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Twins Extend Pablo Lopez

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April 21: The Twins formally announced this morning that they’ve signed Lopez to a four-year extension, covering the 2024-27 seasons. FanSided’s Robert Murray reports that the contract breaks down in the form of a $1MM signing bonus, an $8MM salary in 2024 and annual salaries of $21.5MM from 2025-27.

April 17: The Twins are keeping their big offseason trade acquisition for the long haul. Minnesota is reportedly in agreement with right-hander Pablo Lopez on a four-year, $73.5MM contract extension. The deal is pending a physical. Lopez is represented by Excel Sports Management.

Lopez, 27, came to the Twins alongside top shortstop prospect Jose Salas and minor league outfielder Byron Chourio in the January trade that sent infielder Luis Arraez to the Marlins. He’s already locked into a $5.45MM salary for the ongoing 2023 season, which is his second of three scheduled arbitration seasons. The new contract with the Twins will buy out Lopez’s final arbitration season and what would’ve been his first three free-agent seasons; once completed, the Twins will have Lopez signed through his age-31 season.

Assuming Lopez would’ve landed somewhere in the $10MM range for his final arbitration season, the contract effectively buys out his first three free-agent years for a combined $63MM, give or take a bit. The deal values Lopez at somewhere around $20-21MM per free-agent season. That annual range takes him past the AAVs that mid-rotation arms like Taijuan Walker ($18MM) and Jameson Taillon ($17MM) agreed to this past offseason.

From a structural standpoint, there are some similarities to the recent extension between the Giants and their own top starter, Logan Webb. That $90MM deal, a record for the three-plus service class, also bought out three free-agent seasons. However, Webb’s deal bought out two arbitration seasons, and his first arbitration salary ($4.6MM) topped that of Lopez ($2.425MM), which helps to explain the gap between the final guarantees on the two deals.

Lopez could certainly have gone the year-to-year route, reaching free agency in advance of his age-29 season and perhaps setting himself up for a five- or even six-year deal in the process. Of course, that’d have been a gamble to some extent, given the ever-present risk of injury that’s inherent to all pitchers. That’s particularly notable for Lopez, who has thrice been on the injured list due to right shoulder troubles to this point in his career.

Through his first four starts with the Twins, Lopez has looked like a star. After pitching to a 3.75 ERA in a career-high 32 starts and 180 innings in 2022, he’s surged out to a 1.73 ERA through four starts and 26 innings with the Twins. Lopez’s 95.4 mph average fastball is a career-best mark, and his 33.7% strikeout rate trounces the 23.2% mark he posted in parts of five seasons in Miami. He’s managed to up his velocity and strikeout rate without sacrificing his pinpoint command; this year’s 6.1% walk rate tops the 6.7% mark he posted in his Marlins career.

Much of Lopez’s success to date can be attributed to a newly unveiled sweeper that has thus far befuddled opposing batters. Opponents are batting just .111 against the pitch with a massive 50% whiff rate, per Statcast. Between that and the gains on his fastball, Lopez is unsurprisingly boasting career-best marks in swinging-strike rate and opponents’ chase rate. It’s only a sample of four starts, of course, but the results have generally exceeded even the most optimistic expectations for the righty. Time will tell whether he can sustain it all over a larger sample — a .236 BABIP and 89.1% strand rate both seem ripe for regression — but the Twins can only be thrilled with their end of that offseason trade.

With Lopez now locked in through at least the 2027 season, he joins Carlos Correa and Byron Buxton among the focal points of the Twins’ core. The Twins control catcher Christian Vazquez, second baseman Jorge Polanco and righty Chris Paddack through the 2025 season, but Correa, Buxton and now Lopez are the only players on guaranteed deals beyond that ’25 campaign. Of course, the Twins will have plenty of core players in arbitration at that point: closer Jhoan Duran, starter Joe Ryan and corner infielder Jose Miranda among them. Further cost certainty through extensions among that group or touted youngsters like Edouard Julien remain possible.

Looking to strictly the rotation, both Lopez and Ryan are now under club control through the 2027 season — which is slated to be Ryan’s final year of arbitration eligibility. Each of Sonny Gray, Tyler Mahle and Kenta Maeda will be up for free agency at the end of the current season, so it’s understandable that the Twins had extra incentive to lock up their top starter and lock in some additional continuity.

Minnesota also has towering 6’9″ righty Bailey Ober under club control through at least that same 2027 season, and while he opened the season in Triple-A St. Paul, his performance in the big leagues to date suggests he can be a part of that long-term starting staff (3.82 ERA, 24.3% strikeout rate, 5% walk rate in 148 1/3 innings). The aforementioned Paddack is signed through 2025 under the three-year, $12MM deal he signed while rehabbing from 2022 Tommy John surgery. Other in-house rotation options beyond the current campaign who’ve already had some big league seasoning include prospects Louie Varland, Simeon Woods Richardson and Josh Winder, though Winder’s frequent shoulder issues could eventually push him more toward to the bullpen.

Generally speaking, the Twins have shown increased willingness to spend in recent seasons, pushing their payroll up into the $150-160MM range in both 2022 and 2023. Assuming that’ll continue to be the norm in years to come, there’ll be plenty of room to supplement the core down the line. Lopez’s deal will likely land the Twins between $75-80MM in guaranteed money on the 2024 books, followed by something in the vicinity of $90-95MM in 2025 and around $70MM in both 2026-27 (depending on the extension’s exact year-to-year breakdown). The Twins aren’t and never have been at risk of paying the luxury tax, but they’ve also come quite a ways from their days as a perennial bottom-of-the-scale payroll club.

The trade bringing Lopez to Minnesota originally gave the Twins only two years of club control over Lopez, while Miami picked up three years of control over Arraez. The extension with Lopez more than balances out that disparity in club control, and it comes less than two years after the Twins begrudgingly made the decision to trade rotation stalwart Jose Berrios to Toronto after being unable to come to terms on an extension. Hindsight is always 20/20, but the seven-year extension Berrios inked with the Jays hasn’t panned out at all, and the Twins ultimately found their way to a prime-aged starter who was willing to commit to an extension on more favorable terms.

This surely isn’t exactly how they drew it up dating back to that pivotal trade deadline, but the Twins have added some long-term stability both in the lineup and in the rotation and done so without completely clogging the long-term payroll.

Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald first reported the sides were nearing agreement on a four-year, $73.5MM agreement. Dan Hayes of the Athletic reported the sides had agreed to terms.

Diamondbacks Designate Madison Bumgarner For Assignment

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The Diamondbacks have designated left-hander Madison Bumgarner for assignment, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. The D-backs have formally announced the move. Left-hander Anthony Misiewicz has been recalled from Triple-A Reno to take Bumgarner’s spot on the 40-man roster.

The Bumgarner DFA comes on the heels of three-plus sub-par seasons for Bumgarner in Arizona, where he signed a five-year, $85MM contract prior to the 2020 season. The 33-year-old left-hander has been generally durable but ineffective for the Snakes, pitching to a lowly 5.23 ERA in 363 1/3 innings and 69 starts under that contract.

Things have taken a particularly pronounced downswing in 2023, however, as Bumgarner has been torched for 20 runs (19 earned) on 25 hits and 15 walks with just 10 strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings. The D-backs have lost three of Bumgarner’s four starts this season, including a seven-run three-inning clunker against the Cardinals yesterday, wherein Bumgarner got into a verbal altercation with St. Louis catcher Willson Contreras after apparently taking objection to Contreras’ reaction to a swing and reaction on a pitch he fouled straight back. The team’s lone victory of the season with Bumgarner on the mound came when he was pulled after 4 2/3 innings, three runs and six walks.

Bumgarner’s current 89.6 mph fastball average is down more than three miles per hour from its 92.9 peak. His 11.1% strikeout rate and 16.7% walk rate are both career-worsts by wide margins, and he’s seen his ability to induce swinging strikes (just  6.3%) and chases off the plate (21.1%) evaporate in this season’s four starts.

In seasons past, the Diamondbacks could perhaps sell themselves on occasional glimmers of hope and at least accept that if nothing else, Bumgarner was a durable innings eater who could somewhat narrowly keep his ERA south of 5.00. The Diamondbacks didn’t enter 2021 or 2022 as hopeful contenders anyhow, after all, and Bumgarner gave them a bridge to some of their starting pitching prospects while those promising young arms continued to develop in the upper minors.

That’s no longer the case in 2023, as MLBTR’s Anthony Franco outlined earlier this week in a piece for MLBTR Front Office subscribers, arguing within that the D-backs needed to move on as soon as possible. The D-backs entered the ’23 campaign with an emerging, exciting young core headlined by outfielder Corbin Carroll, and they have one of MLB’s top farm systems to further bolster that group in the near future. Zac Gallen and Merrill Kelly are strong rotation arms, and with a talented collection of youth complementing them (e.g. Ryne Nelson, Drey Jameson and, sooner than later, Brandon Pfaadt), the starting pitching outlook is bright.

Arizona is out to an 11-8 start, and while the season is still quite young, expectations have shifted. Bumgarner simply hasn’t been a competitive pitcher for them in any capacity this season, and his body of work in three seasons prior gives little reason to hope for a turnaround. With the division looking more vulnerable than it has in years and the D-backs potentially on the rise, it’s just not feasible to continue on with what increasingly looks like a sunk cost.

Exactly how the rotation shakes out from this point forward remains to be seen. Piecoro tweets that 25-year-old left-hander Tommy Henry is expected to start in Bumgarner’s place next time around, though one would imagine that Pfaadt — one of the sport’s top pitching prospects — will get a look in the near future after opening the season in Triple-A. Veteran Zach Davies is also a factor, though he’s currently out with a strained oblique and figures to be sidelined into next month.

What’s clear is that Bumgarner’s time with the D-backs is virtually over. Given the left-hander’s woeful performance not only in 2023 but throughout his D-backs tenure as a whole, there’s no chance another team will roll the dice on the remaining $34.3MM on his contract. Bumgarner is being paid $23MM in 2023 and is still owed a $14MM salary for the 2024 campaign.

The Diamondbacks could technically place him on outright waivers, but he has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment while retaining his salary, and no team would claim the contract anyhow. As such, he’ll likely be placed on release waivers in the coming days and, upon clearing, become a free agent who’s eligible to sign with any other club. Any team that signs Bumgarner would only need to pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster. That sum would be subtracted from what the D-backs owe the lefty, but Arizona is effectively committing to eating close to $34MM in dead money by parting ways with Bumgarner at this juncture of his contract.

Padres Reinstate Fernando Tatis Jr.

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Fernando Tatis Jr. is back in the majors. The Padres officially reinstated him from the restricted list following the completion of his performance-enhancing drug suspension on Thursday evening. San Diego optioned infielder/outfeilder Brandon Dixon to Triple-A El Paso to open room on the big league roster. The Friars transferred reliever Robert Suarez from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list.

Tatis steps into the leadoff spot tonight against Arizona right-hander Ryne Nelson. He’ll play right field in his first MLB contest since October 3, 2021. Tatis is expected to play right field on a near everyday basis in 2023. He lost his former shortstop position when San Diego inked Xander Bogaerts to a $280MM free agent contract over the winter. With Ha-Seong Kim, Jake Cronenworth and Manny Machado rounding out the infield, Tatis gets kicked onto the grass.

While there’ll certainly be some intrigue about how he acclimates to a position at which he has just 151 1/3 innings of MLB experience, the primary question will be how quickly he finds his stride offensively. Tatis was one of the game’s best hitters over his first three seasons, combining to hit .282/.364/.611 between 2019-21. By measure of wRC+, that was the ninth-best offensive output among batters with at least 500 plate appearances.

Whether the 24-year-old can recapture that kind of production remains to be seen. Since his last MLB game, he’s undergone three surgeries — two on the left wrist he fractured in a motorcycle accident, one on his left shoulder that had ailed him back to 2021. He also tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug Clostebol and was handed an 80-game suspension at the start of last August. That carried into this season, with Tatis sitting out the Friars’ first 20 games. San Diego has opened with a middling 9-11 start, allowing ten more runs than they’ve scored.

Tatis was permitted to play in Spring Training. He got into 16 exhibition games, hitting .273/.340/.432. Shortly after the regular season opened, Tatis went on a rehab stint with El Paso. He was the best hitter in the Pacific Coast League for a week. Tatis blasted seven home runs, walked six times and struck out on just three occasions in eight games. He hit .515/.590/1.212 in 39 trips to the plate for the Chihuahuas before reporting to the Padres a few days ago.

Players on the restricted list don’t count against the 40-man roster. To clear a spot, San Diego transferred Suarez to the 60-day IL. That backdates to his Opening Day placement on the injured list but still officially rules him out until the final week in May.

Suarez opened the season on the IL with inflammation in his throwing elbow. He was shut down from throwing at the start of this month after feeling continued discomfort and is without a clear recovery timetable. It’s an inauspicious start to the five-year, $46MM contract he inked at the start of last offseason. The hard-throwing Suarez provided the Padres 47 2/3 innings of 2.27 ERA ball during his initial MLB campaign last year, emerging as one of their highest-leverage relievers by the playoffs.

Jose Iglesias Opts Out Of Deal With Marlins

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Shortstop José Iglesias has triggered an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Marlins, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter link). Feinsand adds that Iglesias is returning to free agency, indicating Miami has chosen not to override the opt-out by adding him to the big league roster.

The veteran infielder lingered on the open market for the bulk of the offseason. He caught on with the Fish on a minor league pact during the second week of March. Iglesias collected three hits in 15 at-bats over seven exhibition games. He had a chance to retest free agency a couple weeks later after the Marlins informed him he wouldn’t make the Opening Day roster.

Iglesias passed on the first opt-out and agreed to stick in the organization. He never appeared for Triple-A Jacksonville, though, and he’ll now return to the open market in search of a new opportunity. Iglesias is only a season removed from being a regular shortstop in the major leagues. He played in 118 games and tallied 467 trips to the plate for the Rockies last year, hitting .292/.328/.380 with a meager 12% strikeout rate.

The 33-year-old still brandishes excellent bat-to-ball skills. He’s never been one to take many walks or hit for home run power. Iglesias’ best seasons were built around high batting averages and strong marks for his shortstop defense. Public metrics have soured on his glove since he’s gotten into his 30s. Statcast has pegged him as a league average defender in each of the past two seasons. Defensive Runs Saved, meanwhile, has graded him a staggering 26 runs worse than average at the position since the start of the 2021 campaign.

A team that feels Iglesias is still a viable shortstop defender could have interest in his services. The Dodgers recently lost Miguel Rojas to the injured list and have considered using Mookie Betts at shortstop for the first time in his MLB career. They’d make sense as a speculative fit for Iglesias, who has over 8000 big league innings. Teams like the Reds and A’s have gotten very little out of the position through the season’s first couple weeks.

That’s also true of the Marlins. Miami’s shortstops own a meager .226/.269/.290 line over 67 plate appearances. General manager Kim Ng and her staff nevertheless prefer to stick with their MLB options rather than turning to Iglesias. The Fish have given the bulk of the work there to Jon Berti, with Joey Wendle and Garrett Hampson picking up a few at-bats.

Cubs Place Jameson Taillon On IL With Groin Strain

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The Cubs announced to reporters, including Jordan Bastian of MLB.com, that right-hander Jameson Taillon has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a “mild to moderate” left groin strain. Taillon had been the scheduled starter for tonight’s game against the Dodgers but righty Javier Assad has been recalled and will take the ball instead.

Taillon, 31, joined the Cubs over the offseason on a four-year, $68MM deal. That came on the heels of a strong two-year run with the Yankees, where he made 61 starts over 2021 and 2022, tossing 321 2/3 innings. He posted a 4.08 ERA in that time along with a 21.9% strikeout rate, 5.7% walk rate and 37.1% ground ball rate. That solid stretch did much to undo an injury-prone label that previously surrounded Taillon. He underwent Tommy John surgery as a prospect in 2014 and underwent the procedure a second time in 2019. But in both instances, he returned and posted good results, leading to his current career ERA of 3.85 over 801 2/3 innings.

This groin strain has popped up seemingly out of nowhere as Taillon, as mentioned up top, was scheduled to start tonight’s game until this news broke. Just this past weekend, he tossed five scoreless innings against the same Dodgers club he was set to face tonight. It’s unclear if he felt the injury that night or perhaps during a bullpen session in between then and now.

Regardless of how or when it happened, the Cubs will now have to play without Taillon for however long he’s out, which will be at least two weeks with this IL placement. The rotation has been a strength for the club in the early going this year, as their collective 2.66 ERA ranks third among all major league clubs, helping them jump out to an 11-6 start. Marcus Stroman and Justin Steele have excellent ERA figures of 0.75 and 1.44, respectively, while Drew Smyly and Hayden Wesneski have decent marks of 4.70 and 4.15.

Those four will now be joined by Assad for the time being. He posted a strong 2.66 ERA in the minors last year between Double-A and Triple-A, helping him make his major league debut. Between last year and this year, he has a 4.07 ERA in 42 major league innings thus far. He’ll look to bring some of that minor league success to the bigs and keep the Chicago rotation in good shape, at least until one of Taillon or Kyle Hendricks is able to return.

Yankees Sign Kole Calhoun To Minor League Deal

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The Yankees announced Thursday that they’ve signed free-agent outfielder Kole Calhoun to a minor league contract. Calhoun, a client of PSI Sports Management, spent spring training with the Mariners but opted out of his minor league deal late in camp.

Calhoun, 35, hit .250/.314/.281 in 35 trips to the plate with Seattle this spring and is looking to rebound from a tough pair of seasons in 2021-22. Over that two-year span, the longtime Angels right fielder slashed just .208/.269/.343 in 606 trips to the plate between the Diamondbacks and the Rangers.

Prior to that ugly stretch, however, Calhoun was a generally productive regular (mostly in Anaheim but also with the 2020 Diamondbacks). From 2013-20, he posted a combined .249/.324/.431 batting line (106 wRC+) while regularly playing solid defense and providing a bit of value on the bases. At his best, Calhoun would walk in around 10% of his plate appearances with a lower-than-average 21% strikeout rate, although those rates cratered in 2021-22, when he walked at a 6.9% clip against a dismal 29.2% strikeout rate.

Calhoun does have a 33-homer season to his credit, though it came in the juiced-ball season back in 2019. His career-high outside that year is 26 back in 2015, and he averaged about 20 round-trippers per year — even popping 16 big flies in 54 games with the D-backs during the shortened 2020 campaign. He has a Gold Glove to his credit (2015), though as his defensive ratings have dipped in his mid-30s, his overall career numbers in 9240 innings of right field work have dipped a bit below average. He carries a career total of -4 Defensive Runs Saved, for instance.

Yankee corner outfielders have been unproductive on the whole this season, as Aaron Judge has spent the bulk of his time in center for a second straight season. Oswaldo Cabrera, Aaron Hicks and Franchy Cordero have combined to hit .219/.275/.297 while serving as Yankee left fielders, and the quintet of Cordero, Judge, Cabrera, Giancarlo Stanton and Willie Calhoun have combined to bat .191/.222/.441 while playing right field (thanks largely to an early power surge from Cordero). Even with Judge raking and Cordero hitting four home runs before falling into a lengthy slump, Yankees outfielders have combined for a .226/.282/.426 batting line thus far. And Stanton, who’s batted .269/.296/.558 with four homers this year, is now on the shelf for upwards of six weeks.

The newly signed Calhoun may not ultimately prove to make an impact — two full seasons have elapsed since his last productive showing — but it’s hardly a surprise to see the Yankees adding some affordable depth, given Stanton’s injury and the general level of struggles they’ve seen from their current corner options. The Yankees assigned him to their Florida Complex League squad to get back up to speed after nearly a month away from game action, but presumably Calhoun will be in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre before long.

Mariners Outright Tommy Milone

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Veteran left-hander Tommy Milone went unclaimed on outright waivers following this past weekend’s DFA, and the Mariners have assigned him to Triple-A Tacoma, per MLB.com’s transactions log. He has enough Major League service time to reject the assignment if he chooses, though Milone spent a good chunk of the 2022 season in Tacoma as well and re-signed with the Mariners organization over the winter, so he’s clearly comfortable there.

The 36-year-old Milone made a spot start for Seattle this past weekend, holding the visiting Rockies to just one run through 4 2/3 innings. With that start, the well-traveled lefty has now logged time in each Major League season dating back to 2011.

Milone was a regular in the rotation for the A’s and Twins for a few years earlier in his career, making 113 starts with a solid 4.16 ERA from 2012-16 between Oakland and Minnesota. He’s since become more of a journeyman southpaw, donning seven more big league uniforms since 2017 and posting a combined 5.77 ERA in 260 2/3 innings through a series of bullpen stints, spot starts and occasional relief appearances at the MLB level.

All in all, Milone has piled up 949 big league innings for nine different teams, pitching to a collective 4.59 ERA in parts of 13 big league seasons. He’s accrued more than eight years of Major League service time in the process.

Assuming Milone indeed sticks with the Mariners, he’ll provide them some depth both in the rotation and in the bullpen. He’s spent parts of ten seasons in Triple-A and has a lifetime 3.24 ERA in 497 innings there — including a tidy 2.68 ERA in 40 1/3 innings with Tacoma just last year.

MLB’s transactions log also indicates that the Mariners re-signed righty Konner Wade a few days back, and he indeed just started last night’s game in Tacoma. The 31-year-old Wade had a brief MLB look with the 2021 Orioles but has otherwise spent his career grinding through the minor leagues. He spent the 2022 season in Tacoma, making 23 starts and pitching to a 5.60 ERA in 115 2/3 innings there. Wade, a seventh-round pick of the Rockies back in 2013, has a career 4.42 ERA in Triple-A.

Guardians Option Brayan Rocchio

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April 20: The Guardians announced that Rocchio has been optioned back to Triple-A, opening a roster spot for right-hander Enyel De Los Santos, who’s returning from the paternity list. Based on Rocchio’s quick return to Columbus, it seems the Guards are confident that Rosario and/or Freeman can both avoid a trip to the injured list. Rocchio didn’t get into yesterday’s game, but he’ll get a day of big league service out of the quick turnaround and head back to Triple-A in preparation for a legitimate opportunity at the MLB level.

April 19, 10:08am: The Guardians have recalled Rocchio and optioned right-hander Hunter Gaddis to Triple-A Columbus back in his place. Zack Meisel of The Athletic tweets that Rocchio may only stay on the big league roster for a day or two. However, both Rosario (back) and Freeman (shoulder) are currently banged up and unavailable, so Rocchio will provide some needed middle infield depth alongside Gimenez and Arias. If either Rosario or Freeman winds up requiring an IL stint, however, Rocchio would stick around longer.

The Guardians will need to make another roster move to bring up a starter for Monday, when Gaddis would’ve gotten the ball.

9:15am: The Guardians are calling up top infield prospect Brayan Rocchio, reports Daniel Álvarez Montes of El Extra Base (Twitter link). He’ll be in Detroit for today’s game, though it’s worth noting that Rocchio is not in the team’s starting lineup that was just released minutes after the report. Gabriel Arias is starting at shortstop, as Amed Rosario has been sidelined the past few games due to back troubles. Speculatively speaking, Rocchio would be a sensible addition if an IL stint has been deemed necessary for Rosario, particularly since Rocchio is already on the 40-man roster.

Rocchio, 22, signed as an amateur out of Venezuela at 16 and has steadily risen through Cleveland’s system while drawing a good bit of fanfare for his hit tool and defensive skill set. He currently ranks as the game’s No. 54 prospect at FanGraphs, No. 69 at MLB.com and No. 74 at Baseball America. The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked Rocchio as high as No. 22 in all of baseball prior to the start of the 2023 season, touting him as a potentially above-average defender at shortstop with a good hit tool and enough power to pop 15 to 20 home runs per season.

Rocchio had a strong showing in Double-A Akron in 2022, batting .265/.349/.432 with 13 home runs in 432 plate appearances. That earned him a promotion to Triple-A late in the season. Then 21 years of age and facing much more advanced competition, Rocchio posted a tepid .234/.298/.387 slash in 152 trips to the plate down the stretch in Columbus.

The 2023 season has gotten out to a much better start, however. Rocchio has appeared in 15 games, taken 70 turns at the dish and turned in a stout .344/.414/.459 with nearly as many walks (eight) as strikeouts (nine). He’s up to a total of 222 Triple-A plate appearances with just a 13.5% strikeout rate dating back to last year, displaying the bat-to-ball skills that have helped make him a touted prospect and that have come to be a hallmark of the Cleveland organization in recent seasons.

Cleveland has a crowded middle infield mix, with Rosario locked in at shortstop and Andres Gimenez entrenched at second base. Rosario is a free agent following the season, which could pave the way for a potential move of the recently extended Gimenez back to his natural shortstop, but regardless of Gimenez’s alignment, the Guardians have a wealth of options should Rosario sign elsewhere this offseason. Beyond Rocchio and the aforementioned Arias, the Guardians also have well-regarded young players in Tyler Freeman, Jose Tena and Angel Martinez, each of whom has reached at least Double-A. Freeman is currently on the big league roster but dealing with a shoulder issue.

Rocchio’s absence from today’s lineup could merely stem from the fact that the Guardians have a day game and he needs to travel to join the team. It’s also possible that he’s merely being called up for a quick depth stint while the team evaluates the health of Rosario and Freeman. Given his prospect status and long-term potential with the club, there’d be little sense in bringing him to the big leagues for any substantial period of time if he doesn’t have a path to regular at-bats.

KBO’s Hanwha Eagles Sign Ricardo Sanchez, Release Burch Smith

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The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they’ve signed left-hander Ricardo Sánchez to a $400K contract (h/t to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News).He takes the roster spot of righty Burch Smith, who was released after suffering a strain in his throwing shoulder. Sánchez is a client of Beverly Hills Sports Council.

Sánchez, 26, has been with the White Sox after signing a minor league deal in February. The Venezuelan-born hurler has thrown 6 2/3 innings over three appearances at Triple-A Charlotte, allowing four runs. He’ll apparently be granted his release to pursue this opportunity in South Korea. The $400K guarantee is quite likely a notable jump over what he had been making in Triple-A.

The bulk of Sánchez’s professional experience has been spent in the minors. His MLB résumé consists of three outings for the Cardinals in 2020. He’s logged 123 innings at the Triple-A level, allowing just under five earned runs per nine. Sánchez has a slightly below-average 20.2% strikeout rate and a serviceable 8.2% walk percentage over that stretch.

Smith signed an $800K contract with the Eagles last winter. It didn’t pan out as either team or player had hoped thanks to injury. Smith only lasted into the third inning of his season debut before suffering the shoulder strain. It’s not uncommon for KBO teams to release foreign-born players who suffer an injury given the league’s limit of three foreign players per team. Félix Peña and Brian O’Grady are the Eagles’ other foreign players.

It’s a tough break for Smith, who seems likely to return to free agency. (According to Yoo, he’s presently on waivers.) The 33-year-old has pitched in parts of five big league campaigns. He owns a 6.03 ERA over 191 innings, mostly in relief. Smith’s last MLB action came in 2021, when he posted a 5.40 ERA over 43 1/3 frames for the Athletics.

Red Sox Promote Enmanuel Valdez

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The Red Sox announced that they have recalled infielder/outfielder Enmanuel Valdez from Triple-A, taking the place of infielder Yu Chang, who has been placed on the paternity list. Valdez himself revealed the news on Instagram prior to the official announcement, as relayed on Twitter by Christopher Smith of MassLive.

Valdez, 24, spent his entire career in the Astros’ organization until he came to the Red Sox as part of the Christian Vázquez trade at last year’s deadline. His minor league career was somewhat unremarkable until a big breakout campaign in 2021. Between High-A and Double-A that year, he hit 26 home runs and slashed .255/.326/.534 for a wRC+ of 122. That continued into 2022, as he was hitting .327/.410/.606 at the time of the trade. His line slipped a bit from there, as he hit .237/.309/.422 after the deal, but he still impressed the Boston brass enough that they targeted him in the deal and then added him to their 40-man roster in November to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He was ranked the club’s #19 prospect by Baseball America coming into this year.

The youngster will make his major league debut tonight, as he’s playing second base and batting ninth. The Sox have been playing a bit of musical chairs in their middle infield this season, which started when Trevor Story required internal brace surgery on his throwing elbow in the offseason. With Xander Bogaerts having opted out and signed with the Padres, the club had to turn to backup plans, moving Enrique Hernández in from center field to take over shortstop and partner with Christian Arroyo at second base. Adalberto Mondesí was acquired to be part of the picture but he’s still recovering from last year’s torn ACL. Adam Duvall was signed to cover center field but he’s now dealing with a fractured wrist. Hernandez moved out to center again for a while with Chang taking some starts at short, though Jarren Duran was recently recalled to bolster the outfield mix. With Arroyo dealing with some hamstring issues recently and Chang stepping away, it all got a little more tenuous, which required the recall of Valdez. Bobby Dalbec had been on the roster until he was optioned a few days ago, meaning he isn’t eligible to return until 10 days from that optioning, unless someone goes on the injured list.

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