Cubs Select Hayden Wesneski, Designate Kervin Castro
9:05am: The Cubs have now formally announced this set of moves, further specifying that Steele’s injury is a lower back strain. His placement on the 15-day IL is retroactive to Sept. 2, per the team.
8:12am: The Cubs are set to select the contract of pitching prospect Hayden Wesneski for his Major League debut, per the team’s transactions log at MLB.com. Righty Kervin Castro is being designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster. Left-hander Justin Steele, meanwhile, will be placed on the 15-day injured list. Steve Greenberg of the Chicago Sun-Times tweeted yesterday that Steele’s next start — which had been scheduled for today — was being pushed to the weekend due to a nagging back injury. Now, it seems the Cubs will now give him at least a two-week break to heal up.
Wesneski, 24, was acquired from the Yankees in the one-for-one trade that sent righty Scott Effross to New York prior to the trade deadline. He currently ranks sixth among Cubs farmhands at Baseball America, 12th at MLB.com and 16th at FanGraphs.
The 6’3″, 210-pound Wesneski has appeared in five games in the Cubs organization, all coming with Triple-A Iowa. He’s posted an ugly 5.66 ERA in that time, although that’s due primarily to a disastrous eight-run clunker through just 1 2/3 innings in his organizational debut. Wesneski has bounced back with a 2.37 ERA and 21-to-6 K/BB ratio over his next four appearances (three starts, one relief outing, 19 total innings).
Wesneski has spent the entire season at the Triple-A level despite this just being his second full season after being drafted in the sixth round back in 2019. (There was, of course, no minor league season in 2020.) He’s turned in a 3.92 ERA with a 23.2% strikeout rate, a 7.9% walk rate and a 42.7% ground-ball rate. Wesneski works primarily off a two-seamer and a lesser-used four-seamer (the latter reaching the upper 90s on occasion), complementing those two heaters with a trio of offspeed offerings, all with at least average potential.
Even at the time of the deal, Wesneski was touted as a quick-rising, near-MLB-ready arm that could find his way into the Cubs’ rotation in the very near future. Whether this will just prove to be a spot start or the first step in a more permanent audition remains to be seen, but Wesneski figures to get legitimate chance to crack the rotation next spring, even if this is just a one-off promotion born out of necessity. The scouting reports at BA, MLB.com and FanGraphs all tab him as likely fourth/fifth starter. He’ll be controllable through at least the 2028 season.
As for the 23-year-old Castro, he was a waiver claim out of the Giants organization in early August who wound up throwing 10 2/3 innings out of the Chicago bullpen. Castro’s 92.7 mph average fastball was down nearly two miles per hour from his 2021 velocity, and he’s had considerable issues throwing strikes both in the big leagues and in Triple-A this season (with both the Giants and Cubs). He’s been tagged for 14 runs in 12 1/3 MLB frames this year (10.22 ERA) and also has a 5.19 ERA in Triple-A. He’s walked 15.1% of his opponents between Triple-A and the Majors this year. The Cubs will place Castro on waivers or release him within a week’s time.
Red Sox, Enrique Hernandez Agree To Contract Extension
The Red Sox have gotten a jump on their offseason business, reportedly agreeing to a one-year contract extension with utilityman Enrique Hernández. The deal guarantees the Wasserman client $10MM for the 2023 season.
Hernández had been slated to hit free agency this winter, but he’ll bypass that opportunity for a third season in Boston. The longtime Dodger first hit the open market over the 2020-21 offseason, when he signed a two-year, $14MM pact with Boston. It was a surprisingly strong multi-year arrangement on the heels of back-to-back down seasons at the plate, but it quickly looked like a coup for chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom and his front office.
The Puerto Rico native posted arguably his best season to date in 2021. He tallied a personal-high 585 plate appearances and connected on 20 home runs and 19 doubles with an overall .250/.337/.449 slash line. Hernández walked at a robust 10.4% clip, only struck out 18.8% of the time and made a strong impact from a power perspective. Altogether, by measure of wRC+, his offensive production checked in nine percentage points above league average.
Hernández paired that well-rounded hitting output with his typically strong defense. As he has throughout his career, Hernández proved willing to bounce between the infield and outfield. He spent the bulk of his time in center field and at second base, with public defensive metrics placing him among the league’s best at the former position. On the heels of that strong first season in Fenway, Hernández deservedly earned Boston’s Opening Day nod in center field this year.
The 31-year-old hasn’t managed to replicate last year’s production though. He slumped to a .193/.266/.325 line through the season’s first month and has never fully gotten back on track. While Hernández has improved upon that particularly tepid early-season output, he’s posted below-average numbers at the dish in each month when healthy. He also lost a bit more than eight weeks to a strained right hip flexor that sidelined him from early June until the middle of August. Altogether, Hernández has gotten into 68 games and tallied 304 plate appearances, compiling a meager .219/.283/.354 showing with just six longballs.
Some of Hernández’s underlying numbers have correspondingly gone in the wrong direction. His walks are down to a below-average 7.9% clip, while his rate of hard contact has plummeted from 43.2% to 34.4%. Perhaps the Red Sox are willing to attribute the offensive downturn, at least in part, to the hip issue through which Hernández was battling. Disappointing as his 2022 work at the plate has been, he has continued to rate as an above-average defensive center fielder. If he can recapture something resembling league average offense, Hernández would still be a valuable contributor — either as the regular center fielder or in a utility role that sees him bounce more frequently between the dirt and the grass.
Presumably, Hernández will get the first crack at an everyday outfield role again. The Sox don’t have much in the way of established in-house alternatives, with former top prospect Jarren Duran struggling to a .218/.269/.355 line with bottom-tier defensive metrics through his first 90 big league games. For a Red Sox team that is looking to immediately return to contention after a disappointing 2022 campaign, penciling the 26-year-old into the Opening Day lineup is probably too risky. If Duran plays his way into an everyday job, Hernández could slide into a superutility capacity.
One could argue Boston should’ve aimed higher than either Hernández or Duran and sought an external upgrade in center field. Re-signing Hernández doesn’t expressly rule that out, although it’d seem to alleviate the pressure on Bloom and his staff to dip into very thin waters at the position. Aaron Judge, of course, is the top free agent who’ll be available but looks likely to command a salary approaching or exceeding $300MM. Aside from Judge, Brandon Nimmo is the only clear above-average center fielder who’s slated to hit the open market. The Rays are certain to buy out defensive stalwart Kevin Kiermaier (with whom Bloom is plenty familiar from his time in the Tampa Bay front office), but Kiermaier’s coming off a shaky offensive season of his own and recently underwent season-ending hip surgery.
The trade market may not offer many solutions either. Teams are sure to try to pry Bryan Reynolds away from the Pirates yet again, but no team has been successful (or seemingly even come close) to doing so. The A’s will probably listen to offers on Ramón Laureano, but he’s arguably a cleaner fit in a corner outfield spot than up the middle. Other trade candidates include the Royals Michael A. Taylor and the Cubs Rafael Ortega, but it’s not clear either is an upgrade over Hernández.
It’s the start of what figures to be a busy offseason in Boston. The Red Sox are facing the potential free agent departures of Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez, Nathan Eovaldi, Michael Wacha and Rich Hill, among others. Assuming Bogaerts opts out of the remaining three years on his current contract, the Sox are slated to enter the offseason with a bit more than $70MM in guaranteed commitments for 2023 after accounting for Hernández’s deal. Rafael Devers headlines an arbitration class that’s likely to push that tally north of $90MM.
That still leaves plenty of room for a club that opened this year with a payroll above $206MM, per Cot’s Baseball Contracts. They’ll need to overhaul the pitching staff, address a middle infield position if Bogaerts departs, and perhaps look for upgrades at catcher and in a corner outfield spot. There’s a lot of work to be done this offseason. Today’s agreement to keep around a familiar player whom the organization clearly expects to right the ship marks the first of many key decisions on the horizon.
Jeff Passan of ESPN first reported Hernández and the Red Sox were in agreement on a one-year, $10MM extension.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Rangers Release Dallas Keuchel
SEPTEMBER 5: Keuchel has been released, according to his transactions log at MLB.com.
SEPTEMBER 4: The Rangers announced that left-hander Dallas Keuchel has been designated for assignment. Left-hander John King was called up from Triple-A to take Keuchel’s spot on the active roster.
Keuchel was signed to a minor league deal in late July, and his contract was officially selected to the big league roster on August 27. Unfortunately for Keuchel, his two starts in a Texas uniform were disasters, as he allowed seven runs in each outing and has a 12.60 ERA to show for his 10 innings as a Ranger.
It has been a rough season overall for the 34-year-old, who has a 9.20 ERA over 60 2/3 cumulative innings with the Rangers, Diamondbacks, and White Sox. Beginning the season in Chicago, Keuchel struggled to the point that he was released in late May, with the Sox eating the approximate $13MM still owed to Keuchel in the final year of his three-year, $55.5MM contract.
The D’Backs and Rangers therefore only had to pay Keuchel the prorated portion of a Major League minimum salary during his brief time on their active rosters, as the White Sox covered the rest of the bill. It was a low-cost risk for the two clubs to see if Keuchel could benefit from a change of scenery, yet the veteran struggled at every stop.
While there has long been speculation about how long Keuchel’s ground-heavy, low-strikeout approach would continue to be successful, the lefty was still a front-of-the-rotation arm as recently as 2020, when he finished fifth in AL Cy Young Award voting in his first season with the White Sox. However, Keuchel’s numbers already declined considerably in 2021, as he started to allow considerably more hard contact and his walk rate fell. Those problems have only deepened in 2022, with Keuchel’s 10.2% walk rate falling in only the 20th percentile of all pitchers.
It seems a given that Keuchel will pass through waivers again, and it seems likely that the Rangers will release him rather than outright him to Triple-A. The southpaw’s career track record could land him another minors contract during the offseason, yet as he approaches what would be his age-35 season, the possibility exists that Keuchel is simply no longer an effective Major League pitcher. Retirement could be a possibility after 11 MLB seasons, but with that 2020 performance still so recent, it also wouldn’t be surprising to see Keuchel keep grinding to see if he could get his career back on track.
White Sox Reinstate Aaron Bummer, Outright Tobias Myers
The White Sox announced that reliever Aaron Bummer and third baseman Yoán Moncada have been reinstated from the injured list prior to this afternoon’s game against the Mariners. Outfielders Adam Haseley and Mark Payton were optioned to Triple-A Charlotte to create active roster space. Bummer had been on the 60-day injured list, so the Sox needed to clear a 40-man roster spot for him. That’s been achieved by sending righty Tobias Myers — whom the club hadn’t previously announced was designated for assignment — outright to Charlotte after he went unclaimed on waivers.
Bummer is in position to make his first MLB appearance in three months. The left-hander last pitched on June 7, then landed on the IL with a left lat strain a couple days later. Bummer’s absence led the Chicago front office to target southpaw bullpen help in advance of the trade deadline, and they eventually sent catcher Reese McGuire to Boston for Jake Diekman. Bummer will reassume his role as the primary lefty for acting manager Miguel Cairo, as he’d been off to another strong start. Through 17 2/3 innings, he posted a 3.06 ERA with a solid 26.3% strikeout rate and an elite 58.3% ground-ball percentage.
Moncada missed the minimum amount of time after suffering a left hamstring strain during the final few days of August. It was the third IL stint of the year for the switch-hitting infielder, who also landed on the shelf with an oblique injury and a strain of his other hamstring earlier in the year. Those injures have seemingly prevented Moncada from getting into any sort of groove, as he’s slumped to a career-worst .197/.269/.313 line over 324 plate appearances this season.
The Sox added Myers on deadline day, claiming him off waivers from the Giants. The 24-year-old has started five games with Charlotte since then, allowing a staggering 16 runs (15 earned) with 11 walks and eight strikeouts. It’s the continuation of a nightmarish season for Myers, who has worked exclusively at Triple-A between the Guardians, Giants and White Sox organizations. He owns a 7.35 ERA in 71 frames between the three clubs’ top affiliates.
Those struggles have come largely out of nowhere, as Myers posted a slid 3.90 ERA with a huge 30.5% strikeout rate in 117 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A in 2021. That led Cleveland to acquire him from the Rays last November and immediately add him to the 40-man roster to keep him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft, but things have since unexpectedly gone backwards. Myers, who has yet to make his MLB debut, will now have to try to work his way back onto a 40-man roster. He’ll be eligible for minor league free agency at the end of this year if Chicago doesn’t first reselect him onto the 40-man.
Diamondbacks Promote Ryne Nelson
SEPTEMBER 5: The D-Backs officially announced Nelson’s promotion Monday afternoon. Reliever Luis Frias was optioned to Reno to free an active roster spot, while the club created a 40-man vacancy by recalling infielder Yonny Hernandez and putting him on the major league 60-day injured list. Hernandez, who strained his left calf while in the minors, is officially done for the season. He’ll be paid at the prorated MLB minimum rate for the remainder of the season
SEPTEMBER 4: Diamondbacks pitching prospect Ryne Nelson will make his MLB debut on Monday, manager Torey Lovullo told The Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro and other reporters. Nelson isn’t on the team’s 40-man roster, so at least one corresponding move will need to be made to create space for the 24-year-old right-hander.
A second-round selection in the 2019 draft, Nelson received some top-100 attention prior to the season, with The Athletic’s Keith Law rating him 74th on his list of baseball’s best prospects and Baseball America rating Nelson 96th. Law felt that Nelson was “the safe bet who offers the strongest combination of current stuff and command” among Arizona’s top pitching prospects, which was enough for Law to rate Nelson slightly ahead of other notable D’Back hurlers Drey Jameson and Brandon Pfaadt.
Nelson will be the first of that pitching trio to make the majors, though Nelson has had a rocky time in his first exposure to Triple-A baseball. Nelson has a 5.43 ERA over 136 Triple-A innings this season, with a 21.6% strikeout rate and 7.6% walk rate. That walk rate is Nelson’s best over his three pro seasons while his strikeout rate is by far his lowest, and Nelson has also allowed 25 homers. However, as Piecoro notes, these results are certainly influenced by the hitter-friendly conditions of Triple-A Reno and in the Pacific Coast League in general.
Nelson’s fastball is his signature pitch, averaging only around 93-94mph but with a lot of spin. BA gives Nelson’s fastball an impressive 70 grade on the 20-80 scale, while Pipeline is a little less bullish with a 60 grade. Pipeline’s scouting report also gives plus grades to Nelson’s curve and slider, and according to some D’Backs personnel, the slider could eventually become the right-hander’s best pitch.
It is worth noting that Nelson is still something of a work in progress as a pitcher, as he was a two-way player at Oregon and didn’t turn solely to pitching until 2019. Between that relatively late start and the canceled 2020 minor league season, BA’s scouting report feels Nelson “could still have significant growth ahead of him.” For example, he has made enough improvement with his control that he now looks like a viable starting candidate, whereas there was some feeling that Nelson would ultimately end up as a reliever.
The Diamondbacks see what Nelson can do in Monday’s start against the Padres, and possibly for the rest of September. Lovullo said the club is moving to a six-man rotation in order to rest some arms and keep everyone fresh in the final month of play, with an eye towards juggling the rotation in advance of a September 20 doubleheader against the Dodgers. After an day off on September 8, the D’Backs play 18 games in a 17-day span before their next off-day.
Cardinals Activate Jack Flaherty, Designate Junior Fernandez
As expected, the Cardinals reinstated Jack Flaherty from the 60-day injured list before this afternoon’s game with the Nationals. Righty Dakota Hudson has been optioned to Triple-A Memphis to create an active roster spot, while reliever Junior Fernández was designated for assignment in a corresponding 40-man roster move.
Flaherty makes his return to the Busch Stadium mound for what’ll be his first MLB appearance since July 11. The right-hander left his final start before the All-Star Break with shoulder discomfort, his second extended shoulder-related absence of the year. Flaherty’s season debut was delayed until June 15 due to bursitis, and the star hurler revealed in Spring Training he’s pitched through a labrum tear in the area for years.
It’s been the second consecutive injury-plagued season for Flaherty, who also had extended IL stints last year due to an oblique strain and shoulder troubles. He started 15 of his 17 outings last season but has been limited to three starts in 2022. The absences certainly seemed to have a deleterious effect on Flaherty’s performance earlier this year, as he was tagged for six runs in eight innings with nine walks and only six strikeouts. He averaged 92.1 MPH on his fastball, down two ticks from his 94 MPH heater of 2019-20.
With a month remaining on the regular season schedule, Flaherty will get a few chances to try to recapture that form. At his best, he’s shown ace-like potential and could be a postseason weapon. He finished fourth in NL Cy Young balloting back in 2019, when he posted a sparkling 2.75 ERA with a 29.9% strikeout rate across a career-best 196 1/3 innings.
St. Louis holds an 8 1/2 game lead over the Brewers in the NL Central, having all but officially secured control of the division with a 25-7 record dating back to the start of August. They’re still 5 1/2 games behind the NL East-leading Mets for the second seed in the Senior Circuit, giving them an uphill battle if they’re to take hold of a first-round bye. If they wind up finishing in third place in the league, they’d host the final Wild Card qualifier in a three-game series. How manager Oliver Marmol deploys Flaherty in that set could well depend on the form he shows down the stretch. Adam Wainwright and deadline acquisition Jordan Montgomery have been brilliant and look like postseason starters, with Flaherty joining José Quintana and the struggling Miles Mikolas as options for a third start.
Flaherty’s return bumps Hudson from the primary five. While St. Louis announced last week that he’d pitch out of the bullpen, they’ll instead send him back to Memphis to work from the rotation there. Rob Rains of STLSportsPage tweets that the club still plans to bring Hudson back to make a start on September 17th, when the Cards will play a doubleheader against the Reds. Today’s demotion allows him to exhaust the required 10 days in the minors for optioned players, although it remains to be seen if he’ll stick with the big league club in relief from then forward or immediately head back to Triple-A.
A longtime member of the rotation, the sinkerballing Hudson has had an inconsistent 2022 campaign. He’s made 24 starts but posted a 4.43 ERA, striking out batters at a well below-average 13.5% clip. Hudson’s 52.8% ground-ball rate is still very strong, but it’s down from the 56.9% mark he posted in his best season back in 2019. He’s had a particularly rough go of things in the season’s second half, carrying a 5.52 ERA in 29 1/3 frames since the All-Star Break.
The demotion won’t have any impact on Hudson from a service time perspective, even if his return 12 days from now is a one-off recall. He’s already surpassed the four-year service threshold this season, meaning he remains on track to first reach free agency after 2024. The Cards would owe him a raise on this year’s modest $1.05MM salary if they tender him an arbitration contract after the season.
As for Fernández, he’ll now find himself on the waiver wire within the next few days. A member of the St. Louis organization since signing as an amateur free agent in 2014, he first reached the majors five years later. Fernández has bounced on and off the active roster for the past four seasons, tallying 50 2/3 innings over 47 cumulative appearances. He owns just a 5.51 ERA in that time, fanning 19% of batters faced with a very high 13.1% walk percentage.
The 6’3″ hurler has a 2.93 ERA over 13 MLB appearances this season, but that’s been paired with the more pedestrian strikeout and walk rates he’s posted throughout his career. He’s had a tougher go from a run prevention perspective in Memphis, where he’s allowed more than five earned runs per nine through 36 appearances out of the bullpen.
While Fernández hasn’t had a ton of MLB success to this point, the 25-year-0ld could generate some interest on the waiver wire. He’s averaged a blistering 98.8 MPH on his heater during his big league time this season. He’s also induced grounders on more than half the batted balls against him at both the major league and Triple-A levels. Any team that claims him off waivers could keep him in Triple-A for the rest of this season, but he’ll be out of options next year and would have to break camp with another team or again hit the waiver wire.
Katie Woo of the Athletic first reported Hudson would be optioned.
Rays Designate Matt Wisler For Assignment
The Rays have designated right-hander Matt Wisler for assignment, per a team announcement. His roster spot will go to righty Luis Patiño, who has been recalled to start today’s game against the Red Sox.
Wisler, 29, began his MLB career with Atlanta, mostly as a starter. He had been a highly-touted prospect, landing in the top 50 on Baseball America’s top 100 in both 2014 and 2015. However, he didn’t fare so well in his first tastes of the majors and eventually transitioned to more bullpen work. As a reliever, he started leaning heavily on his slider, having a tremendous breakout with the Twins in 2020. During that shortened campaign, Wisler threw 25 1/3 innings over 18 games, including four starts, though none longer than two innings. He registered a tiny 1.07 ERA that year along with a 32.7% strikeout rate. Despite that excellent showing, he was non-tendered by the Twins, perhaps due to his 13.1% walk rate.
Wisler then signed with the Giants for 2021 but struggled to a 6.05 ERA, getting flipped to the Rays in June last year. He’s been solid since the move to Tampa, registering a 2.15 ERA in the post-trade portion of 2021 and then a 2.25 ERA here in 2022. That ERA is nice, but the Rays are likely moving on because of some less-impressive numbers under the hood. His control is fine, with an 8% walk rate on the year, but Wisler’s 19.9% strikeout rate is a noticeable drop from the previous three seasons, where he was hovering around the 30% mark. The reason why that hasn’t resulted in more earned runs is probably his .198 batting average on balls in play this year. Wisler’s 30.7% hard hit rate is in the 93rd percentile in terms of limiting hard contact this season, but that BABIP is still about 100 points lower than his career mark coming into the year. The Rays must have been expecting some regression, based on this decision to let him go.
With the trade deadline having passed, Wisler will be placed on outright waivers or release waivers in the coming days. There’s little distinction between the two in this case, as Wisler has over five years of MLB service time. That means he has the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency without forfeiting any salary. He and the Rays avoided arbitration in March by agreeing to a $2.16MM contract for the season, leaving about $345K to be paid out.
For teams considering a claim, Wisler is certainly an interesting case. He has continued to increase his slider usage each year, throwing it 70.5% of the time in 2019, followed by 83.4% in 2020, 90.9% last year and 91.5% this season. That led to huge strikeout numbers the first three years, though not so much this season. He’s a free agent this winter, meaning there would be no long-term benefits to claiming him. The short-term appeal would also be limited by the fact that the postseason eligibility date has passed. That means another team could use Wisler down the stretch but not in the postseason. If he clears waivers, the Rays would be on the h0ok for the remainder of that salary. Wisler could elect free agency and sign with any club, who would only have to pay him the prorated league minimum, with that amount being subtracted from what the Rays pay.
Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweeted the roster moves prior to the official announcement.
Dodgers Sign Keone Kela To Minor League Deal
The Dodgers have signed right-hander Keone Kela to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. The deal is listed as taking place on August 31, which is significant as 11:59pm ET on August 31 was the postseason eligibility cutoff. Those within an organization but not on the 40-man at the start of September can still be added to the postseason roster to replace a player on the injured list via petition to the commissioner’s office.
Kela, 29, has spent time with the Rangers, Pirates and Padres in his MLB career. Since debuting in 2015, he’s thrown 227 1/3 innings with a 3.33 ERA, 29.9% strikeout rate, 9.2% walk rate and 43.8% ground ball rate. He’s often been trusted with high leverage situations as well, having racked up 28 saves and 59 holds in his career.
Unfortunately, health issues have slowed him down in recent years. In 2020, a positive COVID test and forearm tightness limited him to just two innings on the season. Last year, he logged 10 2/3 frames before requiring Tommy John surgery in May. He signed a minor league deal with the Diamondbacks for this season and returned to the mound in July. He threw 12 innings between Arizona’s Complex League team and the Triple-A Reno Aces. He was released and latched on with the Dodgers last week.
It’s been a few years since Kela has been able to be effective over an extended stretch, but he threw 29 2/3 innings for the Pirates in 2019 with a 2.12 ERA. If his return to game action after his lengthy layoff goes well, he could be an option for a Dodgers team that has the best record in baseball and is cruising into the postseason. That’s despite a bevy of injuries to the pitching staff, as the club currently has 10 hurlers on the IL. If they should need a fresh arm to join the team down the stretch or in the playoffs, Kela could provide them with an intriguing option.
Angels Acquire Nash Walters From Brewers
The Angels announced a trade with the Brewers today, acquiring right-hander Nash Walters in exchange for cash considerations. Walters has been selected to the 40-man roster and optioned to Triple-A Salt Lake. To make room on the roster, left-hander Jhonathan Diaz was recalled from Salt Lake and placed on the 60-day injured list. Walters was eligible to be traded after the deadline because he had not been on a 40-man roster or been on the Major League injured list all year.
Walters, 25, lands on an MLB roster for the first time, but it hasn’t been an easy ride. He was a third-round selection of the Brewers, getting scooped up 90th overall in 2015 out of Lindale High School in Lindale, Texas. After getting drafted, he pitched in rookie ball in 2015 and again in 2016, but he had his progress paused by Tommy John surgery in 2017. He returned to the mound in 2019, throwing 50 1/3 innings in rookie ball, but then the pandemic wiped out the 2020 season for minor leaguers.
Last year, Walters was able to throw 60 1/3 innings out of the bullpen of the High-A Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. He put up a 4.33 ERA along with a 29.9% strikeout rate and 41.3% ground ball rate. The 10.6% walk rate was definitely on the high side, though it was an improvement over his rookie ball days. Here in 2022, he’s split his time between Double-A and Triple-A, throwing 48 1/3 innings with a 4.47 ERA, 32.2% strikeout rate and 7.3% walk rate. A 62.3% strand rate is likely making that ERA look worse than it should be, given that the MLB league average is 72.4%.
As for Diaz, 25, he’s been optioned and recalled for much of the season, splitting his time between the Angels and the Bees. He last pitched in Triple-A on July 16. He has a 2.93 ERA this year in 15 1/3 MLB innings and a 4.98 ERA in 47 Triple-A innings.
Royals Outright Daniel Mengden
Sep. 4: The Royals announced that Mengden has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Omaha. Although he has the ability to reject that outright and elect free agency, it seems he will accept, per Lynn Worthy of the Kansas City Star.
Sep. 2: The Royals announced Friday that they’ve recalled right-hander Wyatt Mills from Triple-A Omaha and designated fellow righty Daniel Mengden for assignment in order to create roster space. Mengden was selected to the big league roster just yesterday and started last night’s game for Kansas City, but it appears that’ll go down as a spot start.
Mengden, 29, tossed just 2 2/3 innings in last night’s start against the White Sox, yielding three runs on five hits and a walk with a pair of strikeouts. It was his second stint with the Royals this year, as he’d previously made four bullpen appearances back in June. Overall, Mengden has pitched seven innings with the Royals and allowed four earned runs on ten hits and a walk with eight punchouts.
A fourth-round pick of the A’s back in 2014, Mengden was a regular on the Oakland pitching staff from 2016-20, working primarily as a starter but never quite securing a long-term spot in the rotation. The mustachioed righty appeared in 60 games with Oakland — 48 of them starts — and totaled 302 2/3 innings with a 4.64 ERA, a 17.3% strikeout rate, a solid 7.8% walk rate and 39% ground-ball rate.
Mengden then spent the 2021 season with the Korea Baseball Organization’s Kia Tigers, for whom he notched a 3.60 ERA over the life of 21 starts. He’s spent the bulk of the current season with the Royals’ Triple-A club in Omaha, pitching to a 4.55 ERA in 91 innings. He’s ineligible to be traded because he’s been on a big league roster this year and the trade deadline has passed, so Mengden will hit outright waivers or release waivers within the next seven days. All 29 other clubs will have the opportunity to claim him.
Mills, 27, came to the Royals by way of the June trade that sent Carlos Santana to Seattle. He’s appeared in 18 games out of the Kansas City bullpen already this year but struggled to a 5.30 ERA with a 17-to-10 K/BB ratio in 18 2/3 innings. He’s been sharp in Triple-A for the second straight season, however, and now carries a career 2.53 ERA, a 36.7% strikeout rate and an 8.1% walk rate at that level.