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Braves Claim Joe Dunand From Marlins

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The Braves have claimed infielder Joe Dunand off waivers from the Marlins, per announcements from both teams. He’s been optioned to Triple-A Gwinnett. Catcher Manny Pina was transferred from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL in order to open a spot on the roster for Dunand.

The nephew of three-time MVP and 14-time All-Star Alex Rodriguez, Dunand was the Marlins’ second-round pick back in 2017. He’s appeared in just three big league games, all this season, going 3-for-10 with a homer and a double. It’s been another story at the Triple-A level, however, as the 26-year-old has struggled to the tune of a .211/.296/.385 batting line through 84 games and 309 plate appearances.

Dunand ranked among the Marlins’ top 25 prospects over at Baseball America in 2018-19 but has seen his stock diminish since his days as a standout at North Carolina State. He’s spent the bulk of his minor league time at shortstop but has increasingly played third base in recent years. Scouting reports on Dunand have tabbed him as a potentially above-average defender at the hot corner with above-average power, but he’s been far too strikeout prone in the upper minors to tap into that potential.

Pina’s move to the 60-day injured list is a formality. The veteran backstop, who inked a two-year, $8MM contract with Atlanta over the winter, underwent season-ending wrist surgery on May 11 after an MRI revealed ligament and cartilage damage.

Reds Acquire Luis Chevalier From Mariners

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The Mariners announced Wednesday that they’ve traded minor league infielder Luis Chevalier to the Reds as the player to be named later in the April 16 swap that sent right-hander Riley O’Brien from Cincinnati to Seattle.

Chevalier, 20, has been assigned to the Reds’ affiliate in the Rookie-level Arizona Complex League — the same level at which he spent the 2021 season. The 5’11”, 160-pound switch-hitter batted .221/.345/.329 with three homers, four doubles, a triple, two steals, a 20.8% strikeout rate and a 14.9% walk rate in 168 trips to the plate with the Mariners’ ACL affiliate last summer and will start there again before the Reds consider moving him up a level. Chevalier split his time in 2021 between second base (198 innings), shortstop (79 innings) and left field (48 innings). He wasn’t ranked among the Mariners’ top prospects, though that’s to be expected in a swap for a 27-year-old righty who’d been designated for assignment.

As for O’Brien, he’s tossed one scoreless inning with the M’s since the trade but has otherwise spent his time with the team’s Triple-A club in Tacoma. He’s turned in a strong 2.70 ERA through 10 frames there and fanned 14 hitters, but O’Brien has also demonstrated some worrying command issues (11 walks and a one batter thus far). O’Brien spent the bulk of his pro career with the Rays and Reds as a starting pitcher, but Seattle has opted to move him to the bullpen for now.

Yefry Ramirez Signs With KBO’s Hanwha Eagles

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Right-hander Yefry Ramirez has signed with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization, per a team announcement from the Eagles (hat tip: Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net, on Twitter). He’ll earn a total of $600K for the remainder of the season, Kurtz adds. Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency tweets that Ramirez will replace former big league lefty Ryan Carpenter, who was released by the Eagles this week.

Ramirez, 28, has appeared in parts of three big league seasons, most recently with the Dodgers in 2021. He opened the 2022 campaign with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate and pitched to a 3.76 ERA in 40 2/3 frames with their top affiliate in Oklahoma City. Ramirez appeared in a game as recently as three days ago, suggesting the Dodgers and Eagles either came to terms on a buyout of his minor league contract or that Ramirez had an opt-out or foreign play clause written into his contract.

In 91 2/3 big league innings, Ramirez has a 6.19 ERA with a 21.7% strikeout rate and 12.6% walk rate. He’s been better in Triple-A, where he holds a 4.36 ERA through 288 2/3 frames to go along with a 24.1% strikeout rate and 9.8% walk rate. Ramirez will hope to follow the path of many players before him who’ve carved out strong numbers overseas and eventually cashed in on a Major League return. At the very least, that $600K salary is healthier than what he’d have earned in Triple-A for the remainder of the season (even with an eventual call to the Majors). He’ll also set himself up for the chance to re-sign for another six- or even low seven-figure deal with the Eagles, should he enjoy a solid half-season audition.

As for the 31-year-old Carpenter, he appeared in 15 games for the 2018-19 Tigers and struggled heavily in the Majors before signing on with the Rakuten Monkeys of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League for the 2020 season. He threw well enough in Taiwan — 4.00 ERA in 157 1/3 innings — to draw interest from the KBO’s Eagles the following offseason. Since signing with the Hanwha club prior to the 2021 campaign, Carpenter has turned in a solid 3.83 ERA in 188 frames with better than a strikeout per inning. However, Yoo writes that Carpenter sustained an elbow injury after just his third start of the 2022 season and, upon being activated last week, exited his first game back with recurring discomfort in that left elbow.

Blue Jays Sign Eric Yardley To Minor League Deal

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The Blue Jays recently agreed to a minor league deal with reliever Eric Yardley (h/t to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America). The sidearming righty has been assigned to Triple-A Buffalo, where he’s made a pair of appearances.

Yardley had opened the season with the Cubs after signing a minor league pact during the lockout. He made five appearances with their top affiliate in Iowa but served up ten runs on 12 hits and three walks in 4 2/3 innings before being released earlier this month. He’s yet to allow a run in his three frames with the Bisons, however, permitting only one baserunner.

The 31-year-old Yardley hasn’t yet reached the majors this season, but he’s pitched at the MLB level in each of the prior three years. The Seattle University product broke in with the Padres in 2019, making ten appearances. San Diego released him at the end of that season, but the Brewers grabbed him off waivers and kept him on the 40-man roster as a depth option for the next two years.

Between the two clubs, Yardley has worked 53 2/3 innings over 51 outings. He owns a solid 3.52 ERA in spite of a lackluster 13% strikeout rate and a fastball that averaged just 87 MPH last season, as his atypical delivery has helped him rack up ground balls. More than 60% of career batted balls against Yardley have been hit on the ground, and he’s typically had success keeping the ball in the yard as a result.

Not surprisingly, Yardley’s low arm slot has been quite a bit more effective against same-handed batters. For his career, he’s held righties to a manageable .242/.336/.389 slash line. Lefties, on the other hand, have teed off to a .312/.382/.468 clip in 89 plate appearances. Yardley adds a situational depth option to the upper minors of the Toronto farm system.

Rays Place Wander Franco On Injured List, Designate Ben Bowden For Assignment

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9:52pm: Franco told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) that he hopes to return to the big league club in around two weeks but conceded the specific timetable was fairly fluid.

1:05pm: The Rays announced Tuesday that shortstop Wander Franco has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a strained quadriceps. His spot on the active roster will go to righty Shawn Armstrong, whose contract has been selected from Triple-A Durham. Tampa Bay designated lefty Ben Bowden for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for Armstrong.

Franco was lifted from yesterday’s game after his third hit of the day after he felt what manager Kevin Cash described as a “tug” in the same quad muscle that held him out of a few games a bit more than a week ago. He’ll now be sidelined for at least the next 10 days following a recurrence of the issue.

The Rays aren’t short on options to fill in for Franco, with Taylor Walls, Vidal Brujan and Isaac Paredes all on the big league roster at the moment. That’s not to say Franco’s absence won’t sting, of course, even if it’s abbreviated in nature. The consensus No. 1 overall prospect in baseball heading into the 2021 season, Franco has compiled a .281/.331/.447 slash through his first 498 plate appearances (121 wRC+) while turning in strong defensive ratings at shortstop.

Bowden, 27, was a waiver claim out of the Rockies organization a month ago. He’s yet to appear in the Majors this season but tossed 10 innings for Tampa Bay’s Triple-A affiliate in Durham, allowing a pair of runs on nine hits and seven walks with 10 strikeouts along the way. Those seven free passes in Durham represented a 15.9% walk rate — a continuation of the longstanding command issue that have plagued Bowden throughout his minor league career.

The Rockies selected Bowden with the 45th overall pick back in 2016. He’s at times looked like an intriguing prospect but also struggled with inconsistency over the years since that lofty selection in the draft. Bowden had terrific Double-A numbers in 2019 and was outstanding in Triple-A last year — 11 2/3 scoreless innings, 17-to-4 K/BB ratio — but his big league debut last season didn’t go nearly as smoothly. In 35 2/3 frames for the Rockies, Bowden was tagged for a 6.56 ERA with a 23.7% strikeout rate and a bloated 11.9% walk rate.

The Rays will have a week to trade Bowden, pass him through outright waivers or release him. He’s already been claimed once this season, and with any lefty who can miss bats, there’s always a chance another club will have some interest either in a small trade or via waiver claim.

Dallas Keuchel Clears Waivers, Reaches Free Agency

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Left-hander Dallas Keuchel has passed through release waivers unclaimed, reports Andy Martino of SNY. He’s now a free agent and can explore opportunities with other clubs.

This was an inevitability once the White Sox designated Keuchel for assignment over the weekend. The southpaw is still due a bit under $13MM in 2022 salary, plus a $1.5MM buyout on a 2023 club option. No team was going to claim Keuchel and assume that tab, so it was a formality that he’d clear waivers and hit free agency.

Now that he’s available on the open market, the 34-year-old would have more appeal to other clubs. The White Sox will remain on the hook for virtually all of Keuchel’s remaining guaranteed commitments. Any team that signs him would only owe him the prorated portion of the $700K minimum salary for any time he spends in the majors, which would be subtracted from Chicago’s financial outlay.

With no financial risk attached, it seems likely Keuchel will find a major league deal somewhere. Still, that the White Sox cut him loose in spite of a questionable back-of-the-rotation mix points to the extent of the struggles the 2015 AL Cy Young award winner has experienced over the past couple seasons. Signed to a three-year, $55.5MM guarantee over the 2019-20 offseason, Keuchel posted a sterling 1.99 ERA over 11 starts during the shortened 2020 season. Since the beginning of the 2021 campaign, however, he’s been among the least effective starters in the game.

Keuchel stayed healthy and made 32 appearances (30 starts) for the division-winning ChiSox last year, but his rate stats were below-average. He posted a 5.28 ERA — his first season allowing even more than four earned runs per nine since 2016 — across 162 frames. Even at his best, Keuchel has never missed many bats, but he saw his strikeout rate tumble to 13.2% last year. His 54.9% ground-ball rate was still a well above-average mark, but the two-time All-Star had induced worm burners on more than three-fifths of batted balls at his peak.

Those worrisome trends have only been exacerbated this year. Keuchel has a 7.88 ERA through eight starts, the second-highest mark among 137 pitchers with 30+ innings. He has the second-worst strikeout/walk rate differential among that same group, with matching 12.2% marks. Keuchel’s grounder rate is also down a few more points (albeit still strong), at 50.8%. That slow start led the White Sox to cut bait, although another team is likely to give him an opportunity based on his pre-2021 track record.

Keuchel, of course, was one of the game’s best pitchers between 2014-20. He posted four sub-3.00 ERA campaigns during that time as a preeminent ground-ball specialist, helping the Astros to a strong run of success. It’s unlikely he’ll return to that form at this stage of his career, but another club could still see him as a capable back-end option — particularly if he can get his grounder rate to tick back up a few points in a new environment.

The White Sox have had a top-heavy starting rotation this season, which was to be expected. Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech and Lucas Giolito have all performed well. Keuchel and offseason signee Vince Velasquez have struggled, while veteran Johnny Cueto has been effective through three starts. Bolstering the back end figures to be a trade deadline focus for general manager Rick Hahn and his staff if the team remains in contention over the coming months, particularly if Velasquez continues to scuffle while holding down the final spot.

Cubs, Adrian Sampson Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Cubs have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Adrian Sampson, reports Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register (on Twitter). He’s reported to the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Iowa.

It’s a quick return to the organization for Sampson, whom the Cubs just lost on waivers a couple weeks ago. The Mariners had grabbed the 30-year-old after Chicago designated him for assignment, but Seattle took him off their 40-man roster before he even appeared in a game. Sampson passed through the wire unclaimed following his second designation but refused an outright assignment in favor of minor league free agency last week.

Sampson heads back to Iowa, where he’s started five games this year. Through 19 2/3 innings, he posted a 3.66 ERA. Sampson only punched out 14.6% of opponents in that time, but he induced ground-balls at a solid 48.5% clip and continued his career-long track record of pounding the strike zone. Chicago selected him to the majors for one relief outing before unsuccessfully trying to run him through waivers.

That May 8 outing against the Dodgers — in which Sampson allowed two unearned runs in one inning — marked his second straight season with some big league work. The 30-year-old started five of his ten outings for the Cubs last season, posting a 2.80 ERA through 35 1/3 frames. That was in spite of Sampson’s low-strikeout ways and eight home runs allowed, and Chicago outrighted him off their 40-man roster following the season before bringing him back on a Spring Training minor league deal.

Tigers Notes: Meadows, Greene, Mize, Coaching Staff

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5:53pm: Detroit announced that Mize has been transferred from the 10-day to the 60-day injured list. It’s a procedural move designed to free 40-man roster space for reliever Will Vest, who has returned from the COVID-19 IL.

The move isn’t indicative of a change in Mize’s timetable. He’s now out for 60 days from his initial placement on April 15, not two months from today. That means he’ll be eligible to return on June 14. After an absence of this length, Mize will surely need a couple rehab starts before returning to the big league rotation. Even though he’s seemingly making progress, he wasn’t going to be back on the mound at Comerica Park within the next two weeks.

12:16 pm: The Tigers’ outfield has been lambasted by injuries so far in 2022, with each of Austin Meadows, Robbie Grossman, Victor Reyes and top prospect Riley Greene landing on the injured list. There’s some welcome news on the health front for Detroit fans, however, as manager AJ Hinch revealed today that Meadows has been cleared to begin a minor league rehab assignment (Twitter link via Cody Stavenhagen of The Athletic). Meanwhile, Greene made his Triple-A debut last night after appearing in a couple of Low-A games as he continues to build toward a possible MLB debut.

Meadows has been out since May 16 due to vertigo-like symptoms that sidelined him for several games in the middle of the month. He attempted to return on May 15, only to exit the game early with continued symptoms, leading to his current IL stint.

Prior to landing on the injured list, Meadows had been productive from an on-base standpoint but had yet to show off his above-average power. The former Rays slugger was batting .267/.362/.347 through 116 plate appearances to begin the year. Meadows’ 10.3% walk rate to date would be the second-best mark of his career over a full season, and his 12.1% strikeout rate was far and away the lowest clip of his career. However, he’s yet to hit his first Tigers homer and was sitting on a tiny .079 ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average) — a far cry from the .229 clip he carried into the season. It may not be elite production, but it’s considerably healthier than what the Tigers have received from Derek Hill (.250/.288/.324), Daz Cameron (.156/.250/.156) and Willi Castro (.287/.333/.356) of late with so many outfield alternatives banged up.

As for Greene, it’s not clear just how long he’ll need before he’s deemed ready for his first big league look, but the 2019 No. 5 overall pick and consensus top-10 overall MLB prospect was seen as a favorite to break camp with the Tigers this spring. That changed when a fractured foot landed him in a walking boot — an injury that came with an expected recovery period of six to eight weeks. Greene indeed returned to game action in about eight weeks’ time, though he’ll now spend some time rehabbing in the minors to shake off some rust. The 21-year-old hit .301/.387/.534 between Double-A and Triple-A last season, however, and it could be a relatively short stay in Toledo if he can quickly round into that form.

Just as the organization is hopeful that Greene will eventually be a building block in the outfield, they’re hopeful that ailing righty Casey Mize will be a fixture in the rotation. Mize has been out since mid-April due to a sprained medial ligament in his elbow (not the same ligament that typically required Tommy John surgery), but he’s set to ramp up the intensity in his throwing program in the coming days, tweets MLB.com’s Jason Beck. The 2018 No. 1 overall pick played catch yesterday and reported no issues, and he’ll move to a long-toss program sometime next week.\n
Mize pitched in just two games this season, totaling 10 innings before landing on the shelf. The hope was that after a solid run in 2021 — 150 1/3 innings, 3.71 ERA, 19.3% strikeout rate, 6.7% walk rate — he could join fellow top prospects Tarik Skubal, Matt Manning and offseason signee Eduardo Rodriguez to fill out the bulk of the Tigers’ rotation. Of that group, however, only Skubal has avoided the injured list so far in 2022. Manning (shoulder) and Rodriguez (ribcage) are both on the injured list, as are lefty Tyler Alexander (elbow strain) and righty Michael Pineda (fractured finger). Mize all but ditched his sinker in favor of more four-seamers prior to his injury but was shelved too early to glean much meaningful data from that experiment in pitch selection.

The Tigers’ injury bug has even spread to the team’s coaching staff, it seems, as MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery writes that first base coach Gary Jones won’t be on the field for at least four to six weeks. A line drive hit by Jeimer Candelario struck Jones on the leg this week and resulted in a fractured ankle. The injury will relegate Jones to some off-the-field work (e.g. outfield positioning, in-game strategizing with Hinch). Assistant hitting coach Mike Hessman will step into the coach’s box and assume that portion off Jones’ duties for the time being.

Nationals Select Jordan Weems, Designate Austin Voth

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The Nationals announced a series of roster moves this afternoon. Washington selected reliever Jordan Weems onto the big league roster, designating righty Austin Voth for assignment in a corresponding transaction. The Nats also optioned Andres Machado to Triple-A Rochester and recalled southpaw Francisco Pérez. Washington also announced that righty Aaron Sanchez has cleared outright waivers and elected minor league free agency.

Weems is headed to the majors for the third consecutive season. The right-hander broke into the big leagues with the A’s in 2020, then split last year between the Oakland and Diamondbacks organizations. He had some success during his debut campaign, posting a 3.21 ERA through 14 innings. Weems walked an alarming 12.1% of opponents, but he induced swinging strikes at a strong 13.1% clip and fanned more than three in every ten batters faced.

The following year proved a significantly greater struggle, however. Opposing lineups tagged the former third-round pick for ten runs in 5 2/3 innings, and he saw his swinging strike numbers dip precipitously. Arizona grabbed Weems off waivers from Oakland in July but outrighted him off their roster themselves a month later. He continued to struggle down the stretch in Triple-A and reached minor league free agency at the end of the season.

Washington brought the 29-year-old aboard via non-roster deal in Spring Training. Assigned to Rochester to open the season, he’s earned his way back with an excellent showing. Weems has a 3.38 ERA across 24 innings of relief for the Red Wings, showcasing the best underlying numbers of his career in the process. He’s punched out 33.7% of opposing hitters while walking batters at just a 5.3% rate — a marked improvement over his 11.4% career mark in the minors. Weems still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so the Nats can rotate him on and off the active roster without exposing him to waivers if they’re willing to keep him on the 40-man roster.

Voth has pitched in the big leagues for Washington in each of the last five years. A former fifth-round draftee, he reached the majors midway through the 2018 campaign. He’s worked as a swing option in the seasons since then, starting fairly frequently through 2020 but transitioning primarily into a multi-inning relief role over the past two years. Voth had a nice showing in 2019, posting a 3.30 ERA with quality strikeout and walk numbers through 43 2/3 frames, but he’s struggled in the trio of seasons since then.

The right-hander was a consistent member of the rotation during the abbreviated 2020 season, but he allowed more than six earned runs per nine innings while dealing with significant home run issues. The longball has continued to be a problem even after Voth’s bullpen transfer. Going back to the start of 2021, he’s allowed 1.7 homers per nine. Along the way, he’s posted a 6.51 ERA through 76 frames. That includes a 10.13 mark this season, with Voth allowing multiple runs in each of his last five outings.

Those struggles mounted to the point that Washington decided to move on. The 29-year-old is out of options, so a DFA was the only means for taking him off the active roster. He’ll now be traded or waived in the coming week.

Voth has more than three years of MLB service time, so he’d have the right to refuse a minor league assignment if he clears waivers. That’d require forfeiting the remainder of his $875K salary, however, making it likelier he’d accept an outright to Rochester if another club doesn’t take a shot on him.

Sanchez, meanwhile, was designated for assignment over the weekend. The right-hander was hit hard over seven big league starts after signing a minor league deal during Spring Training. He’ll presumably head out in search of another non-roster pact elsewhere. Sanchez has more than five years of service, so he’ll collect the remainder of his prorated $2MM salary in spite of his refusal of the outright assignment. Any signing team would only owe him the prorated portion of the $700K league minimum for time spent in the majors the rest of the season.

Blue Jays Designate Ryan Borucki For Assignment

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The Blue Jays have designated left-hander Ryan Borucki for assignment and recalled righty Trent Thornton from Triple-A Buffalo, per a club announcement.

Now 28 years old, Borucki is a 2012 fifteenth-rounder who bolstered his stock with strong minor league production and earned his way to a big league debut in 2018. He impressed during that rookie season, too, looking the part of a potential rotation piece for years to come. Through his first 97 2/3 frames, Borucki notched a a 3.87 ERA with solid walk (8%) and ground-ball (46.8%) rates. His 16.1% strikeout rate was well south of the league average, but Borucki at least looked like a possible fourth or fifth starter whom the Jays could control for the foreseeable future.

Elbow troubles torpedoed Borucki’s 2019 season, however, depriving him of the chance to really build on that strong debut campaign. He avoided Tommy John surgery but nevertheless endured a lengthy shutdown period following tightness in his elbow. Borucki eventually had a cleanup procedure to remove multiple bone spurs from that elbow, which ultimately ended his season.

Borucki made just two starts during that 2019 season, and those proved to be his final two starts with the team. He was moved to the bullpen in 2020, where he fanned 28.8% of his opponents through 16 2/3 innings but also issued walks at an alarming 16.4% clip. That walk rate dropped to a more manageable (but still elevated) 11.2% in 2021, and but Borucki’s strikeout rate also dropped precipitously, falling to 21.4%.

This season, Borucki has been rocked for seven runs in his first 6 1/3 innings of work. On the whole, since moving to the bullpen, Borucki has a 4.82 ERA with a 24.5% strikeout rate against an ugly 13.7% walk rate. He’s absolutely overwhelmed left-handed opponents since moving to the bullpen and has generally been effective against them his whole career (.204/.282/.288). Right-handed opponents, however, have mashed at a .281/.361/.477 pace against Borucki.

Toronto will have a week to trade Borucki, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or release him. The fact that he’s out of minor league options and earning an $825K salary after avoiding arbitration this past winter give him a better chance to pass through waivers than the standard pre-arb lefty with options remaining. Still, left-handed pitching depth is always in demand, and a lefty with some success in the past plus a 95.2 mph average velocity on his sinker could well hold appeal as a change-of-scenery candidate.

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