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Giants Place Brandon Crawford, Mike Yastrzemski On IL

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4:50pm: Crawford provided a few more details to members of the media, including Slusser (Twitter links). He said his own MRI showed his strain to be worse than he thought but he still expects to return after a minimum stint on the IL. He also says that Yastrzemski’s strain is of the Grade 1 variety, or the least severe.

4:30pm: The Giants announced a few roster moves prior to tonight’s game, with Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle among those to relay them on Twitter. Outfielder Cal Stevenson and infielder Brett Wisely were recalled from Triple-A to take the spots of shortstop Brandon Crawford and outfielder Mike Yastrzemski, who have both been placed on the 10-day injured list. Crawford’s move, which is retroactive to April 30, is due to a right calf strain whereas Yastrzemski is dealing with a left hamstring strain.

The club hasn’t provided timelines for either player, but these moves will mean the Giants will play at least the next little while without two of their lineup regulars. Crawford, 36, has been the club’s shortstop for over a decade now, having taking over the job back in 2011. He’s long been considered a strong defender and has had seasons where he’s been an above-average performer on both sides of the ball. The most recent of those was 2021, where he hit .298/.373/.522 for a wRC+ of 138. Towards the end of that season, with Crawford headed for the open market, he and the club agreed on a two-year, $32MM extension to keep him around.

Though the Giants eventually won 107 games that year, things haven’t gone as well since, both for the club or for Crawford personally. He hit .231/.308/.344 last year for a wRC+ of 87 while making multiple trips to the injured list, with the Giants eventually finishing 81-81. This year, he’s hitting just .169/.244/.352 for a wRC+ of 63 as the club is out to a rough 11-16 start in the early going. He experienced some calf tightness on Saturday and didn’t play in yesterday’s game.

As for Yastrzemski, he departed yesterday’s game with the hamstring strain and was reported to be undergoing an MRI, so it’s not surprising to see he’ll be taking a bit of a breather here. He had a bit of a down year at the plate in 2022, hitting .214/.305/.392 for a wRC+ of 99, but he he’d been off to a great start here in 2023. His current batting line is .292/.333/.521, which translated to a wRC+ of 131. That strong stretch of play will now but put on hold for an undetermined amount of time.

Taking their place will be Wisely and Stevenson. The former has been up and down for the Giants a few times already this season, but Stevenson will be making his debut with the club whenever he gets into a game. He was acquired from the Athletics a couple of weeks ago but has been kept in Triple-A since then. He made his major league debut with the A’s last year but hit just .167/.261/.217 in 23 games. He has a much nicer batting line of .288/.392/.415 in Triple-A dating back to the start of 2022.

With Crawford sitting out yesterday’s game, the club used Thairo Estrada at short and will likely keep him there for the time being. He’s off to a torrid start this year, hitting .346/.393/.529 while playing a lot of second base. His move should leave the keystone open for someone like David Villar, though he’s sitting on a line of .156/.258/.351 at the moment. A .174 batting average on balls in play suggests positive regression is forthcoming, but they could look to other options. There’s also Wilmer Flores, who has been primarily at the corners this year but has plenty of second base experience in previous seasons. Wisely is primarily an infielder and could be in the mix to help out there, but he also might be needed in center field, helping to cover for Yastrzemski alongside Austin Slater.

Mets Select Zach Muckenhirn

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3:35pm: Between games of today’s doubleheader, the Mets have now announced they’ve selected Muckenhirn to the roster. In a corresponding move, right-hander Stephen Ridings was transferred to the 60-day injured list. He’s been on the IL all year due to a lat strain and now won’t be eligible to return until late May at the earliest. The 60-day count goes from his initial IL placement, not today’s transfer. Additionally, righty Denyi Reyes was optioned between games of the twin bill while José Butto was recalled.

11:28am: The Mets are set to select the contract of left-handed reliever Zach Muckenhirn in advance of today’s doubleheader against the Braves, reports Abbey Mastracco of the New York Daily News (Twitter link). He’s not yet on the 40-man roster. The team has not formally announced the move, so it’s not yet clear whether Muckenhirn will be up for both games of the doubleheader or just the nightcap.

Muckenhirn, 28, inked a minor league deal with the Mets over the winter and has had a strong start in Triple-A Syracuse, where he’s held opponents to one run on 10 hits and four walks in 11 2/3 frames. The former 11th-round pick (2016, Orioles) also boasts a strong 51.3% ground-ball rate, but he’s punched out just four of his 47 opponents on the year so far (8.5%).

With Brooks Raley landing on the injured list due to elbow inflammation over the weekend and David Peterson being optioned to Syracuse as well, the Mets’ only lefty on the big league roster had been Joey Lucchesi, who’s currently working out of the rotation, Muckenhirn will give manager Buck Showalter an option in the bullpen for today’s twin bill and perhaps for the foreseeable future, depending on today’s bullpen usage.

Muckenhirn has spent the majority of his career in the Orioles organization, but he was with the White Sox organization in each of the past two seasons, generally pitching well with their Double-A and Triple-A clubs. In parts of three seasons at the Triple-A level, Muckenhirn has a 3.45 ERA with a 22.2% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and a 44% ground-ball rate.

Dodgers Designate Austin Wynns For Assignment

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May 1: The Dodgers have now made this official, with Rojas recalled and Wynns designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

April 30: The Dodgers have designated catcher Austin Wynns for assignment, J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group reports (via Twitter).  Wynns was signed to a Major League contract a little over two weeks ago, as the Dodgers were looking to add some catching depth while Will Smith was on the concussion-related injured list.

With Smith now back in action, the Dodgers were in need of roster space, since Miguel Rojas will probably be activated from the 10-day injured list on Monday and prospect Gavin Stone is being called up (and added to the 40-man roster) in advance of a scheduled start on Wednesday.  That makes Wynns the odd man out, as Los Angeles will return to its usual catching tandem of Smith and Austin Barnes now that Smith has been fully cleared for catching duty.  Wynns ended up appearing in five games in his brief time on the Dodgers’ active roster, with a .523 OPS over 12 plate appearances.

The veteran backstop has already appeared for two different teams in under a month of the 2023 season, as Wynns’ minor league contract was selected by the Giants for a single game before he was DFA’ed earlier this month.  Since Wynns has been outrighted off a 40-man roster multiple times in his career, he had the opportunity to elect free agency rather than accept an outright assignment from San Francisco, and he indeed took the option of re-entering the open market.

Assuming Wynns clears waivers, he might again opt for free agency rather than remain in the Dodgers organization, considering that (when healthy) Smith and Barnes are a stable duo behind the plate.  If Wynns did accept an outright assignment, David Freitas and Patrick Mazeika are also on hand as MLB-experienced catching depth options at the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate, and Hunter Feduccia is also seeing action behind the plate. The fact that Los Angeles signed Wynns at the time of Smith’s injury could indicate their preference for a more seasoned catcher over their other Triple-A candidates, or Wynns might prefer to test the market again in search of a less-crowded depth chart.

Wynns has appeared in five MLB seasons, gaining most of his playing time in a part-time capacity with the Orioles in 2018 and 2021, and with the Giants last season.  Wynns has hit only .229/.273/.334 over 522 career plate appearances, but the 32-year-old has a good reputation for his defense and ability to handle pitchers.  With this in mind, it certainly seems possible that Wynns might catch on elsewhere, given how clubs are constantly on the lookout for help behind the plate.

Guardians Designate Meibrys Viloria, Select David Fry

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The Guardians announced that they have selected the contract of catcher/infielder David Fry, while catcher Meibrys Viloria was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Cleveland somewhat surprisingly opened the season with three catchers, with Mike Zunino backed up by Cam Gallagher and Viloria. The 26-year-old Viloria has been the least used of the trio, with no starts and just 21 2/3 total innings spend behind the plate so far this year, compared to 158 for Zunino and 74 for Gallagher. He’s also only received four plate appearances on the season, going 0-3 with a walk.

That wasn’t a terribly effective use of a roster spot and Viloria will now be cut loose. None of those three backstops had the ability to be optioned to the minors, so he had to be designated for assignment. Prior to this season, he had been with the Royals and Rangers and is now at 103 career major league games, hitting .198/.270/.279 in that time. That’s obviously not a great batting line, but Viloria does rank well in Statcast’s new caught stealing above average metric (helpful explainer via Mike Petriello of MLB.com). The Guards will now have a week to trade Viloria or pass him through waivers, though in the event he clears waivers, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment by virtue of having a previous career outright.

In his place, the Guardians are sticking with the three-catcher system in a sense, though Fry is not merely a backstop. The 27-year-old was initially drafted by the Brewers but came to the Guardians in March of 2022 as the player to be named later in the J.C. Mejia trade. Throughout his minor league career, he’s played all around in the infield and outfield, in addition to his time spent behind the plate. This year, he’s actually primarily played third base along with a bit of time at second and first, not having taken up the catcher spot since last year. The club still announced him as a catcher/infielder, which suggests his time as a backstop isn’t totally over, but his defensive versatility should give him more opportunities than Viloria to get into games and help the club.

This is his first time joining a big league club and he’ll be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. With Triple-A Columbus last year, he hit 17 home runs in 119 games and slashed .256/.329/.450 for a wRC+ of 105. Through 25 games this year, he’s hitting .289/.381/.478 and has a 121 wRC+. He figures to slot into the club’s bench as a backup infielder alongside Gabriel Arias, with José Ramírez, Amed Rosario and Andrés Giménez hold three starting spots with Josh Bell and Josh Naylor sharing first base and designated hitter.

Guardians Trade Konnor Pilkington To Diamondbacks

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The Guardians have traded lefty Konnor Pilkington to the D-backs in exchange for cash, per announcements from both teams. Arizona had an open spot on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding 40-man move was not needed. Pilkington has been optioned to Triple-A Reno.

Pilkington, 25, has had a rough start to his season in Triple-A, where he’s been clobbered for 13 runs on 19 hits and 11 walks with 14 strikeouts in 14 innings of work. His 2022 season in Triple-A featured similar struggles, evidenced by a 5.88 ERA in 56 2/3 frames, but despite his unsightly showing in Columbus, Pilkington had a solid MLB debut last year.

In 58 innings for the Guardians, he turned in a 3.88 ERA through 11 starts and four relief appearances. He’s added another two scoreless innings here in 2023. Pilkington’s career 19.5% strikeout rate is about three percentage points below the league average, and his 12.4% walk rate is about four percentage points higher than average. He’s more than held lefties in check in his big league career, yielding just a .238/.333/.286 batting line. Righties have been better but haven’t completely torched him, turning in a .234/.335/.372 output.

Pilkington has a pair of minor league option years remaining — this year included — and has had some success in the big leagues in a rotation role already. He’ll give the D-backs some optionable depth both this year and next, which of extra importance with Zach Davies on the injured list, Madison Bumgarner already having been released (hence the open 40-man spot) and young arms like Ryne Nelson, Drey Jameson and Tommy Henry all struggling to various extents to begin the season.

Tigers Sign Sam Clay To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers have signed left-hander Sam Clay to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had signed a minors deal with the Diamondbacks in the offseason but was released, per the tracker.

Clay, 30 in June, has a bit of major league experience on his ledger to this point in his career. A Twins draftee, he never got the call to the big leagues with them, reaching free agency after 2020. The Nationals then signed him to a major league deal and put him into 58 games in 2021. He didn’t rack up a ton of strikeouts, just 15.9% of batters faced, but he got ground balls at an excellent 60.1% rate. The lefty posted a 5.60 ERA that year but might have deserved better, given his .342 batting average on balls in play and 65.4% strand rate, which were both on the unfortunate side of average. His 4.61 FIP and 4.42 SIERA were each about a full run better than his ERA.

Clay spent most of 2022 in the minors and eventually went to the Phillies and Mets in July with a couple of waiver claims in a span of a week. The Mets would later outright him off the roster in August. Amid all of that bouncing around, he tossed just 5 1/3 innings in the majors with a 8.44 ERA. But in 43 Triple-A innings, he had a much more palatable 3.56 ERA, getting grounders on almost two thirds of balls in play and striking out 24.1% of opponents.

Clay returned to the open market this winter and signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks. He wasn’t terribly effective in four spring outings and was released but will now join the Tigers. Per the transactions tracker, he’s been assigned to the FCL Tigers and will presumably get back into game shape after a layoff of about a month, at which point he’ll likely head to Triple-A Toledo. The Tigers have three lefties in the big league bullpen in Tyler Holton, Tyler Alexander and Chasen Shreve but Alexander currently has a 5.28 ERA on the year and Shreve a 7.84. Clay will give them a non-roster option to potentially turn to in the not-too-distant future.

Twins Option Alex Kirilloff To Triple-A After Injured List Activation

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The Twins activated Alex Kirilloff from the 10-day injured list, but he won’t be joining the big league roster for his 2023 debut.  Instead, Minnesota has optioned Kirilloff to Triple-A, where he will continue to play after already spending over a week in St. Paul as part of a minor league rehab assignment.

There was speculation last weekend that the Twins might take this route with Kirilloff, as the club’s hand was somewhat forced by the fact that Kirilloff was nearing the end of this allotted 20-day rehab period.  Kiriloff has played in 11 games (seven at Triple-A, four in A-ball) during his rehab assignment, and at least performance-wise, he appears to be in good form — the outfielder/first baseman is hitting .316/.447/.658 over 47 total appearances.  However, it was already known that Kirilloff didn’t have anything left to prove in the minors, given the strong numbers he has posted throughout his minor league career and his past status as one of baseball’s top prospects.

Kirilloff made his MLB debut in 2021, but his first two Major League seasons have come to an early end due to wrist surgeries.  Kirilloff’s most recent procedure took place last August, and was described by The Athletic’s Dan Hayes as a “drastic” and “complex” surgery meant to fully correct the lingering wrist issues.  As a result, the Twins took things slowly with Kirilloff in the offseason and throughout Spring Training as he recovered, and Kirilloff ended up not playing in any spring games.

With this in mind, the Twins likely want to see Kirilloff get at least a little closer to a Spring Training-esque workload before he makes his return to the majors.  After a string of injuries earlier in the season, Minnesota is also now getting pretty close to full roster strength on the position player side, so there might be more benefit to Kirilloff getting regular at-bats in St. Paul rather than playing in a part-time basis with the Twins.

Reds Place Fernando Cruz On 15-Day Injured List

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The Reds placed right-hander Fernando Cruz on the 15-day injured list due to a right shoulder strain, with a retroactive placement date of April 29.  Graham Ashcraft was reinstated from the bereavement list and will take Cruz’s spot on the active roster.

Cruz allowed two runs in an inning of work on Friday, which was his first appearance since he tossed 1 2/3 innings (allowing one run) against the Pirates on April 23.  As Cruz told MLB.com and other media, his shoulder began to bother him following the Pittsburgh game, and even after a few days off, the discomfort returned after his outing on Friday.  An IL stint will hopefully correct the issue, as manager David Bell said the team’s training staff believes the strain is minor.

It’s been a tough stretch overall for Cruz, who had a 2.84 ERA through his first 6 1/3 innings of the season but has since allowed at least one run in each of his last five appearances (for a 9.82 ERA over 7 1/3 IP).  While Cruz is missing plenty of bats with his 30.8% strikeout rate, he also has an unimpressive 12.3% walk rate.

The 33-year-old is in his second MLB season, after making his debut with 14 games for Cincinnati in 2022.  Originally a sixth-round pick for the Royals back in the 2007 draft, Cruz’s long journey to the big leagues included a move from infield work to pitching, and stints in the Mexican League and independent ball before he finally broke in with the Reds last year.

Brewers Acquire Trevor Megill

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The Twins have traded right-hander Trevor Megill to Milwaukee, according to a team announcement by the Brewers, who will be sending a player to be named later and cash to Minnesota in exchange for Megill’s services. Megill has been assigned to Triple-A by Milwaukee, and that the club transferred outfielder Garrett Mitchell to the 60-day injured list to make room for Megill on the 40-man roster.

A third round pick by the Cardinals in the 2014 draft, Megill made his MLB debut in 2021 as a member of the Cubs. He struggled badly in 23 2/3 innings, however, posting an 8.37 ERA and 5.61 FIP before being designated for assignment by Chicago at the end of the season. He was claimed off waivers by the Twins and has remained in the organization ever since. In 2022, he posted much better numbers than he had on the north side. His 4.80 ERA in 45 innings of work was still below average by measure of ERA+ (81), but he struck out 25% of batters faced while walking 8.7%, leading to a solid 3.29 FIP.

Megill figures to be bullpen depth for a Brewers club that has gone without Aaron Ashby this season and recently put right-handers Matt Bush and Gus Varland on the 15-day IL. Even in spite of those injuries, however, the Brewers’ bullpen is top 5 in the majors by measure of ERA so far this season, meaning Megill may need to wait until an injury makes a spot available for his first opportunity in Milwaukee.

Mariners Activate Taylor Trammell

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The Mariners announced today that they have activated outfielder Taylor Trammell from the injured list, with right-hander Easton McGee headed for the 15-day IL with a right forearm strain in a corresponding move. Trammell had surgery to repair a fractured hamate bone in his right hand back in February.

A former top prospect, the 25-year old Trammell has struggled to this point in his big league career. During his first stint in the majors in 2021, Trammell slashed just .160/.256/.359 in 178 plate appearances, with a ghastly 42.1% strikeout rate. Both Trammell’s slash line and strikeout rate improved in 2022, however, has he pulled his wRC+ to nearly league average (97) in 117 plate appearances last season while striking out a more palatable 28.2% of the time. Unfortunately, Trammell’s 2022 campaign was cut short by a hamstring strain, leaving him with just 65 games played last year between the majors and Triple-A.

Despite his uneven MLB career to this point, Trammell has continued to demolish Triple-A pitching, with a phenomenal .285/.377/.495 slash line and a 20.6% strikeout rate in 101 games at the level. Now back with the big league club, Trammell figures to factor into the club’s outfield and DH mix, though with Jarred Kelenic off to a torrid start and Julio Rodriguez and Teoscar Hernandez both entrenched in the outfield on an everyday basis, Trammell may be left to compete with Sam Haggerty and AJ Pollock for DH at-bats.

Making room for Trammell on the active roster is McGee, who heads to the injured list with a forearm strain. The 25-year-old McGee made his big league debut with the Rays last season, posting three scoreless innings, but was designated for assignment by the club last offseason. He was then claimed on waivers by the Red Sox before being shipped to Seattle in exchange for Cash ahead of the 2023 campaign. McGee made his first appearance with the Mariners in a start against the Blue Jays yesterday, where he delivered 6 2/3 scoreless innings, allowing just a hit and a walk while striking out two.

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