Rays Acquire Robert Stephenson From Pirates
1:05pm: The Pirates have now announced the deal and that Williams has been assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis. Infielder Mark Mathias has been recalled to take Stephenson’s spot on the active roster.
12:20pm: The Rays have acquired right-hander Robert Stephenson from the Pirates, reports Rob Biertempfel of The Athletic. Minor league shortstop Alika Williams is heading the other way.
Stephenson, 30, came up as a starting pitcher for the Reds but has been converted to relief work over the past few years. The initial results of the bullpen move were positive, as he posted a 3.76 ERA over 57 appearances in 2019. Things took a downturn in the shortened 2020 season, however, with his ERA shooting up to 9.26 in 10 appearances that year. Prior to 2021, the Reds flipped him to the Rockies in exchange for Jeff Hoffman.
He then bounced back with a solid season in Denver, putting up a 3.13 ERA in 2021. He struggled again in 2022, running up a 6.04 ERA through August before he was designated for assignment and landed with the Pirates. He was able to finish on a high note with a 3.38 ERA in ten appearances for the Bucs down the stretch.
Here in 2023, he began the season on the injured list due to elbow inflammation but was able to return in the middle of April. He’s since made 18 appearances but has a 5.14 ERA in those. He’s still getting punchouts at a similar rate but his control seems to have fallen off this year. He struck out 26.8% of opponents from 2019 to 2022 and walked 7.9% but those figures are 27.9% and 13.1% this year.
That’s a small sample size but Stephenson has shown himself to be fairly inconsistent in his career, with notable swings in his effectiveness. Nonetheless, the Rays will take a shot on helping him harness his stuff. Given their track record of helping flawed pitchers get the best of their arsenals, it wouldn’t be a total shock to see Stephenson get back on track in Tampa.
Despite their reputation for producing an endless stream of quality relievers, they have had some bullpen struggles this year. They have five relievers currently on the injured list, which is putting a strain on their depth. The relief group as a whole has a collective 4.32 ERA on the season, a mark that places them 22nd out of the 30 clubs in the league. They have been looking in various places for reinforcements, including calling up several arms from their own system as well signing Jake Diekman after he was released by the White Sox. Now they will add Stephenson as well to see if he can be part of the solution as they try to hold onto the top spot in the cutthroat AL East. He will just be a short-term piece, however, since he’s slated for free agency this winter.
As for Williams, 24, he was the 38th overall selection in the 2020 draft. He has generally been considered one of Tampa’s top 30 prospects in the past few years, with his speed and defense standing out as his best qualities. The key question has been whether or not his bat would allow him to complement those skills. So far, the results there have been somewhat tepid. He hit .267/.312/.375 in 2021 across three different levels, producing a wRC+ of 86. Last year, he got his line up to .249/.353/.377 for a wRC+ of 104, spending most of his time in High-A. He’s been in Double-A this year, hitting .237/.314/.417 for a wRC+ of 101.
Williams isn’t a star prospect but he comes with a solid floor given his athletic abilities. Any offensive development would be a nice bonus for the Bucs, not a bad outcome for a struggling reliever that they grabbed off waivers less than a year ago.
White Sox Designate Hanser Alberto For Assignment
The White Sox announced a series of roster moves today, reinstating right-hander Mike Clevinger and infielder Elvis Andrus from the injured list. In corresponding moves, they optioned right-hander Jesse Scholtens and designated infielder Hanser Alberto for assignment.
The White Sox haven’t had a good solution for second base for most of the year. Andrus was signed with the idea of slotting him next to Tim Anderson but Anderson ended up missing most of April due to a knee sprain. Andrus slid over to short to cover for him but hit just .201/.280/.254 before going on the IL himself due to an oblique strain about three weeks ago.
With Andrus out of action of late, the club has tried a couple of different players. Jake Burger had been playing third base, covering for the injured Yoán Moncada, and hit well enough that the club has considered moving him over to second base now that Moncada is back. He has 11 home runs in 40 games this year and an overall batting line of .270/.314/.603, leading to a 145 wRC+. Given that output, it’s unsurprising that the club wants his bat in the lineup, but he’s still only been entrusted with two innings at the keystone so far this year. Another option is Romy González, who had a terrible start to the season but has been on fire lately. He had a dismal .103/.103/.103 line through April 25 but has hit .286/.295/.667 since that time.
Manager Pedro Grifol recently spoke to James Fegan of The Athletic about the situation, essentially saying that the club will try to ride the hot hand. “I don’t think I’m going to be mixing and matching at second base,” Grifol said. “We need to win baseball games so if somebody’s playing as well as Romy (Gonzalez) is playing, then he’s going to play. If Elvis comes in and he does what he can do, then he’s going to play. Those are conversations that I’ll have with whoever’s involved and we’re going to put the best team on the field that’s going to help us win a baseball game every day.”
With the club suddenly juggling multiple options for the second base position, it has squeezed Alberto out of the picture. Signed to a minor league deal in the offseason, he made the club’s Opening Day roster to serve as a bench piece. He has since played in 30 games for the club, around a two-week IL stint due to a quad strain, but has hit just .220/.261/.390. That’s not too far off from his career line of .269/.292/.381, but it seems the Sox will roll with the younger and more exciting players in Burger and González.
The Sox will now have a week to trade Alberto or pass him through waivers. He has more than enough service time to reject an outright assignment and retain his $2.3MM salary. Given that financial commitment and his tepid production this season, it seems likely he simply ends up released in the coming days.
Brewers Sign Roman Quinn To Minor League Deal
The Brewers recently signed outfielder Roman Quinn to a minor league deal, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He’s already reported to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds and played in a couple of games for that club.
Quinn, 30, was once a highly-rated prospect with the Phillies as his speed and defense gave him a very high floor. While he also hit well in the minors, he hasn’t yet found success against major league pitching. Going back to his debut in 2016, he has a career batting line of .226/.303/.348 in 599 plate appearances, striking out at a 30.4% rate.
He stayed with the Phillies through the end of 2021 but lost his roster spot at the end of that year and has gone into journeyman mode since then. He jumped to the Marlins and then back to the Phillies on minor league deals in early 2022. He got back to the big leagues with the Phils for a time but wound up back on the free market after a little more than a month. That led to another minor league deal with the Royals and then a major league deal with the Rays, though he landed on the injured list after about a month with Tampa and wasn’t able to return.
He lost his roster spot at the end of last year and signed a minor league deal with the Guardians this winter. Unfortunately, he hit just .176/.391/.235 in 15 Triple-A games before getting released, which is what allowed him to join the Brewers on yet another minors deal.
The Brewers have dealt with some issues in their outfield this year, particularly in center. Garrett Mitchell was expected to be the everyday option up the middle but he required shoulder surgery in April that could potentially keep him out for the remainder of the year. Prospect Sal Frelick also isn’t an option as he’s still rehabbing from April thumb surgery. That’s left the position in the hands of Joey Wiemer, who has provided excellent defense and stolen nine bases but is hitting just .199/.261/.348 on the year.
Quinn will give the club some experienced non-roster depth while trying to get into a good groove at the plate. Should he eventually earn his way back to the big leagues, he is out of options but could be retained for future seasons via arbitration since he has just over four years of major league service time.
Diamondbacks Outright Peter Solomon
The Diamondbacks have sent right-hander Peter Solomon outright to the Triple-A Reno Aces, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com. That indicates he cleared waivers after being designated for assignment earlier this week.
Solomon, 26, was once an intriguing prospect in the Astros’ system, having been drafted by that club in the fourth round in 2017. However, he required Tommy John surgery in 2019 and then the minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020, leading to a significant gap in his development. He seemed to get back on track in 2021, posting a 4.70 ERA for Triple-A Sugar Land in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League. He also made his major league debut with a 1.29 ERA in six relief appearances.
In 2022, the Astros kept him in the minors and his results took a step back. His ERA ticked up to 5.20 and his peripherals went in the wrong direction at Triple-A as well. His 26.3% strikeout rate from 2021 dropped to 20.5% and his walk rate went from 9.9% to 10.2%. He was put on waivers in September and was claimed by the Pirates. He made four appearances for their Triple-A club as the season was winding down but was outrighted at season’s end.
He came to the Diamondbacks this winter via the minor league phase of the Rule 5 draft. He was selected to the big league roster in early April but was shelled for a 12.15 ERA in five long relief outings. He got optioned back to Triple-A Reno but has posted a 9.69 ERA for that club. The club needed a roster spot when prospect Kristian Robinson was coming off the restricted list and Solomon was the casualty.
Since Solomon has a previous career outright, he has the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency, though it’s not publicly known if he has chosen to do so.
KBO’s Hanwha Eagles Release Brian O’Grady
The Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization released first baseman/corner outfielder Brian O’Grady this week, as noted by Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap News. He returns to free agency while the Eagles explore options for a new foreign-born player to take the vacated roster spot.
O’Grady signed with the Eagles over the winter. He struggled immensely in his limited work. O’Grady punched out 40 times against five walks in 86 plate appearances. He had only three extra-base hits (all doubles) and compiled a .125/.174/.163 batting line. With a limit of three foreign players on KBO rosters, the Eagles didn’t have much time to afford O’Grady a longer leash.
The Rutgers product has spent parts of three seasons in the majors. Between the Reds, Rays and Padres, he hit .184/.283/.388 in 62 games from 2019-21. He’s been much better at the Triple-A level, positing a .284/.362/.551 slash in just shy of 1000 plate appearances. O’Grady also spent a year in Japan with the Seibu Lions, putting up a .213/.312/.380 line in 2022.
Now that he’s a free agent, O’Grady could look for affiliated ball opportunities. He’d surely be limited to minor league offers given his KBO numbers but has a strong enough minor league track record to potentially attract teams looking for left-handed hitting depth.
Hanwha made a change on the pitching staff in April, signing Ricardo Sánchez while letting go of Burch Smith. Sánchez and right-hander Félix Peña are the two foreign players currently on the roster.
Dodgers Acquire Ricky Vanasco From Rangers
The Rangers have traded pitching prospect Ricky Vanasco to the Dodgers for minor league left-hander Luis Valdez, both teams announced. Los Angeles designated reliever Zack Burdi for assignment to free a spot on the 40-man roster.
Vanasco, 24, has yet to reach the majors. An overslot 15th round draftee out of high school six years ago, the 6’3″ hurler developed into one of the more interesting arms in the Texas farm system. Baseball America ranked him between 12th and 21st on the Rangers’ prospect list each season between 2020-22. He impressed evaluators with a mid-90s fastball and above-average to plus breaking pitch but faced questions about his command and third offering.
The Florida native had his career interrupted by both the canceled 2020 minor league season and a subsequent Tommy John surgery. He lost all of ’21 rehabbing but returned to make 23 starts in High-A last year. Vanasco posted a 4.68 ERA over 92 1/3 innings, striking out a quality 28.9% of opposing hitters but with an alarming 12.7% walk rate.
Vanasco was set to start this year in Double-A. A Spring Training knee injury required surgery and cost him the first two months of the season. He made it back in late May and started two games there. They haven’t gone as planned, as he’s failed to get out of the second inning in either appearance. He allowed ten runs (six earned) with four walks and two strikeouts over 2 1/3 combined frames before losing his 40-man position earlier this week.
The Dodgers will take a flier on Vanasco’s arsenal to see if he can hone in his command. He’s in his second of three minor league option years, so they can keep him in the minors for the foreseeable future if he holds his 40-man spot.
Los Angeles sends a 19-year-old southpaw the other way. Valdez signed with the Dodgers as an amateur out of Mexico two years ago. He’s logged 17 2/3 innings with Low-A Rancho Cucamonga this year, posting a 3.12 ERA with a 28.9% strikeout rate while walking nearly 17% of opponents.
Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs slotted him 29th among Dodger prospects over the offseason, praising a potential plus changeup but noting that his velocity presently sits in the upper-80s. He won’t be eligible for the Rule 5 draft until after the 2024 campaign.
Burdi gets squeezed off the roster within a week of being claimed from the Rays. He didn’t pitch in an MLB game for the Dodgers, making just one appearance in Triple-A. He’s pitched three times for Tampa Bay this season, allowing six runs in four innings. A former first round draftee, Burdi throws in the mid-90s and has paired high minor league strikeout tallies with lofty walk rates.
The Dodgers will have a week to trade him or put him on waivers. Burdi has gone unclaimed on waivers in his career before, so he’d have the right to elect minor league free agency if he clears the wire this time around.
Cardinals To Recall Jordan Walker
The Cardinals are planning to recall top outfield prospect Jordan Walker from Triple-A Memphis, reports Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat (Twitter link). He’ll be back in the majors for Friday’s series opener in Pittsburgh. The Cards will presumably announce their corresponding active roster move tomorrow.
Walker returns for a second MLB stint. The 21-year-old broke camp with St. Louis and started in right field on Opening Day. He wasn’t completely overmatched in his first month. Walker made headlines for a 12-game hitting streak early on and hit a roughly league average .274/.321/.397 through 20 contests.
Nevertheless, St. Louis made the decision to send him back to the minors at the end of April. Walker’s defensive marks weren’t good and his solid slash line belied mounting chase and ground-ball rates at the dish. The demotion wasn’t especially alarming considering Walker’s youth and that St. Louis had jumped him directly from Double-A to the majors in the first place.
While the former first-round pick got off to a bit of a slow start in Memphis, he’s turned things on of late. Walker is hitting .267/.376/.433 over his past 23 games, drawing free passes at a robust 11.9% clip against a decent 21.1% strikeout rate. His 44.6% grounder percentage in Triple-A is well shy of the 60.4% rate at which he put the ball on the ground in the majors.
The Cardinals determined he’s ready for another look at the highest level. St. Louis’ outfield has thinned over the past few weeks. Tyler O’Neill and Dylan Carlson both landed on the injured list since Walker was optioned. O’Neill seems without a clear return timetable as he battles lingering back issues.
Utilityman Brendan Donovan has gotten the bulk of the right field work lately but can bounce around the diamond. Primary left fielder Alec Burleson has struggled to a .237/.289/.397 line on the year, including a meager .245/.293/.340 showing in May. The Cardinals are carrying Óscar Mercado on the MLB roster as a depth outfielder but have only given him five starts since selecting his contract two weeks ago. Mercado’s ability to back up Lars Nootbaar in center field gives him more defensive value than Burleson, though the Cards gave Tommy Edman his first career start there earlier in the week.
Walker will surely be in the lineup on a regular basis now that he’s back in the majors, probably most directly impacting Burleson’s playing time. While he’ll again be paid at the MLB minimum rate and collect service time, the option is likely to push back his path to free agency. Walker spent over a month in the minors and won’t get the 172 days on an MLB roster that’d get him a full service year this season.
Unless he earns “bonus” service time by finishing in the top two in NL Rookie of the Year balloting, he won’t be on track to reach free agency until after the 2029 season. If he’s in the majors from here on out, he’d qualify for early arbitration as a Super Two player following the ’25 campaign. Future minor league assignments could alter that path, of course. This is the first of three years in which Walker can be optioned.
César Hernández Exercises Opt-Out In Mariners Deal
Infielder César Hernández has opted out of his minor league deal with the Mariners, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post.
June 1 is a popular date for opt-outs on minor league contracts, as five other players triggered similar clauses earlier today. Once the opt-out is triggered, the club usually has a window of 48 or 72 hours to either add the player to their 40-man roster or else lose them to free agency. At this point, it’s not publicly known how long the Mariners will have to decide about Hernández or which way they would be leaning. First baseman Mike Ford triggered an opt-out earlier today but it was reported shortly thereafter that the M’s will be adding him to their roster tomorrow.
Hernández, 33, is a veteran who first debuted with the Phillies in 2013. He spent many years in Philadelphia as a solid everyday player at second base, providing both offense and defense roughly around league average. From 2015 to 2019, he got into 732 games over those five seasons. He only hit 45 home runs but walked at a solid 10.1% rate and only struck out in 18.5% of his trips to the plate. His .278/.355/.388 batting line amounted to a wRC+ of 100, indicating he was exactly league average in that time, while he also swiped 79 bags in that stretch.
Since then, things have been a little less consistent for him. He had an unusual power spike in 2021, hitting 21 home runs but his batting average fell to .232. Last year, his power vanished as he hit only one homer all year and his average ticked up but only to .248. He had to settle for a minor league deal with the Tigers this winter but didn’t make the club out of spring and was released, perhaps due to an automatic opt-out he had as an Article XX(B) free agent.
He landed with the Mariners on another minor league deal and has been with Triple-A Tacoma for the past two months. He hasn’t hit any home runs in his 43 games with the Rainiers but he did walk in 22.6% of his plate appearances. He hit .272/.436/.336 overall for a 107 wRC+ and stole seven bases. He played mostly second base but also saw some time at third, shortstop and center field.
The Mariners are pretty set at most of those positions, with Julio Rodríguez in center, Eugenio Suárez at third and J.P. Crawford at short. But Hernández’s primary position of second base is a little less secure. Kolten Wong was the everyday option coming into the season but he’s hitting a paltry .157/.252/.185 this year. He’s gradually been ceding playing time to José Caballero, who has a solid .240/.366/.360 line so far, but in just 93 plate appearances in his first 31 major league games.
Perhaps those factors could cause the M’s to consider adding Hernández to their roster. If not, he’ll head out to the open market and see what other opportunities might be available to him.
Marlins Return Rule 5 Pick Nic Enright To Guardians
The Marlins have returned right-hander Nic Enright to the Guardians, per Daniel Álvarez-Montes of El Extrabase. Enright had been selected by the Marlins from the Guardians in the Rule 5 draft but was designated for assignment on Monday. Today’s transaction indicates he cleared waivers in recent days. The Guardians will not have to add him to their 40-man roster.
Enright, 26, was a 20th round selection of Cleveland in the 2019 draft. He got a brief professional debut in rookie ball that year before the minor leagues were wiped out by the pandemic in 2020. He then split his 2021 between High-A and Double-A, tossing 58 relief innings between those two levels with a 3.41 ERA. He struck out 38.4% of batters faced while walking just 5.7%. Last year was split between Double-A and Triple-A, as Enright finished the season with a combined 2.88 ERA at those two levels, striking out 33.7% of opponents against a 5.4% walk rate.
The Marlins decided it was worth taking a shot on him and nabbed him in the Rule 5 draft in December. Shortly after that, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, relaying the news himself in February. He began the season on the 15-day injured list and was transferred to the 60-day version in early April. He began a rehab assignment about a month ago but it seems the Marlins weren’t going to be able to find room for him on their roster.
Any of the other clubs in the league could have claimed him off waivers, but doing so would have meant following the standard Rule 5 guidelines, meaning they would not have been able to send Enright to the minors. It seems none of them were willing to do so, allowing the Guardians to welcome him back to their organization as non-roster bullpen depth. He will presumably head to Triple-A Columbus and continue working towards his major league debut.
Mike Ford Exercises Opt-Out In Mariners Deal
First baseman Mike Ford has exercised an opt-out clause in his minor league deal with the Mariners, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. The club will now have 48 hours to add him to their roster or else he will become a free agent. June 1 is a popular date for opt-outs on minor league deals, with four other players triggering clauses earlier today.
Ford, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Mariners over the winter and has spent all of 2023 in Triple-A so far. He has been absolutely crushing the ball for the Rainiers, having hit 13 home runs in 49 games. He’s walked in 16.1% of his plate appearances while striking out in only 14.2% of them. Although the club plays in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, his huge .302/.427/.605 batting line amounts to a wRC+ of 143, indicating he’s been 43% better than league average.
With that excellent performance, it’s hardly a shock that he’s willing to return to the open market. The Mariners have a couple of days to decide whether to give him a shot, but doing so would be somewhat complicated. For one thing, Ford is out of options, meaning he would need to be added to the active roster.
He is also limited to first base and designated hitter at this point in his career, which gives the club fewer opportunities for slotting him into the lineup. Ty France has played first base for the vast majority of Seattle’s games this year, hitting a solid .262/.338/.407 for a wRC+ of 114. The designated hitter slot has been a rotation, often used to get one of the club’s many outfielders into the lineup. With Julio Rodríguez, Jarred Kelenic, Teoscar Hernández, AJ Pollock and Taylor Trammell all in the mix, that’s five guys for four spots.
It’s also no guarantee that Ford would be able to bring his Triple-A success to the majors, as he’s often tantalized with strong results on the farm but struggled in the big leagues. In 365 Triple-A contests for his career, he has 74 home runs and a .263/.363/.493 batting line. In 151 major league games, he has 20 home runs but an overall line of just .201/.301/.387. The Mariners could give him another shot at big league pitching, but doing so would likely squeeze out someone like Pollock or Trammell. It’s possible that could lead to an offensive boost but would also come with diminished defensive flexibility.
If the M’s don’t give Ford a roster spot, he will see if there are better opportunities for him elsewhere. He would be competing with other first basemen like Luke Voit and Jesús Aguilar, who were each recently designated for assignment and likely to end up released. Those players have longer major league track records than Ford but he can at least point to strong results this year, unlike them. Ford also has just over two years of major league service time, meaning he could be cheaply retained for future seasons via arbitration if he finally breaks out.