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Rockies Place Antonio Senzatela On IL With Torn ACL

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The Rockies announced that right-hander Antonio Senzatela has been placed on the 15-day injured list with a left ACL tear. Fellow righty Jhoulys Chacin has been reinstated from the injured list to take his place on the roster.

Senzatela left yesterday’s game after injuring himself while attempting to field a ground ball, falling to the ground in obvious discomfort. It was reported earlier that he would be going for an MRI to get more information, which has apparently revealed the bad news of the torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee. Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post spoke to fellow Colorado hurler German Marquez about the situation, with Marquez saying he spoke to Senzatela, who will undergo surgery at some point.

Nick Groke of The Athletic tweets that the club expects Senzatela to miss 6-8 months, meaning this will certainly finish his season and will quite likely have a significant impact on next season as well. Next year’s Spring Training is already about six months away at this point. It will go down as a disappointing season for the righty, the first of his five-year, $50.5MM contract extension he signed with the Rockies. He registered a 5.07 ERA over 19 starts with a below-average 13.1% strikeout rate. He limited walks to a 5.6% rate and got ground balls on 49.4% of balls in play, but many of them found holes. His .383 batting average on balls in play this year was well above his .318 career rate.

In the short-term, the Rockies will eventually need to fill Senzatela’s spot in the rotation next to Marquez, Kyle Freeland, Jose Urena and Ryan Feltner. Chad Kuhl could help eventually, though he landed on the IL two weeks ago with a hip flexor strain. Austin Gomber got bumped to the bullpen after disappointing results but could come back to make some starts.

In the long-term, the Rockies will have to think about next year’s rotation, which was likely going to need some work even before this development. Kuhl and Urena are scheduled to reach free agency at season’s end, leaving the club with Marquez, Freeland, Feltner and perhaps Gomber as holdovers for next year. However, Freeland’s 4.82 ERA this year is the lowest of that bunch.

Tigers Reinstate Eduardo Rodriguez, Designate Wily Peralta

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The Tigers have reinstated left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez from the restricted list, tweets Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extra Base. Right-hander Wily Peralta was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.

Rodriguez, 29, was signed in the offseason to a five-year, $77MM contract, with the Tigers hoping he could be a veteran anchor of their young rotation. Detroit had debuted many promising young starters in previous seasons, including Casey Mize, Matt Manning, Tarik Skubal and others. It was hoped that those youngers, combined with the addition of Rodriguez, could give the club a strong rotation and help them emerge from their years-long rebuild.

Unfortunately, Murphy’s law has been applied to the Tigers in the strictest possible terms this season, with their rotation being heavily targeted. Mize made just two starts before landing on the injured list, eventually undergoing Tommy John surgery, keeping him out of action for this year and likely most of next year as well. Manning has since returned but missed almost four months due to shoulder issues, having made just five starts so far this year. Skubal stayed healthy for a while, making 21 starts, but recently underwent a flexor tendon surgery that will finish his 2022 and likely keep him out of action for part of 2023 as well.

As for Rodriguez, he landed on the injured list in May due to a ribcage sprain. He started a rehab assignment in early June but was then transferred to the restricted list due to a personal matter which was later reported to be a marital issue. He returned to begin another rehab assignment in early August, working back up to a starter’s workload before today’s return. In the end, Rodriguez spent just over two months on the restricted list, during which time he didn’t take up a spot on the 40-man roster or earn any salary. Prior to that extended absence, he made eight starts for Detroit, registering a 4.38 ERA in 39 innings.

With the club’s rotation being so snakebit all year, they have had to churn through various backup plans over the course of the season. One of those was Peralta, 33, who was signed to a minor league deal in the offseason. He was selected to the roster in mid-April and appeared in 28 games. In 38 1/3 innings on the year, he has a 2.58 ERA, not missing bats entirely but at least missing the most important part. His 19% strikeout rate is below league average but he’s in the 89th percentile in terms of barrel percentage. Perhaps due to keeping hitters off-balance, his 5.6% HR/FB rate is less than half his career rate, helping to keep his ERA down.

Despite those solid results, Peralta will head to the waiver wire in the coming days, as the trade deadline is now behind us. Manger A.J. Hinch spoke to reporters about today’s moves, including Chris McCosky of the Detroit News, explaining that they want to use the remainder of the season to evaluate younger pitchers. “We’re giving Wily Peralta a chance to pitch somewhere else while we look at some guys who are more likely to be here,” Hinch said.

Hinch also explained that Daniel Norris and Garrett Hill will be moved to the bullpen, as the club has multiple off-days coming up and can survive with a four-man rotation for a few weeks. In Hill’s case, the move is about limiting his innings down the stretch in order to avoid overworking him. The club’s rotation for the time being will consist of Rodriguez, Manning, Tyler Alexander and Drew Hutchison.

Angels Reinstate Mike Trout

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The Angels announced that outfielder Mike Trout has been reinstated from the 10-day injured list. After Wednesday’s game, they opened a spot on the active roster by optioning fellow outfielder Steven Duggar.

The return of Trout after just over a month on the IL will surely be a tremendous sigh of relief for the Angels and their fans, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it was just last year that Trout landed on the injured list due to a seemingly minor calf injury. However, that injury lingered and Trout was never able to return, limiting him to just 36 games on the season.

Secondly, this year’s injury, which was initially termed “ribcage inflammation” at the time of his IL placement, was followed by a very ominous-sounding report from Mike Frostad, the club’s head trainer. Frostrad relayed that Trout had been diagnosed with a “a costovertebral dysfunction” in his back, adding that Trout “has to manage it, not just through the rest of this season, but also through the rest of his career probably.”

Given that Trout had already lost most of his 2021 season due to a nagging condition, this update caused understandable consternation among the fanbase. With Frostad’s description of the issue making it seem chronic and ongoing, some wondered if Trout would ever get back to his previous elite level, but the superstar was quick to shrug off those concerns. “I appreciate all the prayer requests, but my career isn’t over,” Trout quipped at the time of Frostad’s report. Subsequent developments helped part the storm clouds hanging over the situation, as Trout later saw a specialist and began ramping up physical activities by the end of July, eventually leading to today’s return.

Before landing on the injured list, Trout was still one of the best players in baseball. He hit 24 home runs in 79 games and produced an overall batting line of .270/.368/.599. That production amounts to a wRC+ of 169, or 69% above league average, fourth-highest in baseball among those with at least 300 plate appearances on the year.

While Trout’s return will be most welcome for the Angels, it is unlikely to have a significant impact on the team in terms of this year’s standings. The Halos are 12 1/2 games out of a playoff spot and have a 0.0% chance of a miracle comeback, according to the playoff odds calculated by FanGraphs. However, just returning to health and getting back onto the field is still a positive development, considering last year’s frustrations and the worries surrounding this recent issue.

White Sox Sign Elvis Andrus

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Aug. 19: The White Sox have officially announced the signing of Andrus, with Sosa getting optioned to make room on the active roster. A space on the 40-man was created by yesterday’s outright of Yoan Aybar.

Aug. 18: The White Sox are in agreement on a contract with free-agent shortstop Elvis Andrus, reports Jeff Passan of ESPN (Twitter link). He’s expected to join their Major League squad in Cleveland tomorrow. The New York Post’s Jon Heyman reported late last night that the Sox were in talks with Andrus, who was released by the Athletics yesterday.

Elvis Andrus | D. Ross Cameron-USA TODAY Sports

The 33-year-old Andrus (34 next week) is a natural fit for a White Sox club that will be without Tim Anderson for the next three to five weeks as he continues rehabbing a torn ligament in his left hand. Andrus isn’t a premier defender at this stage of his career but is a more natural fit at short than young Lenyn Sosa, who’s been handling the position in place of Anderson recently and has managed just a .118/.143/.235 slash in an admittedly small sample of 35 plate appearances. Andrus’ .237/.301/.378 line isn’t a major improvement but is only narrowly shy of the league-average hitter in 2022.

That’s a far cry from Andrus’ .297/.337/.471 peak in 2017, when he also smashed 20 homers and swiped 25 bags to go along with quality defensive contributions at shortstop. Plugging a veteran shortstop with only slightly below-league-average offense into the lineup wasn’t something the Sox wouldn’t have been able to do just a few days ago, however, so they’re surely quite pleased to be able to add Andrus to the fold.

Defensive Runs Saved pegs Andrus’ glovework at a dismal -6 runs this season, but Ultimate Zone Rating (2.4) and Outs Above Average (zero/average) are more bullish. Even if the defense is now slightly sub-par, Sosa is considered by scouting reports a second baseman who’s ill-equipped to handle shortstop, and the early returns (-2 DRS, -2 OAA in just 41 innings) do nothing to suggest otherwise. Andrus ought to be a steadier option at the position.

Prior to his release, Andrus was playing out the final season of an eight-year, $120MM contract originally signed with the Rangers. The White Sox will only owe him the prorated league minimum for the remainder of the season, with the A’s still on the hook for the remainder of Andrus’ $14MM salary. That previous contract included a vesting $15MM player option upon Andrus reaching 550 plate appearances — he’s currently at 386 — but that’s a moot point now that he’s been released from his prior contract and signed a new one with Chicago. He’ll be a free agent at the end of the season.

It’s been a frustrating season at Guaranteed Rate Field, where the Sox have endured lengthy absences from key players like Lance Lynn, Eloy Jimenez, Yasmani Grandal and now Anderson (to say nothing of shorter IL stints for Luis Robert, Lucas Giolito and others). Things haven’t gone as the front office envisioned when putting together this enviable young core, but the Sox have played better ball of late and, despite some early-season doldrums, are only two games behind the division-leading Guardians and one game back of the second-place Twins. The American League Central should be the tightest three-team race in Major League Baseball down the stretch, so even if Andrus proves a mere incremental upgrade, that marginal improvement could play a pivotal role.

Rays Select Kevin Herget

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The Rays have selected right-hander Kevin Herget from Triple-A Durham and optioned righty Luis Patino back to Durham in his place, per a team announcement. Tampa Bay had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so Patino’s option is the only corresponding move necessary.

It’ll be the Major League debut for Herget, a 31-year-old former 39th-round pick who has spent nine years grinding through the minor leagues. He’s in his first season with the Rays organization after spending the vast majority of his career in the Cardinals’ farm system. While this is Herget’s fifth season with at least some time spent at the Triple-A level, he’s unquestionably had the finest results of his career in 2022, logging a 2.45 ERA with a 25.2% strikeout rate, a minuscule 3.4% walk rate and a 34.4% ground-ball rate.

The Rays don’t necessarily need a spot starter at the moment, as Shane McClanahan and Drew Rasmussen are lined up to start Friday and Saturday. They’re currently listing Sunday’s starter as TBD, although Corey Kluber would be on regular rest if he were to take the mound that day. Herget could potentially get the ball for that series finale against Kansas City, but if not, he’ll add some length to the bullpen for the time being.

It’s a quick trip back to Triple-A for Patino, who impressed yesterday with 5 2/3 innings of shutout baseball against the Royals. However, with McClanahan, Rasmussen, Kluber, Jeffrey Springs and Ryan Yarbrough all healthy and pitching well of late, he’ll apparently continue to get his innings in at the Triple-A level while awaiting a more permanent spot in the rotation. The 22-year-old ranked as one of the game’s best all-around prospect prior to his big league debut, and while he’s yet to solidify himself as a mainstay in the Tampa rotation, he’ll likely be afforded the opportunity to do so before too long.

Dodgers Release Tony Wolters

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Aug. 19: The Dodgers have released Wolters, per the transactions log at MLB.com.

Aug. 15: The Dodgers announced Monday that catcher Austin Barnes has been reinstated from the family medical emergency list. Fellow backstop Tony Wolters was designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for Barnes’ return.

Wolters, 30, was added to the roster as the corresponding move when Barnes initially stepped away from the team for family reasons thus past Friday. He appeared in a pair of games over the weekend but went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts in his very brief time as a member of the Dodgers. He’ll now be placed on outright waivers or released in the next week.

A familiar face for the Dodgers and their fans thanks to a lengthy stint as the primary catcher for the Rockies, Wolters has appeared in just 16 big league games since leaving Colorado following the 2020 season (14 with the Cubs last year, plus these two with L.A.). He caught 391 games with the Rox from 2016-20, hitting .238/.323/.319 with strong defensive marks for most of his time calling Coors Field home.

Wolters was batting .216/.311/.270 in 193 plate appearances with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate at the time of his selection to the big league roster. In all, he’s a .235/.321/.314 hitter in parts of seven Major League seasons (1266 plate appearances).

White Sox Outright Yoan Aybar

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The White Sox have outrighted left-hander Yoan Aybar, tweets James Fegan of The Athletic. This opens a spot on the club’s 40-man roster, which should be filled tomorrow when their previously-reported agreement with Elvis Andrus will be made official.

Aybar, 25, bounced around a bit earlier this year, getting designated for assignment by the Rockies in March, getting claimed off waivers by the Yankees and again by the White Sox. Unfortunately, it’s been a dreary season for Aybar, as he’s registered a 7.67 ERA over 29 1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. He’s racked up strikeouts at a healthy 25.9% but has also given out free passes at a 16.8% rate.

Aybar was an outfield prospect in his earlier years, only converting to pitching prior to the 2018 season. Since then, he’s shown lots of strikeout potential but also a lack of control. It could have been reasonably assumed that he would deal with those control issues with more time on the hill, given his late conversion. However, that doesn’t seem to have come to fruition yet. Despite Aybar being claimed on waivers a few times earlier this year, it seems the other 29 teams passed on a chance to grab him this time around.

Players who have previously been outrighted or have more than three years of MLB service time can reject an outright assignment and elect free agency. Aybar doesn’t meet either of those requirements, meaning he will stick around with the White Sox as depth but without occupying a spot on the roster.

Mets Claim Yolmer Sanchez, Designate Patrick Mazeika

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The Mets announced Thursday that they’ve claimed veteran second baseman Yolmer Sanchez off waivers from the Red Sox and opened a spot on the roster by designating catcher Patrick Mazeika for assignment.

The 30-year-old Sanchez is a former Gold Glove winner at second base who never got going with the bat in his brief time with the Red Sox. In a small sample of 37 plate appearances, he went just 4-for-37 with an 11.4% walk rate, 29.5% strikeout rate and no extra-base hits.

Sanchez’s peak years with the bat came in 2017-18 with the White Sox, when he posted a combined .253/.312/.390 batting line while playing second base on a near-everyday basis. Granted, even that career-best production was about nine percent worse than league-average, by measure of wRC+, but for a player with Sanchez’s speed and defensive skills, that was plenty to make him a solid regular. His line dipped to .252/.318/.321 in 2019, but Sanchez also won a Gold Glove that year, so the Sox likely didn’t mind the tepid output at the plate.

In the time since winning that Gold Glove, though, Sanchez has barely seen the Majors. He logged just 21 plate appearances with the ChiSox during the shortened 2020 season and spent the 2021 season with the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate where he posted a grisly .216/.309/.352 line in 355 plate appearances. Things were going much better for Sanchez with Boston’s Triple-A club, for whom he’d turned in a .247/.377/.413 line in 305 trips to the plate.

The Mets’ infield is banged up at the moment, with Luis Guillorme out as long as six weeks and Eduardo Escobar on the injured list due to an oblique strain. New York recently called up top infield prospect Brett Baty to man the hot corner — Baty homered in his first MLB at-bat last night — and have Francisco Lindor, Jeff McNeil and Pete Alonso to round out the infield. Guillorme’s absence takes away the Mets’ primary backup to Lindor at shortstop, however, but Sanchez can give them a capable bench option to back up any of Baty, Lindor and McNeil while they work toward getting back to better health.

As for Mazeika, the 28-year-old has had some brief looks with the Mets over the past two seasons but has never provided anything with the bat. He’s a .190/.236/.279 hitter in 159 plate appearances at the MLB level. Mazeika does have a more palatable .272/.367/.414 output in parts of two Triple-A seasons, and the Mets have been pleased with his defensive skills. He’ll be placed on waivers within a week. Any team that claims Mazeika could option him freely in 2022, but he’ll be out of minor league options next season.

Rays Designate Jimmy Yacabonis For Assignment

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The Rays have designated right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for righty Luis Patino, who’s being recalled from Triple-A Durham to start tonight’s game, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets.

Yacabonis, 30, was claimed out of the Marlins organization earlier in the month but has struggled considerably in his short time with the Rays, yielding four earned runs on six hits and two walks with four strikeouts in 3 2/3 frames. That brings Yacabonis to 11 runs in 13 innings this season (7.62) and boosts his career ERA to a mark of 5.92 in 117 innings between the Orioles, Mariners, Marlins and Rays.

Unsightly as those numbers may be, Yacabonis has a strong track record in both Double-A and Triple-A, and his ability to spin his slider has long intrigued teams. Yacabonis has been designated for assignment several times in his career but has been both claimed off waivers and traded in the past (in addition to a pair of outrights). The 2022 season is now his fifth with some level of Major League activity, further underscoring that teams are intrigued by quite a bit in his profile even if the results haven’t yet aligned with the minor league track record and his slider spin. The Rays will place him on waivers within the next week.

Patino, meanwhile, will return to the big leagues after a roller-coaster run in Durham. He’s missed significant time this season due to a Grade 2 oblique strain, throwing a wrench into the former top prospect’s bid to secure a full-time rotation spot in Tampa Bay. His most recent Triple-A run lasted three appearances: a perfect four-inning outing with four strikeouts, a disastrous start in which he yielded four runs in two-thirds of an inning, and another scoreless five-inning outing (no runs, three hits, two walks, six punchouts).

Patino has yet to establish himself in parts of three Major League seasons, although that’s not exactly unexpected for a pitcher who bursts into the big leagues at age 20. There are still some recent draftees who are the same age as Patino, but the 6’1″ righty nevertheless already has 102 2/3 MLB frames under his belt. There’s ample time for him to solidify his place alongside Shane McClanahan, Drew Rasmussen and, health-permitting, Shane Baz as a vital long-term rotation piece for manager Kevin Cash.

Royals Designate Joel Payamps For Assignment

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The Royals have designated right-hander Joel Payamps for assignment and optioned infielder Maikel Garcia to Triple-A Omaha, per a club announcement. That pair of moves will open roster space for Hunter Dozier to return from the paternity list and for righty Max Castillo to be recalled from Omaha. Castillo, whom the Royals acquired in the trade that sent Whit Merrifield to Toronto, will start tonight’s game in place of veteran Brad Keller, who has been moved from the rotation to the bullpen.

Payamps, 28, has been a solid member of the Kansas City bullpen this season, working to a 3.16 ERA with a 17.6% strikeout rate, an 8.5% walk rate and a hearty 53.3% ground-ball rate, all of which makes his DFA at least a mild surprise. Fielding-independent metrics aren’t quite as bullish on the righty, who’s benefited from an elevated 78.9% left-on-base rate and given up a fair bit of hard contact (40.9%). Still, Payamps is averaging a career-high 95 mph on his heater, keeping the ball on the ground at a career-best rate and sporting a career-best 10.1% swinging-strike rate.

It’s not an elite package of results and secondary marks, but Payamps has had a better year than the standard DFA casualty and figures to have a decent chance of being claimed on waivers. That’ll be the Royals’ only course of action, as he can’t be traded now that the deadline has passed. Payamps is controllable for another four years beyond the current season but is out of minor league options, so any team to claim him will have to carry him on the MLB roster.

Castillo, 23, slotted in as the Royals’ No. 24 prospect at Baseball America in their post-deadline reranking of the system. He made his big league debut with Toronto earlier in the season, appearing in nine games (two of them starts) and working to a 3.05 ERA with a 20-to-5 K/BB ratio in 20 2/3 innings. It’s been a strong season on the whole for Castillo, who notched a 3.10 ERA in Double-A before jumping to Triple-A and yielding six runs in 31 innings (1.74 ERA).

Castillo isn’t a power pitcher but has displayed solid walk and ground-ball rates while garnering praise for an above-average changeup and command of the strike zone. The Royals will take at least some of the remainder of the season to evaluate him as a potential rotation piece, though it’s always possible that he ultimately slots in as a multi-inning reliever or swing man. For now, he’ll join Zack Greinke, Brady Singer, Daniel Lynch and Kris Bubic on the starting staff.

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