A’s Announce Series Of Roster Moves
The A’s made a number of transactions before tonight’s series opener with the White Sox. Oakland activated reliever Kirby Snead from the 60-day injured list while recalling Rico Garcia and Jordan Diaz from Triple-A Las Vegas.
Right-handers James Kaprielian and Yacksel Ríos are headed to the 15-day IL, while infielder Jonah Bride was optioned to Vegas. To clear space on the 40-man roster for Snead’s return, the A’s transferred Mason Miller from the 15-day to the 60-day IL.
Snead is back in Mark Kotsay’s bullpen for the first time this year. He strained his throwing shoulder in Spring Training. One of four players acquired from the Blue Jays in the Matt Chapman deal, Snead tossed 44 2/3 innings of 5.84 ERA ball during his first season in Oakland. He has allowed four runs in five innings in Triple-A on a rehab stint.
Kaprielian has a shoulder strain of his own, Kotsay told reporters (including Martín Gallegos of MLB.com). Ríos is battling Raynaud’s syndrome, a condition in which blood flow to a person’s hand can be diminished, thereby leading to numbness. The return timetable on both pitchers is unclear.
Miller has already missed just under two months with a sprain of the UCL in his throwing elbow. That makes his transfer a formality, though his long-term prognosis is still up in the air. Kotsay said Miller will soon go for follow-up examination (via Gallegos). The hard-throwing rookie has been throwing off flat ground for a few weeks and will continue his throwing program pending that evaluation.
In other injury news, catcher Manny Piña has reported to Low-A Stockton for a rehab stint, according to his transaction log at MLB.com. Acquired from the Braves to offset salary in the Sean Murphy deal, Piña has missed the entire season with a left wrist issue. He underwent surgery on the same wrist last May and hasn’t played an MLB game in 14 months.
Dodgers Activate Daniel Hudson, Designate Ricky Vanasco
The Dodgers reinstated reliever Daniel Hudson from the 60-day injured list, optioning righty Nick Robertson to Triple-A Oklahoma City. To create space on the 40-man roster, Los Angeles designated minor league pitcher Ricky Vanasco for assignment.
Hudson is back in the big leagues almost a year to the day after tearing the ACL in his left knee. The veteran righty was off to an incredible start last season, posting a 2.22 ERA while striking out almost 31% of opponents in 25 outings. His year was cut short when he stumbled attempting to field a dribbler back to the mound.
The Dodgers retained Hudson in September, guaranteeing him $6.5MM while tacking on a $7.3MM club option for the 2024 campaign. There was some hope he’d be ready for the start of the season, but he was delayed by residual knee soreness in Spring Training. He made five rookie ball appearances before reporting to Oklahoma City for three outings on a rehab stint, striking out five in 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Whenever he next takes the ball, he’ll be appearing in the majors for a 14th season.
Vanasco has been in the organization for a month. L.A. acquired him from the Rangers on June 1. He only made one Double-A appearance with his new club before being DFA. The 24-year-old spent the bulk of last year in High-A with Texas, posting a 4.48 ERA through 84 1/3 frames. The Dodgers will trade him or put him on waivers within the next week.
Angels Designate Jake Lamb For Assignment, Reinstate Anthony Rendon
The Angels have designated Jake Lamb for assignment, per a team announcement. The move creates a 40-man roster spot for Victor Mederos, who has officially been selected onto the roster. The Halos also reinstated Anthony Rendon from the 10-day injured list and optioned Andrew Velazquez and Andrew Wantz to Triple-A Salt Lake.
Lamb broke camp after an offseason minor league deal. He didn’t hit well in a limited look, putting up a .216/.259/.353 line over 54 trips to the plate. In mid-May, the Halos optioned him to Salt Lake. As a player with five-plus years of MLB service, Lamb would’ve ordinarily had the right to refuse any minor league assignment. However, his contract reportedly contained a 45-day window in which the Angels could send him down.
The left-handed hitter has spent the past month and a half in Triple-A. He raked at a .317/.453/.492 clip, connecting on five homers and drawing walks in 17.3% of his 150 plate appearances. Even with infield injuries mounting at the MLB level, the Angels decided not to give him another look. They’ll now take him off the roster entirely, likely ending his time in the organization.
Los Angeles has a week to trade the 10-year MLB veteran or place him on waivers. Should he go unclaimed on waivers, he’d have the right to test free agency while retaining the entirety of this year’s salary.
Rendon draws back into the lineup two weeks after bruising his left wrist. He’ll return to the hot corner, hitting cleanup against Arizona left-hander Tommy Henry. With Velazquez going back to the minors, the Angels have an MLB infield of Rendon, Eduardo Escobar, David Fletcher, Mike Moustakas and Brandon Drury.
The Halos also announced that Kevin Padlo has accepted an assignment to Triple-A. The infielder was outrighted off the 40-man roster this afternoon.
Rangers Reinstate Glenn Otto, Brad Miller
The Rangers announced they’ve reinstated pitcher Glenn Otto and utilityman Brad Miller from the injured list. John King, Yerry Rodríguez and Sam Huff were all optioned to Triple-A Round Rock, the latter move clearing active roster space for newly-acquired Aroldis Chapman.
Otto returns from the 60-day injured list, reclaiming a 40-man roster spot. Texas has had a vacancy in that regard since designating Sandy León for assignment a few weeks ago. He’s in line for his season debut, missing the bulk of the first half with a lat strain.
The right-hander figures to assume a multi-inning relief role for skipper Bruce Bochy. He was a starter last year, opening all 27 of his outings and working 135 2/3 innings. Otto posted a 4.64 ERA with middling strikeout and walk rates. With the Rangers overhauling their rotation last winter, he got pushed out of the top five. He’s looked great on a rehab stint with Round Rock, working to a 14:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and allowing only three runs in 10 innings.
Miller has been down for a month with a right oblique strain. The left-handed hitter has a .208/.304/.333 line in 56 trips to the plate on the season. He’ll return to a multi-positional role off the bench.
Rockies Designate Jorge Alfaro For Assignment, Activate Kris Bryant
The Rockies announced they have designated catcher Jorge Alfaro for assignment. The move clears a spot on the active and 40-man rosters for left-hander Ty Blach, who was selected onto the MLB club. Colorado also placed reliever Matt Carasiti on the 15-day injured list due to inflammation in his throwing shoulder and reinstated Kris Bryant from the 10-day IL.
Alfaro spent a little over two weeks on the Colorado roster. The Rockies signed the veteran backstop to a minor league deal on June 10 and selected his contract five days later. Colorado has run a three-catcher system since then, keeping Austin Wynns and Alfaro on the bench behind Elias Díaz. Alfaro picked up 32 plate appearances, slumping to a .161/.188/.387 line with 12 strikeouts and zero walks.
Colorado will stick with Díaz and Wynns as the MLB tandem. Brian Serven is also on the 40-man roster and on optional assignment to Triple-A Albuquerque. Colorado will trade Alfaro or put him on waivers within the next week. If he clears waivers, he’ll have the ability to head back to free agency based on his MLB service time.
That seems the likeliest outcome. Alfaro hasn’t had much major league success of late, hitting .239/.279/.360 with a 34.2% strikeout rate through 717 plate appearances since the start of 2020. The Colombian-born backstop has had an excellent season in Triple-A, though, putting up a .323/.366/.524 line between the Red Sox’s and Rockies’ top affiliates.
Bryant returns to the MLB roster, which the club had suggested yesterday. The former MVP is hitting second and back in right field tonight against Detroit righty Michael Lorenzen. He missed a month with a left heel contusion, the second straight season he’s been bothered by a foot issue. Bryant is hitting .263/.346/.374 in his second season in Denver.
Blach returns to the big leagues two months after clearing waivers. The 32-year-old made six relief appearances in April, allowing 13 runs in 11 innings. He has pitched reasonably well in Albuquerque, working to a 4.40 ERA over 30 2/3 innings in an extraordinarily tough environment for pitchers. Blach doesn’t throw hard or miss many bats; he’s a control specialist who induced grounders at a quality 54.6% clip for the Isotopes this season. He’ll offer skipper Bud Black a long relief option for the middle innings.
Angels To Select Victor Mederos
The Angels are promoting Victor Mederos to the majors, reports Robert Murray of FanSided (on Twitter). The right-hander is not on the 40-man roster, so the Halos will have to officially select his contract and make corresponding active and 40-man roster transactions.
It’s another bold promotion for the Angels. The Halos haven’t been afraid to aggressively call on prospects they feel are ready for an MLB look. They made Chase Silseth the first player from the 2021 draft to reach the big leagues last May. Infielder Zach Neto earned the 2022 honors when the Angels called him up this April; reliever Ben Joyce followed a month thereafter. Mederos joins his now-teammates as the only players from last year’s draft to yet get to the bigs.
Mederos was a sixth-round pick out of Oklahoma State. He’d been a high-profile high school pitcher who began his college days at Miami. He never found consistent success at the amateur level, dropping him into the middle rounds on draft day. Baseball America nevertheless ranked him 29th among Anaheim prospects over the offseason, praising his mid-90s fastball and potential plus slider.
The 22-year-old has spent this season at Double-A Rocket City. He’s made 12 starts, allowing a 5.98 ERA across 55 2/3 innings. While he has allowed over two homers per nine innings and is walking 10% of opponents, he’s striking hitters out at a strong 28.3% clip. The front office evidently feels his arsenal will play against MLB hitters in spite of the middling minor league numbers.
Mederos has started all 18 of his professional appearances. Prospect evaluators have pointed to a likely bullpen future because of spotty command. It seems likely he’ll break in at the MLB level as a multi-inning reliever. The Angels’ bullpen ranks eighth in the majors with a 3.69 ERA.
Nationals Promote Jose A. Ferrer For Major League Debut
June 30: The Nationals have made this official, announcing the recall of Ferrer. Lefty Patrick Corbin was placed on the bereavement list in a corresponding move.
June 29: The Nationals are going to promote left-handed pitcher Jose A. Ferrer, reports Héctor Gómez of Z101 Digital. Ferrer, who will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game, is already on the 40-man roster but will require a corresponding move to get on the active roster. That move may not come until tomorrow because the Nats are off today.
Ferrer, 23, was signed by the Nats out of the Dominican Republic for $100K back in 2017. The reliever got some professional experience in Rookie ball in the next couple of years, though the minor leagues were then canceled by the pandemic in 2020. In 2021, he tossed 35 2/3 innings in the Complex League with a 2.78 ERA.
2022 proved to be a big breakout year for him, as he finally made it to full-season ball. He began the year in Single-A and eventually moved up to High-A and Double-A. He threw 65 1/3 innings between those three levels with a combined 2.48 ERA. He struck out 30.5% of opponents while walking just 4.3%. He was selected to appear in the Futures Game along the way.
The Nationals added him to their 40-man roster in November to prevent him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He’s spent all of this year in Triple-A thus far, logging 40 innings over 34 appearances. He has a 3.83 ERA but his peripherals have dipped since last year. He’s struck out just 18.4% of opponents while walking 11.2%, though he’s continued to get grounders on roughly half of the balls in play he’s allowed. Ferrer was recently ranked the club’s #18 prospect at Baseball America, #28 at FanGraphs and got the #20 spot from Keith Law of The Athletic coming into the year.
The Nats haven’t had much left-handed relief to speak of this season. The only southpaws to pitch out of the club’s bullpen this year have been Anthony Banda and Joe La Sorsa. Banda posted a 6.43 ERA over seven innings before getting outrighted off the roster. La Sorsa was just claimed off waivers from the Rays three weeks back and was in the minors on optional assignment until a week ago. That should give Ferrer an opening to establish himself in the club’s bullpen mix going forward.
Angels Outright Kevin Padlo
The Angels have sent infielder Kevin Padlo outright to Triple-A Salt Lake, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been designated for assignment a week ago in order to make room on the roster for Mike Moustakas.
Padlo, 26, signed a minor league deal with the Halos this winter. He hit .266/.383/.532 through 149 plate appearances in the minors for a 116 wRC+. That showing got him added to the club’s roster just over a week ago as they were dealing with injuries to Gio Urshela, Zach Neto and Anthony Rendon. With Padlo’s ability to play the three non-shortstop infield positions, he could have provided them with valuable versatility in covering for those injuries.
However, the Angels quickly pivoted to players with more major league experience, acquiring both Moustakas and Eduardo Escobar in quick succession. Padlo was bumped off the roster less than a week after being selected, garnering just eight plate appearances in three games.
That brings his total major league experience to 26 games, as he also got brief looks in the past two years with the Rays, Mariners, Giants and Pirates. He’s hit just .111/.158/.167 in those sporadic stints in the big leagues but has continually drawn interest based on his versatility and minor league track record. He has a combined .250/.340/.477 line in Triple-A over four different seasons.
The fact that he has been outrighted means that he cleared waivers. As a player with a previous career outright, he has the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency, though it’s not yet clear whether he has chosen to do so.
Braves Select Charlie Culberson
The Braves announced that they have recalled right-hander Michael Soroka to start tonight’s game. This will be his first start in front of Atlanta fans since 2019, with the 2020 season being played in empty stadiums because of the pandemic. He then missed 2021 and 2022 entirely before making two road starts this year.
His roster spot was already opened by the club optioning left-hander Jared Shuster to Triple-A yesterday. Additionally, they selected infielder Charlie Culberson to the roster, optioning catcher Chadwick Tromp to Triple-A in a corresponding move. To open a 40-man roster spot for Culberson, left-hander Dylan Lee was transferred to the 60-day injured list.
It’s been a strange season for Culberson, who signed a minor league deal with Atlanta in March. He was selected to the big league roster in mid-May and spent a month on the bench without getting into a single game. He was then designated for assignment, became a free agent and re-signed with the club on another minor league deal. He’s now back on the roster less than two weeks after being designated for assignment.
It seems he’s mostly around in a “break glass in case of emergency” type of role. He’s played every infield position and the outfield corners in his career, as well as a few mop-up pitching appearances. That means he could be called upon when some other player suffers an injury or needs time off. That didn’t happen in the month that he was on the roster but could theoretically happen at any point going forward. Given his versatility, he’s a good fit for such a role. He’s hit .247/.292/.385 in his career but slashed just .204/.234/.255 in Triple-A this year before getting called up.
As for Lee, he’s been on the injured list since mid-May due to shoulder inflammation. He’ll now be ineligible to return until 60 days from that initial IL placement, which would be mid-July. He’s recently been throwing bullpen sessions but has yet to embark on a rehab assignment. Since he’s probably a few weeks away from a return anyway, this transaction seems to be a mere formality that doesn’t indicate any sort of setback.
Soroka made two starts for the big league club earlier this year but allowed nine earned runs in 9 2/3 innings. He’s been much better in the minors, with a 3.31 ERA in 11 Triple-A starts this year. He’s probably not a long-term solution in the rotation since he hardly pitched at all in the 2020-2022 period due to injuries and has already tallied 64 innings this year. The club has an off-day next week and the All-Star break is the week after that.
Spencer Strider, Charlie Morton and Bryce Elder have three rotation spots spoken for but the club has rotated various pitchers through the other two with Max Fried and Kyle Wright on the injured list. Soroka, Shuster, Kolby Allard, AJ Smith-Shawver and Dylan Dodd have all received starts this year and each has options. That will allow the club to continually weave them on and off the big league club as they see fit until they get their injured guys back or perhaps make a move at the upcoming deadline.
Pirates Sign Beau Sulser To Minor League Deal
The Pirates have signed right-hander Beau Sulser to a minor league deal, per John Dreker of Pirates Prospects. The righty has been assigned to Double-A Altoona.
It’s a return to the Pirates’ organization for Sulser, who was drafted by the Bucs in 2017. He was able to make his major league debut with Pittsburgh last year, though he was designated for assignment after four appearances. He was claimed off waivers by the Orioles and spent the rest of 2022 serving as an up-and-down arm for them. He made six more appearances on the year around frequent optional assignments. He finished 2022 with a 3.63 ERA in 22 1/3 big league innings between the two clubs and a 4.13 ERA in 56 2/3 Triple-A innings.
The O’s designated him for assignment in October of last year, at which point the Pirates brought him back aboard via another waiver claim. But he was outrighted in November and signed with the KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization. The move to Korea didn’t work out for him as he posted a 5.62 ERA through 49 2/3 innings in nine starts.
The Wiz released Sulser earlier this month and he has now reunited with the Pirates yet again. He’ll head to Altoona and look to get himself into a groove and back to the big leagues. If he succeeds, he still has a couple of options and won’t be able to get to a full year of service time here in 2023.