Braves Claim Yonny Chirinos
5:14PM: The Braves announced the Chirinos claim, as well as two corresponding moves. Soroka was optioned to Triple-A, implying that Chirinos will be taking Soroka’s spot in the rotation. Atlanta also designated right-hander Seth Elledge for assignment, just a few days after Elledge’s contract was selected to the active roster. Elledge didn’t see any game action during his brief time in the majors before he sent back down to Triple-A yesterday.
3:42PM: The Braves have claimed right-hander Yonny Chirinos off waivers from the Rays. Chirinos was designated for assignment by Tampa Bay earlier this week.
After Tommy John surgery limited Chirinos to 18 1/3 total innings from 2020-22, he has seemed fully healthy in pitching 62 2/3 frames this year working in a variety of different capacities for the Rays. Chirinos has started four games, worked as a bulk pitcher (behind an opener) on multiple occasions, and also had a couple of traditional relief outings as a long man and mop-up man. He has a 4.02 ERA to show for his efforts, though his 5.34 SIERA is perhaps more reflective of Chirinos’ overall performance. The righty has benefited from a .244 BABIP and he isn’t missing many bats, with only an 11.8% strikeout rate.
These unfavorable secondary metrics could be why the Rays chose to DFA Chirinos, though for a team with as many pitching injuries as Tampa Bay, it still counted as something of an eyebrow-raising move. As MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald noted last Monday when Chirinos was put on waivers, service time could have been a factor, as Chirinos has surpassed five years of MLB service time and now cannot be optioned to the minors without his permission. This might have been a breaking point for a Rays team that often shuffles pitchers back and forth from Triple-A Durham — in fact, Chirinos himself was twice optioned earlier this season before he hit the five-year threshold.
Chirinos’ ability to work in several different roles would’ve made him a good fit on many clubs, but Atlanta is a particularly fitting landing spot given the Braves’ own pitching depth issues. The Braves could see Chirinos as something of a replacement for Kolby Allard, who sent on the 60-day IL earlier this week due to nerve inflammation in his left shoulder.
Allard is one of a whopping eight pitchers on Atlanta’s 60-day IL, including such prominent arms as Max Fried, Kyle Wright, Jesse Chavez, and Nick Anderson. Manager Brian Snitker said today that Fried might be one more rehab start away from returning to the active roster, but with so many other pitchers still out, Chirinos give the Braves flexibility. Atlanta could ease Fried or Wright back into action by teaming them with Chirinos in a piggyback capacity, or Chirinos might be paired with Michael Soroka to manage innings.
Overall, Chirinos is a pretty nice pickup for the Braves to make even before they delve into further moves prior to the trade deadline. There isn’t much financial cost (roughly $515K in remaining salary), and Chirinos is still controlled through the 2024 season via arbitration.
Diamondbacks Place Gabriel Moreno On 10-Day Injured List
Prior to today’s game against the Reds, the Diamondbacks placed catcher Gabriel Moreno on the 10-day injured list due to left shoulder inflammation. Catcher Jose Herrera was called up from Triple-A in the corresponding move.
Carson Kelly will be Arizona’s starting catcher while Moreno is sidelined, though Kelly had taken an increasingly large share of the playing time over the last several weeks due to Moreno’s lingering shoulder issue. “It’s something we’ve been trying to manage for some time,” manager Torey Lovullo told MLB.com and other media, and the club ultimately decided that an IL stint was necessary to allow Moreno time to rest up.
In his first full season in the majors and in his first season altogether with the D’Backs, Moreno has hit .270/.316/.360 with three homers over 244 plate appearances, translating to an 82 wRC+. It hasn’t been in the instant impact the D’Backs were hoping to get from the former top prospect, though it is safe to guess that this nagging shoulder problem has had some impact on Moreno’s hitting. While his bat and pitch-framing are still a work in progress, Moreno has already established himself as one of the game’s best throwing arms. Moreno has nabbed 11 of 18 runners trying to steal, for the highest caught-stealing percentage (61%) of any backstop in the league.
Due to a fractured forearm in Spring Training, Kelly has been limited t0 20 games and 63 PA, and he has hit only .183/.206/.250. Beyond Herrera, Ali Sanchez and Juan Centeno are the only other catchers in the Diamondbacks’ system with any MLB experience, so if Moreno is projected to be out for anything beyond the minimum 10 days, catching might emerge as a need for the D’Backs heading into the trade deadline.
Arizona probably wouldn’t pursue anything more than another depth catcher if Moreno will eventually be back, yet it creates another target for a D’Backs team that is already known to be looking for both starting and relief pitching. GM Mike Hazen has said his front office will “be aggressive” in looking for upgrades, and the D’Backs are in need of a spark in general after a miserable July. Arizona has lost 12 of its last 16 games, including today’s 7-3 loss to Cincinnati.
Rays Outright Javy Guerra To Triple-A
TODAY: Guerra cleared DFA waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A, the Rays announced.
JULY 19: The Rays have designated right-hander Javy Guerra for assignment and recalled righty Calvin Faucher from Triple-A Durham, per a club announcement.
It’s been an eventful eight months for Guerra, who was traded from Tampa Bay to Milwaukee back in November, then designated for assignment and traded back to the Rays in April. This is now the second time the Rays have designated him for assignment since reacquiring him; he cleared waivers back in May and chose to accept an outright assignment at the time.
In 11 innings with the Rays this year, Guerra has posted a 4.09 ERA but issued more walks (13) than strikeouts (nine). The former top infield prospect, who converted to the mound five years ago, boasts a heater that averages 98 mph but doesn’t miss nearly as many bats as one would expect from someone with plus velocity. He’s fanned just 15% of his opponents against a 14.3% walk rate while pitching to a 6.43 ERA in 63 innings at the Major League level.
The Rays will have a week to trade Guerra or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. As was the case back in May, he’d have the option of rejecting an outright assignment in favor of free agency even if he does clear.
Marlins Agree To Terms With First-Round Pick Thomas White
The Marlins have signed supplemental first-round pick Thomas White, as noted by MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis. The sides came to an agreement on a $4,100,000 signing bonus, a figure first reported by Kevin Barral of Fish On First. That figure checks in far above the $2,420,900 slot value of the 35th overall pick with which White was selected.
White, 18, is a left-handed pitcher selected out of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. Coming into the draft, most evaluators saw White, who was widely considered to be the top southpaw in this year’s draft class, as a clear first-round talent. Keith Law of The Athletic ranked him 27th in the class, as did Fangraphs, though MLB Pipeline had him slightly higher at 24th. Baseball America, meanwhile, is highest on White, placing him 19th in the class. That being said, Law noted that there were concerns headed into draft day regarding whether White would sign with a club or honor his commitment to Vanderbilt.
The 6-foot-5, 210 pound lefty sports a mid-90s fastball and a quality three-pitch mix including a curveball and changeup that both draw plus grades from various services, though the curveball is generally better regarded than the changeup. White’s primary flaw is widely considered to be his command, which most services view as below average. Still, if his command evens out, prospect evaluators seem to be largely in agreement that White has front-of-the-rotation potential.
White’s selection continues the Marlins’ tendency toward selecting pitchers in the first round in recent years. In addition to White, Miami selected right-hander Noble Meyer with the 10th overall pick of this year’s draft. In previous years, the Fish have selected right-hander Max Meyer (2020) along with left-handers Trevor Rogers (2017) and Braxton Garrett (2016) with their first round picks.
Cardinals Select Taylor Motter
The Cardinals announced this morning that the club had selected the contract of infielder Taylor Motter. Infielder Jose Fermin was optioned to Triple-A to make room for Motter on the active roster while the club granted right-hander Jake Walsh his unconditional release, a move that opened a 40-man roster spot for Motter.
A 17th-round selection by the Rays in the 2011 draft, the 33 year old Motter has played for seven MLB clubs since making his debut with Tampa back in 2016. Motter has never hit well at the big league level, with a career .191/.263/.309 slash line in 468 career plate appearances. That being said, the veteran journeyman does offer a great deal of versatility. Across his six seasons in the big leagues, Motter has appeared at every position on the diamond except for center field and catcher. He’s even taken the mound previously in his career, with 1 1/3 innings of work to his name as a pitcher.
With Motter seemingly poised to take over as the club’s big league utility option in the infield, Fermin is headed back to Triple-A. The 24-year-old rookie made his big league debut with the Cardinals earlier this month, though it hasn’t gone well to this point. In five games with the big league club, Fermin has slashed just .091/.167/.091 while chipping in at both second and third base. Fermin, who came to St. Louis in a cash deal with the Guardians last November, has an uninspiring career slash line of .216/.337/.338 at the Triple-A level, though he’s still a potentially valuable utility option given his solid glove all around the infield.
Making room for Motter on the 40-man roster is Walsh, a 16th-round pick by the Cardinals in the 2017 draft. Walsh, 28, made his MLB debut for the Cardinals last year, allowing four runs on three hits and two walks while striking out five in 2 2/3 innings of work. That difficult start to his big league career seems to have carried over into his performance at the Triple-A level, where he’s posted a 5.28 ERA in 30 2/3 innings of work this season.
In addition to Walsh’s struggles at the big league level, Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat indicates that health may have been a factor in the club’s decision to release Walsh, as the right-hander had just been placed on the minor league injured list with a nerve issue in his arm. Now on the open market, Walsh figures to look for a new club with whom he can rehab his current injury and attempt to work his way back to the majors.
Yankees Notes: Outfield, Judge, Loaisiga
The Yankees shuffled their outfield mix today, optioning Oswaldo Cabrera and Franchy Cordero to the Triple-A while activating Greg Allen and Jake Bauers from the 10-day injured list. Bauers has been out since the beginning of the month with a rotator cuff contusion, while Allen has been on the shelf since early June with a strained right hip flexor.
The club is surely hoping the duo can help revitalize a beleaguered Yankees offense that has delivered a wRC+ of just 84 that ranks bottom four in the majors since star slugger Aaron Judge went on the injured list back in June. In 49 games this season, Bauers has slashed .224/.312/.470 with a solid wRC+ of 114 despite a strikeout rate nearing 30% thanks to a fantastic .246 ISO. Allen, meanwhile got into just 10 games with the Yankees before his trip to the IL. While he posted an excellent wRC+ of 138 during that limited time, a 41.2% strikeout rate and measly .162 xwOBA indicate that production is unsustainable. Nonetheless, Allen can nonetheless provide the Yankees with a switch-hitting outfielder with speed and quality defense off the bench.
The return of Bauers in particular could help provide the club’s lineup with a boost prior to the August 1 trade deadline, which is just over a week away. That being said, it goes without saying that the Yankees are going to need their $360MM man back to have any hope of turning around a season that’s seen them sink to fourth pace in the AL East despite a decent 52-47 record. To that end, the fans received good news today as Judge took live batting practice this morning from right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga, as relayed by MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch. Judge had previously been reported as “close” to a return, but today’s exercise represents an additional step forward as he works his way back from the torn toe ligament that has kept him out of the lineup for nearly two months.
Loaisiga, himself, has been out for nearly three months since undergoing elbow surgery to remove a bone spur back in May. That he’s progressed to the point of facing live hitting represents a step forward in the rehab process for him, as well. The next step for Loaisiga appears to be a rehab assignment, which The Athletic’s Chris Kirschner relays could begin next weekend, per manager Aaron Boone. Despite the Yankees sporting an MLB-best bullpen ERA of 3.21 this season, a healthy and effective return from Loasigia, who sports a 3.04 ERA and 3.31 FIP in 145 innings of work since the beginning of the 2020 campaign, could provide a major boost to the Yankees down the stretch.
Nationals Sign Nash Walters To Minors Deal
The Nationals added to their bullpen depth earlier this week, signing right-hander Nash Walters to a minor league deal (h/t to TalkNats). Walters has been assigned to club’s Double-A affiliate in Harrisburg.
Originally drafted in the third round of the 2015 draft by the Brewers, Walters was initially slowed in his development by Tommy John surgery in 2017 and 2020’s cancelled minor league season. He made his full-season debut in 2021 and quickly advanced through the minor leagues, reaching Triple-A with the Brewers in 2022. Walters was shipped to Anaheim in a cash deal with the Angels that September and made his big league debut in the club’s final game of 2022 against the A’s. He recorded a single out while allowing a hit and a walk in his big league debut.
Walters was non-tendered by the club last November, and while he initially re-signed on a minor league deal the following month, the Angels released him just before Opening Day. That led Walters to sign on with the White Sox on a minor league deal towards the end of April. He struggled considerably for Chicago in the minors, with a brutal 9.64 ERA in 28 innings of work. While Walters was struggling badly in terms of run prevention results, his strong 31.9% strikeout rate seemingly caught the interest of Nationals after the White Sox released him earlier this month.
Now in his fourth organization of the past calendar year, Walters will look to get his run prevention numbers in line with his tantalizing stuff at the Double-A level for the Nationals. If he manages to do so, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Walters contribute at the big league level later this season, particularly if the coming trade deadline on August 1 opens up space in the Nationals’ bullpen.
Braves Select Daysbel Hernandez
The Braves announced a series of roster moves this morning as they selected right-hander Daysbel Hernandez to the active roster. In a corresponding move, right-hander Jesse Chavez was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Right-hander Allan Winans was optioned to Triple-A following last night’s game, so there was already space for Hernandez on the active roster.
Hernandez’s first appearance will be his big league debut. After playing in Cuba as a teenager, the right-hander began his affiliated career in 2018 as a reliever with a 4.50 ERA in 38 innings between Single-A and High-A with the Braves. He then returned to High-A in 2019 and dominated the level to the tune of a 1.71 ERA in 52 2/3 innings of work. In 2021, Hernandez reached the upper-minors with a strong performance at Double-A though he struggled badly in 9 2/3 innings at Triple-A to end the season, posting a 7.45 ERA. He missed the entire 2022 campaign due to injury but returned earlier this season and has posted 16 2/3 scoreless innings between the Double-A and Triple-A levels complete with a whopping 44% strikeout rate.
That phenomenal performance was enough for the club to add the 26-year-old hurler to a bullpen that sports an NL-best 3.53 ERA in 2023. While the club’s relief corps has certainly been impressive to this point, only five NL clubs have leaned on their bullpen more heavily to this point in the season than the Braves, who have gotten 352 innings out of their relievers so far. Between that workload and injuries to key players like Chavez, A.J. Minter, and Nick Anderson, it’s certainly feasible that Hernandez could provide a boost to the club’s bullpen going forward. Given his overpowering stuff and impressive numbers in the minors this year, there’s a chance he’ll factor into the club’s late inning mix alongside the likes of Kirby Yates and Collin McHugh ahead of closer Raisel Iglesias.
Making room for Hernandez on the 40-man roster is Chavez, who now won’t be eligible to return from the IL until mid-August. A veteran in his sixteenth big league season who will celebrate his 40th birthday next month, Chavez has managed to have a late-career renaissance out of the bullpen in recent years, with a 3.46 ERA that’s 33% better than league average by measure of ERA+ in 322 innings of work since the start of the 2018 season. He’s been particularly excellent with Atlanta over the past two seasons, with a sterling 2.30 ERA in 82 innings of work for the club.
As for Winans, the 27-year-old righty had a solid if uneven big league debut for the Braves last night. In 4 1/3 innings of work, Winans allowed two runs on five hits but struck out five while walking just one. Winans could be in the mix for a spot start alongside the likes of Dylan Dodd, Jared Shuster, and AJ Smith-Shawver the next time the club requires one, though with two off-days this week and left-hander Max Fried on a rehab assignment at Triple-A, the club may not need to deep into their rotation depth for some time.
Notable Draft Signings: 7/22/23
Here are the latest signings from near the top of the amateur draft board. For more on these and other prospects, check out the pre-draft rankings and scouting reports from Fangraphs, MLB Pipeline, Baseball America, The Athletic’s Keith Law, and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel.
- The Guardians signed first rounder Ralphy Velazquez and second rounder Alex Clemmey earlier this evening, per MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis (Twitter links). Velazquez, a prep catcher from California, was the 23rd overall selection in this year’s draft and signed for $2,500,000. That number clocks in well below the 23rd pick’s slot value of $3,380,900. Velazquez receives universal praise for his power production, though opinions vary on his ability to stick at catcher and his hit tool. Those differences of opinion create some discrepancies in where Velazquez ranks among this class’s draft prospects, with Baseball America ranking him as high as #29 in the class while Fangraphs has him as low as #45. The savings on Velazquez allowed Cleveland to sign Clemmey, a high school pitcher whose #58 overall selection came with a slot value of $1,402,600, to an overslot deal worth $2,300,000. As a left-handed prep prospect with a fastball touching 100 mph, Clemmey’s stuff garners near universal praise, though he also earns widespread questions regarding his command due to an inconsistent delivery. Overall, Clemmey is considered a top-50 prospect in this year’s draft class by most services, though Fangraphs has him as low as #62.
Blue Jays Sign Gabe Klobosits To Minors Deal
The Blue Jays have signed right-hander Gabe Klobosits to a minor league deal, according to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.
A 36th round pick by the Nationals in the 2017 draft, Klobosits worked his way through the club’s minor league system until 2021, when he dominated the minors with a 1.64 ERA in 38 1/3 innings of work between the Double-A and Triple-A levels. Those strong numbers led Washington to call Klobosits up to the big leagues. The then-26-year-old hurler struggled in his cup of coffee, however, posting a 5.56 ERA in 11 1/3 innings of work.
That weak performance in the majors led the Nationals to designate Klobosits for assignment prior to the start of the 2021 campaign. Klobosits was claimed off waivers by Oakland, with whom he started the season at Triple-A, though his struggles from his major league debut carried into his time with the A’s as he posted a brutal 7.59 ERA in 10 1/3 innings with the club’s affiliate in Las Vegas before the club released Klobosits in June of last year.
Klobosits has spent the first half of the 2023 campaign outside of affiliated ball, pitching for the Atlantic League’s Gastonia Honey Hunters. In 8 innings of work with the Honey Hunters, Klobosits has posted a strong 1.13 ERA in eight innings of work, with Feinsand noting that he’s touched 98 mph on the radar gun during his time in Gastonia.
Now 28, the right-hander is poised to get another shot in affiliated ball with the Blue Jays. The club has a deep group of relievers in Triple-A on the 40-man roster that includes Genesis Cabrera, Zach Pop, and Thomas Hatch, but if Klobosits can carry his strong appearances in the Atlantic League over to the minors, it’s possible he could crack a deep Toronto bullpen that ranks fifth in the majors with a 3.67 ERA this season.