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Reds Reinstate Mike Moustakas From Injured List

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TODAY: Moustakas has already been reinstated from the IL, and Dawson was optioned back to Triple-A.  The Reds also announced that recently-designated right-hander Robert Dugger cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A. Dugger has accepted the outright assignment, the team announced Wednesday.

MAY 9: The Reds announced to reporters, including Charlie Goldsmith of the Cincinnati Enquirer, that Mike Moustakas has been placed on the injured list. No designation was given for Moustakas’ placement, which suggests he will be on the Covid-related injured list. Outfielder Ronnie Dawson has been called up as a substitute player.

The Reds have had a series of players go on the Covid list in the past week, with Moustakas now joining Joey Votto and Nick Senzel. Tyler Naquin was also in that category but was able to return a few days ago. The team didn’t specify whether Moustakas tested positive, has virus-like symptoms, or was exposed to someone who tested positive. Under the league’s 2022 health-and-safety protocols, players who test positive are subject to a 10-day absence from the club, though it’s possible to be reinstated in less time if the player has gone 24 or more hours without a fever, received a pair of negative PCR tests, and been given approval from a team physician and the MLB/MLBPA joint committee (a panel of one league-appointed and one union-appointed physician). If Votto is “merely” dealing with symptoms, he could return in shorter order. Players who test negative can return once their symptoms dissipate, so long as they’re cleared by the joint committee and the team doctor.

For Moustakas, this is his second IL stint of the season, as he missed some time in April due to a biceps strain. Since returning, he had been on a hot streak, hitting .344/.462/.531 in that small sample. But that will now be stalled by this second trip to the IL. It’s yet another frustrating development for the Reds, as the club is off to a miserable 5-23 start, thanks in part to so many players being out of action, either for Covid or otherwise.

As for Dawson, this is the second time he’s been a substitute player to help the club try to get through this outbreak. Under the 2022 health and safety protocols, the commissioner’s office has the sole discretion to determine whether a team has been sufficiently impacted by COVID to call up “substitute” players. If granted permission, the team can then return those substitutes back to Triple-A (and, if he was not previously on the 40-man, off the roster entirely) without utilizing a minor league option or passing the player through waivers.

Dawson already went through this process, being selected to the club last week but then being removed when Naquin returned. He only got into a single game while on the roster, going hitless in three plate appearances. In 28 Triple-A games this year, the 26-year-old is hitting .267/.373/.436.

Nationals Select Carl Edwards Jr.

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The Nationals announced a trio of roster moves, including the selection of Carl Edwards Jr.’s minor league contract to the active roster.  To create space on the 26-man and 40-man rosters, the Nats optioned right-hander Andres Machado to Triple-A and moved right-hander Mason Thompson to the 60-day injured list.

Once Edwards tosses his first pitch for the Nats, it will mark eight MLB seasons for the right-hander, and six different big league teams.  Edwards has seen only sporadic action from 2019-21, tossing 27 1/3 total innings for his five previous teams.  In 2021, Edwards had an 11.12 ERA over 5 2/3 total innings with the Blue Jays and Braves (despite only tossing one-third of an inning for Atlanta, he was still awarded a World Series ring for his contribution to the championship season).

Edwards was a much more prominent member of another title team, tossing 36 regular-season innings and then 6 1/3 postseason innings for the Cubs in 2016.  The righty posted some quality results out of Chicago’s bullpen from 2015-18 before struggling badly over the last three seasons.

Washington signed Edwards to a minor league deal during the offseason, and he has shown signs of a turn-around at Triple-A Rochester.  Edwards has an 0.63 ERA, a 50% groundball rate, a 34% strikeout rate, and an eight percent walk rate over his 14 1/3 innings for the Red Wings.  Considering how the Nationals bullpen has been quite shaky thus far, D.C. has nothing to lose in seeing if Edwards has gotten himself back on track.

Thompson was placed on the 10-day IL exactly one month ago due to right biceps tendinitis.  He had been hoping to start throwing by the end of April, but with no further updates on his progress, it would seem like Thompson will need more time to recover.  Mid-June will now be his earliest possible return date, as the 60-day IL window begins from his initial placement on the 10-day injured list.

Mets Claim Locke St. John, Move Jacob deGrom To 60-Day IL

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The Mets have claimed left-hander Locke St. John off waivers from the Cubs, who designated St. John for assignment last week.  To create space on the 40-man roster, New York moved Jacob deGrom to the 60-day injured list.

St. John signed a minor league deal with Chicago in December, and his tenure with the club consisted of seven innings over five Triple-A games, and a single inning in the majors.  It was a second cup of coffee for St. John, whose previous MLB experience was seven games with the Rangers in 2019.  A longtime Tigers farmhand before Texas selected him away from Detroit in the December 2017 Rule 5 Draft, St. John returned to the Tigers on another minors deal last winter but didn’t see any big league action in 2021.

The waiver claim adds a bit more left-handed depth to the Mets’ relief corps, with Joely Rodriguez and Chasen Shreve serving as the only southpaws in the Amazins’ bullpen.  Elsewhere on the 40-man roster, the only other left-handers are starter David Peterson and Thomas Szapucki, who is working his way back after having his 2021 season cut short by ulnar nerve transposition surgery.

For deGrom, the shift to the 60-day IL doesn’t much change his situation, and he is still around another week away from further imaging on his throwing shoulder.  A stress reaction in that shoulder sidelined deGrom for yet another extended absence, and since he’ll require quite a bit of ramp-up before finally taking to the mound, it is seems like deGrom will be out until late June at the earliest.

Twins Expected To Place Carlos Correa On 10-Day IL

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With Carlos Correa still hampered by a bruised finger, the Twins are likely to put Correa on the 10-day injured list prior to today’s game against the Astros, The Athletic’s Dan Hayes writes.  Correa has missed Minnesota’s last three games, and told Hayes and other reporters on Sunday that returning for today’s game wasn’t a “realistic” scenario.

Since Minnesota didn’t play yesterday, the hope was that Correa would make enough improvement on the off-day to line up a return for later in the week, but it seems like the Twins have just decided to be cautious and send the shortstop to the IL.  All things considered, a 10-day IL stint may be the best-case scenario, as there was initial concern that Correa had suffered a fracture.

Former first overall pick Royce Lewis has been handling shortstop duties in Correa’s absence, and will now get to bank more playing time in his first taste of Major League action.  While Lewis is more than just a stopgap option, the Twins likely wouldn’t have called him up this soon had the team not been hit with such a swath of injuries.  Correa will be the 11th Twins player on the injured list, and Byron Buxton is also day-to-day with a minor hip strain.

Minnesota does have a 40-man roster opening, so the club could fill Correa’s roster spot by selecting the contract of a player in the organization on a minor league contract.  Daniel Robertson, Curtis Terry, Elliot Soto, and Jake Cave are some of the names at Triple-A with MLB experience who would need to be added to the 40-man.

Reds Designate Phillip Diehl, Re-Sign Buck Farmer

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TODAY: Farmer did reject the outright assignment and become a free agent, but then re-signed with the Reds on a new minor league contract.

MAY 9: The Reds announced this afternoon they’ve designated left-handed reliever Phillip Diehl for assignment. The move opens an active roster spot for Luis Castillo, who was reinstated from the injured list to start tonight’s game as expected.

Diehl, a Cincinnati native, was selected to the majors by his hometown club in late April. It marked his first MLB call since a 2019-20 stint with the Rockies, and he ultimately appeared in five games. Diehl allowed seven runs in just 5 2/3 innings, with his three home runs allowed proving a particular undoing. The longball had also been problematic during his time in Colorado, and Diehl has now surrendered six homers in 19 big league innings.

The 27-year-old is out of minor league option years, meaning the Reds had to bump Diehl off the 40-man roster if they weren’t going to keep him in the majors. In so doing, they remove the only southpaw bullpen option who’d been on the major league team. Veteran Justin Wilson is on the injured list, and starter Reiver Sanmartín — recently optioned to Triple-A Louisville — is rather remarkably the only currently healthy left-handed pitcher on the Reds’ 40-man roster.

The Reds will have a week to trade Diehl or try to run him through waivers. He struck out 11 batters while issuing just one walk in eight innings with the Bats before being called up, so it stands to reason they’d prefer to keep him in the organization as a non-roster player. Diehl has been outrighted in the past and would have the right to elect minor league free agency if he clears waivers, however.

Cincinnati also announced that reliever Buck Farmer, who had been designated for assignment on Friday, passed through waivers unclaimed and was outrighted to Louisville. The team didn’t specify whether Farmer had chosen to accept or reject the assignment. As a player with five-plus years of big league service time, Farmer can forego the minors in favor of free agency while still collecting what remains of this year’s $850K salary.

Phillies Acquire Corey Oswalt From Giants

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The Phillies have acquired right-hander Corey Oswalt in a trade with the Giants, as noted by Oswalt’s MLB.com profile page on May 8 (hat tip to The Morning Call’s Tom Housenick).  Oswalt has been assigned to the Phillies’ Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley.

San Francisco inked Oswalt to a minor league deal back in January, after the righty opted for free agency when the Mets outrighted him off their 40-man roster following the season.  Though he has a respectable 28.3% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate with Triple-A Sacramento this season, Oswalt has an ungainly 7.11 thanks in large part to six home runs over 12 2/3 innings.

This work with the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate represents Oswalt’s first pro action outside of the Mets organization.  A seventh-round pick for New York back in 2012, Oswalt has appeared in each of the last four Major League seasons, though only 30 of his 94 2/3 career innings have come since the end of the 2018 campaign.  He has a 5.89 ERA as a big leaguer, with a 17.2K% and 7.3BB%, getting work as a starter and (more recently) as a multi-inning reliever or swingman.

The Phillies got a good look at Oswalt during his time with the Mets, and now they’ll see what he can do as an extra arm on the depth chart.  Considering that both Zack Wheeler and Zach Eflin are both on the COVID-related injury list, the Phils might turn to Oswalt for a spot start (or maybe in a piggyback or bulk pitcher role) as they try to figure out their rotation mix for the near future.

Tigers To Promote Joey Wentz

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Left-hander Joey Wentz is being called up to start the Tigers’ game against the A’s on Wednesday, Tigers manager A.J. Hinch told reporters (including Evan Petzold of The Detroit Free Press).  It will be the first career Major League appearance for Wentz, the 40th overall pick of the 2016 draft.

The Braves selected Wentz in that draft, but dealt the southpaw to Detroit as part of the Shane Greene trade in July 2019.  Wentz had run into some struggles at Double-A that season, but the deal was still seen as a nice score for the then-rebuilding Tigers, as Wentz was a well-regarded young starter.  Baseball Prospectus even ranked Wentz as the 45th-best prospect in all of baseball prior to the 2018 campaign.

However, injuries took a toll, as Wentz underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2020.  Returning to action in May 2021, Wentz logged a 4.50 ERA over 72 combined innings with the Tigers’ A-ball and Double-A affiliates.  Making his Triple-A debut this season, Wentz has a 4.12 ERA and a 33.8% strikeout rate in 19 2/3 innings for the Toledo Mud Hens, though his 13% walk rate and 25% homer rate are cause for concern.

Baseball America rates the 24-year-old Wentz as the ninth-best prospect in Detroit’s farm system, while MLB Pipeline has the left-hander 12th on its list.  Wentz’s changeup is considered to be his best pitch, with BA’s scouting report citing Wentz’s changeup a nice complement with a fastball that clocks in the low 90’s.  Control has been Wentz’s biggest issue throughout his minor league career, and BA feels his ceiling in the majors is as “a back-end starter who caps at five innings or a long reliever.”

Wentz hasn’t thrown more than 4 2/3 innings or 84 pitches in any of his five outings at Triple-A, so the Tigers figures to keep him on somewhat of a short leash on Wednesday.  That said, Detroit will obviously take anything they can get, as the club continues to try and fill innings within a rotation shorthanded from injuries.  A scheduling crunch is also in play — the Tigers have a doubleheader with the Athletics today, and are in the midst of a stretch of 17 games in 15 days.

As a result, Hinch said that Wentz or Alex Faedo (who starts the second game of today’s doubleheader) will remain in the rotation until some of the regular starters are available.  “Some of it depends on performance.  Some of it depends on matchup,” Hinch said of the criteria the team will use to evaluate between Faedo and Wentz.

Matt Manning, Casey Mize, and Tyler Alexander are all on the 10-day injured list, with Manning being the closest to a return.  Manning already has one Triple-A rehab start under his belt, and he’ll toss a bullpen session today at Comerica Park before making at least one more rehab outing.  Mize is also slated to start a rehab assignment this week.

While the Tigers aren’t going to do anything to rush their prized young hurlers, reinforcements are needed quick.  The pitching injuries and an almost team-wide lack of hitting has resulted in an ugly 8-20 record for Detroit thus far, and the team has lost its last six games.

Reds Sign Walker Lockett To Minor League Deal

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The Reds have signed right-hander Walker Lockett to a minor league contract, Bobby Nightengale Jr. of The Cincinnati Enquirer reports (Twitter link).  After working as a starter and a reliever during his MLB career, Lockett will be built up for rotation work for Cincy.

Lockett has a 7.67 ERA over 54 MLB innings, appearing with the Padres, Mets, and Mariners from 2018-20.  Primarily a groundball pitcher who didn’t generate many whiffs in either the minors or majors, Lockett had trouble keeping the ball on the grass in the big leagues, allowing 12 home runs over his 54 frames of work.

There were signs of improvement for Lockett in 2021, however, after he signed a one-year deal with The Korea Baseball Organization’s Doosan Bears.  The right-hander posted a 2.98 ERA, 20.74% strikeout rate, and only five homers allowed over 124 innings of KBO League action.

Lockett started all 21 of his games for the Bears, and he has worked primarily as a starter throughout his minor league career.  It makes sense that the Reds would keep him stretched out to see what he can provide as possible rotation depth for some point this season.  In what is already looking like a lost year for Cincinnati, some rotation vacancies could open up should the likes of Luis Castillo or Tyler Mahle be traded before the deadline.

Tigers Option Akil Baddoo To Triple-A, Recall Rony Garcia

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The Tigers optioned struggling outfielder Akil Baddoo to Triple-A today, the team announced. In a corresponding move, they recalled RHP Rony Garcia to take his spot on the roster.

While the demotion hardly writes the 23-year-old Baddoo out of GM Al Avila’s long-term plans, it does speak to the marked contrast between the outfielder’s start to the 2022 season, in which he’s slashed a meager .140/.218/.220, and the hot start to his 2021 rookie campaign, during which he logged a .271/.352/.462 triple-slash before fading down the stretch. Advanced statistics do suggest there’s at least some bad luck involved in his slow start, though that likely isn’t the whole picture. Baddoo has seen only a minor increase in his strikeout rate (from 26.5% in 2021 to 27.3 % in 2022) and a minor dip in his walk rate (from 9.8% to 9.1%), but his BABIP has fallen from .335 (against an MLB average of .290) to a mere .176. While some of this variance can likely be explained by his hard-hit rate (the percentage of balls in play with an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher) falling from 32.3% to 22.9%, he’s also probably fallen victim to some poor batted-ball luck this year — and was perhaps the beneficiary of some good luck last year.

2014 first-rounder Derek Hill, who’s slashed .250/.273/.281 this year in limited action, is the likeliest candidate to take Baddoo’s spot in center, at least in the short term. Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic notes that utility-man Willi Castro is also likely to see time there, though he’s only logged a handful of big-league innings as an outfielder — and all of them in left.

Though Baddoo is hardly the only culprit, he and second baseman Jonathan Schoop have been particularly unproductive for a Detroit squad that’s clearly underperforming expectations. After doling out $238MM in guaranteed money in free agency (to shortstop Javier Baez, starters Eduardo Rodriguez and Michael Pineda, and reliever Andrew Chafin) and acquiring catcher Tucker Barnhart and outfielder Austin Meadows via trade (from the Reds and Rays, respectively), the Tigers have limped along to a collective 80 wRC+ (ahead of only the Royals, Red Sox, A’s, and Reds) that’s seen them fall nine games off the pace in AL Central.

Given the lack of outfield depth in Detroit — and particularly the shortage of options in center — it’s unlikely Baddoo will remain in the minors for long if he can regain his stroke in Toledo. Should he fail to find his form, however, he does run the risk of being overtaken by consensus top-ten prospect Riley Greene, who’s been sidelined by a fractured right foot but is expected to return to action around the end of May — and could well prove himself ready for the majors not long thereafter.

In what will be his second stint with the club this season, Garcia, owner of a career 6.39 ERA (6.42 FIP) across 31 big-league innings, will slot in at the back end of the Detroit bullpen. The righty was effective in limited action before he was optioned to Triple-A ahead of the late-April return of Chafin from injury, notching 6 1/3 innings of 2.84 ERA ball.

Mariners Outright Nick Margevicius

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The Mariners have announced that left-hander Nick Margevicius has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Tacoma. The club designated him for assignment last week. He will remain with the organization but will no longer occupy a spot on the team’s 40-man roster.

Margevicius was a seventh-round selection of the Padres in the 2017 draft. He didn’t waste much time in making his way to the majors, debuting in 2019. He threw 57 innings for the Friars that year over ten starts and seven relief appearances. Unfortunately, his 6.79 ERA and 16% strikeout rate were a bit lackluster, leading the club to designate him for assignment in the offseason.

The southpaw was claimed by the Mariners in January of 2020 and has been with the organization since then. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he showed flashes of potential, throwing 41 1/3 innings with a 4.57 ERA. His strikeout rate jumped to 21.2% and he kept his walk rate below league average at 8.2%.

Unfortunately, he was only able to throw 12 innings in 2021 before some shoulder inflammation cropped up. This was later diagnosed as thoracic outlet syndrome, an injury that usually requires a major surgery with a lengthy rehab process. The rest of his 2021 was wiped out, with his last appearance coming on April 25.

He has been able to get back on the hill this year, making four starts in Triple-A. However, the return to action hasn’t been smooth, with his ERA sitting at 12.75 over a small sample of 12 innings. Still just 25 years old, Margevicius will continue trying to get back on track with the Tacoma Rainiers and work his way back into the big leagues.

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