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Mets Select Michael Pérez

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The Mets announced that they have selected the contract of catcher Michael Pérez. He will take the roster spot of fellow backstop Tomás Nido who has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 7, due to dry eye syndrome. Right-hander Elieser Hernández was transferred to the 60-day injured list to open a 40-man spot for Pérez. Tim Healey of Newsday previously reported that Pérez was with the club in Cincinnati while Mike Puma of the New York Post first reported on Nido’s IL placement.

The Mets will now be without both of their Opening Day catchers, as Omar Narváez landed on the IL after just five games due to a significant calf strain and Nido now joins him on the shelf. The injury to Narváez opened playing time for prospect Francisco Álvarez but now Nido’s absence will require the club to reach into its depth yet again.

Pérez, 30, was acquired from the Pirates in a trade last July but was outrighted by the club in October. He became a free agent in the winter but rejoined the Mets on a minor league deal and has been playing in Triple-A so far this year. In 19 games for Syracuse, he’s hit just .153/.261/.254, but with encouraging peripherals. He’s walked at a strong 13% clip and struck out in just 17.4% of his plate appearances, with that paltry batting line being weighed down by a .152 batting average on balls in play.

He’s seen part-time action in the big leagues in each of the five previous seasons, suiting up for the Rays, Pirates and Mets. He owns a career batting line of .174/.244/.301 over 591 plate appearances in the big leagues. On the defensive side of things, his framing is considered subpar but he’s been worth four Defensive Runs Saved in his career and grades out well on Statcast’s new caught stealing above average metric. He’ll figures to serve as the backup to Álvarez at least until one of Narváez or Nido get back. He still has an option year remaining and could potentially be sent back to Syracuse easily when that time comes.

As for Nido, he’s out to a terrible start this year, hitting just .118/.148/.118. Perhaps this vision issue provides some explanation for why he’s so far off his career line of .213/.250/.309. It doesn’t seem to be especially serious, as manager Buck Showalter expects him to be fine in three or four days, per Healey.

As for Hernández, he’s been on the injured list all year so far due to a right shoulder strain. He doesn’t seem especially close to a return, given that he hasn’t even begun a rehab assignment. The 60-day count begins from his initial IL placement, meaning he’ll be eligible to return in a few weeks if he’s healthy.

Red Sox Designate Zack Littell For Assignment

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The Red Sox have informed reporters, including Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe, that they have designated right-hander Zack Littell for assignment. His roster spot will go to left-hander James Paxton, who has been reinstated and is set to start Friday’s game.

It’s a very quick turnaround for Littell, 27, who was with the Rangers on a minor league deal until the Red Sox traded for him last week, sending cash considerations the other way and adding Littell to their roster. He made two appearances for the Sox since then, allowing three earned runs in three innings with three hits, three walks and a couple of strikeouts. He now loses his roster spot just a few days after getting it. Since he’s out of options, this was the only way to quickly get his spot open for Paxton.

Prior to that shaky showing with Boston, he had been getting solid results in the minors. In 12 innings with the Round Rock Express, he had a 2.25 ERA with a 33.3% strikeout rate, 4.2% walk rate and 41.4% ground ball rate. He has 172 2/3 innings of major league experience dating back to 2018 with a 4.17 ERA in that time, striking out 20.8% of opponents while walking 8.6% and getting grounders at a 42.6% clip.

The Sox will now have one week to trade Littell or pass him through waivers. He has a previous career outright and could therefore reject another such assignment in favor of free agency in the event that he clears waivers.

As for Paxton, he will be appearing in a major league game for the first time in over two years. He underwent Tommy John surgery in April of 2021 while with the Mariners, then signed a complicated deal with the Red Sox while rehabbing. He was working his way back to health last year when a lat tear scuttled those plans. The Sox then declined a two-year, $26MM option but the lefty triggered his $4MM player option. The injury parade continued in the spring, when he suffered a hamstring strain that’s kept him out of action until now.

His return will have repercussions for the club’s other pitchers since manager Alex Cora recently told reporters, including Rob Bradford of WEEI, that he doesn’t plan on using a six-man rotation going forward. For the moment, Paxton will slot into the mix alongside Chris Sale, Tanner Houck, Brayan Bello, Corey Kluber and Nick Pivetta, with Garrett Whitlock also expected to return from the IL in the near future. With seven options for five jobs, the Sox will have to pick a couple of them to either be moved to the bullpen or optioned to the minors, with those decisions seemingly still up in the air.

Blue Jays Sign Wes Parsons To Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays have signed right-hander Wes Parsons to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s been assigned to the club’s Florida Complex League affiliate but will presumably head to Triple-A once he gets into game shape.

Parsons, 30, was an undrafted free agent who nonetheless worked his way up to the major leagues a few years ago. He tossed 39 2/3 innings over the 2018 and 2019 seasons for Atlanta and Colorado. He posted an ERA of 5.67 in that time along with a 16.1% strikeout rate, 17.8% walk rate and 45.6% ground ball rate. He was in the Rockies’ player pool during the 2020 season but didn’t get called up to the majors.

The righty went to Korea in 2021, signing with the NC Dinos of the KBO League and having some good results over there. He worked out of their rotation in 2021, tossing 133 innings over 24 starts with a 3.72 ERA. He struck out 148 of the 577 batters he faced, a 26.4% rate, though the 63 walks still amount to a high rate of 10.9%. He re-signed with the Dinos for 2022 but was only able to make eight starts with a 3.56 ERA. He was released in August while dealing with a back injury so the club could replace him with Matt Dermody, per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. KBO teams only have three roster spots for foreign players and needed to remove the injured Parsons to get Dermody aboard.

Parsons will now return to North America by entering the farm system of the Blue Jays. It’s unclear if they are interested in him as a starter or reliever, but he will give them some non-roster depth either way. The club’s rotation is fairly stable at the moment, with Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi all healthy and depth starter Mitch White currently rehabbing in the minors. The relief corps has had a couple of recent injuries with Zach Pop and Adam Cimber on the injured list. Thomas Hatch and Trent Thornton are depth options on the 40-man roster, though White is out of options and will need a roster spot when his rehab is up, which could lead to the recently-recalled Jay Jackson getting optioned back to Buffalo in the near future.

White Sox Designate Alex Colome For Assignment

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The White Sox designated right-hander Alex Colome for assignment and selected the contract of outfielder Jake Marisnick from Triple-A Charlotte on Wednesday, per a team announcement. Marisnick will join the active roster as fellow fleet-footed, veteran outfielder Billy Hamilton heads to the 10-day injured list due to a hamstring strain. Chicago has also recalled righty Nick Padilla from Charlotte.

Colome’s reunion with the ChiSox, for whom he closed games in 2019-20, proved to be short-lived. The 34-year-old’s contract was selected earlier this month, and he’s since tossed three innings with four runs allowed (two earned) on two hits and three walks. His 93.9 mph average fastball in that time ties a career-low from the 2021 season.

While Colome notched a pristine 2.27 ERA in 83 1/3 innings during his original run with the White Sox, there were longstanding indicators that he’d be hard-pressed to sustain that success. The right-hander had sub-par strikeout and walk rates during that two-year stretch and yielded plenty of hard contact, allowing an average of 90.2 mph off the bat. The market seemingly agreed, as despite his sharp bottom-line numbers in his run-up to free agency, Colome settled for an affordable one-year deal with the Twins late in the offseason.

The results in Minnesota were pedestrian, and Colome hasn’t found much success since. Dating back to 2021, he’s sitting on a 4.85 ERA with a 17.7% strikeout rate and 9.2% walk rate. His 55.1% ground-ball rate remains excellent, but the remainder of his profile hasn’t been encouraging. The White Sox will have a week to trade him or else pass him through outright or release waivers. Colome can reject an assignment to the minors even if he goes unclaimed.

Marisnick, 32, will bring a similar skill set to that of Hamilton to the White Sox. While he’s not quite as fast as Hamilton, he’s a premier defensive center fielder whose offensive shortcomings have largely outweighed his proficiency in the outfield and on the basepaths. He’s out to a nice .264/.407/.391 start in Charlotte so far this season, but over the past five big league seasons Marisnick is a .228/.285/.406 hitter.

Marisnick does have some power against lefties, and he also boasts career marks of 50 Defensive Runs Saved and 35 Outs Above Average in center field. His .224/.274/.366 career output against right-handed pitching leaves plenty to be desired, but he’s not a bad fourth outfielder if a team is comfortable limiting him to a rather strict platoon arrangement.

Rays Sign Jake Diekman To Major League Deal

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May 10: The Rays have now officially signed Diekman, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The corresponding move had been reported earlier today as righty Chase Anderson getting designated for assignment, which is also now official.

May 9: The Rays are finalizing a major league deal with left-hander Jake Diekman, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN, who adds that the deal is expected to be finalized in the next 48 hours. Once the move is official, a corresponding move or moves will be required to get the southpaw onto the active and 40-man rosters.

Diekman, 36, began the season with the White Sox but was released after posting a 7.94 ERA in 13 outings. In spite of those unfortunate results, he has quickly found a new home with the Rays. As Passan points out, Tampa recently got the unfortunate news that left-hander Garrett Cleavinger will likely miss the rest of the season due to an injury to the ACL in his right knee. In order to counteract that blow to their lefty relief mix, they’ll insert Diekman into Cleavinger’s spot.

It won’t be any kind of significant commitment from the Rays since Diekman already has a salary of $3.5MM this year and a $1MM buyout on an option for 2024 as part of the deal he signed with the Red Sox going into 2022. Since the White Sox released him, they will be on the hook for the majority of that, with the Rays only responsible for the prorated league minimum for any time Diekman is on the roster, with that amount subtracted from what the Sox pay.

Diekman has been a useful reliever in the past and the Rays will surely be hoping to find a way to get him back to that previous form. Control has always been an issue for the lefty as he only once posted a walk rate below 10%, which was way back in 2013, and his career walk rate currently sits at 13.3%. But he’s been most successful when overcoming those walks by racking up strikeouts. From 2012 to 2022, he struck out between 25% and 32% of batters faced in each full season, as well as punching out 36.9% in the shortened 2020 campaign. However, it’s been just 19% in the early going here in 2023.

Despite that fairly consistent strikeout stuff, the walks have caused his ERAs to fluctuate wildly over the years. He’s finished above 4.00 in four of the last seven full seasons while getting as low as 2.53 in 2017 and a sparkling 0.42 figure in the truncated 2020 year.

Since the Rays will be paying him the league minimum, there’s very little risk in giving him a shot to see if he can get a better handle on his stuff. If it doesn’t work out, they can quickly make him another casualty of the ongoing roster churn they do at the fringes of their roster without really losing anything.

Twins Option Jose Miranda To Triple-A

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9:50am: The Twins announced that Farmer has been reinstated from the injured list, with Miranda indeed being optioned to St. Paul.

9:37am: Infielder Kyle Farmer is set to return to the Twins after missing roughly a month following a fastball to the jaw that required dental surgery, and La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports (via Twitter) that the Twins will open a spot on the roster by optioning third baseman Jose Miranda to Triple-A St. Paul.

Miranda, 24, was regarded as one of the sport’s top infield prospects prior to making his big league debut in 2022. He struggled immensely in the early portion of last year’s debut campaign but after a brief demotion to Triple-A, returned with a stout .286/.346/.451 batting line, 14 home runs and 20 doubles over his final 413 plate appearances. That looked to cement Miranda in the Twins’ long-term lineup — so much so that the club felt comfortable trading Gio Urshela this offseason as a means of clearing regular playing time for Miranda at the hot corner.

The 2023 season, however, has been a grind for Miranda. He’s taken 142 turns at the plate and thus far produced only a .220/.275/.318 batting line. His 16.2% strikeout rate and 6.3% walk rate are actually improvements over last year’s respective marks of 18% and 5.8%, but Miranda’s quality of contact has taken a dive. He’s seen his exit velocity and hard-hit rate both take a step back, and his ground-ball rate has spiked from 42.1% to 48.6%, which isn’t ideal for a player with below-average speed. He’s also popping up at a slightly higher clip in 2023 and making contact on pitches within the strike zone at an 85.8% rate — down from last year’s mark of 88.2%.

Aside from the spike in ground-balls, most of the dips in Miranda’s profile at the plate are relatively minor. But, taken in totality, it appears that a large number of small steps back have combined to suppress his production at the plate in the early stages of the season. The Twins, in all likelihood, will view this as an opportunity to give Miranda a mental reset over in St. Paul, with an eye toward getting him back on the big league roster sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, Farmer seems like the most obvious candidate to take up the mantle at third base, though utilitymen Willi Castro and Donovan Solano could also mix in at the position. The 32-year-old Farmer just went 4-for-13 with a homer and two doubles in a brief rehab assignment in St. Paul and is no stranger to the left side of the infield. He was the Reds’ primary shortstop in 2022 but also spent 299 innings at third base, drawing generally positive defensive marks at both positions while batting .255/.316/.386 in 583 plate appearances.

Farmer was off to a slow start in his first season with the Twins, batting .226/.286/.355 before that ill-placed fastball interrupted his season. However, in three prior seasons with Cincinnati, he turned in a .259/.316/.395 slash in just shy of 1200 plate appearances while doing plenty of damage against left-handed pitching — a glaring weakness so far for the 2023 version of the Twins (in part due to Farmer’s absence). The Twins have posted an awful .203/.280/.369 batting line against left-handed pitching this year, so if Farmer is able to play up to his typical standard (.286/.343/.487 versus lefties), he’ll provide a notable boost in that regard.

If Miranda isn’t able to right the ship in Triple-A, the Twins should soon have options beyond Farmer. Former No. 1 overall pick Royce Lewis is nearing a minor league rehab assignment and, as a shortstop who’s been displaced by Carlos Correa, would make a natural option. He’s on the mend from his second right ACL tear in as many years, so even in the absence of Correa, it was up for debate whether that pair of injuries would allow him to handle shortstop at a high level moving forward.

The 23-year-old Lewis will surely need a rehab stint of some length after a year off the field, but he batted .300/.317/.550 through his first 12 big league games last year. Behind him, the Twins have 2022 first-round pick Brooks Lee rapidly climbing the big league ladder; he’s out to a .290/.350/.458 start in Double-A Wichita.

Rays To Designate Chase Anderson For Assignment

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The Rays will designate right-hander Chase Anderson for assignment in order to clear a roster spot for left-hander Jake Diekman, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). Tampa Bay and Diekman were finalizing a Major League contract yesterday, but the team has not yet formally announced the signing or the corresponding 40-man move.

Tampa Bay acquired the veteran Anderson from the Reds in exchange for cash earlier this month after he exercised an out clause in his minor league deal with Cincinnati. The Reds apparently weren’t keen on adding Anderson to the 40-man roster but found him another opportunity and shipped him to the Rays. Anderson tossed five scoreless frames and notched a three-inning save with the Rays, allowing two hits and a walk while punching out two batters. It was a solid showing, but as is often the case for veterans on minor league deals, it’ll be a relatively short stay on the big league roster nonetheless.

Anderson, 35, has now appeared with six big league clubs over the course of a decade-long MLB career. While he was a solid starter for the D-backs and Brewers from 2014-19 — 3.94 ERA in 857 innings — his results dropped sharply after being traded to the Blue Jays following the 2019 campaign. Anderson was torched for a 7.22 ERA in 10 appearances (seven starts) for the Jays in the shortened 2020 season, and subsequent stops in Philadelphia (6.75 ERA, 48 innings) and Cincinnati (6.38 ERA, 24 innings) over the past two seasons haven’t produced better results.

All told, Anderson has a 4.23 ERA in 967 2/3 big league innings since making his debut back in 2014. However, even including his brief scoreless run with the Rays, he’s sporting a grisly 6.51 ERA dating back to 2019. He has ample rotation experience and is stretched out to throw multiple innings already, so it’s possible another team will come calling, whether via a small trade, waiver claim or a quick signing should the Rays release him. Tampa Bay will have the next week to trade Anderson or place him outright waivers or release waivers.

D-Backs Outright Seth Beer

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Diamondbacks first baseman/DH Seth Beer has been sent outright to Triple-A Reno, according to the transaction log at MLB.com. That indicates he went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment last week.

Beer has played parts of two seasons with the Snakes. The former first round pick was one of four prospects Arizona acquired from the Astros in the 2019 Zack Greinke blockbuster. He’d hit very well in the low minors after an incredible career at Clemson but came with questions about his lack of a defensive home. Beer continued performing at the plate through 2021, eventually reaching the majors towards the tail end of that season.

The left-handed hitter got into five games during his debut. He played a bit more last year, appearing in 38 contests and tallying 126 trips to the plate. He only hit .189/.278/.243 in his first real crack against MLB pitching. Beer spent the bulk of the season with Reno, putting up a solid but unspectacular .242/.361/.435 slash that was below his previous minor league production.

Arizona optioned Beer back to Reno to start the 2023 campaign. He’s been off to a rough start in his third crack at Triple-A, posting a .200/.266/.314 line over 79 plate appearances. Beer has homered just twice while striking out at a personal-worst 29.1% clip. Paired with the concern he could be limited to designated hitter, that slow start pushed Beer off the roster when the D-Backs promoted pitching prospect Brandon Pfaadt last Wednesday.

No other team was willing to devote him an immediate 40-man roster spot in light of his early-season slump. This is the first outright of his career and he doesn’t have three years of major league service. As a result, Beer does not have the ability to test free agency. He’ll remain in the Arizona system and try to hit his way back onto the big league radar.

Braves, Chad Pinder Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Braves are in agreement with free agent utilityman Chad Pinder, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (Twitter link). It’ll be a minor league contract, tweets Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

It’s the third minor league deal of the season for the longtime A’s utilityman. He signed with the Reds over the winter but struggled in Spring Training, hitting just .103/.167/.154. After being informed he wouldn’t make the Opening Day roster, he opted out and quickly signed with the Nationals. Pinder spent a little over a month in the Washington system playing for Triple-A Rochester. He hit .218/.308/.309 over 62 plate appearances before being released last week.

While it hasn’t been the best start to the year, Pinder brings plenty of upper level experience. He played for Oakland between 2016-22, compiling a .242/.294/.417 line over 553 games. He’s struggled to reach base — particularly against right-handed pitching — but offers some power when holding the platoon advantage. Pinder is a career .264/.322/.456 hitter against lefties.

On the other side of the ball, the 31-year-old is capable of covering virtually anywhere on the diamond. Pinder has over 250 innings of big league experience at each of second base, third base and shortstop and in both corner outfield positions. The majority of his time has been spent at the keystone and in the outfield corners. He’ll add a versatile right-handed bat to the upper minors.

Angels Designate César Valdez, Select Chris Okey

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The Angels announced a series of roster moves, recalling right-hander Jimmy Herget and selecting catcher Chris Okey. In corresponding moves, righty César Valdez was designated for assignment while catcher Chad Wallach was placed on the 7-day concussion injured list . Sam Blum of The Athletic reported on the moves prior to the official announcement (Twitter links).

Valdez, 38, was just selected to the club’s roster yesterday. At that time, it seemed like he was there in case the club needed someone to eat multiple innings of long relief. José Suarez only last 2 2/3 innings on Sunday and Chase Silseth had to throw 3 1/3 innings of relief to get the club through that game. With Suarez then placed on the IL and Silseth seemingly ticketed to replace him in the rotation, the bullpen was a bit vulnerable going into Monday’s night game. But Patrick Sandoval was able to toss 6 1/3 frames last night and the Halos finished out the contest using only two relievers, Matt Moore and Carlos Estévez.

With the bullpen a bit more refreshed and an off-day coming up on Thursday, it seems they decided they could get by without Valdez and have designated him for assignment just about 24 hours after he was added to the roster. The veteran has been in and out of the majors over the years, having recently leaned hard into being a changeup specialist. He’s thrown the pitch 76.7% of the time over his 49 appearances dating back to the start of the 2020 season, posting a 4.84 ERA in that stretch.

The Halos will now have a week to trade Valdez or pass him through waivers. In the event that he clears, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency by virtue of having a previous career outright.

As for Herget, he will get a chance to get his season back on track after a rough start. He registered a 6.23 ERA through his first eight appearances and got optioned down to Triple-A Salt Lake. That was a disappointing dip from the encouraging breakout he had last year when he had a 2.48 ERA, eventually earning nine saves and six holds. Since being optioned, he has a 5.40 ERA in five appearances despite strong strikeout and ground ball rates of 28% and 50%, respectively. A .462 batting average on balls in play and 83.3% strand rate likely inflated his ERA but his 16% walk rate surely played a part as well.

Turning to the backstops, the Halos have been doing a bit of scrambling behind the plate this year. Max Stassi has been on the injured list all year with a hip injury and personal issue while Logan O’Hoppe had his hot start ended by a torn labrum that’s going to cost him four to six months. Chad Wallach was added to the roster over two weeks ago to join Matt Thaiss as the club’s catching tandem but will now join Stassi and O’Hoppe on the injured list.

All of that has created an opening for Okey, who made his major league debut with the Reds last year, though he got just 13 plate appearances in seven games. He was outrighted off the club’s roster in July and reached free agency at season’s end, signing a minor league deal with the Angels. He’s made 45 trips to the plate for the Bees so far this year but has hit just .125/.205/.225 in that time. His overall Triple-A batting line is a bit better, coming in at .208/.283/.333 in 401 plate appearances dating back to 2019.

In one other note relating to the Angels, Suarez won’t require but will be shut down from throwing for four weeks, per Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com. He’ll have to ramp back up at that point, meaning he likely won’t be available for a couple of months. He seems likely to be replaced by Silseth, who will join Sandoval, Shohei Ohtani, Tyler Anderson, Reid Detmers and Griffin Canning in the club’s six-man rotation.

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