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A’s Outright Zach Neal

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The Athletics assigned right-hander Zach Neal outright to Triple-A Las Vegas after he cleared waivers, per the team’s transaction log. Neal, who was designated for assignment on Friday, does have the ability to reject the assignment and opt for free agency if he chooses.

The 34-year-old Neal appeared in a pair of games for the A’s and allowed three runs on four hits and no walks with three strikeouts through 3 1/3 innings. It’s his second stint with the A’s, with whom he also spent the 2016-17 seasons. Since departing the first time around, Neal pitched one big league inning with the Dodgers and spent three years in the rotation for the Seibu Lions of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball.

Through 89 Major League innings, Neal carries a 5.06 ERA with one of the lowest strikeout rates in MLB (11%) but also one of the best walk rates (1.9%). He’s a ground-ball pitcher who’s struggled recently in Triple-A both with the A’s and with the Rockies (in 2022). The Athletics’ rotation and bullpen have been a mess in 2023, with both groups ranking dead-last in the Majors in terms of ERA (7.26 for the starters, 6.49 for the relievers).

Oakland also currently has eight pitchers on the injured list: Paul Blackburn, Mason Miller, Drew Rucinski, Freddy Tarnok, Zach Jackson, Dany Jimenez, Trevor May and Kirby Snead. Given that huge slate of injuries and, more generally, the complete lack of definition on the pitching staff, Neal could work his way back to the big league roster if he pitches even decently in the upper minors.

Rangers Release Jacob Barnes

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The Rangers have released veteran right-handed reliever Jacob Barnes, per the league transaction log at MiLB.com. He’d been pitching with their Triple-A affiliate in Round Rock but will now be free to sign with any club.

Barnes, 33, posted good results with the Rangers organization, logging 20 1/3 innings of 2.21 ERA ball during his time with their Round Rock club. He turned in a strong 52.3% ground-ball rate and 0.44 HR/9 mark, although his 17.5% strikeout rate and 10.3% walk rate were both more concerning.

A former 14th-round pick (2011), Barnes debuted with the Brewers in 2016 and was a mainstay in their bullpen for three seasons, compiling 147 1/3 innings of 3.54 ERA ball with a quality 24.4% strikeout rate against an elevated 9.9% walk rate. His results fell off in 2019, however, and he’s bounced around six big league rosters since leaving Milwaukee (Royals, Angels, Mets, Blue Jays, Tigers, Yankees). Dating back to 2019, Barnes has a 6.37 ERA in 101 2/3 frames, thanks largely to a hefty 1.59 HR/9 mark.

While Barnes has struggled with the long ball, he was averaging 95.4 mph on his heater last year, generally keeps the ball on the ground at an above-average rate (career 49%) and has frequently shown the ability to generate strikeouts at average or better rates. Barnes’ career 23.3% strikeout rate is a bit higher than the 2023 league average (22.7%), and his career 13.1% swinging-strike rate is two percentage points above the 11.1% league-average mark. In three separate seasons, he’s run that swinging-strike rate just shy of or even in excess of 15%, suggesting the potential for a well above-average strikeout rate.

It’s been a few years since Barnes has had big league success, but this year’s 2.21 ERA in Triple-A would be his highest of the past three seasons at that level. Between that run of upper-minors success, the league-wide need for bullpen depth and Barnes’ combination of velocity, whiffs and grounders, he ought to find another opportunity in his return to the open market.

Dodgers To Select Bobby Miller

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The Dodgers are poised to promote one of their top prospects for his major league debut, as Russell Dorsey of Stadium and Bally Sports reports that the club is selecting the contract of right-hander Bobby Miller. The club will need to clear room for Miller on both the 40-man and active rosters ahead of Tuesday night’s game against the Braves, when Miller is poised to make his major league debut.

The 24-year-old Miller was the 29th overall pick in the 2020 draft, selected by the Dodgers in the first round out of the University of Louisville. In his first season of minor league action in 2021, Miller immediately impressed with a 2.40 ERA in 56 1/3 innings split between High-A and Double-A that included a dazzling 47 inning performance at the High-A level. During his time in High-A, Miller posted a microscopic 1.91 ERA with a 29.8% strikeout rate and a walk rate of just 5.9%.

That performance saw Miller become a consensus top 100 prospect headed into the 2022 season, where Miller saw mixed results in 112 1/3 innings split between Double-A and Triple-A. In 91 innings at the Double-A level last season, Miller posted a fantastic 30.5% strikeout rate and a solid 8.1% walk rate, though he struggled in terms of top-line results with a 4.45 ERA during that time. Upon his promotion to Triple-A, Miller largely improved as his strikeout rate ticked up to 32.9% and his walk rate fell to 7.1%, resulting in a 3.38 ERA in 21 1/3 innings. That being said, Miller allowed a whopping four home runs in that short time frame as a whopping 26.7% of his fly balls left the yard.

Miller’s uneven 2022 season did little to impact his prospect rankings, however, as he entered the 2023 as a consensus top 30 prospect in the sport. While his 2023 season has been off to a rocky start so far, with a 5.65 ERA and a strikeout rate of just 19.7% in 14 1/3 innings so far this season, the young right-hander is an incredibly talented prospect who has flashed a triple-digit fastball, making it easy to see why the Dodgers would be interested in getting their young hurler a look in the big leagues. It isn’t clear whether Miller’s first trip to the majors is expected to last beyond Tuesday night’s start, though with Walker Buehler, Julio Urias, Dustin May, Michael Grove, and Ryan Pepiot all on the injured list, it stands to reason that this won’t be Miller’s only opportunity to impact the big league club this season.

Rockies Sign Luis Cessa To Minor League Contract

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The Rockies have signed right-hander Luis Cessa to a minor league deal, MLB.com’s Thomas Harding reports (Twitter link).  It was only a brief stay in free agency for Cessa, who was released by the Reds earlier this week.

Working as a swingman for the Reds in 2022, Cessa was essentially a full-time starter this year (starting six of seven games) but the results just weren’t there.  The righty posted a 9.00 ERA over 26 innings with more walks (12) than strikeouts (11), and while a .410 BABIP represents some bad luck, Cessa’s Statcast metrics are pretty grim across the board.

Never a big strikeout pitcher, Cessa has generally had better success as a reliever than as a starter, with a 3.81 career ERA coming out of the bullpen compared to a 5.44 ERA starting games.  However, it would seem like the Rockies will give Cessa at least an initial look as a starter given the team’s huge needs in the rotation.  Colorado’s starting five was already a question mark heading into the season, but its depth has been further reduced by multiple injuries, most notably German Marquez’s Tommy John surgery.

The Rockies’ makeshift rotation now consists of Kyle Freeland, Austin Gomber, Connor Seabold, Chase Anderson (just recently acquired on a waiver claim from the Rays), and rookie Karl Kauffmann, who has one MLB start under his belt.  While Cessa’s 2023 numbers don’t look like an upgrade on paper, the Rox might at least prefer having a more experienced arm eat some innings until they start to get some pitchers back from the injured list.

The minor league deal carries basically no risk for the Rockies, since Cincinnati is still covering the bulk of Cessa’s remaining salary (roughly $1.87MM of his initial $2.65MM).  If Cessa is called up, the Rox will owe him only the prorated portion of the MLB minimum salary.

Twins Sign Austin Brice To Minor League Deal

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The Twins picked up some pitching depth in the upper minors yesterday, as the club signed right-hander Austin Brice to a minor league deal, according to MLB.com’s transaction tracker, which also notes that Brice has been assigned to Triple-A St. Paul.

Brice, 31 in June, made his major league debut in 2016 as a member of the Marlins. He ultimately would pitch just 14 innings with the club before being sent to Cincinnati as part of the deal that sent Luis Castillo to Cincinnati. He would pitch out of the Reds’ bullpen for the next two season, posting a 5.40 ERA in 70 innings of work before a series of waiver claims throughout the 2018-19 offseason took him back to Miami, where he posted his best season to date with a 3.43 ERA in 44 2/3 innings of work.

Since then, Brice was traded to the Red Sox, with whom he struggled to a 6.21 ERA across parts of two seasons, and signed a minor league deal with the Pirates ahead of the 2022 season, though he made just four appearances with the club. Overall, Brice has a 5.12 ERA in 168 2/3 innings of work throughout his career with a 21.8% strikeout rate and a 9% walk rate. Home runs have primarily been Brice’s issue during his time in the majors, as the journeyman reliever has allowed a concerning 17.6% of all career fly balls to leave the yard.

Those issues with the long ball led him to settle for a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks this offseason, though his brief tenure as a member of the organization saw him allow twelve runs (eight earned) over just three innings of work. Now, Brice has caught on with the Twins, with whom he’ll act as pitching depth in the upper levels of the minor leagues alongside the likes of Patrick Murphy and Oliver Ortega.

Angels Select Reyes Moronta, Jacob Webb

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The Angels announced a flurry of roster moves a the club selected the contracts of right-handers Reyes Moronta and Jacob Webb. The club also announced that left-hander Aaron Loup had been activated from the 15-day injured list, while righties Andrew Wantz, Jimmy Herget, and Zack Weiss were each optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake. Moronta and Webb will take the 40-man roster spots vacated by Brett Phillips and Ryan Tepera, both of whom were designated for assignment by the club earlier this week.

Moronta, 30, made his big league debut for the Giants in 2017. He would remain a part of the club’s bullpen mix until 2021, when the club outrighted the righty off the roster, leading him to declare free agency. During his time with the Giants, Moronta excelled on the mound, with a 2.65 ERA that was 52% better than league average by ERA+ and 3.44 FIP in 132 1/3 innings of work. Despite the excellent results leading him to be seen a quality late-inning option, the Giants elected to part ways with the right-hander after shoulder surgery, which cost Moronta his entire 2020 season, proved to have sapped his velocity. While he averaged 97.2 mph on his four-seamer in 2019, the pitch’s velocity had dropped more than three ticks to just 93.9 mph when Moronta returned to the mound in 2021.

Following his departure from San Francisco, Reyes spent 2022 as a member of the Dodgers and Diamondbacks organizations, with a 4.30 ERA and 4.41 FIP in 37 2/3 innings of work. Despite the downturn in performance, he secured a minor league deal with the Rangers during the offseason, though the club released him once it was clear he would not make the roster out of camp. That led him to sign a minor league deal with the Angels earlier this month. Now, Moronta join the Halos’ bullpen just ten days after signing with the organization.

Webb, meanwhile, posted a 2.47 ERA over 76 2/3 innings of work as a member of the Braves from 2019-2021, though a 3.99 FIP indicates there was some good luck baked into those excellent top line results. Webb did not appear in the majors last season, posting a 6.06 ERA in 35 2/3 innings during an injury-plagued 2022 campaign. Webb elected free agency during the offseason, eventually signing with the Angels on a minor league deal. While Webb has struggled to a 6.75 ERA in 17 1/3 innings of work so far for Salt Lake this season, the Angels will hope he can get things back on track in the major league bullpen going forward.

The pair of right-handers are joined in the Angels bullpen by Loup, who is returning from the injured list after suffering a hamstring injury earlier this season. Loup signed a two-year, $17MM deal with the Angels ahead of the 2022 season, and delivered a 3.84 ERA with a 3.76 FIP in 58 2/3 innings of work last season. Now in his age-35 season, Loup struggled in nine innings of work this year prior to his injury, posting a 7.00 ERA on nine hits and seven walks (two of which were intentional) against just eight strikeouts. Of course, the veteran lefty came into the 2023 campaign with a career ERA of just 3.15 over his eleven previous seasons in the majors, leaving the Angels with reason for optimism he can turn things around and join Carlos Estevez and Matt Moore as a late-inning option going forward.

The 27-year-old Wantz has performed the best this season of the three righties ticketed for Triple-A, with a 3.32 ERA in 21 2/3 innings so far this season. Herget, 29, has struggled to a 4.38 ERA in 12 1/3 innings so far this season after posting a sterling 2.48 ERA in 69 innings of work for the Angels last season. Weiss, meanwhile, made just two appearances for the Angels prior to his demotion, with three hits, a home run, and a walk against two strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings of work. All three figure to be depth options for the Angels’ bullpen going forward.

Red Sox Release Ryan Brasier

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The Red Sox have released right-hander Ryan Brasier, per a team announcement. Brasier was designated for assignment by Boston last week after a brutal start to the 2023 season that saw him post a 7.29 ERA in 21 inning of work.

Aside from a nine inning cup of coffee with the Angels as a 25-year-old in 2013, Brasier has spent his entire big league career in the Red Sox bullpen. Prior to joining the Red Sox, Brasier pitched in Japan during the 2017 season, posting a strong 2.34 ERA in 50 innings of work for the Hiroshima Carp.

He was among the club’s best relievers in 2018, with a 1.60 ERA in 33 2/3 innings during the club’s World Series season, with a 1.35 ERA in an additional 6 2/3 frames during the postseason. Brasier struggled to a 4.85 ERA in a larger role during the 2019 campaign, but bounced back over the next two seasons with a solid 3.16 ERA in 37 innings of work.

Since the start of the 2022 season, however, Braier has seen his production take a noticeable downturn. He’s allowed a 6.16 ERA in 83 1/3 innings over that time, and while a 3.81 FIP indicates he may have pitched better than those top-line results, an 8.1% barrel rate and a 44.6% hard hit rate are both considerably above where they were when the 35-year-old Brasier was at his peak performance.

Despite his difficulties since the end of the 2021 campaign, Brasier seems likely to garner interests from clubs looking for bullpen depth. Brasier, who is still owed his $2MM salary for the 2023 season, can be signed in free agency by any club for only a pro-rated portion of the league minimum salary, and his previous dominance surely makes him of interest to clubs as a low-risk depth option.

Rockies Select Matt Carasiti, DFA Fernando Abad

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The Rockies announced a pair of roster moves Sunday morning, as the club selected the contract of right-hander Matt Carasiti. To clear room for Carasiti on the active and 40-man roters, the club also announced they have designated left-hander Fernando Abad for assignment.

A sixth-round pick by the Rockies in the 2012 draft, Carasiti made his debut for the club in 2016, though he struggled to a 9.19 ERA in 15 2/3 innings of work that was 46% worse than league average by measure of ERA+. Carasiti wouldn’t return to the majors until three years later, when he appeared in 11 games for the Mariners, posting a 4.66 ERA in 9 2/3 innings of work. In five seasons at the Triple-A level, Carasiti owns a 4.06 ERA in 139 2/3 innings with a 25.6% strikeout rate. Carasiti figures to factor into the bullpen for the struggling Rockies pitching staff, which currently has nine of its pitchers on the injured list.

Clearing room for Carasiti on the roster is Abad, a 37-year-old veteran currently in his eleventh season in the majors. From 2010-2017, Abad was a reliable left-handed option for middle relief in the majors, with a 3.65 ERA and 4.22 FIP in 317 2/3 innings of work over that eight year period. Since then, however, Carasiti has managed just 33 1/3 innings in the big leagues across parts of three seasons, with a 5.40 ERA and 5.09 FIP. That includes his difficult stay in Colorado this season, where he allowed three runs on two homers in just 2 2/3 innings of work. Assuming he goes unclaimed on waivers, Abad figures to return to free agency, where he will look to latch on with another club on what would almost certainly be a minor league deal.

Orioles Activate Mychal Givens

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The Orioles announced a pair of roster moves this morning, as the club activated right-hander Mychal Givens from the injured list and optioned left-hander Cole Irvin to Triple-A.

Givens is poised to make his 2023 regular season debut, as the righty opened the season on the injured list due to knee inflammation. It will be a homecoming for the 33-year-old veteran, who was drafted by Baltimore in the second round of the 2009 draft and spent the first five and a half seasons of his career with the Orioles, racking up 31 saves to go with a 3.32 ERA in 336 innings for the club before he was traded to the Rockies part way through the 2020 campaign.

Since departing the Orioles, Givens has pitched for the Cubs, Reds, and Mets in addition to the Rockies. With a 3.62 ERA and 4.62 FIP over 121 2/3 innings during his two and a half seasons in the National League, Givens inked a one-year, $5MM pact with his original team and returned to Baltimore. Now that he’s healthy, Givens figures to join the likes of Felix Bautista, Bryan Baker, and Danny Coulombe as a late-inning arm in the Orioles bullpen.

As for Irvin, the lefty threw just seven pitches since being recalled from Triple-A last week, allowing one hit and no walks without recording a strikeout in the one out appearance. Irvin had been a member of the rotation in Baltimore to open the 2023 campaign, but pitched to a worrisome 10.66 ERA in three starts that led the Orioles to pull the plug and send him to Norfolk after just two weeks. He figures to continue to act as pitching depth for the Orioles for the foreseeable future.

Yankees Activate Luis Severino

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The Yankees have activated right-hander Luis Severino from the 15-day IL, the team announced. The move corresponds with last night’s announcement that right-hander Jhony Brito had been optioned to Triple-A. Severino is set to start against the Reds this morning.

The 29-year-old Severino has immense talent, as shown by a 3.18 ERA, a 3.01 FIP, and 11 fWAR accumulated between 2018 and 2019. Unfortunately, Severino has struggled with his health since the end of the 2019 season, having thrown just 120 innings since then. 102 of those innings came last season, his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. While Severino was effective in his return from surgery, with a 3.18 ERA and 3.70 FIP, he continued to battle injuries last season as a lat strain caused him to miss two months of the 2022 campaign. While Severino appeared to be healthy headed into the spring, the right-hander suffered another lat strain just before Opening Day, leaving him to make his 2023 regular season debut nearly two months into the season.

Severino’s return is a breath of fresh air for a Yankees rotation that has struggled to find production outside of ace Gerrit Cole. Both Carlos Rodon and Frankie Montas have yet to throw a pitch for the Yankees this year, while Nestor Cortes has joined youngsters Clarke Schmidt and Brito in struggling to ERAs over 5.00 so far this season. Right-hander Domingo German has been solid, with a 3.75 ERA over nine starts, but was recently suspended for violating the league’s foreign substance policy.

Additionally, Severino’s contract expires at the end of this season, making his 2023 performance the platform on which he’ll build his case to potential suitors in free agency after the season ends. The 2023 free agent class, headlined by two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani, figures to be fairly deep in terms of pitching, with the likes of Sonny Gray, Julio Urias, Lucas Giolito, and Aaron Nola among those expected to hit the market following the current campaign.

With Severino back in action, Brito will head to Triple-A with a 5.58 ERA and 5.56 FIP in 40 1/3 innings of work so far in 2023. Brito mostly struggled in his time with the major league club, striking out just 16.9% of batters while walking 10.1%. The walk rate is of particular concern, given Brito’s ability to avoid the free pass in the minor leagues, with a 7.7% rate in 112 2/3 innings split between Double-A and Triple-A last year standing as his highest mark in a season coming into 2023. Even in spite of his struggles, Brito figures to continue to provide depth to the Yankees rotation when necessary throughout the season.

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