Nationals To Designate Erasmo Ramirez For Assignment
The Nationals are designating veteran righty Erasmo Ramirez for assignment, reports Andrew Golden of the Washington Post. His spot on the roster will go to right-hander Cory Abbott, who is being recalled from Triple-A Rochester, as first reported by Talk Nats. Ramirez is the Nationals’ second reliever to be designated for assignment in as many days; righty Andres Machado was designated for assignment just yesterday.
It’s been a tough season for the veteran Ramirez, who has been tagged for a 6.33 ERA in 27 innings out of Davey Martinez’s bullpen. The 33-year-old right-hander is only a year removed from logging 86 innings of 2.92 ERA ball for the Nats, but after re-signing in D.C. over the winter, he’s seen his strikeout rate, walk rate, home-run rate, ground-ball rate and fastball velocity all trend in the wrong direction.
Ramirez’s 2022 season always appeared to have benefited from some degree good fortune. His .267 average on balls in play was well south of league average (and a bit shy of his own career mark), and an 81% strand rate is difficult to sustain over a larger sample — particularly with a below-average strikeout rate.
Still, the wheels have come off far more than last year’s numbers might have suggested. Ramirez’s 10.3% strikeout rate and 6% swinging-strike rate in 2023 rank as the third-lowest and fourth-lowest of any MLB pitcher (min. 20 innings pitched). After yielding just an 88.7 mph average exit velocity in 2022, he’s been torched for an average of 92.2 mph off the bat in 2023. Ramirez’s sinker sat at 93.1 mph last season but is down to 92.1 mph so far this year.
The Nats will have a week to trade Ramirez, pass him through outright waivers or release him. As a veteran with more than five years of big league service time, he can reject on outright assignment in favor of free agency without forfeiting the remainder of his $1MM guaranteed salary. Any team could sign him at that point, owing only the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the big league roster.
Abbott, 27, was with the Nationals earlier this season and tossed four innings of one-run ball across a pair of relief appearances. He also logged 48 innings for the 2022 Nats, yielding a 5.25 ERA. Abbott has been tagged for a 5.71 ERA across 41 Triple-A frames, operating exclusively as a starter in the minors. He’s likely ticketed for a bullpen role with the Nats, where he’ll replace Ramirez. In 69 1/3 career innings at the MLB level, Abbott has a 5.45 ERA with an 18.7% strikeout rate against a 12.1% walk rate.
Rangers To Release Rafael Ortega
The Rangers are granting veteran outfielder Rafael Ortega his release from their Triple-A club, MLBTR has learned. The 32-year-old will head back to the open market in search of a better opportunity with a clearer path to big league playing time.
Ortega, 32, drew some attention in Yankees camp this spring and was viewed as a candidate to make the Opening Day roster late in camp. That didn’t happen, as the Yankees pivoted and signed Franchy Cordero while releasing Ortega, who quickly caught on with Texas.
Through 44 games and 199 plate appearances with Triple-A Round Rock this season, Ortega is hitting .226/.333/.381 with five home runs, 11 doubles and eight stolen bases. After a poor first month of the season, he’s logged a more palatable .247/.349/.427 slash with more walks (14) than strikeouts (12) over the past month (107 plate appearances). Overall, Ortega has walked at a hefty 13.6% clip against a better-than-average 17.1% strikeout rate.
Even with that recent uptick, the overall results haven’t been strong enough to compel the Rangers to find room for Ortega on the big league roster. That’s understandable, given a huge performance from right fielder Adolis Garcia, a breakout year at the dish for center fielder Leody Taveras, and solid contributions from a combination of Robbie Grossman, Travis Jankowski, Josh H. Smith and Ezequiel Duran in left field.
Ortega’s overall performance this year in Triple-A doesn’t stand out much, but he had a productive 2021-22 run with the Cubs, batting a combined .265/.344/.408 with 18 home runs and 24 stolen bases in 701 Major League plate appearances. He paired that slash with a strong 10.6% walk rate and a 20.5% strikeout rate that clocked in a couple percentage points lower than the average MLB hitter.
Ortega has ample experience at all three outfield spots both in the big leagues and in the minors. He’s lined up in all three spots with Round Rock this season but most frequently slotted in as the center fielder for the Express. Metrics like Defensive Runs Saved, Outs Above Average and Ultimate Zone Rating agree that Ortega has been a solid corner option in recent seasons at the MLB level but was below average (-5 DRS, -2 OAA) in 944 innings of center field work.
Blue Jays Option Alek Manoah
The Blue Jays announced a series of roster moves today, the most notable of which is that right-hander Alek Manoah has been optioned to the Florida Complex League. The club also optioned right-hander Jay Jackson and infielder Ernie Clement. To fill those three roster spots, righty Chris Bassitt has been reinstated from the paternity list, infielder Santiago Espinal has been reinstated from the injured list and right-hander Bowden Francis has had his contract selected. To open a spot on the 40-man for Francis, righty Zach Thompson was designated for assignment.
The 2023 season has been a stunning fall from grace for Manoah, 25, who had previously been on a meteoric rise. The Jays selected him 11th overall in the 2019 draft and it didn’t take him long to make it up to the major leagues. He made six Low-A starts in his draft year, then the minor leagues were wiped out by the pandemic in 2020. In 2021, he was sent to Triple-A and allowed just a single earned run through three starts before getting the call to the majors.
It was an aggressive move given his lack of minor league innings but Manoah quickly justified it. He eventually posted a 3.22 ERA over 111 2/3 innings in that season, finishing eighth in American League Rookie of the Year voting. He took things to another level last year with a 2.24 ERA over 196 2/3 frames, striking out 22.9% of opponents against a 6.5% walk rate. He finished third in the AL Cy Young vote, trailing only Justin Verlander and Dylan Cease.
He seemed to be an ace in the making and was given the Opening Day nod for the Jays here in 2023. Unfortunately, just about everything has soured for him this year. His strikeout rate is down to 17% and his walk rate has more than doubled to 14.9%. His ERA on the year is 6.36, almost triple his earned run rate from last year. It’s been speculated for weeks as to whether some kind of action was necessary but he seemed to finally put the writing on the wall last night when he allowed six earned runs against the Astros while only recording a single out, forcing the bullpen to absorb 8 2/3 innings.
After that trouncing, manager John Schneider said that “everything is on the table” in how to move forward. It seems that wasn’t just bluster as the club will now send Manoah to their Florida Complex facilities to see if he can figure out what went wrong and how to fix it. The length of that process could potentially have implications for Manoah’s future earning power. He came into this season with one year and 30 days of MLB service time. A new “year” flips over at 172 days, so he’s already gone over the two-year mark, but this move makes it less likely he’ll qualify for Super Two status at season’s end.
Of course, that’s likely just a minor detail right now. In the grand scheme of things, the long-term trajectory that once seemed so straightforward suddenly seems incredibly murky. Both Manoah and the Blue Jays will undoubtedly be keenly focused on figuring out how to get him back to being a viable major leaguer, for this season and for the rest of his career.
In the meantime, the Jays will now have to patch over a hole in their rotation. Kevin Gausman, Bassitt, José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi should have the next four days spoken for but the Jays figure to require another starter by Saturday. It’s possible that Francis, 27, could be a factor there, either as a traditional starter or part of a bullpen game of some kind. Drafted by the Brewers in 2017, he came over to the Blue Jays alongside Trevor Richards in the 2021 deal that sent Rowdy Tellez to Milwaukee.
Between those two organizations, Francis posted a 3.93 ERA in the minors in 2021, split between Double-A and Triple-A. That got him a spot on Toronto’s 40-man roster in the winter to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He struggled in 2022 and lost his roster spot, posting a 6.59 ERA in Triple-A, though he did make his major league debut with a scoreless outing that lasted two thirds of an inning.
Despite that rough year, he’s had some decent momentum since. He joined Criollos de Caguas in Puerto Rico for some time in winter ball, posting a 1.51 ERA in 35 2/3 innings there. He then had a 1.08 ERA in 13 Spring Training innings before heading to Triple-A Buffalo. He made a couple of starts before going on the minor league injured list but has been back in action for a couple of weeks now and has a 2.89 ERA in the minors so far this year. The Jays haven’t made any announcements about their future rotation plans, but it’s possible that it could be contingent on whether or not Francis is needed before Saturday. With the bullpen fairly taxed after Manoah’s start last night, he could be pushed into action sooner if another starter struggles this week.
One player who apparently won’t be an option to join the rotation is Thompson. He came over to the Blue Jays from the Pirates in an offseason trade but has a 6.89 ERA through 11 Triple-A starts on the year so far. His 8.8% walk rate is fairly average but his 14.4% strikeout rate is well below. He seemed to break out as a viable big league pitcher with the Marlins in 2021, posting a 3.24 ERA in 75 innings that year. But he struggled in 2022 after getting traded to the Pirates, registering a 5.18 ERA last year.
The Jays will now have one week to trade Thompson or pass him through waivers. His poor results both last year and this year will obviously temper interest, but he has past major league success and a full slate of options. With many teams around the league dealing with injuries and in need of pitching depth, he could still find some interest. If he were to clear waivers, he would not have the right to elect free agency since he doesn’t have three years of service time or a previous career outright.
Matt Beaty Elects Free Agency
Corner infielder/outfielder Matt Beaty has elected minor league free agency after being outrighted by the Giants, tweets Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle. He’ll look for other opportunities after being designated for assignment last week.
Beaty had a fairly brief tenure as a Giant. Acquired from the Royals on Opening Day, the left-handed hitter stepped to the plate just five times for San Francisco. He spent the majority of the year with Triple-A Sacramento, where he put up a solid .272/.406/.447 showing. He walked at a 10.9% clip while striking out just 18.6% of the time and hitting four home runs.
Upper minors success is nothing new for the former 12th round draftee. Beaty carries a .286/.388/.415 line in 137 career games at the Triple-A level. His major league results are more mixed. Beaty showed some early promise with the Dodgers, including a .270/.363/.402 showing in 2021. He’s struggled in a very limited look since then, hitting .104/.173/.167 in 52 plate appearances between the Padres and Giants over the last two years.
Beaty’s Triple-A track record is sure to lead to minor league interest now that he’s back on the market. That he went unclaimed on waivers suggests he’s unlikely to secure an immediate big league roster spot in free agency. A team seeking left-handed hitting depth could bring him in on a non-roster deal.
Dodgers Sign Kole Calhoun, Mike Montgomery To Minor League Deals
The Dodgers have signed outfielder Kole Calhoun and left-hander Mike Montgomery to minor league contracts, according to an announcement from Triple-A communications director Alex Freedman (Twitter link). They’ll each join the organization’s highest affiliate in Oklahoma City. The Dodgers also assigned reliever Zack Burdi outright to OKC after he went unclaimed on waivers, per the transactions log at MLB.com.
Calhoun hit free agency earlier in the week when he opted out of a non-roster deal with the Yankees. The 11-year MLB veteran had a solid month in New York’s system, hitting .281/.390/.528 in 23 games. He hit four home runs and walked in a strong 12.4% of his plate appearances. Nevertheless, the Yankees opted against bringing him up as part of a corner outfield that has been a revolving door aside from Aaron Judge.
That’s a reflection of Calhoun’s recent struggles against big league pitching. He’d been a productive player for a while with the Angels and D-Backs but has fallen on hard times since 2021. The 35-year-old owns a .208/.269/.343 slash over his past 606 MLB plate appearances. He’s yet to crack the majors this year.
He’ll try to change that in L.A., where the Dodgers recently placed Trayce Thompson on the injured list. Los Angeles brought up Jonny DeLuca to replace him and has lost prospect Andy Pages for the year to shoulder surgery. That pair of developments has thinned the Triple-A depth.
Montgomery, 34 next month, is trying to get back to the highest level for the first time since 2020. The southpaw has appeared for three different major league teams and is best known for his time with the Cubs, where he saved Game 7 of the 2016 World Series. He’s had a tough go over the past few seasons, including a 6.72 ERA in Triple-A with the Mets last year. Montgomery had signed with a Mexican League club for 2023 but didn’t wind up making any appearances there.
As for Burdi, he’s landed on waivers a few times of late. The Dodgers claimed him from Tampa Bay two weeks ago but didn’t use him in a major league game. He’s pitched three times with the Rays this year, allowing six runs in four innings. The hard-throwing righty has an 8.44 ERA in 21 1/3 frames over parts of three seasons.
Burdi has previously gone unclaimed on waivers in his career. As a result, he’ll have the ability to elect minor league free agency and explore other opportunities if he doesn’t want to stick in Oklahoma City.
Twins Place Byron Buxton On IL With Rib Contusion
The Twins announced that designated hitter Byron Buxton has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 3, with a left rib contusion. Outfielder Trevor Larnach was reinstated from the IL in a corresponding move.
Buxton, 29, has frequently had his health in the spotlight in his career. He’s one of the most talented players in the league when healthy but has struggled to maintain his production over extended stretches due to various injuries. He’s hit .252/.317/.541 since the start of 2019 for a wRC+ of 132 but hasn’t topped 92 games played in any of those campaigns.
The Twins were keenly aware of the ongoing concerns with Buxton when they signed him to a seven-year, $100MM extension going into 2022, though one with millions more available via incentives based on MVP voting. They hoped to keep him healthy this year by limiting him in the designated hitter role. That deprives him of some value since he’s no longer able to provide his typically excellent outfield defense, but it was hoped that it would at least allow him to stay in the lineup longer.
That plan hit a bump in the road when Buxton was drilled in the ribs by a pitch on Thursday last week. The club didn’t place him on the IL right away, taking a few days to see how the situation developed. It seems that the issue lingered long enough that they will give him at least another week off to recuperate. Prior to this injury, he hit .220/.325/.445 this year for a wRC+ of 115.
Losing Buxton’s bat surely isn’t a welcome development for the club, but one silver lining is that it should give him them a bit more flexibility to rotate other players through the DH slot and give them some partial off-days. Various players on the team having been dealing with minor injuries of late, including Carlos Correa, Royce Lewis, Jorge Polanco, Alex Kirilloff and Larnach.
Reds Outright Frank German
The Reds have sent right-hander Frank German outright to Triple-A Louisville, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week.
German, 25, has bounced around the league quite a bit. Originally a fourth-round selection of the Yankees in 2018, he was flipped to the Red Sox in the trade that also sent Adam Ottavino to Boston. He pitched very well in the minors last year, posting a 2.72 ERA in 49 2/3 combined innings between Double-A and Triple-A. He struck out 32.5% of batters while walking 9.6%. Those strong numbers got him up to the majors, though he allowed eight earned runs in his four innings down the stretch.
The righty was squeezed off Boston’s roster in the winter, getting designated for assignment in January. He was then traded to the White Sox, though that club put him on waivers in May, with the Reds putting in a claim. Each of those two clubs kept him in the minors and he struggled with both of their respective Triple-A squads. He has a 7.78 ERA in 19 2/3 frames this year between the two. His 28.4% strikeout rate is still strong but his 14.7% walk rate is extremely high.
His strikeout stuff clearly garnered plenty of interest around the league in recent months but his control issues have seemingly tempered the excitement enough to finally get him though waivers. Since he has less than three years of service time and this is his first career outright, he won’t have the ability to elect free agency. He’ll stick with Louisville and provide the club with some non-roster depth while trying to earn his way back to the show.
Padres Designate David Dahl For Assignment
The Padres announced today that left-hander Adrian Morejon has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list and optioned to Triple-A El Paso. To open a spot on the 40-man roster, outfielder David Dahl was designate for assignment.
Dahl, 29, signed a minor league deal with the club and cracked the Opening Day roster. Unfortunately, he landed on the injured list just a week into the season with a quad strain, having made nine plate appearances in four games. He went on a rehab assignment and was optioned to El Paso once healthy. In 76 plate appearances for the Chihuahuas, he hit .265/.342/.382 for a wRC+ of 76, or 24% below league average.
It’s a continuation of a rough stretch for Dahl, who was once a fixture of the Rockies’ roster. He debuted in 2016 and hit .315/.359/.500 for a wRC+ of 113. He spent all of 2017 on the injured list but returned to post a combined .291/.342/.528 line for a 111 wRC+ in the two seasons after that. Unfortunately, he had a dismal 2020 when he hit just .183/.222/.247. He was non-tendered after that season and has bounced around since then, joining the Rangers, Brewers, Nationals and now the Padres in recent years, struggling to get on track for any extended period of time.
The Padres will now have a week to trade Dahl or pass him through waivers. If he were to clear waivers, he would be eligible to reject an outright assignment and return to free agency by virtue of having more than three years of major league service time.
Dodgers Select Nick Robertson
The Dodgers have selected the contract of right-hander Nick Robertson from Triple-A Oklahoma City and optioned fellow righty Tayler Scott to Triple-A in a corresponding move, per a team announcement. It’ll be the big league debut for Robertson, a 24-year-old bullpen prospect, whenever he first takes the mound. The Dodgers already have an open 40-man spot, so they don’t need an additional move beyond optioning Scott.
Robertson, the Dodgers’ seventh-round pick in the 2019 draft, ranked 46th among Dodger prospects on the list of FanGraphs’ Eric Longenhagen back in January, where he was tabbed as a likely middle reliever despite going unselected in the Rule 5 Draft. He’s had an outstanding start to his season in OKC, pitching 25 1/3 innings with a 2.13 ERA that’s backed by an exceptional 37.4% strikeout rate and strong 7.1% walk rate. Robertson has kept the ball on the ground at a 48.1% clip and found success against both righties and lefties, the latter likely in large part due to heavy usage of an above-average changeup.
While he had a rough go in a couple stints of Double-A ball, Robertson has breezed through Triple-A pitching, both in a small sample of 11 1/3 innings last year and in this season’s 25 1/3 frames. He looks the part of a big league-ready bullpen piece, and the Dodgers will give him that opportunity as they look to stabilize what’s been a top-heavy unit. Dodgers relievers rank 26th in baseball with a 4.64 ERA, and the majority of their success has come from Evan Phillips, Brusdar Graterol and Caleb Ferguson. Robertson will get the chance to help smooth things out, although given the Dodgers’ habitual cycling of arms through the final few spots of their relief corps, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Robertson optioned a few times even if he performs well.
Nationals Designate Andres Machado For Assignment
June 6: The Nationals have now made these moves official.
June 5, 1:28pm: The Nationals are recalling righty Jordan Weems from Triple-A in a corresponding move to the Machado DFA, per Talk Nats (Twitter link). Weems is already on the 40-man roster, so the Nats’ 40-man will simply drop to a count of 39 players for the time being. It’ll be Weems’ second stint of the season with the Nats. He tossed 2 1/3 scoreless frames earlier in the year and has a 3.75 ERA with a 24.7% strikeout rate and 13.4% walk rate in 24 Triple-A innings.
9:29am: The Nationals designated right-hander Andres Machado for assignment Sunday, reports Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post, although the team has not yet announced the move or a replacement for Machado in the bullpen.
Machado, 30, was an oft-used member of the Washington bullpen in 2021-22, appearing in 91 games and pitching to a 3.41 ERA in 95 innings. Those solid bottom-line results came despite pedestrian strikeout and walk rates (18.8% and 9.9%, respectively) and came with a well below-average .261 average on balls in play, contributing to some far less favorable grades from fielding independent metrics (4.56 FIP, 4.45 SIERA).
They also likely aided in the Nationals’ successful effort to pass Machado through waivers unclaimed back in January, when he was designated for assignment after the team signed outfielder Corey Dickerson to a one-year contract. Machado remained with the organization and was selected back to the big league roster at the end of April.
It’s been a tough go for the right-hander since his return. Machado has appeared in 14 games and been clobbered for 16 runs on 25 hits and six walks in 17 innings. He’s punched out just 15.4% of his opponents against a 6.4% walk rate, and opposing hitters have already connected for six home runs — more than half the number he allowed (11) in total from 2021-22.
Machado is throwing harder than ever before, averaging 96.8 mph on his fastball this season, but the uptick in velocity hasn’t done him any favors. Machado has seen a slider that ranked as his best pitch in 2021 hit increasingly hard across the past two seasons, which has prompted him to instead favor his changeup as his primary secondary offering. The changeup has been a good pitch for him this year, but his four-seamer, sinker and now-seldom-used slider have all been hit hard.
The Nats will have a week to trade Machado or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He’s out of minor league options, so any team to acquire him would need to carry him on the big league roster. Because he was also outrighted back in January, Machado would have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency even if he once again goes unclaimed on waivers.