Rockies Designate Jose Urena For Assignment
The Rockies have designated starter José Ureña for assignment, tweets Suzie Hunter of DNVR Sports. The move creates a spot on the active roster for the expected reinstatement of Germán Márquez from the 15-day injured list tomorrow. Colorado’s 40-man roster tally dips to 39.
Ureña has spent parts of two seasons in Colorado. He first signed a minor league contract with the Rox last May. The club added him to the major league roster in early July. The sinkerballer started 17 big league games last season, pitching to a 5.14 ERA across 89 1/3 innings. While Ureña only punched out 15.2% of opposing hitters, he kept the ball on the ground on over half the batted balls he surrendered.
It wasn’t a resoundingly successful effort, though the 31-year-old showed enough for the Colorado front office. The Rockies re-signed him on a one-year, $3.5MM free agent contract at the start of the offseason. That deal, which also included a team option for the ’24 campaign, ensured he’d get another crack in the season-opening rotation.
Things haven’t played out the way the organization would have hoped. Ureña has been tagged 22 runs over 18 1/3 frames through his first five starts. He has a ghastly 9:14 strikeout-to-walk ratio and is inducing swinging strikes on a career-worst 7.2% of his offerings. This year’s 44.3% grounder rate is also down a few points from his typical level. He hasn’t made it past five innings in any of his five outings, all of which Colorado has lost.
The struggles were pronounced enough for the Rockies to move on from Ureña just a few weeks into the season. He has more than enough service time to refuse an optional assignment to the minor leagues. The only way to take him off the MLB roster was a DFA, which’ll almost certainly involve eating the remainder of the contract.
Other clubs are unlikely to trade for or claim Ureña and assume the roughly $3MM remaining on his deal. He’s a virtual lock to hit free agency — either by release or rejection of an outright assignment — within the next week. In all likelihood, he’ll be looking at minor league offers at that point.
The Rox will welcome Márquez back to front a rotation that also includes Kyle Freeland, Austin Gomber and Ryan Feltner. Righty Noah Davis has filled in for Márquez while he’s been on the shelf with a minor forearm strain. Antonio Senzatela, who has been out since last summer with an ACL tear, began a rehab stint with Triple-A Albuquerque this evening and should be back in the majors within the next couple weeks.
Padres, Jose Iglesias Agree To Minor League Contract
The Padres are signing veteran shortstop José Iglesias to a minor league deal, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (Twitter link). Iglesias had just opted out of a contract with the Marlins last week.
Iglesias spent the 2022 campaign with the Rockies. He played in 118 games and tallied 467 trips to the plate as Colorado’s primary shortstop, hitting .292/.328/.380 with a meager 12% strikeout rate. Iglesias demonstrated continued excellent contact skills and a similar overall offensive profile as he’s shown throughout his career. He typically runs high batting averages without a ton of power or many walks. In a little more than 4000 MLB plate appearances, the Cuba native is a .279/.319/.382 hitter.
That offense was more than reasonable while Iglesias was playing a Gold Glove caliber shortstop early in his career. Public metrics have soured on his glove since he’s gotten into his 30s. Statcast has pegged him as a league average defender in each of the past two seasons. Defensive Runs Saved, meanwhile, has graded him a staggering 26 runs worse than average at the position since the start of the 2021 campaign.
As a result, he’s been limited to successive non-roster deals with Miami and now San Diego. Iglesias stuck in the Marlins organization for a couple weeks after failing to crack the roster out of Spring Training. He didn’t appear in a Triple-A game before triggering his opt-out though. He’ll presumably join the Padres’ top affiliate in El Paso in the coming days.
Despite the dip in his defensive marks, Iglesias brings more than 4000 MLB innings of shortstop experience to the organization. The Friars already have Xander Bogaerts, Ha-Seong Kim and perhaps Fernando Tatis Jr. as options to play shortstop in the majors. Iglesias adds a veteran as injury insurance and could perhaps branch out to other infield spots in El Paso.
Marlins Designate Sean Nolin For Assignment
The Marlins have designated left-hander Sean Nolin for assignment, reports Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. He will be the corresponding move for the selection of righty Bryan Hoeing, a move that was reported on yesterday.
It’s a quick turnaround for Nolin, 33, who was just added to the club’s roster yesterday. The Fish needed a fresh arm, ideally one that could eat multiple innings, due to a couple of factors. Recent injuries to Johnny Cueto and Trevor Rogers thinned out the rotation, and then a Friday rainout led to a Saturday double-header which taxed the bullpen. In yesterday’s game, Miami were down 5-0 to Atlanta after five innings and put Nolin on the mound to soak up the last three innings. The southpaw allowed six earned runs on seven hits and two walks in that time, leading to the 11-0 final.
Nolin has had many twists and turns in his career, which started with the Blue Jays but has since seen him go to the Athletics, Brewers, Rockies, White Sox, the Long Island Ducks of the Atlantic League, the Mariners, the Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball, the Nationals, the Kia Tigers of the KBO League, the Twins and now the Marlins. He’s only seen MLB action with the Jays, A’s, Nats and Marlins, with a 6.34 ERA in 61 career innings scattered from 2013 to the present.
The Marlins will now have a week to trade Nolin or pass him through waivers. Since he has previous career outrights, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency.
Athletics Promote Luis Medina, Option James Kaprielian
The Athletics announced that they have recalled pitching prospect Luis Medina, and optioned right-hander James Kaprielian in a corresponding move. Martin Gallegos of MLB.com reported on Medina’s promotion before the official announcement, noting that Medina is expected to make his major league debut tomorrow.
Medina, 24 next month, was signed by the Yankees as an international amateur in 2015 and quickly got himself onto the radar of prospect evaluators. By the start of 2018, he was considered the #7 prospect in that club’s system by Baseball America. As he worked his way up towards the majors, he stayed roughly in that range, bouncing between the #7 and #11 spots.
After the minor leagues were canceled by the pandemic in 2020, Medina split 2021 between High-A and Double-A, posting a 3.39 ERA in 106 1/3 innings. His 13.3% walk rate was certainly on the high side, but he paired that with a 29.5% strikeout rate. He returned to Double-A in 2022, registering a 3.38 ERA in 17 starts with similar peripherals.
He then came to the Athletics, one of four young players who came over in the deadline deal that sent Frankie Montas and Lou Trivino to the Yankees. His first stint with his new club didn’t go so well, as he had an 11.76 ERA in seven starts after the trade last year. But he seems back on track here in 2023 as he’s made three Triple-A starts with a 3.86 ERA, though the control continues to be an issue as he walked 20% of batters faced.
Despite the lack of command, Medina continues to be touted on account of his high octane stuff. BA ranked him #13 in the A’s system coming into this year. They note that he routinely touches triple digits with his fastball, in addition to having a curveball and a changeup. The Yankees added him to their 40-man roster way back in November of 2019, to protect him from that year’s Rule 5 draft, but the A’s were given a fourth option year that allowed them to send him to Triple-A this year.
He’ll now get a crack to test his stuff against big league hitters. The A’s have very little cemented in their rotation, having traded away their established players in recent years. On top of that, players like Paul Blackburn, Drew Rucinski and Freddy Tarnok have yet to appear this season due to injuries. Shintaro Fujinami struggled enough that he’s being moved to the bullpen now. Medina will jump up to join a rotation that currently consists of JP Sears, Mason Miller, Ken Waldichuk and Kyle Muller, though Rucinski is on a rehab assignment and could be in the mix soon.
Kaprielian seemed like a potential mainstay of the rotation not too long ago, making 21 starts for the A’s in 2021 and 26 more last year, posting ERAs just north of 4.00 in each of those campaigns. However, he underwent shoulder surgery in the offseason and has been lit up for a 12.94 ERA through three starts and three relief outings in the early going this year. He’ll head to Triple-A and try to get back on track.
Yankees Select Nick Ramirez
The Yankees announced that they have selected the contract of left-hander Nick Ramirez while righty Greg Weissert has been optioned in a corresponding move. The club already had a vacancy on their 40-man roster when right-hander Colten Brewer was designated for assignment a couple of weeks ago. Bryan Hoch of MLB.com announced the promotion of Ramirez prior to the official announcement.
Ramirez, 33, pitched in the majors from 2019 to 2021, getting into 64 games between the Tigers and Padres in those years. He logged 110 2/3 innings with a 4.55 ERA, 20.4% strikeout rate, 9.5% walk rate and 46.1% ground ball rate. He was outrighted by the Padres towards the end of the 2021 season and became a free agent at season’s end. After signing a minor league deal with the Mariners going into 2022, he posted a 2.93 ERA in 53 Triple-A appearances but didn’t get back into the big leagues.
The Yanks signed Ramirez to a minor league deal this winter and have seen him start out well, with a 1.74 ERA through 10 1/3 Triple-A innings. He surely won’t sustain a .179 batting average on balls in play, but that number could be on the low side due to a strong 60.7% ground ball rate. He’ll give the club a second left-handed option in the bullpen alongside Wandy Peralta. Ramirez still has a couple of options and can be send back down to the minors when a fresh arm is needed as the season goes along.
Red Sox Place Yu Chang On IL With Hamate Fracture
The Red Sox announced that infielder Yu Chang has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left hamate fracture. Infielder Enmanuel Valdéz was recalled in a corresponding move. Christopher Smith of MassLive previously reported the components of the move. Chang will have surgery and should be out roughly six weeks, per Rob Bradford of WEEI.
Chang, 27, has been on quite a rollercoaster over the past year and a bit. He started out 2022 with the Guardians, the only organization he had ever played for up until that point. But he had exhausted his option years without truly establishing himself in the big leagues. He still had appeal to other clubs based on his past prospect status and defensive versatility, eventually getting opportunities from the Pirates, Rays and Red Sox, failing to hold a roster spot for very long at any stop. He finished the year with a combined .208/.289/.315 batting line and 78 wRC+ between the four clubs.
The Sox non-tendered Chang but later re-signed him to a major league deal in February to help the middle infield mix that had just lost Trevor Story to an internal brace procedure. Chang then went to represent Chinese Taipei in the World Baseball Classic and fared well, hitting .438 and earning the Most Valuable Player award for Pool A. He’s since played 17 games for the Sox, hitting three home runs but walking in just 2.1% of his plate appearances. His current batting line is .136/.174/.341, translating to a wRC+ of 30.
Though Chang was still struggling offensively, his upcoming absence will be notable for the club. He departed last night’s game with wrist pain and today’s news is not welcome. As mentioned up top, Chang will require surgery and an absence of roughly six weeks. For however long he’s out, the Sox will be further depleted in a middle infield that has taken many hits this year. As mentioned, Story has been out all year due to his procedure and it isn’t clear when he’ll be back. Adalberto Mondesí is still working his way back from last year’s torn ACL and also has little clarity on his return. Both players are on the 60-day injured list and aren’t eligible to return until late May. Valdéz will now step up to support the regular starting duo of Enrique Hernández and Christian Arroyo. Valdéz got to make a single-game debut in the majors last week when Chang was on the paternity list.
Twins Designate Trevor Megill For Assignment
The Twins announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Brock Stewart, a move that was reported earlier today. To open a spot for Stewart on the active roster, righty Bailey Ober was optioned to Triple-A St. Paul yesterday. To get Stewart onto the 40-man roster, righty Trevor Megill was designated for assignment.
Megill, 29, made his major league debut with the Cubs in 2021. He posted an 8.37 ERA in 28 appearances, though he struck out 26.1% of batters faced and walked just 7%. He was claimed off waivers by the Twins at season’s end, though they quickly non-tendered him and re-signed him on a minor league deal. He got selected to the roster in May and made 39 appearances for the Twins last year, registering a 4.80 ERA. It’s possible that he deserved even better, given his .368 batting average on balls in play and 62.5% strand rate. Decent peripherals like a 25% strikeout rate, 8.7% walk rate and 45% ground ball rate led to a 3.29 FIP and 3.38 SIERA.
The righty was optioned to Triple-A to start this season but has gotten out to an atrocious start. He’s tossed 9 2/3 innings over seven outings, walking 25.5% of batters faced, which has contributed to an unsightly 13.03 ERA. He struck out 31.4% of batters faced and got grounders at a 50% clip, but the overall results were clearly not great.
The Twins will now have a week to trade Megill or pass him through waivers. Despite his rough start to the year, other clubs may overlook that small sample and take a flier on the righty based on past results, as he still has a couple of options and has yet to qualify for arbitration.
Rays Select Heath Hembree
The Rays made a series of roster moves today, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Right-hander Taj Bradley and infielder Vidal Bruján have been optioned to the minors, making room for outfielder Jose Siri to be activated from the injured list and right-hander Heath Hembree to have his contract selected. A spot for Hembree on the 40-man was already opened when the club designated righty Hector Perez for assignment on the weekend. Topkin adds that Perez has now cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Durham.
Hembree, 34, has appeared in the past 10 MLB seasons and will make it 11 in a row as soon as he gets into a game. He had many good seasons for the Red Sox earlier in his career, racking up double-digit holds in 2017 and 2018, but he’s gone into journeyman mode more recently. Since the start of the 2020 season, he’s suited up for the Red Sox, Phillies, Mets, Reds, Pirates and Dodgers. He registered a 6.64 ERA over those three seasons with an 11.1% walk rate but also struck out 27.3% of batters faced.
The Rays took a flier on him by signing him to a minor league deal in the offseason. He’s made eight appearances for the Bulls so far this year with a 1.29 ERA, though a 90.9% strand rate has surely helped him keep that down. He’s struck out 25% of batters faced thus far but walked 15.6%. He hasn’t been at his best over the past few years but the Rays have a knack for getting pitchers into peak form and will try to do that with Hembree.
The optioning of Bradley comes as a bit of a surprise because he’s been pitching well, registering a 3.52 ERA through three starts. Topkin and Kristie Ackert report that the move is more about transitioning him to the traditional five-day rotation of the majors, as he had previously been working on a six-day routine and the club didn’t want him to make the adjustment in the big leagues. Without Bradley, the Rays are down to a three-man rotation of Shane McClanahan, Zach Eflin and Drew Rasmussen. They are generally not afraid to do bullpen games, including multi-inning pitchers like Josh Fleming or Yonny Chirinos, though those guys could also make some traditional starts as well. Bradley will likely be back later in the season, once he’s properly made the workload switch.
Perez was selected to the roster on the weekend but designated for assignment a day later without getting into a game. That means his big league résumé still consists of just one game with the Blue Jays in 2020. Since he has a previous career outright, he had the right to reject another such move and elect free agency, but it seems he’ll stick with the Bulls and try to work his way back to the majors.
Diamondbacks Option Jake McCarthy, Drey Jameson
The Diamondbacks optioned right-hander Drey Jameson to Triple-A Reno yesterday, opening up a roster spot for lefty Tommy Henry, who was recalled and started last night’s game. Today, the club is optioning outfielder Jake McCarthy as well, reports Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, recalling infielder Emmanuel Rivera in a corresponding move.
Individually, the moves aren’t necessarily shocking. Both players have started a bit slow here in the early parts of this season and neither is fully established. Each player is 25 years old and came into this year with less than a year of service time. But their demotions, as well as Madison Bumgarner recently getting designated for assignment, perhaps point to the club having more of a win-now mentality than recent years.
The D’Backs went 25-35 in the shortened 2020 season before winning just 52 games the season after and 74 last year. The silver lining of those losing seasons is that they’ve been able to devote playing time to young players like Josh Rojas, Corbin Carroll, Christian Walker and others, who were able to use those opportunities to hone their skills cement themselves as viable big leaguers to varying degrees.
But this year, the club’s emerging young core has helped them jump out to a 13-11 start. With the Dodgers having a modest offseason and feeling less like inevitable conquerors while the Padres and Giants have had slow starts, the D’Backs find themselves leading the American League West. In order to stay that up there, it seems there’s less room for players to develop in the big leagues.
McCarthy looked to have taken a step forward last year, hitting .283/.342/.427 for a wRC+ of 116 while also stealing 23 bases. With him in the outfield alongside Carroll and Alek Thomas, the club felt good enough about its options on the grass to trade Daulton Varsho to the Blue Jays in the offseason. They did get Lourdes Gurriel Jr. back in that deal for some insurance, though he’s a short-term add since he’s an impending free agent. McCarthy hasn’t been able to carry over those results so far, hitting just .143/.229/.238 prior to today’s move. He’s surely due for some regression from a .160 batting average on balls in play, but he’s also not hitting the ball with much authority. He’s currently in the 9th percentile in terms of average exit velocity, 8th in hard hit rate and 34th in barrel rate. He’ll head to Triple-A to try to get into a groove.
As for Jameson, his numbers might not look disastrous at first glance, as he has a 3.71 ERA through six appearances. However, he hasn’t exactly been racking up the outs. He started the season in the bullpen and made three long relief appearances, but then was moved to the rotation when Zach Davies landed on the injured list. His first start was solid, tossing four shutouts innings against the Brewers, throwing 54 pitches in the process. His next start wasn’t quite as good, as he threw 71 pitches but logged only 3 2/3 innings against the Cardinals. Then on Sunday, he only lasted one inning against the Padres. It took him 43 pitches, allowing three hits, three walks and three earned runs in the process.
“If he pitched better, he’d still be here,” manager Torey Lovullo said frankly yesterday, per Theo Mackie of the Arizona Republic. “That’s one of the things that (General Manager Mike Hazen) told him. A 43-pitch first inning puts us way behind, we’re kind of in a box, we’ve got to play a little catchup now with our bullpen. This was a direct response to what he did yesterday and a little bit of what he did in St. Louis as well.”
Those comments seem to reflect the win-now mentality that the club currently has. “We felt like the best thing for Drey at this point in time is to go down, get his timing, get his rhythm and find his stuff,” Lovullo said. “I said it last night: Good major league hitters, when they know you’re throwing a fastball, will get wood on a bullet. I stand by his ability to make pitches and when he does, he’s going to find his way back here.”
With Jameson going to Reno to try to earn his way back to the majors and Bumgarner out of the picture, the club is down to four starters on the roster in Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Ryne Nelson and Henry. They have some off days coming up that could allow them to get by with that group, but it sounds like that’s not the plan. “We have discussed the four-man,” Lovullo said. “We know the off days are there. It was thrown around. We have not made any decisions, but I don’t think a four-man rotation right now is anything we’re interested in.”
Since the club needs a fifth starter, it makes speculative sense that a promotion of prospect Brandon Pfaadt could be imminent, though the club hasn’t made any kind of official announcement in that department. A telling sign could be if he makes his next scheduled start, as he’s currently slated to take the ball for Reno on Wednesday. A consensus top-50 prospect in the league, Pfaadt isn’t on the 40-man roster and would require a corresponding move if he gets the call. He has a 3.54 ERA through four starts in Triple-A this year, striking out 30.1% of batters faced while walking 4.8%.
Twins To Select Brock Stewart
The Twins are set to select the contract of right-hander Brock Stewart, MLBTR has confirmed. Jeremy Maschino first suggested that Stewart could be on his way to join the Twins’ big league club today. They’ll need to make a 40-man roster move to accommodate Stewart’s addition, though they have at least one on-paper candidate for the 60-day injured list, as right-hander Ronny Henriquez has spent the entire season on the 15-day injured list due to an elbow issue and has yet to throw a pitch.
This will be the first MLB stint for the 31-year-old Stewart since 2019, when he tossed 25 2/3 innings between the Dodgers and the Blue Jays. He didn’t pitch in 2020 due to the canceled minor league season, and Tommy John surgery plus a second procedure to remove a bone spur from his elbow wiped out most of his 2021-22 seasons. Stewart made it back to a minor league mound with the Twins late in the ’22 season but struggled across three levels, allowing 10 earned runs in 14 innings.
The 2023 season has been a much different story thus far. He’s blitzed out of the gate with a 2.08 ERA and gaudy 48.6% strikeout rate in 8 2/3 innings, walking just 5.7% of his opponents. Stewart’s raw 17-to-2 K/BB ratio is intriguing, even in a small sample at the Triple-A level, particularly since he’s added considerable velocity in recent years. Stewart averaged 92.8 mph on his four-seamer during his 2016-19 run with Los Angeles and Toronto but has since moved to short relief stints and ramped that velocity into the upper 90s. In addition to that massive strikeout rate, he’s also sporting an enormous 22.1% swinging-strike rate in St. Paul.
The back end of the Twins’ bullpen has been outstanding thus far, as closer Jhoan Duran and setup men Jorge Lopez, Griffin Jax and Caleb Thielbar are all out to strong starts. It’s been far shakier after that quartet, with righty Emilio Pagan and lefty Jovani Moran both sporting early ERAs that begin with a seven. Twins starters rank second in the Majors in innings pitched so far — a remarkable change of course from the 2022 season — so they haven’t had to lean too heavily on the arms in their middle relief corps. Still, the front office and manager Rocco Baldelli would surely prefer a deeper supply of reliable arms, and at least based on his early output in St. Paul, Stewart could potentially give them another hard-throwing, bat-missing arm to help stabilize the group. Stewart is out of minor league options, so he’ll need to stick on the Twins’ big league roster or else be passed through waivers before he can return to Triple-A.