Giants Claim Kyle Barraclough
The Giants have claimed right-handed reliever Kyle Barraclough off waivers from the Nationals, Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic reports. He’ll head to Triple-A Sacramento. Meanwhile, infielder Tyler Austin has elected free agency after clearing waivers (Twitter links).
Barraclough was a failed offseason pickup for the Nationals, who acquired him with the expectation he’d help repair their bullpen. Instead, the 29-year-old recorded a 6.66 ERA/6.57 FIP with 10.52 K/9 against 4.21 BB/9 in 25 2/3 innings. The Nationals then designated him for assignment earlier this week.
Austin, 27, joined Barraclough in being designated this week. He struggled to a .187/.283/.403 line with eight home runs in 152 plate appearances this season before the Giants moved on from him.
Tony Sipp Clears Waivers, Becomes Free Agent
Three days after the Nationals requested released waivers on Tony Sipp, the left-handed reliever has cleared and is now a free agent, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Washington will pay Sipp the remainder of his $1MM salary for this year and a $250K buyout for 2020.
The fact that the 36-year-old Sipp couldn’t stick in what has been a dicey Nationals bullpen looks damning. He logged a 4.71 ERA (albeit with a far more encouraging 3.55 FIP) and 7.71 K/9 against 3.86 BB/9 in 21 innings with the club this year after it signed him to a low-cost deal a couple weeks before the season.
Along with posting shoddy run prevention numbers, Sipp saw his velocity and strikeout rates tumble compared to where they were last year as an Astro. At the same time, though, Sipp limited same- and right-handed hitters to sub-.290 weighted on-base average marks as a Nat this season. Sipp’s also just a year removed from an exemplary showing in Houston, where he posted a 1.86 ERA/2.41 FIP with 9.78 K/9 and 3.03 BB/9 over 38 2/3 innings. Now, considering Sipp’s only in line to collect the league minimum on his next contract, some contender looking for an established late-game lefty may well take a flier on him in the coming weeks.
Nationals Designate Kyle Barraclough For Assignment
The Nationals have designated right-hander Kyle Barraclough for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the roster will go to infielder Asdrubal Cabrera, whose previously reported one-year contract has now been officially announced by the Nationals. Infielder Adrian Sanchez has been optioned to Double-A Harrisburg in an additional corresponding move.
Acquired in a rare October trade that sent international bonus allotments from Washington to Miami, Barraclough was viewed as a controllable, buy-low ‘pen option at the time the Nationals picked him up. While he was fresh off a fairly disappointing 4.20 ERA in 55 2/3 innings, Barraclough joined the Nationals with a long track record of missing bats and posting quality bottom-line results to match his gaudy strikeout totals. From 2015-18, Barraclough pitched to a 3.21 earned run average with 11.5 K/9 against 5.5 BB/9 in 218 2/3 innings of work. Although his walk rate was too high, he offset some of those strike-throwing issues with a minimal 0.6 HR/9 mark.
The 2019 campaign, however, proved to be an unmitigated disaster for Barraclough. Gone was his penchant for limiting the long ball — a problem that has plagued many hurlers throughout the league, albeit not to this extent — as he served up eight dingers in just 25 2/3 innings. Barraclough’s time with the Nationals will likely come to a close with a dismal 6.66 ERA and a 30-to-12 K/BB ratio in those 25 2/3 frames.
The Nats won’t have the opportunity to trade him thanks to the newly implemented August trade restrictions, but they could potentially save a bit of cash if another organization claims Barraclough on outright waivers. While this year’s results are obviously troubling, the 29-year-old Barraclough is making $1.725MM in 2019 and is controllable through the 2021 season.
A team willing to take on his remaining $510K salary this season would only owe him a small raise in arbitration and then would have the opportunity to help the right-hander round back into form. Between that and the fact that Barraclough has two minor league option years remaining beyond the 2019 campaign, a claim seems fairly likely. Other clubs have limited access to acquiring depth, and an optionable bullpen piece with a solid pre-2019 track record will be difficult to come by between now and the Aug. 31 deadline for postseason eligibility.
Nationals Request Release Waivers On Tony Sipp
Lefty Tony Sipp is likely headed back to the open market. The veteran reliever rejected an outright assignment and is now on release waivers, according to Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (via Twitter). Having already cleared outright waivers, it seems a foregone conclusion that Sipp will reach free agency.
Sipp was dropped from the Nationals’ 40-man roster recently as the team completed a reshaping of its relief corps. The southpaw will receive the remainder of his $1MM guaranteed salary, along with a $250K buyout on a 2020 mutual option, regardless of where he ends up landing next.
There’s little doubt that the southpaw specialist will draw interest from other organizations, though it’s hardly clear whether any will woo him with promises of an immediate MLB job. He’ll be available for just the league-minimum rate of pay, with any earnings partially offsetting the Nats’ remaining obligations.
The 36-year-old Sipp may be a tough player to fit on a 25-man roster right now, but he’d surely be welcome once rosters expand. While he didn’t fare well in D.C. by measure of results (4.71 ERA) or Statcast measures (.284 wOBA-against vs. .340 xwOBA-against), Sipp was still capable of a 12.7% swinging-strike rate.
Nationals To Sign Asdrubal Cabrera
Not long after his formal release by the Rangers, veteran infielder Asdrubal Cabrera has agreed to join the Nationals, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network (via Twitter). It’s a major-league deal, per the report.
Because Cabrera was cut loose, the Rangers will remain obligated to him for the remainder of his $3.5MM salary. But they’ll save a pro-rated portion of the league minimum for whatever time Cabrera remains with the Nats.
It has been a few years, but Cabrera is a familiar face in D.C. He spent the last few months of the 2014 season with the club after a trade from the Indians, his long-time team. Cabrera has appeared with four additional teams in the intervening years.
The match is a clear one given the current roster demands faced by the Nationals. Howie Kendrick just joined Ryan Zimmerman on the injured list, leaving the team with light-hitting utilityman Adrian Sanchez as its lone reserve infielder.
It remains to be seen whether Cabrera will be a temporary fill-in or key roster piece down the stretch. His performance will no doubt help dictate the situation.
The switch-hitting Cabrera will be looking to bounce back from a brutal run with the Rangers. Not only did he limp to a .235/.318/.393 batting output, one of the worst extended runs of his career, but Cabrera was actually fortunate to post those numbers in light of the low-quality contact he made (.308 wOBA, .287 xwOBA).
Report: Tigers Were Offered Baez, Bregman In 2017 Offers For Michael Fulmer
Between a down year in 2018 and then Tommy John surgery in March 2019, Michael Fulmer has fallen off the radar for many fans outside of the Motor City. Yet it wasn’t long ago that Fulmer was one the most sought-after trade chips in baseball, hotly pursued by multiple teams in the aftermath of a Rookie Of The Year season in 2016, and a strong sophomore year that saw him post a 3.83 ERA, 2.85 K/BB rate, and 6.2 K/9 over 164 2/3 innings in 2017, though Fulmer’s year was cut short by elbow surgery.
It was during that 2017 season that the Tigers finally went into full rebuild mode, trading Justin Verlander, Justin Upton, J.D. Martinez, and others before the trading period finally halted at the end of August. Fulmer received plenty of attention from trade suitors, though he wasn’t as obvious of a moveable asset given that he still had so many years of team control remaining.
Nonetheless, the Tigers received some sizeable offers for his services, and according to Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press, these offers included two blockbusters for future All-Stars. The Tigers reportedly declined a three-player package from the Cubs that would have seen Javier Baez head to Detroit in exchange for Fulmer, while the Astros were willing to give up Alex Bregman for both Fulmer and left-hander Justin Wilson.
It makes for an eye-popping case of hindsight for the Tigers and their fans, considering how the three principal figures of those offers have since performed. Baez and Bregman are simply two of the game’s best players, each collecting All-Star appearances in both 2018 and 2019, while Baez finished second in NL MVP voting last season while Bregman racked up a fifth-place finish in the 2018 AL MVP race and also played a big role in the Astros’ 2017 World Series title.
Fulmer, by contrast, hasn’t matched his early potential due to injuries and perhaps simply some statistical regression. Whether he can regain his former front-of-the-rotation status is a question that can’t be answered until at least a few months into the 2020 season (or perhaps until 2021, if Fulmer is one of many pitchers who under-performs in their first several starts back from TJ surgery).
There were some rumors about a Cubs/Tigers trade involving Fulmer back in 2017, prior to Chicago’s acquisition of Jose Quintana from the White Sox, though Detroit reportedly wanted both Baez and Ian Happ as part of a Fulmer trade package. Bregman and Fulmer were never linked in any trade talks, and one wonders if the Astros only floated the idea fairly early in the year, since Bregman was installed as the team’s everyday third baseman from Opening Day onward. Needless to say, Bregman was no longer on the table by the time Houston and Detroit collaborated on their actual 2017 blockbuster, the championship-deciding deal that sent Verlander to the Astros on August 31.
In fairness to the Tigers, every front office has countless examples of instances where they missed out on a trade or a signing that would have been a steal. Likewise, from the Cubs’ and Astros’ perspective, every team can cite numerous cases where they lucked out in not making a transaction. But the Fulmer situation looms large, Fenech notes, given how Detroit has been unable to maximize the return on several of their top trade assets during their rebuild.
Several scouts from around the league weren’t very impressed by the four total prospects Detroit received from the Cubs and Braves in trade deadline swaps of Nicolas Castellanos and Shane Greene. The Tigers also weren’t able to trade Matt Boyd, perhaps their most valuable trade chip, at all. While “multiple executives indicated Boyd’s trade value will never be as high as it was at 3:59 p.m. on Wednesday” prior to the trade deadline, it seems that Detroit’s asking price on Boyd was simply too exorbitant. One National League exec told Fenech that the Tigers’ demands were “borderline comical,” and an AL executive describing Detroit’s front office as “impossible to deal with.”
The Tigers also asked for a lot in their attempts to trade Greene. For instance, Detroit asked the Nationals for top infield prospect Carter Kieboom, and Fenech also reports that the Nationals turned down an offer for Luis Garcia, another prized young infielder.
Nationals Sign T.J. Rivera To Minors Deal
The Nationals have signed infielder T.J. Rivera to a minor league contract, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link). Rivera has been assigned to Washington’s Double-A affiliate.
A late bloomer who didn’t reach the majors until he was 27, Rivera hit .304/.335/.445 over 344 plate appearances for the Mets in 2016-17. He hasn’t been back to the Show, however, since undergoing Tommy John surgery in September 2017, and was limited to only six minor league appearances in the Mets’ farm system in 2018 before being released in Spring Training.
Rivera then took time off to get fully healthy before inking a deal with the independent Atlantic League’s Long Island Ducks in early July, and hit .273/.323/.440 over 93 PA for the Ducks. He’ll now provide the Nationals with some versatility around the infield, as Rivera has a wealth of experience at second, third, and first base (plus some shortstop early in his career, and a handful of games as a corner outfielder). Though his Double-A assignment doesn’t hint that a big league call-up is imminent, Rivera nonetheless provides some extra depth for a Nats club that just lost Howie Kendrick to the injured list earlier today.
Post-Deadline Outrights: Flynn, De La Cruz, Guerra, Blazek
In the immediate aftermath of the trade deadline, a handful of clubs cleared 40-man roster space with a series of designations. Many of those players have since cleared waivers, and we’ll round up those minor moves here…
Latest Moves
- The Royals announced that southpaw Brian Flynn was outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers. Flynn has a 5.22 ERA over 29 1/3 innings for K.C. this season, a disappointing result for a reliever who posted solid numbers out of the Royals’ bullpen in both 2016 and 2018.
Earlier Today
- Cubs minor-league right-hander Oscar de la Cruz has cleared waivers. The 24 year-old has seen his once-lofty prospect status deteriorate due to a combination of injuries, command woes, and a suspension for a masking agent. He’ll remain with the club’s AA affiliate in the Southern League.
- Nationals right-handers Javy Guerra and Michael Blazek each cleared waivers and were outrighted to Triple-A Fresno. Because each veteran has previously been outrighted, they may elect free agency, but the shaky Washington bullpen could plausibly offer them the best opportunity to return to the big leagues in short order.
- Giants right-handed reliever Dan Winkler was outrighted. San Francisco acquired him as a salary offset in the Mark Melancon trade but never had any interest in letting him see the field amidst a disappointing 2019 season. Winkler can elect free agency because he has over three years of MLB service.
- Rockies left-handed relief arm Harrison Musgrave will remain on hand at Triple-A Albuquerque after clearing. The 27 year-old has had little success in 45 MLB games in Colorado over the past two seasons.
- Diamondbacks right-hander Joey Krehbiel will remain on-hand at Triple-A Reno. Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel named the 26 year-old reliever a prospect to watch thanks to a plus changeup preseason, but he’s had a nightmarish season in the Pacific Coast League.
- Veteran catcher Tim Federowicz has cleared. The backstop had been playing for the Rangers, but he may elect to catch on elsewhere on a minor-league deal.
- Phillies corner infielder Mitch Walding has also cleared waivers. He’ll remain in Triple-A Lehigh Valley, where he’s struggled to make contact in 2019.
- Eric Stamets, the Indians‘ Opening Day shortstop, has cleared as well. The 27 year-old has put up anemic offensive numbers with Triple-A Columbus, where he’ll continue to try to right the ship, over the past two seasons.
Nationals Place Howie Kendrick, Roenis Elias On Injured List
The Nationals have made a couple of roster moves, placing infielder Howie Kendrick and left-handed pitcher Roenis Elias on the 10-day injured list, per a club announcement. Javy Guerra, who only just got out of DFA limbo, has been selected and will be added to the 40-man and 25-man roster. Additionally, outfielder Andrew Stevenson has been promoted to the active roster.
Both Kendrick and Elias are suffering from hamstring strains, affecting Kendrick’s left hamstring and Elias’s right. Kendrick’s IL placement comes retroactive to August 1; Elias’s move was not backdated.
For the 31-year-old Elias, the injury comes before he’s had much of a chance to put his chops on display for his new ballclub. The Nats acquired the southpaw on Wednesday’s deadline in hopes that his addition, among others, would bolster a bullpen unit that has been one of baseball’s worst in 2019. Elias only managed to contribute 2/3 of an inning before his Nats tenure will have to be put on hold. Though not a big-name reliever, Elias figures to be critical to the Nationals’ second-half success; outside of closer Sean Doolittle, lefty out-getters have been hard to come by for Washington. Matt Grace has been sent out for 42 1/3 innings despite a 5.95 ERA, which is a far cry from the 2.98 mark that Elias has put up over the last two seasons.
Kendrick, meanwhile, has emerged as a surprisingly valuable offensive piece for the playoff-hopeful Nats; as the top bench option for the team, he ranks third on the team in OPS and RBI. He’s mainly toggled between first, second, and third base as need. If it’s any consolation, the Nationals can at least fall back on capable regulars at those positions in Kendrick’s absence; Matt Adams and Brian Dozier will have to anchor first and second base, though the team will surely miss Kendrick’s pinch-hitting prowess.
Guerra will have to reverse course after being outrighted to Triple-A on Saturday, just before Elias landed on the injured list. He had been designated for assignment on Wednesday, but he’ll reclaim a spot on the Nationals’ 40-man after all. He’s made it into 23 games for Washington this year, posting a 5.40 ERA while striking out 21 batters.
As for the two veterans’ injury timelines, Mark Zuckerman of MASN Sports provides some clarity (via Twitter), suggesting that both Elias and Kendrick are expected to return when their 10 days are up. According to Zuckerman, Kendrick was placed on the injured list out of precaution rather than necessity, while the strain to Elias was only a mild one.
Injury Notes: Heaney, Means, Elias, A’s
While there was an unfortunate spate of injuries covered at MLBTR yesterday, a few more have emerged in recent hours:
- Angels’ left-hander Andrew Heaney will throw a 60-pitch simulated game Monday, reports Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. Assuming that goes according to plan, Heaney could take the mound for the Halos next weekend in Boston, as the organization isn’t planning on sending him on a minor-league rehab assignment. Heaney, who was placed on the injured list two weeks ago with shoulder inflammation, hasn’t had a banner season, pitching to a 5.09 ERA over nine starts despite a strong 27.3% strikeout rate, as he’s been particularly susceptible to the home run ball (1.76 HR/9).
- The Orioles are also set to welcome back a left-handed starter in the coming days. Manager Brandon Hyde tells Joe Trezza of MLB.com that All-Star John Means will be activated from the injured list to take the mound Wednesday. Means will miss just more than the 10-day minimum, having hit the shelf with rotator cuff inflammation in his throwing arm July 26. The previously-unheralded 26 year-old has emerged as the club’s best starter in 2019, working to a 3.12 ERA. While it’s tough to imagine him continuing that level of run prevention with a below-average 19.3% strikeout rate and 34.9% ground ball rate, Means is a volume strike-thrower who looks like a solid back-end starter, a welcome find for the pitching-starved club.
- Nationals left-handed reliever Roenis Elías has “tweaked his hamstring,” tweets Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. There’s no indication yet the injury is serious, but any Elías absence would be a blow to his new employer, who acquired him from the Mariners for two relief pitching prospects at the trade deadline. A fly ball pitcher, Elías has given up his share of home runs this season and is fortunate to be carrying a 3.59 ERA, but he’s still one of the better pieces in a Washington bullpen that has been the worst in baseball at preventing runs.
- Melissa Lockard of the Athletic provides updates on a pair of A’s prospects (via Twitter). Triple-A catcher Sean Murphy, a gifted defender with some raw power, recently re-aggravated a preexisting meniscus tear. Fortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any new damage- just some pain and swelling- and Murphy could return to action by the end of August. More encouragingly, top left-handed pitcher Jesus Luzardo threw a simulated game this week as he looks to work his way back from a lat strain. Like Murphy, Luzardo has played his way to Triple-A and looked like he may be able to help the big league club this season before his injury.