covey prior to Wednesday’s contest, then saw Dustin May depart after just one inning with a flexor pronator strain that’s going to keep him sidelined for weeks. Covey tossed four innings in relief and then four other pitchers followed him. Covey was designated for assignment the next day as Jackson and Justin Bruihl were recalled. Last night, Julio Urías was pushed out after just three innings, leaving the bullpen to pick up another five. Since they were in St. Louis and got crushed, they didn’t have to cover the bottom of the ninth but Jackson did throw 3 1/3 innings in there, getting optioned today for his troubles.

Going into today’s contest, they are yet again scrambling for a fresh arm to have on hand, tapping Cyr to be that arm. The 30-year-old made his major league debut with the Phillies last year, making just one appearance before getting put on waivers and getting claimed by the A’s. He tossed 13 1/3 innings between the two clubs with a 2.70 ERA, 29.1% strikeout rate, 9.1% walk rate and 48.5% ground ball rate.

He was released in January and eventually landed with the Dodgers on a minor league deal. He’s tossed 16 2/3 Triple-A innings here in 2023 thus far with a 4.86 ERA, striking out 31.6% of opponents and getting grounders at a 56.4% rate but issuing walks to 13.2% of batters faced. Cyr has a full slate of options and less than a year of service time, meaning he could potentially provide the Dodgers with a depth arm with roster flexibility and cheap control for years to come, provided he performs well enough to hang onto his spot on the 40-man roster.

Pirates Designate Miguel Andujar For Assignment

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The Pirates announced that they have activated left-hander Rob Zastryzny from the injured list, with outfielder Miguel Andujar designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Andujar, 28, was selected to the club’s roster three weeks ago but has hit just .161/.212/.387 in his 33 plate appearances since then. He had earned that call-up with a .284/.364/.500 showing in Triple-A but wasn’t able to bring any of that production up to the big leagues with him.

It’s yet another unfortunate development in Andujar’s career, one that seemed so promising a few years ago. He hit .297/.328/.527 for the Yankees in 2018, finishing second to Shohei Ohtani in Rookie of the Year voting. Unfortunately, he required season-ending shoulder surgery after just 12 games in 2019 and hasn’t seemed the same since. Once he returned to health in 2020, the Yankees had filled his third base position with players like DJ LeMahieu and Gio Urshela, which squeezed him out of regular playing time. Over the past few years, he’s continued to hit well in Triple-A but struggled whenever given another shot at the majors. Going back to the start of 2020, he’s hit .291/.346/.508 in the minors but just .237/.268/.354 in the big leagues.

The Bucs will now have a week to either trade Andujar or pass him through waivers. He’s making a salary of $1.525MM this year, which could factor into how this plays out. While some teams might be intrigued by his past success and Triple-A numbers, they would have to be willing to take on that money. Andujar was passed through waivers in January without anyone putting in a claim. He would have had the right to reject an outright assignment at that time but would have had to forfeit that money and ultimately accepted, which could be the same script that is followed in the coming days.

Athletics Designate Zach Neal For Assignment

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The A’s announced Friday that they’ve designated righty Zach Neal for assignment and placed fellow righty Zach Jackson on the 15-day injured list with a flexor tendon strain. That pair of moves clears a spot for the selection of righty Lucas Erceg’s contract. Oakland acquired Erceg from the Brewers in exchange for cash earlier in the week and will put him right onto the MLB roster.

Neal, 34, returned to the Majors for the first time in five years when the A’s called him up last week. He’s appeared in two games and allowed a total of three runs on four hits (two homers) and no walks with three strikeouts. That marks his second stint with Oakland, as he was also with the A’s back in 2016-17. Neal tossed one lone inning for the 2018 Dodgers and spent the 2019-21 seasons pitching for the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. His first NPB season was a strong one, but he struggled in two subsequent years and was also hit hard with the Rockies’ Triple-A affiliate in 2022.

Overall, Neal has 89 big league innings and a 5.06 ERA with just an 11% strikeout rate but a minuscule 1.9% walk rate. He’s a heavy ground-ball pitcher who’s had some success in Triple-A, last year’s rough showing with the Rockies organization (6.87 ERA in 116 2/3 innings) notwithstanding. The A’s will have a week to trade him or pass him through outright waivers. Neal would have the ability to reject the assignment in favor of free agency, as he’s been outrighted previously in his career.

Word of a flexor strain for Jackson is tough for the A’s, given that Jackson was one of just two members of the team’s Opening Day bullpen who’d survived to this point. He’s pitched 18 innings of 2.50 ERA ball thus far, fanning 28.7% of his opponents against an admittedly unsightly 12.5% walk rate. Even with that ugly walk rate, Jackson has been a bright spot in an Oakland bullpen that has used a stunning 21 relievers so far this year. The timeline on his recovery hasn’t been provided yet, flexor tendon injuries are rarely accompanied by short-term absences.

Erceg will become the 22nd A’s reliever of the young season whenever he takes the mound. He’s a 2016 second-round pick who drafted by the Brewers as a third baseman but eventually moved to the mound in 2021. Erceg was a reliever in college as well, so the shift wasn’t entirely foreign to him. He’s taken to the mound reasonably well, given the long layoff between his college pitching career and his debut on the mound in pro ball.

The 28-year-old Erceg pitched to a 3.43 ERA in 39 1/3 Triple-A frames following a promotion there last year, fanning just under a quarter of his opponents (24.7%) against a bloated 13.5% walk rate. He’s had a rougher go in 2023, evidenced by a 6.46 earned run average in just 15 1/3 frames.

However, six of the 11 earned runs he’s allowed came in one catastrophic appearance against the Braves’ top affiliate on May 10, wherein Erceg didn’t record an out. He’s been generally solid otherwise, and his 23.9% strikeout rate and 14.9% walk rate are at least within the vicinity of last year’s rates. He’ll obviously still need to cut down on his walks if he’s to have any sustained success on the mound, but the paper-thin A’s are strapped enough for pitching depth that they’ll give him the chance to do so at the big league level for now.

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