Ryan Borucki Elects Free Agency
TODAY: The Cubs announced that Borucki has opted for free agency rather than accept the outright assignment.
MAY 5: Cubs reliever Ryan Borucki has gone unclaimed on waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Iowa, tweets Jordan Bastian of MLB.com. Borucki has the right to decline the assignment in favor of minor league free agency based on a previous career outright and having over three years of major league service. According to Bastian, the left-hander is still deciding whether to accept the assignment.
Borucki signed a minor league deal with Chicago over the offseason. The Cubs selected his contract at the end of April. He was on the MLB roster for two days and didn’t get into a game before being designated for assignment. While he’s yet to pitch in the majors this season, the Illinois native reached the highest level every year between 2018-22.
The bulk of that experience came with the Blue Jays, who initially drafted Borucki in the 15th round back in 2012. Borucki had some success early in his career but has struggled in the last few years. Since the start of the 2021 campaign, he carries a 5.33 ERA with a 20.1% strikeout rate and lofty 10.5% walk percentage in 49 innings.
Borucki has been off to a rough start to the year in Iowa. Prior to his call-up, he was tagged for 13 runs (12 earned) in nine innings. He punched out 11 and induced ground-balls at a quality 51.7% clip but walked six of 49 batters faced.
Rays Outright Zack Burdi
Rays right-hander Zack Burdi has cleared waivers and been assigned outright to Triple-A Durham, per a team announcement. Burdi had been designated for assignment earlier this week in order to open up a 40-man roster spot for right-hander Chase Anderson.
A first round pick by the White Sox in the 2016 draft, the 28-year-old Burdi has long had a premium fastball in terms of both velocity and spin rate, but has struggled to translate it into success at the big league level due to control issues. While his 9.3% walk rate in 20 1/3 career innings in the majors has been passable, Burdi’s posted a walk rate of nearly 15% in 150 innings at the minor league level. Further, even though his walks have been under control in his small sample at the major league level, his results have still been less than spectacular, with a career 6.64 ERA in the majors.
Still, an optionable right-hander with stuff as tantalizing as Burdi is sure to pique the interest of teams, making it something of a surprise that Burdi passed through waivers successfully. Burdi has less than three years of MLB service time and has not been outrighted before in his career, meaning he does not have the right to reject his outright assignment. That leaves him poised to be upper-level relief depth for the Rays in the minor leagues going forward this season alongside the likes of Trevor Kelley and Calvin Faucher.
Brewers Activate Adrian Houser
The Brewers have activated right-hander Adrian Houser, who will start today’s game against the Giants, as noted by Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. To make room for Houser on the active roster, the Brewers have optioned right-hander Tyson Miller to Triple-A.
Houser, 30, has been a staple of Milwaukee’s pitching staff since the start of the 2019 season, working primarily as a member of the rotation but with occasional appearances out of the bullpen as well. Over the past four seasons, Houser has paired strong campaigns in 2019 and 2021 (where he posted excellent ERA+ marks of 120 and 128, respectively) with difficult campaigns in 2020 and 2022 (with below-average ERA+ marks of 86 and 83, respectively). Overall, that leaves him with a 4.02 ERA, 5% above average by measure of ERA+, and a 4.24 FIP in 412 1/3 innings of work since the 2019 campaign began.
Houser was forced down Milwaukee’s depth chart over the course of this past season, with Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Eric Lauer, Freddy Peralta, Wade Miley, and Aaron Ashby all seemingly preferred rotation options headed into the season. Unfortunately for the Brewers, Ashby was sidelined before the season began by shoulder surgery, while Houser himself struggled with groin tightness and began the season on the IL as well.
That left the club with little depth behind the five regular members of the rotation, and when Woodruff was sidelined by a shoulder strain the club was forced to turn to temporary solutions such as Colin Rea, who has posted a 4.73 ERA and 5.27 FIP in five starts for Milwaukee this season. With Houser now off the IL, he figures to step into the rotation and provide stability behind Burnes, Lauer, Peralta, and Miley while Woodruff is on the mend.
As for Miller, the 27-year-old right-hander posted a solid 1.93 ERA in three appearances as a multi-inning reliever with the club and figures to act as pitching depth for the Brewers going forward, able to work both out of the bullpen and the rotation. Meanwhile, Rea seems likely to move to the bullpen with Houser joining the rotation, filling Miller’s role as the bullpen’s long man.
Marlins Activate Joey Wendle, Option Xavier Edwards
The Marlins have activated infielder Joey Wendle from the injured list ahead of this afternoon’s game against the Cubs, as noted by Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. To make room for Wendle on the active roster, the Marlins optioned infielder Xavier Edwards to Triple-A.
Wendle was expected to be the club’s starting shortstop coming into the season, though he ultimately played just four games, striking out twice and walking once without recording a hit in nine plate appearances before going on the injured list with an intercostal strain on April 4. The 33-year-old Wendle has a career wRC+ of 100, but has struggled to a slash line of just .254/.293/.352 (84 wRC+) in 105 games since he was acquired by Miami from the Rays prior to the 2022 campaign.
After a little over a month on the injured list, Wendle has returned to the Marlins, though he won’t start at shortstop today over Jon Berti, who has filled in admirably in the infield for the Marlins while Wendle was on the shelf. In 111 plate appearances this season, Berti has hit a solid .270/.327/.370 (95 wRC+) while playing shortstop, second base, and third base for the Marlins this season. Though Berti has just five steals so far this season, it’s worth noting that he lead the majors last year with 41 steals, providing plenty of value on the basepaths in addition to his versatility and roughly league average bat.
With Luis Arraez and Jean Segura entrenched at second and third base, respectively, Wendle and Berti figure to share time at shortstop going forward while also filling in elsewhere in the lineup as needed. While both Wendle and Berti are primarily infielders, each has outfield experience as well. That could prove valuable for the Marlins, as the club’s outfield has mustered a collective wRC+ of just 85 so far in 2023, the fourth worst figure in the National League.
As for Edwards, the former top prospect will head back to the minor leagues with just six big league plate appearances under his belt. In those appearances, Edwards recorded a hit and a scored a run while striking out once. Edwards figures to join Jacob Amaya and Jordan Groshans as upper level infield depth for the Marlins in the minor leagues going forward this season. In 20 games at the Triple-A level for the Marlins this season, Edwards has slashed a solid .306/.427/.361, good for a 116 wRC+.
Eloy Jimenez To Miss 4-To-6 Weeks After Undergoing Appendectomy
May 7: As expected, the club has placed Jimenez on the 10-day IL while he recovers from his appendectomy. The club recalled catcher Carlos Perez in a corresponding move.
May 6: White Sox slugger Eloy Jimenez went to the hospital earlier today due to intense stomach discomfort, and the team announced that Jimenez underwent an appendectomy. Jimenez will be sidelined for “preliminarily” the next 4-to-6 weeks while he recovers.
Manager Pedro Grifol told the Chicago Sun-Times’ Daryl Van Schouwen and other reporters earlier today that Jimenez felt discomfort last night, and was admitted to hospital after the pain worsened during the night. If there is a silver lining, it’s that Jimenez’s issue was only the relatively common problem of appendicitis, and hopefully the outfielder will be fully recovered in 4-6 weeks’ time.
However, that does mark yet another significant absence and yet another entry within an increasingly checkered health history for the 26-year-old. Jimenez already spent 10 days on the injured list this season due to a hamstring strain, he missed over two months of the 2022 season with another hamstring issue, and his first game of the 2021 campaign didn’t come until July 26 due to a ruptured left pectoral tendon.
Jimenez was roughly a league-average hitter in 2021, but batted .295/.358/.500 with 16 home runs over 327 plate appearances last season. This year, despite being slowed by the hamstring problem, Jimenez has a productive .258/.321/.423 slash line in 106 PA, even while continuing his pattern of hard contact and a lot of swing-and-miss.
Even with a modest 104 wRC+, Jimenez was still one of the more productive hitters on a struggling White Sox team, and his absence will now only add to what is increasingly looking like a disastrous season. Today’s 5-3 loss to the Reds dropped Chicago to an 11-23 record, and even earlier this week, MLBTR’s Steve Adams wrote about which players might be shopped by the Sox at the deadline. It’s going to be a lot harder for the Southsiders to dig themselves out of this early hole without Jimenez in the lineup, which only increases the chances that Chicago will be looking to be sellers in some regard by August 1.
The White Sox have used Jimenez mostly as a DH this season with a handful of games in right field, so there might not be a direct positional replacement needed, in the sense that the Sox could just cycle multiple players through the DH spot to help keep people fresh. Gavin Sheets might get the bulk of those at-bats given his lackluster defensive numbers in right field, and Oscar Colas might find himself quickly back in the majors after being optioned to Triple-A earlier this week. In addition to Jimenez being sidelined, the White Sox also just placed Jake Burger on the IL this week due to an oblique strain, and Yoan Moncada has missed close to a month with back problems (though he just started a rehab assignment this weekend).
Tigers Option Spencer Turnbull
The Tigers have optioned right-hander Spencer Turnbull to Triple-A Toledo and recalled right-hander Alex Faedo, per a team announcement. Faedo will start today’s game against the Cardinals.
A second round pick in the 2014 draft, Turnbull made his MLB debut in 2019, struggling to a 6.06 ERA in 16 1/3 innings of work. He would become a regular in the Tigers rotation the following season, however, making thirty starts and posting a roughly league average 4.61 ERA with a solid 3.99 FIP in 148 1/3 innings during the 2019 season. His results continued to improve in 2020, when he posted a 3.97 ERA and 3.49 FIP over 11 starts during the pandemic-shortened campaign.
Turnbull appeared on the verge of a true breakout in 2021, as he had posted a dazzling 2.88 ERA (148 ERA+) in 50 innings across the first nine starts of his season. Unfortunately, Turnbull’s 2021 campaign came to an end prematurely when he underwent Tommy John surgery in July. Turnbull missed the entire 2022 season rehabbing, and returned to the mound as a member of Detroit’s rotation to open the 2023 campaign.
Turnbull has struggled mightily to this point, however, with a 7.26 ERA that leaves him 40% worse than league average by measure of ERA+ and a 5.65 FIP that provides little consolation. Even more worryingly, Turnbull has managed just 31 innings across those starts, pitching into the sixth inning just twice while failing to make it out of the fourth inning three times. Manager AJ Hinch confirmed to reporters, including Chris McCosky of The Detroit News, that Turnbull’s inability to pitch deep into games so far this season was a factor in his demotion. Per Hinch, Turnbull will be tasked with finding the consistency to execute all his pitches during his time in the minors going forward.
Service time might also be some small factor in the Tigers’ decision, as MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery (Twitter links) notes that Detroit might gain an extra year of control over Turnbull if he spends enough time in the minors. Turnbull entered the season with four years and 20 days of service time, and he is currently on track to reach free agency following the 2024 season. Of course, Woodbery observes that the Tigers’ first priority is just getting Turnbull pitching well, since the righty might be a non-tender candidate unless he can turn things around.
Turnbull’s departure creates room on the active roster for Faedo, the club’s first round pick in the 2018 draft. The 27-year-old Faedo made his MLB debut last season, posting a 5.53 ERA with a 4.62 FIP in 53 2/3 innings of work over 12 starts. While Faedo’s results at the big league level last year certainly left something to be desired, there’s some reason for optimism given his excellent results in the minors since his return from Tommy John surgery last year. In 33 2/3 minor league innings since then, Faedo has posted a 2.14 ERA with a 38.2% strikeout rate. Faedo joins Eduardo Rodriguez, Matthew Boyd, Michael Lorenzen, and Joey Wentz in the Tigers’ rotation, though it’s not currently clear if Faedo is simply up for a spot start or will get a longer look as the club’s fifth starter.
Red Sox Place Christian Arroyo On IL With Hamstring Strain
The Red Sox placed second baseman Christian Arroyo on the 10-day IL with a right hamstring strain this morning, as noted by Pete Abraham of The Boston Globe. Boston recalled infielder Bobby Dalbec to take Arroyo’s spot on the active roster. No timetable has been announced for Arroyo’s return.
The move continues a series of injury woes in Boston’s infield that dates back to the offseason, when it was announced that shortstop Trevor Story would undergo elbow surgery and miss much of the 2023 campaign. Since then, the Red Sox have traded for Adalberto Mondesi, who has yet to make his club debut, and signed Yu Chang, who was placed on the IL with a fractured hamate two weeks ago after posting a slash line of just .136/.174/.341 in 17 games prior to the injury.
Arroyo, who will celebrate his 28th birthday at the end of the month, has endured struggles of his own in the early going this season, posting a .257/.295/.365 slash line that’s 23% below league average by measure of wRC+ in 79 trips to the plate this season. Recently, he had begun to cede his regular playing time at second base to Enmanuel Valdez, who has slashed a solid .343/.361/.514 (137 wRC+) in 10 games since taking over for Chang on the roster. With Arroyo on the shelf, Valdez should have plenty of runway to make the case for himself at second base going forward in Boston.
Dalbec, 28 in June, figures to serve as the backup infielder behind Valdez and shortstop Enrique Hernandez. Dalbec has primarily played first base throughout his career, though he has experience at all four infield spots. A fourth round pick by the Red Sox in the 2016 draft, Dalbec made his MLB debut in 2020 and got off to a torrid start, with a 151 wRC+ in 23 games during the pandemic-shortened season. Since then, however, Dalbec has slashed just .229/.293/.437 (95 wRC+) with a worrisome 34.1% strikeout rate in 254 games at the big league level.
Braves Reinstate Orlando Arcia, Option Vaughn Grissom
The Braves have reinstated infielder Orlando Arcia from the 10-day injured list, per a team announcement. In a corresponding move, the club optioned shortstop Vaughn Grissom to Triple-A. Arcia had been out with a microfracture in his left wrist since mid-April.
The move comes as something of a surprise, as Arcia will return to the club without a rehab assignment after reportedly beginning to take dry swings just a few days ago. Arcia opened the season as the club’s regular shortstop prior to his injury and got off to a hot start with a .333/.400/.511 slash line with a 149 wRC+ in 13 games. That hot start earned him a contract extension that will keep the 28-year-old under team control through the 2026 season.
Given his success at the plate this season prior to his injury, it seems reasonable to expect Arcia to once again get the lion’s share of playing time at shortstop. Prospect Braden Shewmake was promoted recently and received a start at shortstop, but with Arcia back on the roster seems likely to settle into an infield utility role behind Arcia, second baseman Ozzie Albies and third baseman Austin Riley. The 25-year-old Shewmake has yet to record his first hit in the major leagues, but saw a power surge early this season in the minor leagues, as his five home runs in just 110 plate appearances nearly matches the seven he hit last year in 307 plate appearances. Still, his overall Triple-A slash line of .255/.307/.415 casts him as a glove-first option in the big leagues who doesn’t figure to hit much.
With Arcia returned and Shewmake taking up a utility role in the infield, the 22-year-old Grissom is left heading to Triple-A as the odd man out. Grissom made his major league debut last season, filling in for Albies at second base, and impressed in 41 games with a slash line of .291/.353/.440 that was good for a wRC+ of 121. Though his 21.8% strikeout rate and high .350 BABIP left room for concern, the biggest question mark surrounding Grissom was his defense, which he spent the offseason trying to improve with infield coach Ron Washington.
Unfortunately for both Grissom and the Braves, the young shortstop’s start to the season has been something of a disaster. Grissom has taken a significant step back at the plate, with a slash line of just .277/.314/.308 in 70 plate appearances that leaves him 29% below league average by measure of wRC+. Meanwhile, his defense has been a major concern, with six errors in 18 starts at shortstop and defensive metrics that give him concerning ratings across the board. In particular, Grissom’s -4 Outs Above Average leave him in just the third percentile among MLB fielders and cast him the third worst defensive shortstop in the majors, ahead of only Enrique Hernandez of the Red Sox and CJ Abrams of the Nationals. Given Grissom’s pronounced struggles, it seems reasonable to expect him to work on things at the Triple-A level for the foreseeable future, unless another injury around the infield forces the club’s hand.
Mariners Place Penn Murfee On 15-Day Injured List
The Mariners have placed right-hander Penn Murfee on the 15-day injured list due to right elbow inflammation, according to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times (Twitter link). Right-hander Juan Then is being called up from Double-A in the corresponding move, and Then’s first appearance will mark his MLB debut.
Murfee made his own Major League debut in 2022 and immediately contributed to Seattle’s bullpen, posting a 2.99 ERA over 69 1/3 innings. Murfee’s strikeout and walk rates were well above average, and he was one of the league’s best at inducing soft contact. The overall results have improved this season as per Murfee’s 1.38 ERA over 15 innings, except with the red flag of a drastically inflated 16.7% walk rate. A tiny .143 BABIP has certainly helped Murfee avoid much damage, though his SIERA is 4.52.
Walks have been a problem for the Mariners’ bullpen as a whole this season, even though the relief corps has still been quite solid overall. However, it isn’t good news that the M’s are now missing two notable relievers in Murfee and Andres Munoz, who has spent close to a month on the 15-day IL due to a right deltoid strain that seems to be a bit more troublesome than initially anticipated. For what it’s worth, Murfee’s elbow inflammation also seems relatively minor, as Divish tweets that the Mariners were hoping he could avoid an IL trip altogether.
Then was added to Seattle’s 40-man roster back in November, protecting righty from selection in the Rule 5 Draft. Then was an international signing for the Mariners in 2016, and after being traded to the Yankees in November 2017, was re-acquired as part of the Edwin Encarnacion trade in June 2019. Once the 2019 season was complete, things started to go sideways for Then, who (like all minor leaguers) lost the 2020 season to the pandemic, and then struggled through two injury-shortened seasons at the high-A and Double-A levels in 2021 and 2022.
MLB Pipeline ranks Then 23rd on their list of the Mariners’ top 30 prospects, noting that his performance in the Arizona Fall League merited a return to the ranking and apparently indicated that his elbow problems were behind him. Back at Double-A this season, Then has a 27.5% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate over nine innings of work, but also a 5.00 ERA.
To this end, promoting Then to the majors and skipping Triple-A entirely seems like an aggressive move for the Mariners, based both on results and the fact that Then has pitched only 30 total innings (counting AFL and Dominican Winter League work) since the start of the 2022 season. It could be that the M’s might be viewing Then as just a short-term add before figuring out a 40-man roster opening to accommodate another pitcher.
Guardians Option Oscar Gonzalez To Triple-A
After hitting only .192/.213/.288 over his first 75 plate appearances, Guardians outfielder Oscar Gonzalez has been optioned to Triple-A Columbus. Infielder Tyler Freeman has been called up to replace Gonzalez on Cleveland’s active roster.
Gonzalez is the second prominent Guardians player to be optioned in the last three days, after Zach Plesac was also sent down to Columbus on Thursday. Plesac was more of an established big leaguer than Gonzalez, yet both moves are indicative of how the Guards are trying to shake things up after an underwhelming 14-18 start to the season.
One of several young players who contributed to the Guardians’ success in 2022, Gonzalez made his MLB debut last season and hit .296/.327/.461 with 11 homers over 382 PA in his rookie season. His most memorable moments included a pair of walkoff hits in the postseason — the 15th-inning home run that allowed the Guardians to eliminate the Rays in the Wild Card Series, and a walkoff single that led Cleveland to a win over the Yankees in Game 3 of the ALDS.
Despite this early success, Gonzalez displayed some weak points that have continued into 2023. He has ranked near the bottom of the walk in both walk rate and chase rate in both seasons, even if his actual strikeout rate is above average. Gonzalez’s hard-hit rate has also plummeted from a respectable 40.1% in 2022 to just 31% this year.
The Guardians entered the season using Gonzalez and Will Brennan in a right field platoon, with Brennan seeing the majority of at-bats as a left-handed hitter. Manager Terry Francona told reporters (including Cleveland.com) that the team’s desire to use Gonzalez on a more regular basis contributed to the decision to send him to Triple-A.
“We might be doing Oscar right now a disservice by playing him sparingly….Last time we called him up, he had a lot of at-bats under his belt and felt really good about himself. So we’re going to hopefully get him going again, as opposed to playing him every so often,” Francona said.
Freeman might be an example of this very tactic, as the former top-100 prospect (who also made his MLB debut in 2022) returns to the majors on the strength of a hot streak with Columbus. The Guardians called Freeman up for two games in April, but Freeman has otherwise spent the season at Triple-A, and is batting .329/.468/.482 over 109 PA with the Clippers.
It remains to be seen where Freeman will fit into Cleveland’s lineup or how often he’ll play, but Gabriel Arias is notably getting the start in right field today for the Guardians against the Twins (and right-handed starter Sonny Gray). Arias is yet another highly-touted prospect from the Guardians’ farm system, but he hasn’t shown much over an even 100 plate appearances at the big league level. Only 43 of those PA have come this season, so Arias and Freeman might get some looks as part of the right field platoon even though both are infielders by trade. Arias has made a handful of appearances as a left fielder during his career but today marks his pro debut in right field.