Cardinals To Designate Genesis Cabrera For Assignment
The Cardinals are planning to designate left-handed reliever Genesis Cabrera for assignment today, reports Katie Woo of The Athletic. They’ll have a week to trade him or attempt to pass him through outright waivers once the move is official.
Cabrera, 26, posted a sharp 3.41 ERA in 92 1/3 innings with the Cards from 2020-21, but he’s never displayed even average command at the MLB level and has struggled over the past two seasons. Dating back to Opening Day 2022, the southpaw carries a 4.82 ERA with a below-average 20.8% strikeout rate and much higher-than-average 11.3% walk rate. Cabrera’s heater averaged 97.9 mph during 2021, arguably his peak season, but that velocity is down two miles per hour from that level in 2023, sitting at 95.9 mph. He’s also been extremely home-run prone dating back to last year, averaging 1.64 home runs per nine innings pitched.
Even with the downturn in velocity and pedestrian strikeout rate over the past two seasons, there’s still some reason to believe Cabrera is capable of more. Averaging roughly 96 mph from the left side is of note, even if that’s down from peak levels, and Cabrera sports a very strong 13.6% swinging-strike rate this season. He’s also induced chases off the plate at an above-average 32.6% clip. There’s little doubt that Cabrera has intriguing raw stuff, and another team may have a different plan to maximize his arsenal.
Beyond his power repertoire, Cabrera is affordable ($950K salary in 2023), controllable and has a minor league option remaining. He entered the current season with just over three years of Major League service time, so he can be controlled through the 2025 campaign. He’s unlikely to fetch a major price in a trade, but another club could view him as an interesting buy-low candidate who could contribute not just this year but for another two seasons.
Cabrera’s DFA figures to be the first of a broad-reaching slate of roster changes for the Cardinals in the next few weeks. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak has already suggested that the 2024 season will be his focus at this year’s deadline, and the Cards are expected to at the very least shop rental players like Jordan Montgomery, Jack Flaherty, Jordan Hicks, Paul DeJong and Chris Stratton. Broader-reaching changes are possible — the Cards have a glut of MLB-ready outfielders, for instance — but the Cardinals aren’t expected to trade core players and have given no indication that a larger-scale teardown is coming as a result of this year’s disastrous season.
Notable Draft Signings: 7/16/23
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 White Sox announced deals with 17 of their 20 draft picks, including first-rounder Jacob Gonzalez. The Sox specified that Gonzalez signed for a $3.9MM bonus, less than the $4,488,600 slot price attached to the 15th overall pick. The pundits had a pretty wide range of opinion on Gonzalez, with McDaniel ranking him sixth in the draft class and Fangraphs placing the Ole Miss shortstop 37th. Gonzalez has an unusual swing that had led to some disagreement on his ceiling as a hitter, though he is considered at least average in every tool except his below-average speed.
- The Reds signed eight more of their picks, led by second-round pick Ty Floyd. Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter link) reports that Floyd received a $2,097,500 bonus, which is below the $2,255,100 slot price for the 38th overall selection. McDaniel had Floyd ranked highest at 42nd on his list, calling the LSU right-hander “a strong athlete with an above-average slider” and “easy plus velo” on a fastball that can hit 98mph and usually sits in the 94-95mph range. The big fastball alone projects Floyd as at least an intriguing bullpen arm for the future, and his slider and changeup at least offer promise as plus pitches.
Yankees Place Josh Donaldson On Injured List
The Yankees announced earlier today that third baseman Josh Donaldson had been placed on the 10-day IL with a right calf strain. In a corresponding move, infielder Oswald Peraza was recalled from Triple-A.
It’s been a difficult year of Donaldson, who missed nearly two months with a right hamstring strain and has struggled at the plate even when healthy, with a .142/.225/.434 slash line in 120 plate appearances, good for a wRC+ of just 75. Those brutal offense numbers don’t tell the whole story, as Donaldson has still managed to hit for power with an impressive .292 ISO and a whopping 19.7% barrel rate. Additionally, the veteran sports a microscopic BABIP of .076 that is surely contributing to his woeful batting average. While some of that can be explained by a career-low 7.9% line drive rate, it seems reasonable to expect that Donaldson’s performance would level out over time with more of his batted balls falling in for hits.
Unfortunately for Donaldson, any hopes of turning his season around will have to be put on hold for the foreseeable future as he heads to the shelf with a calf injury. A timetable for Donaldson’s return has not been made available, but the veteran infielder has dealt with calf issues previously in his career, including missing a month with a right calf strain in 2020 with the Twins and left calf issues that limited him to just sixteen games after the end of May in 2018.
Replacing Donaldson on the roster is Peraza, who entered the 2023 campaign as a top-50 prospect in the sport. In 12 games in the majors this season the 23 year old has managed a slash line of just .188/.316/.219, though he’s posted a much stronger .261/.352/.495 line in 45 games at the Triple-A level. Though he’s yet to receive an extended opportunity at the big league level, it’s possible that’s about to change, as Aaron Boone told reporters (including Chris Kirschner of The Athletic) that “there should be plenty of playing time for him” around the infield, with Peraza able to play both second and third base in addition to his natural position of shortstop.
In more positive injury news, GM Brian Cashman told MLBNetwork’s Jim Bowden on the radio today that star outfielder Aaron Judge is making progress in his rehab, with things “moving in the right direction” regarding both his hitting and his running. While no specific timetable for return was addressed, Cashman noted that the club will have a better idea of when Judge will be ready to return to action after the club’s current road trip, which is set to end on Friday.
The possibility of Judge nearing a return is phenomenal news for the Yankees, who have gone just 15-18 since losing the reigning AL MVP at the start of June. In 49 games this season, Judge has slashed a sensational .291/.404/.674 that’s good for a whopping 188 wRC+. With Judge on the shelf, the club is currently relying on the likes of Isiah-Kiner Falefa, Billy McKinney, Oswaldo Cabrera, and Franchy Cordero in the outfield corners with Giancarlo Stanton at DH and Harrison Bader in center field.
Pirates To Promote Endy Rodriguez, Liover Peguero
The Pirates are continuing to dip into the upper tier of their prospect base, as both catcher Endy Rodriguez and middle infielder Liover Peguero are being called up from Triple-A, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports (Twitter links). Rodriguez will be set to make his MLB debut, while Peguero is getting another look after appearing in a single game with the Pirates last season.
Rodriguez was a consensus top-55 prospect in preseason rankings from Baseball America (who had him 23rd), The Athletic’s Keith Law (34th) and MLB Pipeline and Baseball Prospectus (55th). In updated midseason rankings, BA has now dropped Rodriguez to 55th while Pipeline has elevated him up to 34th, which perhaps speaks more to the methodology of each list — for instance, Baseball America has already incorporated picks from the 2023 draft class into their rankings.
Regardless, Rodriguez’s first full year at Triple-A hasn’t been the full-fledged breakout that the Pirates would’ve preferred to see, even though the team has opted to give the call to the 23-year-old. Rodriguez has hit .268/.356/.415 with six homers over 315 plate appearances at Triple-A Indianapolis, with a slow start dampening his numbers. The last month has been a lot better for Rodriguez, however, as he has a .986 OPS over his last 93 PA, with more walks (13) than strikeouts (11).
This hot streak will now carry Rodriguez into the Show, and he’ll join fellow prospect Quinn Priester in what will likely be a dual debut on Monday, as Priester is already set to start against the Guardians. Between Rodriguez, Priester, and Henry Davis and Nick Gonzales already called up earlier this season, Pittsburgh’s youth movement is in full effect, and the remaining months of the 2023 campaign will provide an intriguing glimpse at what the Bucs hope is a future championship core.
Originally an international signing for the Mets, Rodriguez came to Pittsburgh as part of the three-team trade in January 2021 that sent Joe Musgrove to the Padres and Joey Lucchesi to New York. That swap has already been very beneficial for the Pirates in the form of star closer David Bednar, and if Rodriguez lives up to his prospect potential, the trade may be seen as one of the key building blocks of the franchise’s rebuild. Rodriguez was starting to hit in rookie ball even before the canceled 2020 minor league season, and his continued success led to a quick rise through three different levels of Pittsburgh’s farm system in 2022.
Rodriguez has displayed a knack for contact hitting and for getting on base throughout his minor league career, though his Isolated Power number has taken a notable drop in 2023. Even if he’ll have to work on that extra pop against big league pitching, Rodriguez’s switch-hitting profile is particularly promising from the catcher position.
It has become increasingly clear this season that the Pirates indeed view Rodriguez as a catcher, as he has played almost all of his Triple-A games behind the plate (with eight appearances at first base). Rodriguez had previously been deployed as a second baseman, left fielder, and right fielder earlier in his minor league career, as the Pirates explored how to best utilize Rodriguez’s athleticism, and also how to juggle playing time for Davis as a possible catcher of the future.
Since Davis has almost entirely been a right fielder during his brief time in the majors, it would seem like Pittsburgh’s plan is for Rodriguez to be a primary catcher and for Davis to be perhaps something of an overqualified backup — playing mostly every day in the outfield but also getting some occasional reps at catcher. Defensive specialist Austin Hedges figures to still be in the mix for playing time and as a veteran mentor to Rodriguez and Davis, while current backup catcher Jason Delay might be something of an odd man out.
The 22-year-old Peguero is ranked by MLB Pipeline as the seventh-best prospect in the Pirates’ farm system, and he drew top-100 attention from Pipeline, BA, and Prospectus prior to the 2022 campaign. Peguero had an uninspiring season at Double-A last year that still resulted in his one-game MLB debut, and thus far in 2023, he hit well enough in more Double-A action (.260/.333/.453 in 318 PA) to merit a promotion to Triple-A. Now, the Bucs are making another aggressive call-up, as Peguero is headed back to the majors after only seven games in Indianapolis.
Known for his excellent speed and throwing arm, Peguero might have a future at shortstop, though Oneil Cruz will have first dibs on the position once he returns from the 60-day injured list. Peguero and Gonzales figure to work as the Pirates’ middle infield duo until Cruz is healthy, and possibly into the future if or when the club makes a decision about Cruz’s defensive future.
Tyler Danish Opts Out Of Nationals Contract
Tyler Danish has opted out of his minor league deal with the Nationals, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (Twitter link). Danish signed with Washington at the start of May, after being released from a previous minors contract with the Yankees at the end of Spring Training.
Over 29 relief innings with Triple-A Rochester, Danish posted a 3.72 ERA, with a 15.3% strikeout rate and a 11.5% walk rate. The low strikeout rate isn’t necessarily a surprise since Danish is a grounder specialist (his groundball rate is a whopping 58.7% this year), but his high walk rate continues the control problems that have emerged over his last two seasons at the minor league level. The Nationals apparently hadn’t seen enough to add Danish to their active roster, or to make room for him on the 40-man.
The 28-year-old right-hander will now head back to the open market once more, looking for another path back to the big leagues. Danish appeared in parts of the 2016-18 seasons with the White Sox (for 13 total innings) before resurfacing back in the majors with the Red Sox in 2022, posting a 5.13 ERA over 40 1/3 frames.
Matt Bowman Opts Out Of Yankees Deal
Right-hander Matt Bowman has opted out of his minor league deal with the Yankees, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. If the Yankees don’t add Bowman to the club’s 40-man roster within the next 72 hours, Bowman will return to the open market.
A 13th round pick by the Mets in the 2012 draft, Bowman made his major league debut with the Cardinals in 2016. From 2016-19, Bowman posted a 4.02 ERA (105 ERA+) and 3.68 FIP across 181 innings of work between the St. Louis and Cincinnati bullpens. Bowman didn’t appear in an affiliated game from 2020-2022 due to the shortened 2020 campaign and the Tommy John surgery he underwent in September of that year.
After landing with the Yankees on a minor league deal, he returned to pro-ball at the Triple-A level with the club earlier this season. In 38 1/3 innings of work at Triple-A this season, Bowman has posted solid numbers. He sports a 3.29 ERA with a solid 22% strikeout rate and strong 59.6% groundball rate, albeit with a less impressive walk rate of 11%.
Despite Bowman’s solid performance at the Triple-A level, it’s unclear if the Yankees will make room for him on the 40-man or allow him to walk in free agency. New York sports MLB’s best bullpen ERA with a 3.16 figure, while Yankees relievers rank a solid 4th in the NL with 2.9 fWAR this season. Given the solid performances not only from back-end arms like Clay Holmes and Michael King but even relievers like Nick Ramirez and Ian Hamilton in the middle innings, the club may simply not have room in their bullpen for Bowman, though the right-hander does have a minor league option remaining.
If Bowman does reach the open market, he’s sure to garnet interest from relief-needy clubs thanks to the 32-year-old hurler’s combination of strong results at Triple-A this year and track record of success in the big leagues when healthy. With the trade deadline just two weeks away, plenty of clubs are likely to be shuffling their relief corps in the near future, whether to accommodate a newly-acquired arm or after dealing away an established reliever. That could create opportunity for Bowman to crack an MLB roster and return to a major league mound for the first time since 2019.
Cubs Acquire P.J. Higgins
Per The Athletic’s Patrick Mooney, the Cubs have acquired catcher P.J. Higgins in a minor trade with the Diamondbacks in exchange for cash consideration.
It’s a homecoming for Higgins, who was drafted by the Cubs in the 12th round of the 2015 draft. He made his big league debut on the north side back in 2021 with a nine-game cup of coffee before getting a longer look in the organization the following season as the club’s third catcher behind Willson Contreras and Yan Gomes. Higgins made it into 74 games that season, slashing .229/.310/.383 in 229 plate appearances, good for a roughly average wRC+ of 97. In addition to his 236 innings of work behind the plate, Higgins spent time at both infield corners with the Cubs in 2022.
Despite that solid performance, Higgins was eventually designated for assignment by the Cubs during the offseason to make room for newly-signed catcher Tucker Barnhart on the 40-man roster. Higgins elected free agency shortly thereafter before signing with the Diamondbacks on a minor league deal shortly after the new year. In 2023, Higgins has hit well at the Triple-A level for Arizona with a .317/.407/.473 slash line (116 wRC+) in 58 games. Unfortunately for Higgins, he was blocked with the Diamondbacks by Gabriel Moreno, Carson Kelly, and Jose Herrera, all of whom were on the 40-man roster in Arizona.
Higgins now returns to Chicago, though he’s once again blocked by a trio of catchers on the 40-man roster: Barnhart, Gomes, and Miguel Amaya. That being said, Barnhart has struggled massively at the plate with a wRC+ of just 58 in 110 plate appearances this season, while Gomes was among MLBTR’s Top 50 Deadline Trade Candidates earlier this month. Should the club move on from either Barnhart or Gomes in the near future, Higgins could have a path to a roster spot with the Cubs as the club’s third catcher. In the meantime, he figures to head to Triple-A where he’ll share time with Dom Nunez and Bryce Windham at the Triple-A level.
Red Sox Designate Tayler Scott For Assignment
The Red Sox announced this morning that they had designated left-hander Tayler Scott for assignment. Taking Scott’s place on both the 40-man and active rosters is right-hander Jake Faria, who had his contract selected from the minors in a corresponding move.
A fifth round pick by the Cubs in the 2011 draft, Scott is journeyman who played for five organizations in the minor leagues before making his big league debut with the Mariners in 2019 at the age of 27. In 13 appearances with Seattle and Baltimore that season, Scott posted a 14.33 ERA in 16 1/3 innings of work. He’d spend the next two seasons overseas, playing for the Hiroshima Carp in the NPB before returning to the majors in 2022 with the Padres. In San Diego, Scott struggled once again to a 7.45 ERA in 9 2/3 innings of work.
In 2023, Scott signed on with the Dodgers on a minor league deal before impressing at the Triple-A level with a 1.37 ERA in 19 2/3 innings of work. The lefty was unable to replicate that success at the big league level, however, as Scott posted an ERA of 9.00 in six innings of work with the big league Dodgers before being traded to the Red Sox last month. Scott’s run prevention numbers improved slightly in Boston, though he still yielded a 4.91 ERA in his 3 2/3 innings of work with the club.
Overall, the 31-year-old Scott sports a career 10.18 ERA in 38 innings of work at the big league level, though he’s had more success overseas and in Triple-A with career marks of 4.02 and 4.01 respectively. The Red Sox will now have a week to trade, release, or waive Scott. Should they successfully pass Scott through waivers, the Red Sox will have the opportunity to outright Scott to the minors, though Scott could reject that assignment as a player who has previously been outrighted in his career.
Replacing Scott on the roster is Faria, a 29-year-old right-hander who last pitched in the big leagues with the Diamondbacks back in 2021. In 203 innings of major league work with the Rays, Brewers, and Dbacks, Faria has posted a 4.70 ERA (90 ERA+) with a matching 4.74 FIP. Faria is capable of pitching both out of the bullpen and as a member of the rotation, with 29 of his 72 career appearances in the majors having come as a starter. He’s struggled in 55 2/3 innings of work with the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Worcester, with a 6.47 ERA and 13.3% walk rate, though given his decent big league track record it’s nonetheless possible he could offer a useful multi-inning relief option to the Red Sox going forward.
Pirates To Promote Quinn Priester
The Pirates are calling up another of their top prospects, as Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Twitter links) that right-hander Quinn Priester is expected to make his MLB debut on Monday in a start against the Guardians. The Bucs will need to make moves to both clear space on the active roster and open a spot for Priester on the 40-man roster.
The 22-year-old Priester was the 18th overall pick of the 2019 draft, and both MLB Pipeline and The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked him within their preseason top-100 prospects lists in each of the last three years. Pipeline currently has Priester rated 54th among all prospects in baseball, describing him as “super-athletic on the mound and at times has shown he can be a very efficient strike-thrower.”
Priester made his Triple-A debut in 2022, albeit tossing only 9 1/3 innings at the Pirates’ top affiliate. It was something of a compressed year overall for Priester since he missed the first two months of the 2022 campaign due to an oblique injury, and his 90 1/3 total innings last season were spread over four different minor league levels. The righty’s first full Triple-A season hasn’t exactly been dominant, as Priester has a 4.31 ERA over 87 2/3 innings, with a modest 22.4% strikeout rate and 9.3% walk rate. A grounder specialist, Priester has a 53.8% groundball rate and a .316 BABIP this year, which could lend itself to his only okay Triple-A numbers.
Priester has a four-pitch repertoire, headlined by a plus curveball and a good changeup. His fastball draws somewhat mixed reviews, as Law feels “he’ll probably have to emphasize his offspeed stuff over his 92-96 mph fastball, which plays down from its velocity.” On the flipside, Pipeline gives Priester’s fastball a 60-grade, and feels he can add more velocity over time.
Before Paul Skenes was drafted first overall last week, Priester had been the top pitching prospect in Pittsburgh’s farm system, and he’ll now become the latest member of the Pirates’ youth movement to make his debut in the Show. Given how injuries have thinned out the rotation, Priester will get plenty of chances to stick around if he pitches well, and more opportunity might emerge after the trade deadline if Rich Hill is dealt elsewhere.
Royals Place Amir Garrett On Release Waivers
The Royals announced today that they have requested unconditional release waivers on left-hander Amir Garrett. The lefty had been designated for assignment last week, and will now officially become a free agent upon clearing.
Garrett struggled badly during his tenure with Kansas City, which began when he was traded to the Royals by the Reds in exchange for fellow lefty Mike Minor. Since then, Garrett has been a roughly league average reliever by the numbers, with a 4.39 ERA (96 ERA+) and a 4.16 FIP 87 appearances with the Royals. Garrett has been held back from being a stronger set-up option in these past two seasons thanks to serious control problems, with a 16.9% walk rate during his Royals tenure. Those issues have been magnified across 24 1/3 innings of work this season, as Garrett has allowed free passes at an even higher 17.9% rate. If not for an unsustainable 85.2% strand rate this season, Garrett’s strong 3.33 ERA this season would surely be significantly higher, as illustrated by his concerning peripherals (5.58 FIP, 5.05 SIERA).
Garrett had just over five years of major league service time entering the 2023 campaign, and any player with at least five years of service time has the right to reject an outright assignment without forgoing the remainder of his salary. Additionally, no club would have had interest in taking on the remainder of Garrett’s $2.65MM salary for the 2023 campaign when he could be had for no more than the prorated major league minimum if signed after he hits the open market. As such, the Royals’ decision to forgo outright waivers and simply release Garrett was little more than a formality.
Once Garrett officially clears waivers, he’ll be free to sign with any of the other 29 organizations in the league, which would only have to pay him a prorated portion of the major league minimum for the rest of the season, leaving the Royals on the hook for the remainder of his 2023 salary. While Garrett’s control problems are certainly glaring, as a lefty bullpen arm who had success back in 2019 and 2020 with the Reds, when he posted a 3.03 ERA in 90 appearances, he certainly could draw interest from rival clubs on a no-risk minor league deal with a club that thinks it can help Garrett reclaim his previous form.