Nationals Select Derek Hill, Place Victor Robles On Injured List
The Nationals have selected the contract of outfielder Derek Hill from Triple-A Rochester, per a team announcement. In a corresponding 26-man roster move, center fielder Victor Robles was placed on the 10-day IL due to lower back spasms. Washington already had a vacancy on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move was not necessary in that regard. MASNsports.com’s Bobby Blanco noted prior to the announcement that Hill was in the Nationals’ clubhouse.
Hill 27, was the No. 23 overall pick by the Tigers back in the 2014 draft but has yet to deliver on that draft status and several years ranking among Detroit’s top farmhands. He spent parts of three big league seasons with the Tigers, appearing in 95 games and taking 254 plate appearances from 2020-22. The resulting .240/.291/.339 slash line was underwhelming and ultimately led to a DFA for Hill just prior to last summer’s trade deadline. The Mariners claimed him a few days later but outrighted him off the 40-man roster in October. Hill elected minor league free agency and caught on with the Nats.
It’s been a brilliant start to the season for Hill up in Rochester, where he’s turned in a .324/.381/.533 batting line with eight homers, 10 doubles, a pair of triples and 10 steals (in 11 tries). His 7.8% walk rate is a bit below average, but his 21.6% strikeout rate is also slightly lower than that of an average big league hitter. It’s Hill’s third season with time spent at the Triple-A level, and he now carries a .283/.344/.470 batting line at that level in an even 600 plate appearances. Hill is out of minor league options, so the Nats can’t send him back down unless they first designate him for assignment and pass him through outright waivers.
Robles, 26, will head to the injured list in the midst of his best showing since a 21-game cup of coffee with the Nats back in 2018. The longtime top prospect is hitting .299/.385/.364 in 126 plate appearances this season, with the uptick in production largely attributable to a career-low 14.3% strikeout rate. Robles’ 8.7% walk rate is also the second-highest mark he’s posted since his 2017 MLB debut and a far sight better than the career 5.9% mark he carried into the current season.
The Nationals haven’t yet provided a timetable for Robles’ return, but Hill figures to see plenty of time in center field while Robles is out. Hill is in the lineup hitting eighth and playing center this afternoon. Lane Thomas and Alex Call are the only other outfielders to log any innings in center this season, but Call is currently in Triple-A Rochester and Thomas has just 11 innings there.
Reds Announce Several Roster Moves
The Reds announced Wednesday that they’ve selected the contract of right-hander Silvino Bracho from Triple-A Louisville and recalled fellow righty Alan Busenitz. Cincinnati optioned outfielder Stuart Fairchild to Louisville and placed righty Casey Legumina on the 15-day injured list due to a shoulder issue in a pair of corresponding 26-man roster moves. The Reds already had a vacant spot on the 40-man roster for Bracho after designating Wil Myers for assignment yesterday.
Bracho returns to the Reds for a second time in 2023, having already appeared in four games earlier this season. He pitched 5 1/3 innings in that time, yielding three runs on a pair of hits and five walks with four strikeouts. The 30-year-old righty (31 next month) has had a better run in Louisville, posting a 4.22 ERA with a 23.9% strikeout rate and much-improved 9.1% walk rate in 21 1/3 frames. Bracho has appeared in parts of seven big league seasons, totaling 99 1/3 innings of relief work with a 4.89 ERA and strikeout/walk rates that match his 2023 rates in Triple-A.
The 32-year-old Busenitz resurfaced in the Majors as a member of the Reds this year — his first big league work since a 2017-18 run with the Twins. He’s allowed a pair of runs on seven hits and a walk with three punchouts through four frames thus far in the big leagues. He owns a sharp 1.96 ERA in 23 Triple-A frames, though that mark is accompanied by a slightly below-average 21% strikeout rate and a bloated 12% walk rate.
After his run with the Twins, Busenitz spent the 2019-22 seasons pitching with the Rakuten Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, where he worked to a 2.83 ERA and picked up 18 saves through 155 2/3 innings of bullpen work. He returned to North American ball this past offseason when he signed a minor league deal with Cincinnati. Overall, in addition to that strong run in NPB, Busenitz has a 4.57 ERA in 61 big league innings and a 2.80 ERA in 119 Triple-A frames.
Legumina, 26, was acquired from the Twins in the trade that sent Kyle Farmer to Minnesota back in November. He’s pitched to a 4.22 ERA with an outstanding 13-to-1 K/BB ratio in 10 2/3 innings with Louisville but been rocked for a 6.17 ERA with an 11-to-8 K/BB mark in 11 2/3 innings at the MLB level. He’s now missed time this season due to ankle and shoulder problems. Cincinnati did provide a formal diagnosis on Legumina’s current shoulder injury, describing the issue only as “right shoulder pain.”
The 27-year-old Fairchild has batted .237/.331/.404 in 184 plate appearances while logging time in all three outfield spots this season. The Athletic’s C. Trent Rosecrans tweets that the move to option Fairchild will give the Reds some short-term bullpen help before a reliever is likely sent out this weekend to accommodate righty Graham Ashcraft‘s return from the injured list.
Brewers Release Roman Quinn
The Brewers have released outfielder Roman Quinn, per an announcement from their Triple-A affiliate, the Nashville Sounds. The journeyman outfielder signed with Milwaukee on a minor league deal on June 2 and has been suiting up for the Sounds since.
Quinn, who turned 30 in May, has split the 2023 regular season between the Triple-A affiliates for the Guardians and Brewers, struggling at both stops. In a combined 21 games, the speedster is hitting just .149/.337/.194 through a tiny sample of 89 plate appearances. It’s been the polar opposite of the 2022 season, when the right-handed-hitting Quinn posted a mammoth .296/.475/.636 slash in a similarly tiny sample of Triple-A playing time. On the whole, the former top prospect is a .265/.364/.397 batter in 484 career plate appearances at the Triple-A level.
A second-round pick by the Phillies back in 2011, Quinn long rated as one of that organization’s top prospects and briefly landed on the back end of top-100 prospect rankings from Baseball America (2013) and MLB.com (2016). He’s appeared in 222 games over parts of six MLB seasons, however, posting a tepid .226/.303/.348 slash in 599 turns at the plate.
Quinn was in the 96th percentile of MLB players in terms of sprint speed and 98th percentile for arm strength in 2022, per Statcast. Given that pair of tools, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that in 1004 career innings of center field work in the Majors, he’s been credited with positive marks in both Defensive Runs Saved (+4) and Outs Above Average (+7). Quinn has also shown well in brief looks in the outfield corners, and he’s swiped 43 bags (in 54 tries) despite his lackluster on-base numbers.
There’s plenty of speed and defensive upside to be had with Quinn, but his bat simply hasn’t produced at the game’s top level — and he’s had even greater struggles in limited Triple-A work so far in 2023. He’ll head back to the market in search of an opportunity with another club in need of some outfield depth.
Reds Designate Wil Myers For Assignment
The Reds announced today that first baseman/outfielder Wil Myers has been reinstated from the injured list and designated for assignment.
Signed to a one-year, $7.5MM deal over the winter, Myers joined the Reds with the hope that he could rebound at the plate and develop into a serviceable trade chip at this year’s deadline. Things haven’t panned out as hoped, however. Prior to being placed on the injured list due to a bout with kidney stones, Myers appeared in 37 games and hit .189/.257/.283 with a jarring 34% strikeout rate in 141 trips to the plate. He managed to connect on three homers and added in a pair of steals, but Myers was nowhere close to his peak levels of performance.
Myers’ placement on the injured list was one of multiple injuries that paved the way for the Reds to go with a youth movement in the infield — one that has thus far reaped immense dividends. Spencer Steer, Matt McLain and Elly De La Cruz have all impressed this season, and 2021 NL Rookie of the Year Jonathan India has enjoyed a fine rebound season at second base.
With Cincinnati activating stalwart first baseman Joey Votto to join that group just yesterday — Votto homered in his return — Myers’ path back to a spot on the active roster was cloudy, at best. The Reds could’ve tried to find Myers some playing time in the outfield, but each of Will Benson, TJ Friedl, Jake Fraley and Nick Senzel have outperformed the veteran Myers. Given the team’s current nine-game winning streak, it’s understandable that the Reds didn’t want to disrupt the lineup beyond Votto’s return.
The 2023 season has been the worst of Myers’ career. The former top prospect and 2013 AL Rookie of the Year seemed destined for stardom a decade ago, but he’s settled in more as a steadily productive regular with an offensive ceiling that’s well shy of All-Star status. His eight-year tenure with the Padres was a roller coaster in terms of performance, but the end result was a .254/.330/.451 batting line and 134 homers in 3415 plate appearances. Myers was one of MLB’s best hitters in the shortened 2020 campaign, hitting .288/.353/.606 with a whopping 15 dingers in just 218 trips to the plate, but that proved to be an outlier rather than a breakout.
The Reds will now have a week to trade Myers, pass him through outright waivers, or release him. Myers is still owed $3.34MM of this year’s $6MM salary, plus the full $1.5MM buyout on next year’s mutual option. Given that $4.84MM left on his contract, there’s no chance another team would claim him at this point. In the likely event that the Reds can’t find a trade partner — which would surely require them either paying down the bulk, if not the entirety of the contract, or taking another bad contract back in return — Myers will pass through waivers unclaimed.
Myers has enough service time to reject an outright assignment without forfeiting the remainder of his salary, so the likeliest outcome is that he’ll become a free agent. Any new team that signs him would only be responsible for paying Myers the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the MLB roster. That sum would be subtracted from what Cincinnati owes him, but either way the Reds will be on the hook for the vast majority of his contract.
Guardians To Promote Gavin Williams
The Guardians are going to promote pitching prospect Gavin Williams, reports Guardians Prospective on Twitter. The right-hander will start on Wednesday, making his major league debut. He’s not yet on the 40-man roster, so a corresponding move or moves will be required.
Williams, 23, was the club’s first-round pick in 2021, getting selected 23rd overall. He didn’t make his professional debut until the following season, but it was well worth the wait. He split last year between High-A and Double-A, tossing 115 innings over 25 starts with a 1.96 ERA. He struck out 33.1% of batters faced while walking 8.9%.
That strong showing, combined with his pre-draft work at East Carolina University, helped him shoot up prospect rankings this offseason. Coming into 2023, he was ranked the #20 prospect in the league at Baseball America, #81 at FanGraphs, #33 at ESPN and got the #42 slot from Keith Law of The Athletic. He also was ranked 42nd by MLB Pipeline, though he’s since moved up to #16.
Here in 2023, he’s done little slowing down. He began the year back at Double-A but posted an ERA of 0.63 in three starts and was quickly bumped up. Through nine outings at Triple-A, he has a 2.93 ERA in 46 innings, striking out 33.3% of batters faced. His 11.5% walk rate at that level is a bit high, but there’s little denying the overall success. Reports on Williams tend to highlight his triple-digit fastball while also giving praise to his curveball and slider. He also has a changeup, though that is generally seen as his fourth-best offering.
The Guardians have turned to their young pitching prospects several times this year due to various factors. Zach Plesac struggled with a 7.59 ERA and got himself outrighted off the roster. Both of Peyton Battenfield and Cal Quantrill saw their ERA climb above 5.00 before they each landed on the injured list, where they currently remain. Aaron Civale is healthy now but has only been able to make five starts thus far due to a strained oblique. Triston McKenzie was shut down in March with a teres major strain and came back last week, though he’s now on the IL again with an elbow sprain that involves his UCL and seems serious.
Amid all of that, the club has already called upon top 100 pitching prospects Tanner Bibee and Logan Allen to join the rotation alongside Civale and Shane Bieber. Bibee has a 4.05 ERA and Allen is at 3.95 through 10 starts for each. The club already had a reputation for seemingly finding excellent pitchers in the couch cushions but they continue to impress and will now be promoting their third rotation prospect of the year. That’s despite another pitching prospect, Daniel Espino, undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery earlier this year.
The club has a record of just 33-38 but that’s good enough for second place in the weak American League Central. With no teams in the division able to even stay above .500, the Guards are just two games back of the 36-37 Twins. Despite a tepid offense, perhaps their never-ending supply of young pitching can keep them in the mix the rest of the way.
As for the ever-present service time question with top prospects, Williams can only earn 103 days this year even if he stays up for the rest of the year. That won’t allow him to get to a full year in 2023 and will leave him shy of achieving Super Two status by the end of 2025. Since he was a top 100 guy coming into the season, he could theoretically earn a full year of service time by finishing in the top two in Rookie of the Year voting. However, that will be very hard to do since he’s already missed almost half the season.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Mike Mayers Accepts Outright Assignment With Royals
Right-hander Mike Mayers has accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Omaha, the Royals announced. He went unclaimed on waivers after being designated for assignment over the weekend.
Mayers will stick in the Kansas City organization. He signed a minor league deal with K.C. last December. They selected him onto the big league club in mid-May. The 31-year-old carried only a 6.88 ERA over eight Triple-A starts at the time, but the Royals needed another multi-inning arm for the MLB staff.
He pitched well over his first few appearances following the promotion. Mayers allowed just two runs in 13 1/3 innings over a trio of games. He surrendered four-plus runs in five or fewer innings in his next three outings, though. That saddled him with a 6.15 ERA over 26 1/3 frames. Mayers had a below-average 14.3% strikeout rate and a modest 8.4% swinging strike percentage before Kansas City took him off the roster.
It’s a second straight down season for the former third-round pick. Mayers posted a 5.68 ERA in 50 2/3 frames with the Angels last year. He’s now a couple years removed from an excellent 2020-21 run with the Halos, when he combined for a 3.34 ERA while fanning more than 30% of opponents in 105 innings out of the bullpen.
Orioles Outright Noah Denoyer
The Orioles announced this afternoon that minor league righty Noah Denoyer went unclaimed on waivers. He has been outrighted to Triple-A Norfolk.
Denoyer was designated for assignment a week ago. That ended what proved a fairly brief initial stay on the 40-man roster. Baltimore selected his contract over the offseason to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. The 25-year-old has spent the entire season on optional assignment to Norfolk, working mostly as a multi-inning reliever. He has pitched to a 5.04 ERA across 30 1/3 innings, striking out an average 23.3% of batters faced against a huge 15.1% walk rate.
He’d been much more effective at throwing strikes last season. Denoyer walked only 5.6% of opponents with a massive 35.4% strikeout rate in Double-A a year ago. He hasn’t managed to find that form so far in 2023.
Denoyer had never previously cleared waivers and has yet to make his MLB debut. He doesn’t have the ability to decline an outright assignment in favor of free agency. He’ll stick in Norfolk and look to recapture last season’s level to put himself back on the radar for an MLB bullpen job.
Rangers Re-Sign Ian Kennedy To Minor League Deal
The Rangers have brought back Ian Kennedy on a minor league contract, the club informed reporters (including Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). He’ll join their top farm team in Round Rock tomorrow.
Kennedy spent a month on the open market after being designated for assignment by Texas in early May. He’d cracked the Opening Day roster after an offseason minor league deal, marking his second stint in Arlington. While Kennedy was an excellent high-leverage arm for the Rangers back in 2021, he had less inspiring results this time around. Despite a quality 13:3 strikeout-to-walk tally through ten innings, he surrendered ten runs on 11 hits.
The 17-year MLB veteran has had a couple strong seasons since moving to the bullpen four years back. He has struggled going back to the start of the 2022 campaign, posting a 5.36 ERA through 50 1/3 frames for the Diamondbacks last season. Aside from injury rehab stints, Kennedy hasn’t pitched in Triple-A since 2009.
He’ll look to make his stay in Round Rock brief by recapturing a spot in the Texas bullpen. Rangers relievers rank 22nd in MLB with a 4.31 ERA on the year, though they’ve posted a serviceable 3.92 mark within the past month.
Dodgers Sign David Dahl To Minor League Contract
Veteran outfielder David Dahl has signed a minor league deal with the Dodgers, according to Triple-A communications director Alex Freedman (Twitter link). He’s joining their top affiliate in Oklahoma City.
It’s the third career NL West organization for Dahl. He’s best known for his time with the Rockies, where he flashed middle-of-the-order potential and was nominated to the 2019 All-Star Game. Injuries derailed his Colorado tenure, though, and Dahl hasn’t gotten much of a big league look since hitting .210/.247/.322 in 63 games for the 2021 Rangers.
After splitting the ’22 campaign between a handful of Triple-A clubs, Dahl returned to the majors this season. He broke camp with the Padres after an offseason non-roster contract. He got into four MLB games before a quad strain sent him to the injured list. After he returned, he was optioned to Triple-A. Dahl hit .265/.342/.382 in 17 games there before being designated for assignment two weeks ago.
Upon clearing waivers, Dahl tested minor league free agency. He finds a new landing spot with the Dodgers, where he’ll try to hit his way back to the big league level. Los Angeles has Jason Heyward and rookie Jonny DeLuca backing up their starting outfield of Mookie Betts, James Outman and David Peralta for the moment. Dahl joins Kole Calhoun as a veteran depth option in Triple-A. Steven Duggar is also on the OKC roster but he has been on the injured list since June 9.
Dodgers Designate Andre Jackson For Assignment
The Dodgers announced they’ve designated right-hander Andre Jackson for assignment. His 40-man roster spot will go to righty Ryan Brasier, whose promotion was reported earlier. Left-hander Bryan Hudson was optioned to open a spot for Brasier on the active roster.
Jackson has spent his entire career in the L.A. organization. Originally selected in the 12th round of the 2017 draft, he made it onto the 40-man roster after the 2020 campaign. Jackson debuted the following summer and has bounced on and off the active roster for the past three seasons.
He’s worked in multi-inning relief at the big league level, tossing 39 frames over 14 outings. A personal-high 17 2/3 of those innings have come this season. Jackson has allowed 13 runs in that limited look, thanks largely to five homers. The longball has largely overshadowed a quality 16:3 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
A starter for the bulk of his minor league tenure, Jackson has also worked in long relief in Triple-A this season. He’s logged 27 2/3 innings across 11 outings, pitching to a 5.86 ERA in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He has a quality 25.8% strikeout rate at the top minor league level, but he’s walked over 14% of batters faced there. Strike-throwing has been the question throughout his career, as Jackson has handed out free passes at a 12.7% clip over five minor league seasons.
The 6’3″ righty clearly has intriguing raw stuff, though. He’s punched out over a quarter of opponents in the minors. His fastball sat north of 95 MPH on average during his MLB time this season, while prospect evaluators have long praised his changeup. He seems likely to draw some interest via minor trade or on the waiver wire within the next week. Jackson is in his final minor league option season, so an acquiring team could keep him in Triple-A for the remainder of the year.