Cubs Designate Shane Greene For Assignment
The Cubs have announced to reporters, including Bruce Levine of 670 The Score, that right-hander Shane Greene has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to left-hander Luke Little, who was reported earlier to be coming up.
It’s a quick turnaround for Greene, 34, who was just selected to the roster a week ago. He pitched one scoreless inning on Sunday but will now relinquish his roster spot to Little as the club looks to strengthen its left-handed relief corps.
Prior to coming up to the big leagues, Greene was stretched out in the minors, an interesting development since he has primarily been a reliever for most of his big league career. He tossed 16 2/3 innings over five Triple-A starts, going as long as five innings in his penultimate outing there. He had a 2.21 earned run average in those, striking out 27.9% of hitters while walking 10.5%.
The Cubs will place him on waivers in the coming days. He’s made 344 career appearances at the major league level, with inconsistent results. He finished three separate seasons with an ERA at 2.67 or below but saw that shoot up to 7.23 in 2021. He was only able to make two appearances last year and one so far this year. He’ll see if any club is willing to give him a roster spot in the coming days, though he won’t be postseason eligible for that club since it’s after the September 1 cutoff.
Andrew McCutchen Suffers Partial Achilles Tear, Done For Season
The Pirates announced to reporters, including Justice delos Santos of MLB.com, that outfielder/designated hitter Andrew McCutchen is going on the 10-day injured list due to a partial tear in his left Achilles tendon. McCutchen will be in a walking boot for the next six weeks, meaning his season is done with less than four weeks now remaining on the schedule. The club later officially announced McCutchen’s IL placement with infielder Jared Triolo recalled in a corresponding move.
McCutchen, 36, returned to the Pirates this season on a one-year, $5MM deal. He had spent his prime with the Bucs but eventually bounced to the Giants, Yankees, Phillies and Brewers as the Pirates underwent a rebuild and gave most of the playing time to younger players. But he was able to don the black and gold again this year, serving as a veteran presence for a young team on the rise.
That’s not to say that his position on the roster was merely ceremonial, as he’s actually been the club’s best hitter this year. He’s drawn walks in 15.9% of his plate appearances and hit 12 home runs. His .256/.378/.397 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 115, indicating he’s been 15% better than the league average hitter this year, the highest mark on the club among those with at least 10 plate appearances.
The Bucs are well out of contention at this point but it’s nonetheless a tough pill to swallow, given his popularity among the fans and around baseball in general. He’s also currently sitting on 299 home runs, meaning he won’t have a chance to cross that milestone this year.
Although that’s surely frustrating, it seems possible he’ll have a chance to hit that marker next year. He has continually been open about his desire to return to the Pirates next year and reiterated that stance today, via delos Santos. He seems to have a good relationship with the franchise, making it fair to expect the two sides to reunite on another deal for 2024. The injury creates some cloudiness about his status, but if the six weeks in the walking boot get him back to health, he should be in line to have a fairly normal offseason and Spring Training.
Defensively, McCutchen was primarily a designated hitter this year, only heading to the outfield for 64 2/3 innings. Though the club might want to give some playing time to younger players, they could surely find some at-bats for their best offensive contributor this year, especially considering his iconic status in Pittsburgh.
Cubs To Select Luke Little
The Cubs are promoting left-hander Luke Little to the majors, reports Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register. Little isn’t on the 40-man roster but the Cubs already have a vacancy there. A corresponding move will be required to get him onto the active roster.
It’s a belated birthday present for Little, who turned 23 years old just a week ago. The ironically-named Little, listed at 6’8″ and 220 pounds, was selected by the Cubs in the fourth round of the 2020 draft. He made an 11-inning professional debut in the Complex League in 2021 before getting a larger body of work after that.
He split 2022 between Single-A and High-A, tossing 65 2/3 innings with a 2.47 earned run average. His 13.3% walk rate was on the high side but he paired that with a huge 35.4% strikeout rate. This year, he’s gone from High-A to Double-A to Triple-A with a combined 2.12 ERA in 63 2/3 frames. He’s still giving out walks at a high clip of 15.1% but is punching out 37.6% of batters faced.
Those strong results have gotten the attention of prospect evaluators, with Baseball America currently ranking him #19 in the Cubs’ system, highlighting his fastball velocity. He’ll now get a chance to try his hand at getting major league hitters out and will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game.
The club hasn’t had much of a left-handed presence in its bullpen this year. Brandon Hughes made 17 appearances earlier in the season but has been out of action for a few months dealing with a knee injury. Anthony Kay has an ERA of 6.35 in his 13 contests and is currently on optional assignment. That leaves Drew Smyly, who struggled in the rotation and got bumped to the bullpen, as the club’s only southpaw reliever at the moment.
Bringing Little up to the big leagues will give them another option in that department as they enter the final few weeks of the playoff race. Their 75-64 record puts them 2.5 games back of the Brewers in the Central and in possession of the second National League Wild Card spot.
Pirates Outright Cal Mitchell
The Pirates sent outfielder Cal Mitchell outright to Triple-A Indianapolis this afternoon, tweets Justice delos Santos of MLB.com. He cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week.
Mitchell and Yohan Ramirez were each DFA last Friday. Ramirez was claimed by the White Sox this afternoon. Mitchell went unclaimed and will stick in the organization. Since this is his first career outright and he has under three years of major league service, he doesn’t have the ability to decline the assignment.
A second round pick in 2017, Mitchell attracted some prospect attention throughout his time in Pittsburgh’s system. He performed reasonably well through Double-A before raking at a .339/.391/.547 clip in 63 Triple-A contests a year ago. That earned him a major league look in late May, but Mitchell didn’t found much success against big league pitching.
Over 232 trips to the dish, the lefty-swinging outfielder put up a .226/.286/.349 line. As a result, Mitchell has spent almost all of 2023 in Indianapolis. He hasn’t recaptured last year’s success at that level. He’s hitting .264/.338/.426 while striking out at a lofty 29.3% clip through 300 plate appearances. That eventually squeezed him off the roster.
Mitchell will try to work his way back onto the 40-man over the last month of the season. He’d qualify for minor league free agency at the beginning of the offseason if the Bucs don’t reselect his contract.
Austin Voth Accepts Outright Assignment With Orioles
The Orioles announced that right-hander Austin Voth cleared outright waivers and accepted an assignment to Triple-A Norfolk. He’ll stick in the organization as depth but without occupying a spot on the 40-man roster.
Voth, now 31, was designated for assignment over the weekend when the O’s claimed reliever Jorge López off waivers from the Marlins. Voth had spent the year working in the O’s bullpen, though he also spent over two months on the injured list due to right elbow discomfort. When healthy enough to take the mound, he posted a 5.19 earned run average over 34 2/3 innings, along with a 21.3% strikeout rate, 9.4% walk rate and 33.6% ground ball rate. Since he’s out of options, those tepid results got him nudged off both the active and 40-man rosters.
He originally came to the O’s via a waiver claim from the Nationals last year and showed encouraging results at first. He had a brutal 10.13 ERA for the Nats that year but then righted the ship with a 3.04 ERA with Baltimore after the claim. The Orioles were encouraged enough to tender him an arbitration contract for 2023, agreeing to a salary of $1.85MM and a $2.45MM club option for 2024.
Since Voth has over three years of major league service time, he had the right to reject this outright assignment and elect free agency. However, since he has less than five years of service, exercising that right would mean forfeiting the remainder of his salary. He has understandably decided to accept the assignment and keep that money coming over the next few weeks. He’ll be eligible for minor league free agency if not added back to the roster by season’s end.
Astros Place Ryne Stanek On Injured List, Outright Rylan Bannon
The Astros announced that reliever Ryne Stanek has landed on the 15-day injured list due to a right ankle sprain. Parker Mushinski is up from Triple-A Sugar Land to take his spot on the active roster. Additionally, infielder Rylan Bannon has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Sugar Land after being designated for assignment over the weekend.
Stanek was injured in the ninth inning of yesterday’s blowout win in Arlington. The right-hander covered first base on a Leody Taveras grounder to the right side (video provided by Talkin’ Baseball). Stanek hit the bag awkwardly while receiving the throw from José Abreu. He went down in pain and was eventually taken off the field on a cart.
Given that alarming scene, it’s arguably a relief to hear the preliminary diagnosis as a strain. The veteran hurler isn’t finished going through tests, though. Chandler Rome of the Athletic tweets that Stanek is en route back to Houston for further imaging. Those results will obviously determine the recovery timetable.
Stanek has worked to a 4.07 ERA over 48 2/3 innings this year. He’s striking out a roughly average 23.8% of opposing hitters against a lofty 10.2% walk percentage. That’s below the level he showed over his first two seasons in Houston. Stanek was rather quietly an integral part of excellent Astros’ bullpens in 2021-22, combining for a 2.41 ERA while punching out 28.2% of batters faced.
While this hasn’t been his best season, the hard-throwing hurler still seems likely to secure a spot on the Houston playoff roster if the team qualifies and he’s able to get back on the mound. He’s a couple months from his first trip to the open market.
Bannon, meanwhile, was DFA when Houston claimed Bennett Sousa off waivers. The 27-year-old infielder has only played in two big league games for the Astros after being claimed over the offseason. He has spent the bulk of the season with Sugar Land, putting together a .230/.346/.433 line with 15 home runs over 350 plate appearances in a hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League setting.
It’s the first career outright for Bannon, who had been claimed off waivers the first four times he landed on the wire. With less than three years of major league service, he doesn’t have the right to decline the assignment. He’ll remain in Triple-A for the remainder of the season but would qualify for minor league free agency at the beginning of the offseason unless the Astros add him back to the 40-man roster.
Ari Alexander of KPRC2 first reported Mushinski’s recall and Stanek’s ankle sprain.
Rockies Select Cole Tucker, Designate Coco Montes For Assignment
The Rockies announced that they have selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Cole Tucker, with first baseman/outfielder Michael Toglia optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque in a corresponding move. To open a spot for Tucker on the 40-man, infielder Coco Montes was designated for assignment.
Tucker, 27, signed a minor league deal with the Rockies in the offseason. He was added to the big league roster last month but was designated for assignment just one week later, having taken just eight plate appearances over three games. He was outrighted to Albuquerque after clearing waivers and could have rejected that assignment based on having a previous career outright, but accepted and is now back with the big league club.
Around that brief stint in the majors, he’s taken 321 trips to the plate in 70 Triple-A games. He walked in 15.3% of those, leading to a batting line of .280/.391/.407 and 101 wRC+. Once a highly-touted prospect with the Pirates, he’s hit just .214/.263/.316 in 477 major league plate appearances thus far. At the very least, he should provide the Rox with defensive versatility, having played each infield and outfield position in his career. He can be controlled for four more seasons beyond this one but is out of options.
Montes, 26, hit .321/.401/.560 through his first 59 Triple-A games this year and got selected to the big league roster in June. But he then hit just .184/.244/.316 in his first 41 plate appearances at the major league level and has now been bounced from the roster.
Since the trade deadline has passed, the Rockies will place Montes on waivers in the coming days. His first taste of the majors didn’t go well but he’s generally produced solid numbers in the minors and spent significant time at the three infield positions to the left of first base. He will still have two option years beyond this one and has less than a year of service time.
Carlos Carrasco To Miss 4-6 Weeks With Finger Fracture
The Mets announced that right-hander Carlos Carrasco suffered a fracture of his right fifth finger. They estimate his recovery timeline is four to six weeks. He will be placed on the 15-day injured list with righty Sam Coonrod recalled in a corresponding move. Given that there’s less than a month left in the regular season and the Mets are out of contention, his season is quite likely over. Manager Buck Showalter told reporters, including Abbey Mastracco of the New York Daily News, that Carrasco broke his finger when a fifty-pound dumbbell fell on it. He already had a pin inserted and should have a normal winter. Anthony DiComo of MLB.com reported Carrasco’s impending trip to the IL prior to the official announcement.
It’s been a frustrating season for both Carrasco and the Mets. The club picked up a $14MM option for his services this year instead of a $3MM option, a decision that seemed reasonable at the time. He made 29 starts last year with a 3.97 earned run average, making it a fairly defensible decision to trigger that net $11MM decision.
Unfortunately, he missed over a month of the season due to right elbow inflammation and hasn’t been his best when on the hill. Through 20 starts, he’s logged 90 innings with a 6.80 ERA. Last year’s strikeout and walk rates of 23.6% and 6.4% both got worse this year, going to 15.8% and 9.1%, respectively.
The club ran up the highest payroll in history this year but didn’t get the results they hoped for, with the rotation a key problem. Both Justin Verlander and José Quintana started the season on the injured list and Carrasco joined them shortly thereafter. Max Scherzer also pitched through some minor ailments and then got a 10-game sticky stuff suspension. The club fell out of contention, traded away both Scherzer and Verlander prior to the deadline and then put Carrasco on waivers after it. No one claimed Carrasco and he stuck with the Mets, who were planning to move him to the bullpen to finish the season, but he’ll now most likely finish the season on the injured list instead.
Carrasco’s contract expires at season’s end, which will send him to free agency. It will be the first trip to the open market for the veteran, as he twice signed extensions with Cleveland before coming to the Mets in the same trade as Francisco Lindor. It’s obviously not the ideal platform season for him to take into free agency, but he should still garner interest on some kind of bounceback deal based on his career track record. He has a 4.04 ERA in 1,538 innings dating back to his 2009 debut.
For the Mets, they will play out the string with a rotation of Quintana, Kodai Senga, Tylor Megill and David Peterson, with José Butto, Joey Lucchesi, Peyton Battenfield and Denyi Reyes options to jump in when a fifth starter is needed.
Giants Release AJ Pollock
4:30pm: The Giants have now made it official, announcing Pollock’s release. His 40-man roster spot will go to right-hander John Brebbia, who has been reinstated from the 60-day IL, with righty Tristan Beck optioned to open an active roster spot for Brebbia.
7:39am: The Giants are releasing AJ Pollock, per a report by MLBNetwork’s Jon Morosi last night. The 35-year-old veteran has been on the injured list with a strained oblique for just under a month but began a rehab assignment at Triple-A last week, going 1-for-6 with a double, a walk and three strikeouts.
Pollock joined the Giants just before this year’s trade deadline in a fairly minor deal with the Mariners that also saw San Francisco acquire utility player Mark Mathias. San Francisco acquired him in hopes of improving the club’s offense against lefties, thanks to his career .836 OPS against lefties and a .286/.316/.619 slash line in 133 plate appearances when facing southpaws last year. That didn’t come to pass, however, as he ultimately suited up for the club in just five big league games, striking out two times in six at-bats without recording a hit or walk.
The brief stint in San Francisco was a continuation of what has been nothing short of a brutal year for Pollock at the plate. Since signing a one-year, $7MM deal with the Mariners this past offseason, Pollock has slashed a unsightly .165/.215/.305 in 144 trips to the plate this year. Pollock’s 22.2% strikeout rate is a career high, and while his awful .227 wOBA is much lower than his xwOBA, his rough contact quality numbers leave the expected figure at a still well-below par .267.
While Pollock began to decline somewhat with the White Sox last year, posting the first below-average offensive season of his career (aside from an injury-marred 2016 season in which he only suited up for 12 games with the Diamondbacks) since he became a full time player in 2013, his drop off in production this year has been staggering. After all, it was just two seasons ago that Pollock was posting excellent numbers with the Dodgers, slashing .297/.355/.536 with a wRC+ of 137.
As for the Giants, the club still has a pair of right-handed hitting outfielders on the roster in Mitch Haniger and Austin Slater, along with a pair of youngsters at Triple-A on the 40-man roster in Luis Matos and Heliot Ramos. San Francisco will have to put Pollock through release waivers, though he’ll surely go unclaimed between his performance, expiring and pricey contract, and the fact that he would be ineligible to participate in the postseason for the hypothetical-claiming club. Upon clearing release waivers, Pollock would become a free agent and be free to sign with any of the 30 clubs with an eye toward the 2024 campaign, though the veteran outfielder will likely have to settle for a minor league deal after this year’s performance.
Rangers Select Ian Kennedy, Designate Glenn Otto For Assignment
The Rangers announced a series of roster moves today, activating right-hander Nathan Eovaldi from the injured list and selecting the contract of fellow righty Ian Kennedy. In corresponding moves, righty Josh Sborz was placed on the 15-day IL with a left hamstring strain while righty Glenn Otto was designated for assignment.
Kennedy, 38, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers and cracked the Opening Day roster. But he was lit up in the early going, allowing a 7.20 earned run average through 11 outings before being designated for assignment. He cleared waivers and elected free agency but rejoined the Rangers on a new minor league pact. Since that time, he’s been posting fairly solid results in Triple-A, with a 3.51 ERA in 25 2/3 innings, along with a 29.4% strikeout rate and 8.8% walk rate.
After many years as an effective big league starter, Kennedy moved to the bullpen in recent years with inconsistent results. He had a 3.41 ERA in 2019 but saw that jump to an even 9.00 in 2020. He got back on track with a 3.20 mark in 2021 but it nudged up to 5.36 last year before this year’s aforementioned struggles.
The Rangers bullpen has been a nightmare of late, a key reason why their previously strong division lead has gone up in smoke. The relievers have let many recent games slip away in the late innings, pushing the club to third place in the division and just half a game ahead of the Blue Jays for the final Wild Card spot in the American League. For the season as a whole, the relief corps has a collective 4.86 ERA that places them 25th in the league. They will mix things up by getting the veteran Kennedy into the mix to see if he can help.
Otto, 27, got a shot at a rotation job with the Rangers last year, making 27 starts with a 4.64 ERA, 18.2% strikeout rate, 10.6% walk rate and 43.1% ground ball rate. The Rangers then underwent an extremely aggressive offseason, overhauling their rotation by acquiring pitchers like Eovaldi, Jacob deGrom, Andrew Heaney and Jake Odorizzi. That would have squeezed Otto either to the minors or the bullpen but he suffered a lat strain in March and was placed on the 60-day injured list on Opening Day.
He was reinstated from the IL at the end of June and has made six appearances for the big league club since then, but six home runs in just 10 2/3 innings have led to an ERA of 10.13. He’s also tossed 29 1/3 Triple-A innings over 10 appearances with a 3.38 ERA, striking out 32.5% of opponents in the process.
Since the trade deadline has passed, the Rangers will have no choice but to put Otto on waivers in the coming days. He’s not too far removed from being a notable prospect. In 2021, he registered a 3.20 ERA over 95 2/3 innings in the minor leagues, going from the Yankees to the Rangers in the Joey Gallo trade that summer. He went into 2022 ranked as the #15 prospect in the Rangers system.
Though he then had some tepid results that year and has been injured for much of this year, he could perhaps garner interest based on that previous prospect status. He still has two option seasons beyond this one and has yet to qualify for arbitration. That means he could be an intriguing depth arm for any club willing to give him a roster spot.