Kyle Isbel To Miss Six Weeks With Grade 2 Hamstring Strain
The Royals announced some roster moves earlier today, with outfielder Kyle Isbel going on the 10-day injured list with a hamstring strain and left-hander Austin Cox optioned to Triple-A. Those roster spots were taken by infielder/outfielder Nate Eaton and right-hander Jonathan Heasley, both of them getting recalled from Omaha. Manager Matt Quatraro tells Anne Rogers of MLB.com that Isbel has a Grade 2 hamstring strain and will be sidelined for six weeks.
Isbel, 26, was a third round pick in the 2018 draft and has been considered one of the club’s top prospects in recent years. Baseball America had him in the top 10 among Royal farmhands for four years straight beginning in 2019. He reached the majors in 2021 and has had roughly a full season’s worth of playing time since then, getting into 160 games with 457 plate appearances.
He hasn’t been able to contribute much at the plate in that time, currently sporting a batting line of .222/.274/.359 for a wRC+ of 73. He’s struck out in 25.6% of his trips to the plate and walked in just 5.9% of them. He has been able to contribute in other ways, however. He’s played all three outfield positions and has accrued +16 Defensive Runs Saved, +14 Outs Above Average and a 9.1 grade from Ultimate Zone Rating. When combined with his 13 stolen bases, he’s been worth 1.3 wins above replacement, even with that tepid offensive production. Any kind of step forward at the plate would make him a solid everyday player.
Unfortunately, he’ll now have to miss the next few weeks with this injury, which is unfortunate timing. Despite his lack of offense this year, he may have been able to continue getting regular playing time. The Royals traded Michael A. Taylor this winter, seemingly at least partially motivated as a way to clear a path for Drew Waters to get everyday playing time in center field. But Waters suffered an oblique strain in February and has been on the injured list all year. He was set to start a rehab assignment this week but it was recently reported that some lower back tightness has put those plans on pause. That could have allowed Isbel continued reps at the position but he’ll now have to join Waters on the IL instead.
The Royals will now have to figure out how to proceed up the middle without either of those two. Quatraro tells Rogers that Jackie Bradley Jr. and Nate Eaton will be the primary options with Maikel Garcia in the mix as well. Bradley is an excellent defender but has been one of the worst hitters in the majors in recent years, including a tepid .156/.255/.200 showing this season. Eaton is primarily an infielder but has some time on the grass, while Garcia has only played infield thus far in his career.
Cardinals Place Tyler O’Neill On IL, Select James Naile
The Cardinals announced a series of roster moves today, selecting right-hander James Naile and recalling first baseman/outfielder Juan Yepez from Triple-A Memphis. In corresponding moves, outfielder Tyler O’Neill was placed on the 10-day injured list with a lower back strain while right-hander Jake Woodford was placed on the 15-day injured list with right shoulder inflammation. To open a spot on the 40-man for Naile, righty Wilking Rodríguez was transferred to the 60-day injured list.
O’Neill, 28 in June, has a tremendous ceiling but has been held back by injuries in recent years. In 2021, he launched 34 home runs and hit .286/.352/.560 overall for a 144 wRC+. He also stole 15 bases and got good grades for his glovework, leading to a tally of 5.6 wins above replacement from FanGraphs. But last year, he made multiple trips to the IL and only got into 96 games, playing with diminished production when on the field. This year, he’s hitting just .228/.283/.337 while striking out in 34.3% of his trips to the plate.
The Cardinals have been dealing with a crowded outfield mix this year, as young players like Alec Burleson and Jordan Walker made the club out of camp, joining O’Neill, Dylan Carlson and Lars Nootbaar, though the latter missed some time on the injured list. It was hard enough to divvy up the playing time that the Cards optioned Walker to the minors to get more regular at-bats in the minors. Now that O’Neill isn’t in the mix, that should make things simpler, though Yepez has been recalled instead of Walker today.
As for Naile, 30, this will be his second stint on the roster, having been selected in June of last year. He spent the rest of the year getting frequently optioned and recalled, posting an ERA of 5.00 in the majors over nine scattered appearances. He was designated for assignment in February but cleared waivers and stayed in the organization. He has an ERA of 2.50 through 18 Triple-A innings so far this year. The club used a lot of their lower leverage pitchers yesterday when starter Jack Flaherty lasted only 2 1/3 innings, so bringing up Naile will give the club a fresh arm to call upon. He still has a couple of options and can be sent back down to the minors when needed.
Rodríguez, 33, was selected from the Yankees in the Rule 5 draft but had a shoulder injury pop up in the spring. He underwent surgery earlier this week and is expected to miss the next four to six months, making this move an expected formality.
Rockies Designate Yonathan Daza For Assignment
The Rockies announced a series of roster moves today, with right-hander Antonio Senzatela being reinstated from the injured list and catcher Austin Wynns added to the active roster, the latter having been claimed off waivers from the Dodgers last night. In corresponding moves, catcher Brian Serven was optioned to Triple-A while outfielder Yonathan Daza was designated for assignment.
Daza, 29, has seen significant playing time with the Rockies in recent years, with his ability to play all three outfield positions making him a useful player to have around. Since the start of 2021, he’s played 244 games for the Rockies and taken 819 trips to the plate. That includes 172 games in center field, splitting that position with players including Sam Hilliard, Garrett Hampson and Randal Grichuk. He hasn’t been an elite defender, with Outs Above Average considering him exactly average in center for his career while he has -17 Defensive Runs Saved and a grade of -6.8 from Ultimate Zone Rating.
At the plate, Daza is tough to strike out and generally runs good batting averages but with little else to be excited about. He has a .281 batting average in his career but has just four home runs in 924 plate appearances, despite playing his home games at Coors Field. He’s hitting .270/.304/.351 here in 2023 for a wRC+ of 63, walking at just a 3.8% clip with no homers or even a triple.
The Rockies suddenly had a bit of a crowded center field depth chart, as Grichuk recently came off the injured list and rookie Brenton Doyle was promoted. Those two have seemingly squeezed Daza out of playing time, as he last started back on April 23. Since he’s out of options, the only way to get him off the active roster was to designate him for assignment. The club will now have one week to trade him or pass him through waivers. He doesn’t have a previous career outright or three years of service time, meaning that he would stick with the club in the event he goes through waivers unclaimed.
As for Senzatela, he will be making his season debut, having been out of action since suffering a torn ACL in August of last year. He’s been an effective ground ball pitcher for the Rockies in the past, posting a 4.11 ERA over 2020 and 2021. He only struck out 15% of hitters in that time but kept walks down to a 5.1% rate and got grounders on 51.1% of balls in play. It was after that latter season that the club signed him to a $50.5MM extension that runs through 2026 with a club option for 2027. He had a 5.07 ERA last year prior to his injury, but with very similar peripherals and an inflated .383 batting average on balls in play that suggests he was closer to his usual self than it might appear.
He’ll step into a Colorado rotation that’s been dealing with various challenges recently. It was recently reported that Germán Márquez will undergo Tommy John surgery, keeping him out of action for the rest of the year and part of next year as well. Ryan Rolison and Noah Davis are also on the injured list, leaving the club with Kyle Freeland, Austin Gomber, Ryan Feltner and Connor Seabold in four spots.
Pirates Place Vince Velasquez On IL, Outright Drew Maggi
The Pirates announced today that right-hander Vince Velasquez has been placed on the 15-day injured list with right elbow inflammation. His roster spot will go to fellow righty Chase De Jong, who has been reinstated from his own IL stint, which was due to a lumbar spine muscle sprain. Additionally, infielder Drew Maggi cleared waivers and was outrighted to Double-A Altoona. The club’s 40-man roster count is now down to 39.
Velasquez was removed from yesterday’s game after throwing just 54 pitches in three innings. During the broadcast, he could be seen grabbing at his throwing elbow, video courtesy Justice delos Santos of MLB.com. After the game, he spoke to Kevin Gorman of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and didn’t seem especially worried. “I’m pretty optimistic about it,” Velasquez said. “I’ve been in situations like this before. I’m glad I stopped when I needed to. If I would’ve kept going it probably would’ve been more severe. I just have to be optimistic and then go from there.”
Despite that lack of concern, it seems the club will give him a chance to rest up, either out of an abundance of caution or because testing revealed a bit more severity than he expected. It’s still unclear what kind of absence the club is forecasting but they will proceed without Velasquez for at least a couple of weeks.
Velasquez has long been an intriguing pitcher with some strong strikeout numbers at times but he’s been fairly inconsistent and also had trouble with the long ball. For his career, he has a 4.84 ERA with a 25% strikeout rate, allowing home runs on 14.2% of fly balls. Signed by the Pirates to a one-year, $3.15MM deal this offseason, he’s had a good start to his 2023 with a 3.06 ERA after seven starts. There might be a bit of good luck in there, however, as his .250 batting average on balls in play and 82.4% strand rate are both on the fortunate side of average. His 4.10 FIP and 4.51 SIERA suggest he’s actually been closer to his norm than he might appear on first blush.
For as long as he’s out of action, the Bucs will likely need to find a fifth starter to join Mitch Keller, Roansy Contreras, Rich Hill and Johan Oviedo. They have a few off-days later in the month that will lessen the need, but they’ll likely need at least a spot starter or a bullpen game to get them through to their next day off on May 11.
Luis Ortiz would be one option, as he’s on the 40-man roster and already made his major league debut last year. He has a 2.45 ERA through six Triple-A starts so far this year and is scheduled to start for Indianapolis tonight. The Bucs also now have an open 40-man spot and could turn to a non-roster option. Quinn Priester is one of their top prospects but he has a 5.96 ERA through his own six-start opening to the year for Indianapolis. He also started yesterday and won’t be an option for a few days.
The open roster spot comes via Maggi’s outright. The infielder became a feel-good story recently when the Pirates selected him a couple weeks ago. He had spent over a decade toiling away in the minors, having made his professional debut in Low-A back in 2010. He was with the Pirates at that time but subsequently bounced to the systems of the Angels, Dodgers, Cleveland, Twins and Phillies before finally making his MLB debut this year, just shy of his 34th birthday. He got into three games before being optioned to the minors last week.
Maggi actually has a previous outright in his career, as he was briefly on the Twins’ 40-man roster in 2021. That gives him the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency, though it’s not clear if he’s chosen to exercise that right or not.
Braves Promote Braden Shewmake, Reinstate Raisel Iglesias
The Braves announced a series of roster moves today, reinstating right-hander Raisel Iglesias from the injured list while optioning left-hander Dylan Dodd in a corresponding move. They also recalled infielder Braden Shewmake to take the roster spot of infielder Ehire Adrianza, who has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to May 2, with right elbow inflammation. In addition, catcher Travis d’Arnaud will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Gwinnett tonight after spending the past four weeks on the concussion-related injured list.
Shewmake, 25, will be making his major league debut as soon as he gets into a game. Selected 21st overall in 2019, he’s generally been considered one of the club’s top 10 or so prospects since then, but mostly due to his defense. He spent 2021 in Double-A, walking in just 4.9% of his plate appearances and hitting .228/.271/.401 for a wRC+ of 84. He was promoted to Triple-A last year and improved his walk rate to 7.5% but still produced a tepid slash of .259/.316/.399 and an 89 wRC+.
Despite the still-developing bat, Atlanta added him to their 40-man roster in November to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. He then became a surprising entrant in the club’s shortstop battle this spring, as they had a question mark at the position for the first time in years. With Dansby Swanson having departed for the Cubs in free agency, the plan was for prospect Vaughn Grissom and veteran Orlando Arcia to duke it out for the job. Shewmake had a strong spring and seemed to get himself into consideration alongside those two, but Arcia eventually won the gig on Opening Day.
Shewmake returned to Triple-A and has a .243/.282/.456 batting line through 110 plate appearances this year for a 79 wRC+. His walk rate is down again to just 5.5% but he does have five home runs, almost matching the seven he hit last year. Four of those five have come in the past two weeks, as he’s hitting a much stronger .271/.333/.583 since April 20. That perhaps indicates he’s getting into a groove but it’s also a small sample size after a few years of lesser production.
Though Arcia won the job out of camp, and got a contract extension as well, he’s been on the injured list for the past three weeks due to a microfracture in his left wrist. Grissom got the first shot at replacing him but is hitting just .258/.299/.274 this year and hasn’t looked great on defense. He’s made five errors already and is getting poor grades from the advanced defensive metrics. Adrianza has been serving in the backup role behind Grissom and Ozzie Albies in the middle infield, but with him now out of action as well, Shewmake will factor into the mix.
Atlanta is off to a tremendous 22-10 start this year but the shortstop situation is the least certain spot on the roster and it seems like it will take time before there’s any clarity. Grissom is struggling on both sides of the ball and Shewmake is just getting his first crack in the bigs with very little offensive success in the minors. They will likely be battling each other for future playing time until Arcia or Adrianza return. The former isn’t yet close as he’s only recently started swinging a bat, per David O’Brien of The Athletic, and likely won’t be available for a few more weeks.
As for Iglesias, he will be making his season debut whenever he gets into a game as he was diagnosed with shoulder inflammation in March and has been on the injured list all year so far. Acquired from the Angels at the deadline last year, he’s been one of the better relievers in the game in recent years. Since moving to relief work full-time in 2017, he has 151 saves and a 2.80 ERA in 370 innings, striking out 31.8% of batters faced.
Cubs Promote Matt Mervis
May 5: The Cubs officially selected Mervis’s contract this morning, as noted by MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian. In a corresponding move, infielder Edwin Rios was optioned to Triple-A Iowa. The club already had an open spot on the 40-man roster, so no additional move was required to select Mervis. Mervis will make his MLB debut in this afternoon’s game against the Marlins, playing first base and batting seventh.
Rios, 29, has struggled with the Cubs so far this season, albeit in a tiny sample of just 25 plate appearances, with a slash line of .100/.280/.300 and nine strikeouts. He figures to serve as infield depth for the club at the Triple-A level going forward.
May 4: The Cubs will select the contract of first base prospect Matt Mervis, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. He’s not with the team for today’s series finale in D.C. but will join the Cubs when they return to Chicago tomorrow to kick off a homestand with a series against the Marlins.
Mervis, 25, was a 39th-round pick of the Nationals back in 2016 but didn’t sign, instead opting to attend college at Duke. He wasn’t selected in the shortened, five-round iteration of the 2020 draft and wound up signing with the Cubs as an undrafted free agent.
That’s proven to be quite the find for the Cubs, as Mervis has laid waste to minor league pitching and established himself as one of the organization’s top-ranked prospects. Over the past two seasons, Mervis has skyrocketed from High-A to Triple-A (and now the Majors), batting a combined .305/.383/.615 with 42 home runs in 161 games across three minor league levels. That includes a torrid .286/.402/.560 slash and six home runs through his first 112 plate appearances in Triple-A this season.
Baseball America ranks Mervis fourth among Cubs farmhands, while MLB.com has him sixth. Mervis is generally regarded as an all-bat prospect, as he’s a sub-par runner and not a standout defender at first base. BA’s report on him notes that a shortened swing and refined approach at the plate unlocked a new level of performance for Mervis in 2022, and he’s clearly kept that up in 2023, given that he’s walked (16.1%) nearly as often as he’s punched out (17%). The left-handed-hitting Mervis was awful against left-handed pitchers in his first pro season, but he improved to .268/.339/.529 against southpaws in 174 plate appearances last year and is 6-for-20 with two homers, two doubles, six walks and six strikeouts in 27 plate appearances against same-handed opponents so far in 2023 (.300/.482/.700).
Mervis’ ascension to the big leagues comes at a time when veteran first baseman Eric Hosmer is struggling, having batted just .250/.294/.363 in 85 plate appearances. Cubs first basemen are still hitting .296/.331/.470 on the season, though that’s skewed by the fact that the vast majority of Trey Mancini‘s production has happened to come while he’s playing at first base rather than in the outfield or at designated hitter. Mancini is certainly capable of playing either outfield corner and has enough bat to be an option at DH, so there’s room to get both into the lineup.
Keeping Hosmer, who’s also a lefty hitting, first base-only player on the roster alongside Mervis would be trickier, though there’s no direct indication yet that Mervis’ promotion puts Hosmer’s roster spot in jeopardy. Hosmer himself recently acknowledged that may end up being the case in an interview with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, though he voiced nothing but support for Mervis.
“This is my 13th year in the league,” Hosmer told Rosenthal. “I’m not going to sit here and be bitter about a young kid coming up. That’s not right. … I was in spring with Matty. I was always trying to help, give him my two cents on what’s coming for him in the league, how you can simplify some stuff. It’s not something where I’m watching over my shoulder, or living and dying by his at-bats. When it comes that time, that’s when you can move on and do something else. I know he’s going to be a big part of this organization. I’ve got to help him any way I can.”
While future optional assignments can always impact a player’s timeline to arbitration and free agent, it’s worth at least outlining where those milestones currently stand for Mervis. If he’s in the big leagues for good from this point forth, he’ll fall shy of a full year of service in 2023 (barring a top-two finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting). That means he’d be on pace to reach free agency after the 2029 season, although an early-May call-up will surely afford him enough service time to qualify as a Super Two player. As such, he’d reach arbitration following the 2025 season and be eligible four times rather than the standard three.
If Mervis does manage to secure a top-two place in NL Rookie of the Year voting, he’d gain a full year of service and bump his free agent timeline up to the 2028-29 offseason in the process. He’d still be arb-eligible following the 2025 season, but he’d get there as a player with three years of service and thus only be eligible three times.
Kevin Quackenbush Signs With Long Island Ducks
The Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League have signed right-hander Kevin Quackenbush, per club president/general manager Michael Pfaff on Twitter.
Quackenbush, 34, had some solid seasons earlier in his career with the Padres. He tossed 54 innings or more in three straight seasons starting in 2014, posting a combined 3.50 ERA in that time along with a 21.7% strikeout rate, 8.4% walk rate and 38.6% ground ball rate.
Unfortunately, his ERA shot up to 7.86 in 2017 and he was outrighted off the roster that year, kicking off the journeyman era of his career. He signed with the Reds for 2018 but got just 10 appearances before he was outrighted off the roster. He signed minor league deals with the Dodgers and Nationals for 2019 and 2020, respectively, but didn’t make the majors in either of those campaigns. He returned to the Dodgers on a minor league deal for 2021 and was selected to the roster in August but designated for assignment after just one appearance of a third of an inning.
In his major league career, he has a 4.41 ERA in 204 career appearances with a strikeout rate of 21%, a 9.2% walk rate and a 39.3% ground ball rate. He spent last year with Toros de Tijuana of the Mexican League, posting a 2.70 ERA.
The Ducks have signed a few guys with major league experience recently, having inked Daniel Murphy and Rubén Tejada about a month ago, though Quackenbush surely is the most aptly-named of any former big leaguer they could have found.
Athletics Release Kevin Cron
The Athletics have released first baseman Kevin Cron, per his transactions tracker at MLB.com.
Cron, 30, signed a minor league deal with the A’s in the offseason but hit just .133/.152/.156 through 46 plate appearances with the Triple-A Las Vegas Aviators. He walked in just 2.2% of those trips to the plate and was struck out in 39.1% of them. Given that rough showing, the club has moved on and freed him up to pursue his next opportunity.
He’s generally been considered a bat-first type of player throughout his career, so the offensive struggles really limit his value. He mashed all through the minor leagues with the Diamondbacks, including a .331/.449/.777 showing at Triple-A in 2019, and eventually got up to the majors. Unfortunately, he hit just .170/.245/.420 in 98 plate appearances over 2019 and 2020 and was released after the latter season.
He tried to take his skills overseas, signing with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp for 2021, eventually hitting a decent .231/.270/.431. He then joined the SSG Landers of the KBO League for 2022 but hit a meager .222/.255/.420 there before returning to North America this year.
Nationals Outright Anthony Banda
The Nationals announced that left-hander Anthony Banda has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Rochester. The lefty had been designated for assignment by the club on the weekend.
Banda, 29, signed a minor league deal with the Nats in the offseason and made the club’s Opening Day roster. He threw seven innings over 10 appearances but with a disappointing 6.43 ERA. He combined a 17.1% strikeout rate with a 14.3% walk rate and 40.9% ground ball rate, with all three of those being worse than league average.
It’s a small sample but most of the lines moved in the wrong direction compared to last year, when Banda struck out 22.2% of opponents while walking 9.6%. In his big league career, he’s spent time with the Diamondbacks, Rays, Mets, Pirates, Blue Jays and Yankees before joining the Nationals this year. He has an overall ERA of 5.69 in 118 2/3 innings dating back to the 2017 season.
Banda has the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency on account of having been previously outrighted in his career, though it’s not clear at this time if he’s chosen to do so.
Rockies Claim Austin Wynns From Dodgers
The Rockies have claimed catcher Austin Wynns from the Dodgers, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The backstop had been designated for assignment earlier this week. The Rockies had a couple of vacancies on their 40-man and won’t need to make a corresponding move in that respect, though Wynns is out of options and they will need to open an active roster spot for him whenever he reports to the team.
Wynns, 32, seems to be taking a tour of the National League West division. He began the year with the Giants on a minor league deal, getting selected to the big league club just over a week into the season. He was designated for assignment just a few days later and elected free agency, then signing with the Dodgers. He lasted about two weeks with the Dodgers while Will Smith was on the concussion-related injured list but was cut shortly after Smith returned.
He’s managed to get 14 plate appearances amid all of that, slashing just .154/.214/.231 but in an obviously small sample and unusual conditions. His career batting line of .229/.273/.334 is better but still amounts to a wRC+ of just 67. Despite that tepid offense, he’s shown some competent work on the other side of the ball. Both FanGraphs and Baseball Prospectus give him above-average grades for his framing this year and did in 2022 as well.
The Rockies have Elias Díaz as their clear number one catcher, having signed him to a three-year extension that runs through 2024. He’s also off to a great start this year, hitting .337/.390/.500 so far. Brian Serven has been serving as the backup this year and part of last year as well, but he’s hit a paltry .197/.250/.317 in his first 226 big league plate appearances. His defensive numbers are strong but he has a full slate of options, perhaps allowing the club to send him down for regular at-bats in Triple-A while installing Wynns as the backup.