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.
Royals’ Josh Staumont To Undergo Thoracic Outlet Syndrome Surgery
TODAY: Staumont will undergo thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, according to Anne Rogers (Twitter link). It’s a big setback for Staumont, who will miss the rest of the season and face something of an uncertain recovery timeline, given the still-new nature of TOS procedures. Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post recently wrote about the two different kinds (vascular and neurogenic) of TOS, and how vascular cases are by far the less-serious of the two, while neurogenic TOS surgery could be career-threatening.
JULY 14: The Royals announced today that left-hander Ángel Zerpa was reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A Omaha. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, right-hander Josh Staumont was sent the other way, transferred to the 60-day IL.
Staumont, 29, has been on the injured list since June 6 due to a neck strain. A couple of weeks ago, Anne Rogers of MLB.com reported that he suffered a setback and would require further testing. His current timeline isn’t known, but he’ll now be officially ineligible to return until 60 days from his initial IL placement, which rules him out until early August. He’s yet to begin a rehab assignment, so it doesn’t seem like he’s especially close to returning anyhow. The righty has an ERA of 4.01 in his career, striking out 26.2% of batters faced but walking 13%.
Zerpa, 23, suffered a shoulder injury during Spring Training and has been on the injured list for the entire season until this point. He was able to collect major league pay and service time for the past few months, crossing over the one-year mark in the process, but that will stop for the time being. He has 16 innings of major league experience from the previous two seasons with a 1.13 ERA in that small sample.
He was stretched out as a starter during his recent rehab assignment and will provide the club with some rotation depth. He has just one option year remaining and will burn that last option as soon as he spends 20 days on optional assignment here in 2023. If he’s not quickly recalled in the next few weeks, he’ll be out of options in 2024.
Royals Sign First-Round Pick Blake Mitchell
The Royals have agreed to a deal with eighth overall pick Blake Mitchell, according to MLB Pipeline’s Jim Callis (via Twitter). Mitchell will receive a $4.9MM bonus, below the $5,980,100 slot price attached to the eighth overall selection.
The 18-year-old Mitchell is a high schooler from Texas who had committed to LSU, but he’ll now forego college ball and start his pro career. Mitchell and Kyle Teel (from the University of Virginia) were considered the two best catching prospects of this year’s draft class, and Mitchell was taken ahead of Teel on draft night, as Teel lasted until the Red Sox selected him with the 14th overall pick. Mitchell was rated as the 14th-best prospect of the overall draft class by Pipeline, with Baseball America (15th), Keith Law (20th), Fangraphs (20th), and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel (29th) all giving somewhat varied first-round evaluations.
The pundits feel Mitchell needs to cut down on his strikeouts and improve his contact hitting in general, but his left-handed swing and approach hints at some quality power potential. Defensively, Mitchell’s natural athleticism lends itself to pitch-blocking, and he has an outstanding throwing arm that will give pause to would-be basestealers. The arm strength is no surprise since Mitchell was also an intriguing pitching prospect, and Pipeline’s scouting report felt he could have been selected as a pitcher alone before the end of the second round. However, Mitchell will stick to catching, and he now projects as Kansas City’s long-term successor to Salvador Perez behind the plate.
Braves Place A.J. Minter On 15-Day Injured List
The Braves announced that left-hander A.J. Minter has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to left shoulder inflammation. The placement is backdated to July 12, and right-hander Dereck Rodriguez was called up from Triple-A to take Minter’s spot on the active roster.
Minter left last Saturday’s game due to what was described by the team as left pectoral tightness, though the southpaw said he was feeling better just a day later. It isn’t yet known if this shoulder problem was related to the pectoral tightness, or if this is a new injury altogether. Regardless, the Braves will now be without one of their top bullpen arms for at least another 12 days.
The bottom-line numbers don’t really reflect Minter’s overall quality, as he has a 4.91 ERA over 40 1/3 innings this season. Of his 22 earned runs allowed, 11 of them came over a disastrous stretch of 4 2/3 innings over five appearances in April. Minter has a 3.04 ERA over 26 2/3 innings since that rough patch, and both his 2.88 SIERA and his largely above-average Statcast numbers indicate that he has been a lot more effective than his 4.91 ERA would suggest.
There isn’t yet any suggestion that Minter could miss a lot of time or that his shoulder problem is anything serious, though inflammation is something of a tricky injury to gauge. Fellow Atlanta southpaw Dylan Lee has been out of action since mid-May with his own case of shoulder inflammation, and has been throwing some bullpen sessions as he works his way back from the 60-day injured list.
The league-leading Braves don’t have many overt weaknesses, but Minter’s absence could give the club something to address heading into the trade deadline. With Lee sidelined, Minter and Lucas Luetge were the only left-handers in Atlanta’s bullpen, so southpaw depth was perhaps a need for the Braves even before Minter’s injury. Braves president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos is typically aggressive at the deadline, and left-handed relief figures to be high on his list of targets as he looks to put the final touches on what looks like a World Series contender.
Brewers Release Eddy Alvarez
The Brewers have released utilityman Eddy Alvarez, according to his MLB.com profile page. Jim Goulart of BrewerFanatic.com reports (via Twitter) that Alvarez exercised an opt-out clause in the minor league contract he signed with Milwaukee back in December.
That deal had yet to translate into a call-up to the big league roster, even though Alvarez has hit .283/.397/.473 with seven homers and 16 steals (in 18 chances) over 257 plate appearances for Triple-A Nashville. Goulart notes that “a bit of a roster crunch” impacted Alvarez’s playing time, which certainly must’ve influenced his decision to trigger the opt-out and look for a new opportunity elsewhere.
Alvarez isn’t exactly an up-and-comer at age 33, but his Triple-A performance and multi-positional versatility could very well land him a new minors deal with another team. Alvarez is a veteran of three MLB seasons, hitting .183/.262/.262 over 142 plate appearances and 50 games with the Marlins and Dodgers from 2020-22. Best known for his outstanding Olympic career as a silver medalist in both speed-skating and baseball, Alvarez has spent much of his 10-year pro baseball career in the minors with the White Sox and Marlins.