Tigers Reinstate Tarik Skubal, Place Tyler Alexander On 60-Day IL
The Tigers announced that they have reinstated left-hander Tarik Skubal from the 60-day injured list. In a corresponding move, lefty Tyler Alexander is going the other way, having been placed directly onto the 60-day IL with a left lat/shoulder strain. Alexander’s IL placement is retroactive to July 3.
Skubal, 26, returns to the big league mound for the first time in almost a year. He was enjoying a breakout season last year, posting a 3.52 ERA through 21 starts with a 24.5% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate and 45.7% ground ball rate. Unfortunately, his last outing was August 1 of last year, after which he required flexor tendon surgery.
Skubal’s injury has been just one of many suffered by the Tigers’ rotation. Each of Beau Brieske, Alex Faedo, Casey Mize, Matthew Boyd, Eduardo Rodriguez and Spencer Turnbull are currently on the IL due to various ailments. Matt Manning also missed significant time, though he is now back with the club and Rodriguez is expected to be activated tomorrow. Those pitching injuries are a big reason why the club is sitting on a meager 37-46 record, but that’s still good enough to be just 5 games back in the American League Central. Perhaps some rotation stability brought by the returns of Skubal, Manning and Rodriguez can help the club stay afloat with the deadline now just weeks away.
As for Alexander, his involvement in today’s moves comes as a surprise. He wasn’t previously on the injured list and pitched on Sunday without a public indication he was hurt. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic relays that Alexander won’t undergo an MRI until the inflammation goes down. Given that he’s been quickly placed on the 60-day IL and there’s less than three months left on the schedule, it seems fair to wonder if his season is in jeopardy. He has a 4.50 ERA this year in 44 innings, striking out 24.3% of opponents against a tiny 2.8% walk rate.
Athletics Designate Chad Smith For Assignment
The Athletics announced a series of roster moves today, reinstating catcher Manny Piña from the 60-day injured list and recalling infielder Nick Allen. To open active roster spots for those two, outfielder Conner Capel was optioned to Triple-A and catcher Carlos Pérez was placed on the 10-day injured list. Perez has a fractured left thumb, per Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. To open a 40-man roster spot for Piña, right-hander Chad Smith was designated for assignment.
Piña, 36, was acquired from Atlanta in the Sean Murphy trade, partially to offset some salary but also to serve as a veteran backup to Shea Langeliers. Unfortunately, Piña hasn’t been able to make his debut with the club until today. He began the season on the injured list due to inflammation in his left wrist, the same wrist that required surgery in 2022 and wiped out almost his whole season. Fortunately, it won’t be quite as dire this year and he can now finally take his spot on the roster.
For his career, he’s hit .243/.313/.409 for a wRC+ of 90. He’s generally been considered a strong defender and pitch framer, having tallied 37 Defensive Runs Saved in his career. Statcast gives him strong marks both for his work with the running game and blocking pitches. The A’s have a $4MM club option over his services for 2024 with no buyout.
While he’s been out of action, the club has turned to Pérez as the backup. His defense isn’t as highly regarded as Piña’s but he’s hit .232/.293/.384 for a wRC+ of 91, not too shabby for a backup catcher. Unfortunately, he’ll now have to head to the injured list. The club hasn’t provided any kind of timeline but he’s likely going to be out longer than the minimum if he has a fracture.
Amid all these moves, Smith has been nudged off the club’s 40-man roster. Now 28, he made his major league debut with the Rockies last year, tossing 18 innings with a 7.50 ERA. He walked 17.6% of batters faced but also struck them out at a 27.1% clip and got grounders at a 55.6% rate. The A’s took a shot on perhaps getting better results with some improved command, acquiring Smith from the Rockies this winter.
Here in 2023, he’s served as an up-and-down reliever, being shuttled between Triple-A and the big league club. In 12 major league innings, he has a 6.75 ERA. He lowered his walk rate to 11.3% but his strikeout rate also fell to 17%. The results in Triple-A haven’t been especially impressive either, as he has a 9.61 ERA in 19 2/3 frames at that level. His 24.3% strikeout rate there is encouraging, but the 18.7% walk rate is obviously a problem.
The A’s will now have one week to try to trade him or pass him through waivers. The results are all over the place but he’s shown strikeout stuff at times and still has a couple of options. Any club that thinks they can fix Smith could potentially stash him in the minors for the rest of this year and another season as well.
Cubs Select Daniel Palencia
The Cubs have selected the contract of right-hander Daniel Palencia, a move first reported by Marcos Grunfeld of El Emergente. The full slate of moves, as relayed by Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic, also sees infielder Patrick Wisdom activated from the injured list. In corresponding active roster moves, infielder Nick Madrigal has been placed on the 10-day IL with a right hamstring strain while right-hander Hayden Wesneski has been optioned. To open a spot on the 40-man for Palencia, righty Brad Boxberger was transferred to the 60-day IL.
Palencia, 23, was originally a prospect with the Athletics, but came over to the Cubs in the 2021 trade that sent lefty Andrew Chafin to Oakland. He’s worked mostly as a starter, but the club recently converted him to relief work upon promoting him to Triple-A.
The results there have been mixed, as he’s posted an ERA of 7.90 through 13 outings. That’s a small sample and there might be some fluky bad luck in there, considering his 50.9% strand rate. He’s struck out 27.3% of batters faced while walking 10.6%. His 4.09 FIP suggests he has deserved better results than he’s actually gotten so far. The Cubs will give him a shot at getting big league hitters out and hope that the wheel of fortune spins in a better direction for him going forward.
Madrigal left yesterday’s game with hamstring tightness and will sit out the next 10 days. It’s unclear how severe his injury is, but the upcoming All-Star break would allow him to miss only a handful of games if it’s on the minor side. He’s only struck out in 9.6% of his plate appearances but has just one home run, producing a .278/.335/.364 batting line. His roster spot will go to a hitter with the opposite profile, as Wisdom has 14 homers but a massive 38.9% strikeout rate, leading to a line of .196/.285/.467.
As for Boxberger, he’ll been on the injured list since May 14 due to a right forearm strain. He’ll now be ineligible to return until 60 days from that initial IL placement, meaning he can technically return after the All-Star break. But since he hasn’t yet started a rehab assignment, that doesn’t seem especially likely, making this transaction a mere formality.
Mets Select DJ Stewart, Designate Denyi Reyes For Assignment
The Mets made several roster moves today, as relayed by Tim Healey of Newsday. The club has activated right-hander Trevor Gott, whom they acquired from the Mariners in a trade yesterday, and selected the contract of outfielder DJ Stewart. To clear active roster space, they optioned right-hander Jeff Brigham and infielder Danny Mendick. To create a 40-man spot for Stewart, righty Denyi Reyes was designated for assignment.
Stewart, 29, spent the previous five seasons with the Orioles, mostly as a part-time player. He got into 195 games, hitting 26 home runs and walking in 13.2% of his plate appearances, though also striking out at a 26.8% rate. His overall .213/.327/.400 batting line in that time amounted to a wRC+ of 99, indicating he was just a hair below average. But since he was considered a poor defender in the outfield corners, that offense wasn’t enough to hold his roster spot.
He was outrighted by the O’s last year and later reached free agency, signing a minor league deal with the Mets. He’s been faring well in Triple-A Syracuse here in 2023, hitting 16 home runs so far and producing a .229/.362/.516 line for a 115 wRC+. The Mets will see if he can carry any of that production up with him to the big leagues. He still has an option and can be sent back down to the minors without being exposed to waivers.
In order to get Stewart onto the roster, the Mets have nudged Reyes off of it. He made his major league debut with the Orioles last year, tossing 7 2/3 innings with a 2.35 ERA in that small sample. He spent most of the year in Triple-A, posting a 7.17 ERA in 54 innings at that level. Like Stewart, he was outrighted off the Baltimore roster last year and signed a minor league deal with the Mets as a free agent.
Here in 2023, he was added to the club’s roster in the first week of the season but was later optioned with the club hoping to stretch him out for extra rotation depth. That plan hasn’t really worked out as Reyes has a 6.97 ERA in Triple-A this year, tossing 41 1/3 innings. The Mets will now have one week to trade Reyes or pass him through waivers. Despite his struggles this year, he still has an option remaining and is only 26 years old.
Red Sox Place Garrett Whitlock On IL With Elbow Inflammation
The Red Sox announces a few roster moves today, with right-hander Garrett Whitlock placed on the 15-day injured list due to right elbow inflammation, retroactive to July 3. Left-hander James Paxton was placed on the paternity list while pitchers Brandon Walter and Tayler Scott were recalled in corresponding moves.
Whitlock started Sunday’s game against the Blue Jays but departed after just one inning due to elbow tightness. Sean McAdam of MassLive reported yesterday that Whitlock would likely land on the IL but that the club wasn’t overly concerned with the nature of the injury. With the upcoming All-Star break, it’s possible that Whitlock only misses a couple of turns through the rotation.
Even if it ultimately proves true that the issue is minor, it’s not ideal timing for the Sox. The rotation is already a bit short-handed with Chris Sale and Tanner Houck each on the injured list already. Corey Kluber and Nick Pivetta each pitched poorly enough earlier in the year to get moved to the bullpen, with Kluber now on the IL as well. Pivetta has pitched well as a reliever of late and the club might prefer to keep him doing that for as long as it’s working.
Those factors have led to the club running a four-man rotation of late, using bullpen days and off-days to make it all work. With Whitlock now out of action, they are down to just Paxton, Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford. Paternity list stints last from one to three days, meaning Paxton should be back shortly. The upcoming All-Star break will help the club out but they still have to get through six games before that and will have six straight coming out of the break as well.
For Whitlock personally, this is yet another setback in his attempts to establish himself as a bonafide big league starter. After a successful rookie campaign as a reliever in 2021, the Sox tried moving him to the rotation last year with mixed results. He started the year with four relief appearances and then nine starts before landing on the IL due to hip inflammation. When he returned, he was kept in relief and finished the season with an ERA of 3.45 in 78 1/3 innings.
His ongoing hip issues ultimately required surgery, which landed him on the IL to start this year. He eventually returned but this is now the second time he’s hit the IL this year due to an elbow issue. He’s made 10 starts and logged 51 2/3 innings with a 5.23 ERA. His strikeout rate has dropped to 21.8% after being at 26.4% last year.
Reds To Select Brett Kennedy
July 4: The Reds have now officially selected Kennedy’s contract, optioning outfielder Stuart Fairchild in a corresponding move.
July 3, 9:05pm: Cincinnati confirmed that Kennedy will get the start tomorrow morning against the Nationals (via Sheldon).
5:25pm: The Reds announced today that right-hander Brett Kennedy has been added to their taxi squad. Manager David Bell tells Mark Sheldon of MLB.com that Kennedy is likely to either start tomorrow’s game or enter after an opener. The righty isn’t currently on the club’s roster, meaning he will have to be selected prior to that game. They already have a vacancy on their 40-man roster but a corresponding move will be required to open a spot on the active roster.
Kennedy, 28, will be pitching in the big leagues for the first time since 2018. He made his major league debut with the Padres that year, making six starts with a 6.75 ERA in 26 2/3 innings. He began the 2019 season on the injured list due to a lat strain and ended up staying there all year, getting outrighted off the roster at season’s end. With the minor leagues being canceled by the pandemic in 2020, he wasn’t able to pitch in any official capacity. He then spent 2021 stuck in the minors and reached free agency at the conclusion of that campaign.
Kennedy began both 2022 and 2023 with the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League. Last year, he made six starts as a Duck with a 3.03 ERA before his contract was selected by the Red Sox. He then posted a 3.94 ERA in 75 1/3 Double-A innings but never got the call to the big leagues. He returned to the Ducks this year and had a 3.09 ERA through three starts before the Reds purchased his contract.
Since joining the Reds organization, he’s made eight Triple-A starts and thrown 43 2/3 innings. He has a 3.71 ERA in those, striking out 19.8% of batters faced while walking 6.4% of them and getting grounders on 39.6% of balls in play.
There’s been much uncertainty in the rotation in Cincinnati of late, with injuries taking a significant toll on the staff. Vladimir Gutierrez and Justin Dunn have each been on the IL all season so far. Nick Lodolo and Connor Overton each landed there in May with Hunter Greene and Ben Lively joining them in June.
Graham Ashcraft recently returned from his own IL stint but has an ERA of 6.66 on the year. Each of Brandon Williamson, Luke Weaver and Levi Stoudt has an ERA above 5.55. Andrew Abbott has a 1.21 ERA but some regression will have to be expected since he won’t be able to maintain a 100% strand rate or .190 batting average on balls in play. Their starters have collective 5.72 ERA on the year, better than just the Athletics and Rockies.
Those challenges will push the club to give Kennedy a try, his first major league action in five years. He has a full slate of options and between one and two years of service time, which could allow the club to keep him as a depth option for the foreseeable future, as long as he continues to hang onto a 40-man roster spot.
Mariners Trade Trevor Gott, Chris Flexen To Mets; Mets Designate Flexen For Assignment
The Mets added to their bullpen Monday afternoon, acquiring Trevor Gott from the Mariners. New York also acquired Chris Flexen, whom they immediately designated for assignment. Seattle receives lefty reliever Zach Muckenhirn, whom New York had designated for assignment earlier today. The Mets transferred righty Edwin Uceta to the 60-day injured list to clear roster space for Gott.
New York is taking on a decent amount of money to plug Gott into the bullpen. They’re reportedly assuming the remainder of the contracts for both Flexen, whom Seattle had designated for assignment last week, and Gott. That’s about $3.9MM for Flexen and about $587K for Gott.
Originally a Mets draftee back in 2012, Flexen found success overseas pitching in the Korea Baseball Organization and returned to North American ball on a two-year deal with the Mariners. He made good on Seattle’s modest investment, pitching to a sharp 3.66 ERA in 317 1/3 innings over the first two seasons of the contract. Flexen worked primarily as a starter — though he was dropped to the ‘pen last year after the Mariners’ acquisition of Luis Castillo — and shouldered a heavy enough workload that he triggered an $8MM vesting option for the current season.
While Flexen didn’t have a rotation spot heading into the season, he was locked in as a long reliever and sixth starter — the first man up in the event of a rotation injury. The Mariners incurred such an injury early in the season when Robbie Ray went down with an arm injury that eventually resulted in Tommy John surgery. Flexen, however, scuffled in the rotation when attempting to fill that void and hasn’t generated good results in the bullpen either. He’s appeared in 17 games for the Mariners and logged an ugly 7.71 ERA over the course of 42 innings.
Flexen’s 3.66 ERA from 2021-22 never quite lined up with his pedestrian strikeout rate (just north of 16%), but a downturn of this magnitude still couldn’t have been expected. He’s been extraordinarily homer-prone this year (2.36 per nine innings) but has also been plagued by a .350 average on balls in play.
The Mets’ willingness to take on the remainder of his salary will effectively allow them to purchase the veteran Gott in the midst of a solid year with Seattle. The 30-year-old Gott has thus far posted a pedestrian 4.03 ERA but with much stronger secondary marks: 24.8% strikeout rate, 6.2% walk rate, 0.62 HR/9, 42.5% ground-ball rate, 3.01 FIP, 3.47 SIERA. He’ll give the Mets an experienced middle relief option to help bridge the gap to veterans David Robertson and Adam Ottavino.
Gott is also still controllable through the 2024 season via arbitration. If he pitches well for the remainder of the season, he’d be owed a raise on this year’s $1.2MM salary but would still be highly affordable — especially for a high-payroll club like the Mets.
The whole gambit underscores Mets owner Steve Cohen’s willingness to spend. Not only are the Mets taking on about $4.5MM in total salary, they’ll also pay a 90% tax given their status as luxury tax payors who are in the newly created fourth tier of penalization. It boils down to a roughly $8.55MM in additional spending — a fairly stunning number to acquire a journeyman reliever.
It’s also surely a frustrating series of events for Flexen. He’s already spent a week in DFA limbo wondering where he’ll land, and he’ll now restart that process. The Mets could quickly place him on waivers rather than taking the maximum five days to do so, but it’s hardly a direct trip through the DFA process.
MLBTR confirmed with a source last week that Flexen can reject an outright assignment and retain his salary, despite the fact that he doesn’t have five years of Major League service time. That’s attributable to the nature of the contract he signed when returning from the KBO, which also stipulates that he cannot be sent to the minors without his consent and that he would become a free agent at the deal’s conclusion despite being shy of six years of MLB service.
Because of that contract, Flexen will become a free agent if the Mets aren’t able to find a trade partner of their own. Barring a trade, Flexen will hit waivers and surely clear, as other clubs aren’t going to want to be on the hook for that $3.9MM or so in salary. Once he clears, a new team would be able to sign him and only owe Flexen the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster. The Mets would remain on the hook for the rest of that salary.
As for the Mariners, they’ll save more than $4.5MM on that pair of relievers and also add an optionable lefty in the 28-year-old Muckenhirn. The southpaw signed a minor league deal with the Mets over the winter and made his big league debut earlier this season. He’s tallied six innings in the Majors, yielding four runs on 11 hits and a pair of walks with three strikeouts.
Muckenhirn’s work in Triple-A has produced far better results. He boasts a sensational 0.88 ERA in 30 2/3 frames, although his 15.7% strikeout rate and 10.7% walk rate don’t exactly support that minuscule number. Muckenhirn has induced grounders at a hearty 50% clip, but he’s also benefited from a .230 average on balls in play and a mammoth 95.2% strand rate in Triple-A so far. He’ll give the Mariners a third left-handed bullpen option on the 40-man roster, joining Tayler Saucedo and Gabe Speier in that regard.
Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic first reported the Mets were acquiring Flexen and Gott for Muckenhirn. Andy Martino of SNY was first to report the Mets planned to designate Flexen for assignment. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the Mets were assuming the remainder of Flexen’s and Gott’s deals.
Marlins Outright Archie Bradley
The Marlins have sent reliever Archie Bradley outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, according to the transactions log at MLB.com. The veteran righty has the ability to decline the assignment in favor of free agency while retaining his guaranteed salary, since he has over five years of MLB service.
Bradley signed a minor league pact with Miami in April. He pitched nine times (including a five-inning start) for their top affiliate, posting a 16:5 strikeout-to-walk ratio through 18 1/3 innings. He allowed 13 runs in that time, although only six were earned. That performance was enough for the Fish to call him up three weeks ago.
The former seventh overall pick logged four relief outings in Miami, tallying 7 1/3 innings. He surrendered 10 runs on 14 hits, striking out seven and walking three. Bradley didn’t generate many swinging strikes in that brief look and lost his roster spot over the weekend. After going unclaimed on waivers, he’ll decide whether to report back to Jacksonville or explore other opportunities on the open market.
Bradley is up to parts of nine seasons as a big league pitcher. He was an effective middle innings option as recently as 2021, when he posted a 3.71 ERA through 51 innings for the Phillies. His 2022 campaign was a significant struggle, as an elbow fracture and forearm strain kept him to 21 appearances with a 4.82 ERA that is his worst since he moved to relief (aside from this year’s small sample).
Brewers Release Matt Bush
The Brewers have released reliever Matt Bush, tweets Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. That was expected once the Brew Crew designated him for assignment two days ago.
Bush joined Milwaukee at the 2022 trade deadline, heading over from the Rangers in a deal that sent utility player Mark Mathias and pitching prospect Antoine Kelly to Texas. The hard-throwing righty was sitting on a 2.95 ERA while fanning just under 30% of opposing hitters at the time of the swap. Milwaukee hoped for more of the same, but the 37-year-old struggled upon landing in American Family Field.
In 23 innings down the stretch, Bush posted a 4.30 ERA while seeing his homer rate spike. The velocity and whiffs led Milwaukee to retain him on a $1.85MM arbitration salary. Bush’s results continued going in the wrong direction, punctuated by a blown save last Friday.
Milwaukee was operating with a thin bullpen in a divisional matchup against the Pirates. The Brewers entrusted Bush with the ninth inning holding a two-run lead. The veteran allowed hits to three of five batters faced, including a Carlos Santana walk-off homer. It was the fifth longball he’d surrendered in 10 1/3 innings this season.
Asked about using Bush to close things out after the game, manager Craig Counsell told the Milwaukee beat “(he’s) on the roster and he hasn’t pitched in a while and he was fresh, and it was his job to get the outs in the ninth. He just couldn’t get them,” (relayed by Adam McCalvy of MLB.com).
A day later, the Brewers moved on. Bush is out of minor league option years, so a DFA was the only way to take him off the big league club. He crossed the five-year MLB service threshold earlier in the season, so he’d have the right to decline an outright assignment while retaining his salary. Rather than go through that process, Milwaukee released him entirely.
The Brewers remain on the hook for that sum. If another team adds Bush to their MLB roster, they’ll only owe him the prorated portion of the $720K minimum. He’s likely to attract interest based on his results in Texas and swing-and-miss upside, but his recent struggles might limit him to minor league offers.
Nationals, Jacob Nottingham Agree To Minor League Contract
The Nationals are in agreement with catcher Jacob Nottingham on a minor league deal, tweets the Talk Nats blog. It’s the second minor league deal in as many days for Washington. They also signed right-hander Daniel Mengden last night.
Nottingham just hit the open market last week. He was released from a non-roster pact with the Giants. The right-handed hitter had posted a .232/.329/.432 line over 34 contests for San Francisco’s Triple-A club. That’s right in line with the .229/.333/.425 slash he’d put up through 89 minor league games last season, which he spent in the Orioles’ organization.
A former sixth-round draftee, Nottingham was once a fairly well-regarded prospect and has appeared in parts of four big league seasons. He got to the highest level each year from 2018-21, splitting his time between the Brewers and Mariners. Working primarily in a depth capacity, he appeared in 53 games and hit .184/.277/.421. He connected on eight home runs in only 130 trips to the plate but struck out over 34% of the time.
Prospect evaluators generally credited Nottingham with above-average to plus raw power but raised concerns about his strikeout tallies and receiving skills. He’ll head to Triple-A Rochester as a non-roster depth option with some power potential.
The Nats have used Keibert Ruiz and Riley Adams as the catching duo this year. Nottingham won’t jump either player on the depth chart, but the only other catcher on the 40-man roster (Israel Pineda) in on the injured list. Luis Torrens had been in Rochester but opted out of his contract with the Nats over the weekend; Nottingham will step into that role.