Cubs Select Sean Newcomb, Matt Dermody
4:09pm: The Cubs have officially selected Newcomb’s contract heading into Game 2. Infielder David Bote was optioned to Triple-A Iowa to clear the necessary active roster spot.
11:22am: Prior to today’s doubleheader against the Cardinals, the Cubs announced some roster shuffling to reporters, including Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago. Left-hander Matt Dermody has had his contract selected and will serve as the club’s “27th man” during the twin bill. Fellow lefty Sean Newcomb will also have his contract selected to start the second game. Neither player was on the 40-man roster coming into today, though the trade deadline moves left the Cubs at 37, meaning no corresponding moves will be required. However, a spot on the active roster will need to be created for Newcomb between games.
Newcomb, 29, was once a highly-touted prospect with Atlanta and pitched well for them over the 2017-2019 stretch. In that time, he threw 332 1/3 innings with a 3.87 ERA, 23% strikeout rate, 11.6% walk rate and 44.7% ground ball rate. However, he had a miserable 2020 then was moved to the bullpen in 2021 but hasn’t really recaptured his previous form since. Atlanta designated him for assignment in April and then flipped him to the Cubs, who were surely hoping for a bounceback.
He didn’t last very long with the Cubs, getting designated for assignment and then outrighted after clearing waivers. Since then, he’s been pitching well in the minors and getting stretched out in the process. He’s thrown 24 Triple-A innings with a 3.38 ERA, 30.7% strikeout rate and 44.9% ground ball rate, though with a scary 17.8% walk rate. His outings have gradually increased as the season has gone on, logging four innings in each of his past two appearances.
It’s possible that this is just a spot start for Newcomb to help cover the doubleheader. He’s out of options and can’t be sent back down to the minors afterwards. Though if he hangs onto a roster spot, he can be retained beyond this campaign via arbitration.
Dermody, 32, has 29 games of MLB experience under his belt, most of those coming with the Blue Jays in 2017. Since then, he has just a single big league appearance, which came with the Cubs back in 2020. He spent last year with the Seibu Lions of Nippon Professional Baseball before returning to sign a minor league deal with the Cubs in January. Though primarily a reliever for most of his career, the Cubs have been giving him some length in the minors this year. He’s made 13 starts and seven relief appearances in Triple-A on the season, logging 79 1/3 innings with a 3.74 ERA, 20.3% strikeout rate, 5.2% walk rate and 51.2% ground ball rate. Unlike Newcomb, he does have options and could be sent back down to serve as depth in Triple-A.
Marlins To Select Peyton Burdick, Option Jesus Sanchez
The Marlins plan to select outfielder Peyton Burdick onto the major league roster before tomorrow afternoon’s contest with the Cubs, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid (Twitter links). Outfielder Jesús Sánchez will be optioned to Triple-A Jacksonville in a corresponding transaction, Mish adds. Miami already has a vacancy on the 40-man roster, as Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald points out (on Twitter).
Burdick was the Marlins’ third-round pick in 2019 coming out of Wright State University. The right-handed hitter draws praise from evaluators for his strength and raw power that is at least plus (a 60 on the 20-80 scale), although that’s been paired with a fair amount of swing-and-miss. There’s no question he’s performed since entering the professional ranks, though, as Burdick has hit at a well above-average rate at every minor league stop.
He tore up Low-A to close out his draft year, then was bumped to Double-A in 2021 on the heels of the 2020 minor league cancellation. He hit 23 homers there to earn a late-season bump to Jacksonville, where he’s spent the entire 2022 campaign. Burdick, whom Baseball America recently named the #8 prospect in the Miami farm system, owns a .229/.344/.430 line with 14 homers in 385 plate appearances with the Jumbo Shrimp. He’s striking out at a slightly elevated 25.7% clip, but he’s also hitting for power and walking at a robust enough rate (13%) to compensate for the relatively low batting average.
Burdick has played all three outfield spots in Jacksonville, with the majority of his time (328 innings) coming in center field. BA suggests his average speed makes him a cleaner fit in a corner at the MLB level, and Sánchez’s corresponding demotion likely opens up left field playing time for Burdick. Miami placed right fielder Avisaíl García on the injured list yesterday, leaving that corner primarily to Bryan De La Cruz of late with rookie JJ Bleday manning center field.
Manager Don Mattingly has continued to give Sánchez continued run in left field, but the recent results have been subpar. A former top prospect, the 24-year-old Sánchez looked as if he were beginning to make good on that status early in the season. Through the end of April, he carried a .282/.346/.493 line across 78 plate appearances. That came with alarming strikeout and walk numbers that hinted at some forthcoming regression, but one would’ve been hard-pressed to envision the lefty-hitting outfielder’s performance crashing as hard as it has.
Since the calendar flipped to May, Sánchez is hitting only .181/.247/.354. He’s been plagued by a woeful .206 batting average on balls in play over that stretch, but he’s also become increasingly pull-happy — particularly on ground-balls. Opposing teams have responded by shifting against Sánchez in nearly all of his trips, and he’s not managed to find his footing. Over the past month, he owns a .176/.291/.279 line through 79 plate appearances.
Marlins general manager Kim Ng and her staff have evidently decided it time for Sánchez to try to reset in Triple-A. It’ll be his first minor league action of the season. If he spends more than 20 days in the minors, he’ll exhaust his third and final option year. That’d mean the Fish have to permanently carry him on the active roster (or injured list) from the start of the 2023 season if they don’t want to designate him for assignment and make him available to other teams.
Rangers To Select Bubba Thompson
The Rangers are selecting outfielder Bubba Thompson onto the big league roster before tonight’s contest against the White Sox, reports Jeff Wilson (Twitter link). Texas will need to create a pair of 40-man roster spots this evening, with Thompson joining the previously-reported Cole Ragans in reporting to the team for his big league debut.
It’s the long-awaited MLB arrival for Thompson, whom the Rangers drafted in the first round five years ago. A toolsy center fielder with an enviable power-speed combination, the Alabama native was regarded as one of the better prospects in the Texas system for a few seasons. Thompson struggled significantly with strikeouts, though, and his progression up the minor league ladder has been relatively slow. He didn’t advance past High-A in his first two-plus seasons as a professional, and the canceled minor league season in 2020 kept him from reaching the upper minors until last year.
To Thompson’s credit, his two years against upper level pitching have arguably been the best of his career. He hit .275/.325/.483 with 16 homers and 25 steals at Double-A Frisco last year. Texas nevertheless left him off the 40-man roster and would’ve exposed him to the Rule 5 draft, but that never transpired as a result of the lockout. Thompson remained in the system and has spent the season at Triple-A Round Rock, where he’s posted strong numbers.
Through 372 plate appearances, the 24-year-old is hitting .303/.355/.474 with 13 homers. That’s only a bit above league average in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League, but Thompson’s also incredibly stolen 49 bases in 52 attempts (a 94% success rate) and spent the bulk of his defensive innings in center field. Given his baserunning and defensive profile, Thompson has a good shot at carving out at least a fourth outfield role if he makes contact at a reasonable rate.
Over the past couple seasons, he’s struck out in around a quarter of his plate appearances. That’s above the MLB average but markedly better than the strikeout tallies he racked up in A-ball. He’d have again been Rule 5 eligible this winter if not added to the 40-man, but the Rangers will give him a look after a second straight solid season. Leody Taveras and Adolis García will continue getting everyday outfield reps, but Thompson’s arrival could cut into the playing time of veteran Kole Calhoun — who owns just a .211/.269/.363 line on the year.
Brewers Planning To Select Jakson Reetz
The Brewers are planning on adding catcher Jakson Reetz to their 40-man roster, reports Robert Murray of FanSided. Reetz isn’t currently on Milwaukee’s 40-man roster, meaning a corresponding move will be required.
Reetz, 26, was a third-round draft pick of the Nationals in 2014, working his way up to make his MLB debut last year. He only got two plate appearances before getting designated for assignment in September. Since he got one hit, he currently has a career batting average of .500 in an obviously tiny sample.
Baseball America considered Reetz to be one of the top farmhands in the Nationals’ system from 2015 to 2018 and again in 2020 and 2021. He’s long earned praise for his defensive acumen but never managed to hit much in the upper levels of the minors. He’s taken steps forward in that department this year, however, after signing a minor league deal with the Brewers in the offseason. He’s spent most of this year at Double-A, getting into 64 games and hitting an incredible 22 home runs in that time. His batting line at that level this year is .281/.392/.636 for a wRC+ of 166. It’s been less eye-popping in 13 Triple-A games, though he did add three more dingers there for a line of .229/.283/.479, wRC+ of 94.
The Brewers have quickly gone from a catching surplus to a deficit in recent days. Not so long ago, they had a trio of Omar Narvaez, Victor Caratini and Pedro Severino all on the active roster, enough bodies that they were getting trade interest on Narvaez. The deadline passed without a deal and the club decided to move on from Severino, designating him for assignment yesterday. However, Narvaez suffered a quad strain last night and landed on the IL today. With the triumvirate whittled down to just Caratini, the club recalled Mario Feliciano today with Reetz seemingly getting into the mix soon. Given that he’s a glove-first catcher who might have suddenly found his stroke, it’s understandable that the Brewers are willing to give him a shot.
Rays Claim Jimmy Yacabonis From Marlins
The Rays have claimed right-hander Jimmy Yacabonis off waivers from the Marlins, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. The club had a vacancy on their 40-man roster, meaning no corresponding move will be required in that department.
Yacabonis, 30, has bounced between the majors and the minors since 2017, often tantalizing with strong minor league results but sputtering in the big leagues. That’s been the case again this year with the Marlins. After signing a minor league with the Fish in March, he threw 24 2/3 innings on the farm with a 3.28 ERA and excellent 33.7% strikeout rate, though a high 11.5% walk rate.
Selected to the big league club in June, he’s thrown 9 1/3 MLB frames with a 6.75 ERA and 11.1% walk rate, though still getting strikeouts at a tasty 33.3% clip. He got nudged off the Marlins’ roster last week, but had to be DFA’d since he’s out of options. The Rays, as mentioned, had an open spot on their 40-man roster but will have to bring Yacabonis to the big league club and create a spot for him on the active roster once he reports to the team.
Red Sox Release Jackie Bradley Jr.
1:15pm: The Red Sox have announced that Bradley has been released. He will now be free to sign with any team for the protated league minimum, with Boston on the hook for the remainder of his contract.
8:55am: The Red Sox will designate veteran outfielder Jackie Bradley Jr. for assignment later today, reports Julian McWilliams of the Boston Globe.
Boston reacquired Bradley in an offseason trade that sent Hunter Renfroe to the Brewers. The trade netted the Red Sox a pair of prospects, infielders Alex Binelas and David Hamilton, and saw the Sox take on the second year of Bradley’s two-year, $24MM contract in the process. Effectively, the Sox purchased a pair of minor leaguers by bringing Bradley back into the fold and picking up the tab on his deal. Binelas and Hamilton rank as Boston’s No. 22 and No. 26 prospects, respectively, on Baseball America’s midseason ranking of their farm system.
There was certainly some reason for the Sox to roll the dice on a Bradley reunion even after an awful 2021 showing that saw him hit just .163/.236/.261 in 428 plate appearances as a Brewer. He remained an all-world defender in the outfield, was dogged by a .226 average on balls in play that sat 64 points below his career mark, and made hard contact at better-than-average rates (89.7 mph average exit velo, 40.3% hard-hit rate). Of course, Bradley also punched out at a career-worst 30.8% clip in Milwaukee, walked at a career-worst 6.5% rate and popped up more regularly than ever before.
Bradley indeed did not hit as poorly as he did in Milwaukee, but this season’s .210/.257/.321 slash wasn’t nearly enough of a rebound to carry Bradley on the roster for the entirety of the season. He’s been 42% worse than league average with the bat, by measure of wRC+, and his defensive marks in center field have fallen off a bit this season (though he’s played right field more regularly anyhow).
25-year-old Jarren Duran has taken over the club’s regular center fielder, getting the bulk of the playing time there since mid-June. He hasn’t exactly lit the world on fire, hitting a meager .232/.280/.384, but his wRC+ of 82 is still well ahead of Bradley’s, though with worse defensive numbers. It seems the club will continue giving him a run of playing time for now to see how he fares down the stretch. Boston acquired Tommy Pham at the deadline, which likely played a part in nudging Bradley out of the corner outfield picture. Pham, Duran and Alex Verdugo will likely be the regular outfield rotation, with Jaylin Davis around as depth and Enrique Hernandez joining the mix once he returns from the injured list.
As for what happens now, there’s no way for the Sox to work out a trade since the deadline has passed. Their only options with Bradley are to put him on waivers or release him. Bradley’s defense will surely intrigue some other teams, but it seems unlikely any team will claim him given his poor offensive performance and contract situation. He’s making a $9.5MM salary this year, leaving a little over $3MM still to be paid out. There’s also a $12MM mutual option for 2023 with an $8MM buyout. Any team putting in a claim would be on the hook for that money. Even the clubs most interested in Bradley will likely just wait for him to clear waivers, at which point he could elect free agency and be signed for the prorated league minimum with the Red Sox on the hook for the remainder.
In the short-term, the trade certainly looks like a misfire for the Sox, with Renfroe having a solid season for the Brewers. He’s hit 19 home runs and is slashing .246/.299/.508 for a wRC+ of 120. However, the long-term evaluation of the deal will depend upon the future development of Binelas and Hamilton.
Phillies Release Didi Gregorius
The Phillies announced a series of roster moves prior to tonight’s game. Deadline pickups Noah Syndergaard and Brandon Marsh have been activated. Pitcher Kyle Gibson has been reinstated from the bereavement list with infielder Jean Segura being activated from the 60-day injured list. Three spots on the active roster were created after last night’s game, with right-hander Mark Appel, left-hander Bailey Falter and outfielder Simon Muzziotti all getting optioned. To create space on both the active and 40-man rosters for Segura, they have released infielder Didi Gregorius.
Gregorius, 32, is perhaps best known for the five-year stretch with the Yankees he had from 2015 to 2019. In that time, he played 660 games, hitting 97 home runs, stealing 27 bases and slashing .269/.313/.446 for a 101 wRC+.
After reaching free agency, he signed a one-year, $14MM deal with the Phillies for 2020, going on to hit 10 homers in the shortened season and producing an overall line of .284/.339/.488, 116 wRC+. After that successful campaign in Philly, the two sides re-upped on a two-year, $28MM deal that unfortunately preceded an incredible downfall in the shortstop’s production.
Last season, Gregorius hit a miserable .209/.270/.370, 68 wRC+, meaning his production was 32% worse than the league average hitter. After that dismal campaign, his grasp on the shortstop position for 2022 seemed tenuous at best. Philadelphia’s president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski publicly admitted as much in October.
Although there was a superstar class of shortstops available in free agency this winter (Carlos Correa, Corey Seager, Javier Baez, Trevor Story, Marcus Semien), the Phils focussed on upgrading their outfield, adding Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos. Despite apparently losing faith in Gregorius, they felt they had a potential in-house solution at shortstop with prospect Bryson Stott.
Stott cracked the Opening Day Roster and seemed to be in a bit of a competition for infield playing time next to second baseman Jean Segura. With both Gregorious and third baseman Alec Bohm having down years in 2021, Stott was given time at various infield positions to start the year. However, he struggled out of the gate, getting optioned back to the minors April 25. At that time, he was hitting just .133/.161/.167. Those struggles seemed to give Gregorious and Bohm more time to get back on track.
In May, Stott was recalled, which was followed a few weeks later by Segura fracturing his finger, opening up the infield for all three of Stott, Gregorius and Bohm. In that time, Stott and Bohm have improved after sluggish starts while Didi simply has not. Since June 1, Stott has hit seven homers and is slashing .227/.296/.384. That’s still below average production (90 wRC+), but it comes despite a .222 batting average on balls in play. Bohm, meanwhile, scuffled through June but had a monster July, hitting .405/.427/.583 since that month began. Gregorius had an okay start to the year, hitting .288/.338/.356 through May for a wRC+ of 96, but has slashed .181/.234/.284 since, wRC+ of just 42 since the start of June and 57 on the season overall. With Segura’s return and Bohm and Stott looking like better options, the Phils decided to was time to move on from Gregorius as they gear up for a pennant race over the final two months of the season.
Gregorius is making $15.25MM this year as part of that two-year deal he signed, leaving around $5MM left to be paid out. Any team that signs him at that point would only have to pay him the prorated league minimum with the Phillies on the hook for the remainder.
Pirates Select Taylor Davis
The Pirates have announced a series of roster moves prior to today’s game. Catcher Tyler Heineman has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a right groin strain. Left-hander Dillon Peters has been placed on the 15-day IL due to left elbow inflammation. To take those roster spots, the club has recalled lefty Eric Stout and selected catcher Taylor Davis. There was a vacancy on the club’s 40-man roster, meaning no corresponding move will be required in that regard. Mike Persak of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had Davis’s promotion shortly before the team announcement.
Davis, 32, was drafted by the Cubs in 2011 and worked his way up to make his MLB debut with them in 2017. He got into just 20 MLB games with the Cubbies over the three-year stretch from 2017 to 2019. He was outrighted at the end of that season and signed a minor league deal with the Orioles. With the pandemic canceling the minor league seasons that year and Davis not getting called to the bigs, he never logged any official action. Last year, he got traded to the Pirates and added two more games to his MLB tally. He was released at the end of the year and re-signed on a minor league pact. In 35 Triple-A games this year, he’s hitting .282/.358/.320.
The Pirates have dealt with some attrition behind the plate this year, as Roberto Perez underwent season-ending surgery in May. Michael Perez was designated for assignment and traded to the Mets a few weeks ago, leaving Heineman and Jason Delay as the catching tandem. With Heineman now hitting the shelf, it seems it will be Delay and Davis, at least for the time being. The severity of Heineman’s injury isn’t known at this time.
Brewers Place Omar Narvaez On IL With Quad Strain
The Brewers announced that catcher Omar Narvaez has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a left quad strain. Fellow catcher Mario Feliciano has been recalled to take his place on the active roster.
The severity of the injury isn’t clear but the timing is particularly unfortunate for the Brewers, who had been carrying three catchers in recent weeks, with Narvaez, Victor Caratini and Pedro Severino all on the roster. They even got some trade interest on Narvaez leading up to the deadline, but ending up holding all three until yesterday afternoon when Severino was designated for assignment. A few hours after that, Narvaez injured his quad and a catching surplus suddenly turned into a deficit.
Narvaez has played 60 games on the season, hitting .237/.324/.363. That’s amounts to a wRC+ of 94, or 6% below the league average hitter, but slightly above the league average of 88 wRC+ for catchers. The left-handed hitting Narvaez and the switch-hitting Caratini have formed a platoon this year, with the latter playing 54 games and hitting .230/.350/.405 for a wRC+ of 116. Each also has quality defensive numbers, allowing Narvaez to accrue 1.3 fWAR on the year to Caratini’s 1.5
With Severino gone and Narvaez on the shelf, Caratini will likely step into a larger role with Feliciano as the backup. Feliciano jas just one MLB plate appearance to his name (a walk) but has hit .288/.346/.382 in Triple-A for a 97 wRC+. If Severino clears waivers and elects free agency, it’s possible that the Brewers could re-sign him and send Feliciano back down to the minors.
Brewers Designate Dinelson Lamet, Pedro Severino For Assignment
The Brewers have announced to reporters, including Curt Hogg of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, a series of roster moves prior to today’s game. Righty Freddy Peralta has been reinstated from the 60-day injured list, while deadline acquisition Matt Bush has been added to the roster. Infielder Keston Hiura was also recalled. In corresponding moves, the club optioned righty Peter Strzelecki and designated righty Dinelson Lamet and catcher Pedro Severino for assignment.
Lamet getting cut from the roster comes as a surprise, since he was just acquired from the Padres a couple of days ago as part of the Josh Hader trade. Adam McCalvy of MLB.com relayed a quote from Brewers’ president of baseball operations David Stearns, attempting to explain. “Dinelson has a good arm and was included in the trade to help balance out the deal,” Stearns says. “As subsequent transactions played out, the roster fit became a little tougher. We are hopeful we will be able to keep him in our system.”
The reference to “subsequent transactions” seems to imply that the Brewers ended up making other trades that squeezed Lamet out of their plans. Lamet, and the other players in the Hader deal, were acquired on Monday, the day before the trade deadline. As the deadline played out yesterday, the club also added Bush and Trevor Rosenthal in separate deals. Perhaps the Brewers value those hurlers higher than they view Lamet, which led to Lamet losing his roster spot today.
Although Lamet technically has options remaining, Hogg points out that he recently surpassed five years of MLB service time. Players beyond that threshold cannot be optioned without their consent, meaning Lamet had to be DFA’d to be removed from the roster. That also means that, should Lamet clear waivers, he would have the right to refuse an outright assignment and elect free agency without forfeiting his salary, as all players beyond five years of MLB service can.
Frankly, it would be very surprising if Lamet cleared waivers, given his track record and modest salary. He was one of the best pitchers in baseball during the shortened 2020 season, logging a 2.09 ERA over 12 starts with a 34.8% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. He has dealt with injury woes in subsequent seasons, being relegated to bullpen duty and occasionally getting optioned to the minors. Still, he’s making a modest $4.775MM salary this year and can be retained for another season via arbitration. Due to his injuries, underperformance and time spent in the minors, he likely wouldn’t earn a huge raise for 2023.
Now that the trade deadline has come and gone, it complicates Lamet’s status. For one thing, the Brewers won’t be able to work out a deal to send Lamet elsewhere, as they would have been able to do prior to the deadline. For another thing, for clubs that are looking for bullpen upgrades from outside their organization, waiver claims are now effectively the only way to do so. It seems highly likely that some club will give Lamet a shot, either a contender looking for a boost down the stretch or a rebuilding team that will give him some time to regain his previous form and perhaps trade him in the offseason or next year.
Beyond Lamet’s status, this will immediately change the calculus for evaluating the Hader trade. “The players we are receiving in this trade help ensure that the future of the Milwaukee Brewers remains bright while not compromising our desire and expectation to win today,” is how Stearns phrased the trade at the time. “This mix of present Major League talent and high-level prospects furthers our aim to get as many bites of the apple as possible and, ultimately, to bring a World Series to Milwaukee. Trading good players on good teams is difficult, and that is certainly the case with Josh. We also recognize that to give our organization the best chance for sustained competitiveness, to avoid the extended down periods that so many organizations experience, we must make decisions that are not easy.” Two of the four acquired players, Robert Gasser and Esteury Ruiz, have already been assigned to minor league clubs. Though they could be called up later in the year, this currently leaves Taylor Rogers as the lone player from the trade on the big league roster. While Rogers is certainly a fine player, few would argue that he’s been capable of pitching at the elite level of Hader.
As for Severino, he recently returned from an 80-game suspension after a positive PED test. That gave the Brewers a surplus of catchers, as Omar Narvaez and Victor Caratini were both playing well in Severino’s absence. It was reported in recent days that Narvaez was drawing trade interest, though nothing came together before the deadline. Instead, the club has merely decided to move on from Severino and stick with the Narvaez-Caratini tandem.
As for Peralta, he landed on the IL in May due to shoulder soreness and now returns after an absence of over two months. He had a tremendous breakout last year, pitching to a 2.81 ERA and 33.6% strikeout rate. This year, his performance dipped a bit, perhaps due to the shoulder issues. He had a 4.42 ERA and 30.3% strikeout rate, still high but not quite as dominant, before landing on the shelf. If his health issues are behind him and he can return to his 2021 form, he will help the Brewers form one of the most fearsome rotations in the sport, lining up next to Corbin Burnes, Brandon Woodruff, Eric Lauer and Aaron Ashby.