Nationals Send Austin Voth To Double-A, Activate Max Scherzer From Paternity List
The Nationals activated Max Scherzer today from the paternity list after his wife gave birth to their second child yesterday. Scherzer is expected to make his last start of the first half today wearing the Expos’ powder blue road jersey against the Royals.
Current fifth starter Austin Voth, meanwhile, has been sent to Double-A Harrisburg. The Nationals have a bizarre minor league setup in that the closeness of Harrisburg has been utilized all season to keep major-league-ready players nearby for quick activation, rather than sending them cross-country to their Triple-A affiliate in Fresno.
Voth took three turns through the rotation, holding his own while also struggling to clamp down and finish a third time through the order. He did not take a decision, lasting less than five innings apiece in his final two starts after a strong season debut against Atlanta. He heads to Harrisburg with a 5.52 ERA after showing strong stuff with 9.8 K/9 and a fastball that routinely hit 95mph, but five walks tanked his final two outings and the Nats ultimately went on to lose all three games that he started.
The Nationals will not need a fifth starter until July 17th, MASN’s Mark Zuckerman tweets, so the Nats have some time before they need to decide whether Voth will reclaim the role. Erick Fedde had occupied the spot before Voth, while Jeremy Hellickson remains out for the foreseeable future after being moved to the 60-day IL with right shoulder stiffness. Both Fedde and Voth pitched well enough at times to earn consideration for further evaluation, though Voth’s peripherals and fairly substantive year-over-year jump in velocity (from 91.3 mph to 93 mph) may signal a more compelling arsenal.
Still, neither outright staked their claim to the job, and with the Nationals back in the heat of a playoff race, they could look elsewhere to find a more established fifth option for their already-stacked rotation.
NL Injury Notes: Rendon, Dodgers, Pirates
Checking in on the latest notable injury news from the National League…
- Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon finally earned his first All-Star nod this season, but the 29-year-old is going to miss the game, as Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com was among those to tweet. Rendon will instead rest his ailing hamstring and quad, two areas that have nagged him since the Nationals’ series against the Reds from May 31 to June 2. Despite having to play through pain over the past month-plus, Rendon’s performance has remained stellar for the surging Nats. He’s hitting .304/.389/.615 (152 wRC+) with 20 home runs through 316 plate appearances.
- The Dodgers offered updates on a slew of injured players today, with Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register among those covering the news (all links to Twitter). Backstop Will Smith and righty Tony Gonsolin, present depth pieces with bright long-term outlooks, are each headed to the injured list. The former has a strained right oblique and will be placed on the MLB IL, having not played since being sent down. The latter is dealing with a left hamstring issue and will go on ice for a stretch to avoid any complications. Meanwhile, the club is awaiting the returns of infielders David Freese and Corey Seager. The former is just waiting for his hamstring to heal up; he’ll seemingly remain out through the All-Star break. The latter is also not a candidate for activation before the mid-summer festivities but could rejoin the club immediately thereafter.
- Pirates southpaw Steven Brault exited his start against the Brewers on Friday with an ominous-sounding issue – left shoulder discomfort – per Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. The severity of Brault’s injury isn’t known yet, but he’s not feeling great at the moment, Will Graves of The Associated Press tweets. Should Brault require a stint on the IL, he’d become the fifth notable Pittsburgh starter to go on the shelf this season. Jameson Taillon, Chris Archer, Trevor Williams and Jordan Lyles have all missed various amounts of time. The onslaught of starter injuries is a key reason the Pirates have turned to the swingman Brault, who has done a decent job over 60 2/3 innings. Across 15 appearances and nine starts, he owns a 4.15 ERA/4.53 FIP with 7.86 K/9, though he has walked a hefty 4.75 per nine.
Mike Rizzo On Nats’ Extension Talks With Anthony Rendon
It’s rather uncommon to see significant, mid-season extensions. And it emerged recently that the Nationals have not made recent headway in their efforts to strike a deal with star third baseman Anthony Rendon. But that doesn’t mean Nationals president of baseball operations/GM Mike Rizzo is giving up hope of a deal that keeps the key veteran with the organization and off of the open market.
In an appearance on The Racing Presidents podcast, Rizzo made clear that the club is “not going to stop” trying to reach agreement until Rendon provides “a definitive decision” one way or another. There continues to be keen interest on both sides, Rizzo suggests, and he still believes “there’s a deal to be had.”
While the Nats’ top baseball decisionmaker understandably did not get into details, he did say that the team has “made very respectful, very market value offers.” Rendon’s true value in an extension scenario remains debatable. The recent deal between the Rockies and Nolan Arenado (seven years, $234MM) undoubtedly represents a key data point for both sides to consider. No doubt the Nats would also point Rendon’s agent, Scott Boras, to the much more modest deal he negotiated with the Red Sox for Xander Bogaerts. That these and other significant players elected to forego free agency is also a factor in projecting what Rendon might take down on the open market, where he’ll stand out as one of few premium players.
It’s obviously going to be harder now to convince Rendon not to test the open market. He has finally been tabbed for an All-Star game after an exceptional start to the year; no doubt his prominence will rise yet further as less attentive observers realize that the game’s quietest star is nearing free agency.
“It all comes down to what makes it work and what entices him to sign with the Nationals and not go through the free agent process,” said Rizzo. “And it’s gotta make sense for us also.”
Whether the sides can arrive at a number that suits both remains to be seen. But it doesn’t seem the Nationals have wavered in their desire to add another big salary to the books. The club has been on a tear of late, bouncing back from a messy start to climb back to within six games of the division pace. And the team’s core — Rendon aside — remains under contract for the foreseeable future.
By all indications, Rizzo is preparing to act as a buyer this summer. But if the club again ends up in a bit of a gray area, he won’t have as much flexibility to change course in August. Asked about how the new trade deadline rules will impact the market, Rizzo says he expects it will “keep[] more teams in the mix” and produce “more activity before the [July] 31st deadline.” Though he says it won’t much impact the Nats — “when we see opportunities we usually jump on them and take them” — Rizzo does note that the changed rules only “give you one bite at the apple.”
Nationals, Anthony Rendon Not Progressing Toward Extension
The underrating of Nationals third baseman Anthony Rendon has finally subsided a bit in 2019. The 29-year-old, owner of a 29.1 fWAR since his 2013 debut, finally made his first All-Star Game this season. All he had to do was hit .311/.398/.630 (158 wRC+) with 19 home runs in 299 plate appearances to earn a spot on this year’s National League roster.
Lack of All-Star nods aside, teams recognize the value of Rendon, who’s not far from reeling in a nine-figure contract. Aside from Astros right-hander Gerrit Cole, Rendon is hands down the majors’ preeminent player scheduled to reach the open market this winter. The Nationals would like to prevent Rendon from ever shopping his services around the game, of course, but it’s up in the air whether they’ll be able to stop the Scott Boras client. While both sides have expressed interest in continuing their partnership past this season, no agreement has materialized yet.
Now, four months before free agency, “there has been little to no progress” toward a long-term contract, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post reports. Asked about negotiations, Rendon told Dougherty they’re “out of my hands,” though he did suggest he’s still amenable to staying in D.C.
Back when the Nationals and Boras were discussing a Rendon deal a few months ago, the player’s camp used Astros second baseman Jose Altuve‘s pact as a starting point, according to Dougherty. Altuve signed a a five-year, $151MM extension going into 2018, when he was a soon-to-be 28-year-old coming off an AL MVP- and World Series-winning season. He was also a five-time All-Star then. The Nationals didn’t place a similar value on the less decorated Rendon, per Dougherty. Unsurprisingly, as Dougherty notes, the seven-year, $234MM guarantee the Rockies gave their own standout third baseman, Nolan Arenado, entering this season didn’t do anything to bridge the gap between the Nationals and Rendon. However, should the two sides resume talks in earnest, Dougherty suggests Rendon’s side would likely push for an Arenado-esque deal.
Barring a massive change in course over the next few months, Rendon seems almost certain to become a free agent after the season. In the process, he’d likely follow in Bryce Harper‘s footsteps as the second Nats superstar to leave in as many winters. The Nationals, even though they were treading water last summer, decided against parting with Harper before either of the summer trade deadlines. They ended up losing the bidding for Harper to the Phillies in the offseason and only getting a draft pick after the fourth round as compensation for the qualifying offer recipient.
As was the case a summer ago, the Nationals are hanging around the .500 mark as they decide how to proceeded with a key free agent. The club has surged since a nightmarish start, putting it at 42-41 and just a game and a half out of a playoff spot. Assuming the Nationals stay on this path, it’s hard to envision them selling Rendon for a package of young talent this summer. If Rendon does leave Washington in the coming months, it seems likely to occur in free agency, when the team could land better compensation for the eventual QO recipient’s departure than it did Harper’s. Should the Nationals stay under the $206MM luxury tax threshold through this season – which they’ve done by a couple million dollars to this point – they’ll get a pick after Competitive Balance Round B for Rendon’s exit.
Tigers Sign Trevor Rosenthal
The Tigers agreed to terms with Trevor Rosenthal today on a Minor League deal, per the team’s PR department (via Twitter). Rosenthal has been assigned to Triple-A.
This move has been expected for a couple of days now, but Rosenthal is officially on his way to Toledo to join the Mud Hens. Adding Rosenthal is a nice no-risk move for the Tigers, who are going nowhere fast this season and therefore have a longer leash to give Rosenthal.
He still has electric stuff, but in his first game action since missing all of 2018, the former Cardinals closer has shown a complete inability to direct his high-90s heater. The inefficiency of his performance in Washington – to be kind – has been well-documented, but it’s still staggering to see: -1.0 rWAR in 6 1/3 innings, 22.74 ERA (10.13 FIP), 21.3 BB/9, 0.33 BB/K, and of course, he did not record an out until his 5th appearance of the season. Rosenthal carries a disproportionately large share of the Nationals bullpen struggles, as even their recent bullpen blowup against the Braves – pegged as a ‘here-we-go-again’ moment in DC – can be laid at Rosenthal’s feet (Joe Ross burdens a smidgen of the blame as well).
Despite this unimaginably bad start, he will have some time to get himself back on track out of the national spotlight. Given that the Nationals are on the hook for all but the minimum, the Tigers really have nothing to lose by giving Rosenthal more reps in the minors. Again, he’s still averaging 98 mph on his fastball, and if Rosenthal can to snap back to form, his live arm still plays as a late-in-games weapon.
Nationals Option Michael A. Taylor, Activate Ryan Zimmerman
1:55pm: The Nationals have announced the moves.
12:06pm: The Nationals will activate Ryan Zimmerman from the injured list today and open a spot on the active roster by optioning outfielder Michael A. Taylor to Double-A Harrisburg, Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com reports.
Taylor, 28, has been a fixture on the Nationals’ roster since 2017, when he hit .271/.320/.486 with 19 homers, 23 doubles, three triples and 17 steals in 432 plate appearances. He’d entered that season projected to be a fourth outfielder but wound up logging significant outfield innings when Adam Eaton went down with an ACL tear in April. His followup campaign in 2018, however, saw Taylor bat just .227/.287/.357 in 385 trips to the plate. He did manage a career-best 24 steals in 30 attempts last year.
Despite Bryce Harper‘s departure in free agency, a regular spot in the outfield for Taylor hasn’t opened up. Washington has seen vaunted prospects Juan Soto and Victor Robles emerge as productive big leaguers over the past two seasons, and the veteran Eaton is still under contract and controlled through the 2021 season via a pair of club options. Taylor was already in line for a reserve role due to the presence of that trio, but he’s seen his playing time reduced even further by the team’s signing of Gerardo Parra.
The option is of note on many levels for Taylor, who agreed to a $3.25MM salary this offseason in arbitration. He entered 2019 with four years and 10 days of Major League service time, meaning he needed another 162 days at the MLB level to cross the five-year threshold in service time and remain on track for free agency following the 2020 season. Presently, he’s only accrued 91 days of service, so he still needs another 71 days in the Majors to reach that level. There are only 95 days between now and the end of the season, and Taylor will need to stay down for a minimum of 10 days unless he returns in place of an injured player. That creates a real possibility that this optional assignment could push back his free agency by a year. The move will also burn his final minor league option.
Even with his struggles at the plate over the past two seasons, Taylor seems likely to be tendered a contract in the offseason. He’s a well-regarded defensive outfielder who can handle all three spots and offers some of the best speed in the game. His forthcoming arbitration raise won’t be especially large, either, and his excellent 2017 season is not yet that far in the rear-view mirror. As such, the potential delay of his free agency is all the more noteworthy. Taylor has also been a speculative trade asset in the past, and this demotion could prompt some outfield-needy clubs to inquire about his availability (if they haven’t already).
As for Zimmerman, he’ll step back into a lineup that has seen Matt Adams enjoy a recent homer binge while Howie Kendrick has hit well all season long in part-time duty at first base. Brian Dozier has heated up recently as well, further crowding the mix on the right side of the infield. Zimmerman wasn’t hitting well when he was placed on the injured list due to plantar fasciitis in late April, but he was quite productive in 2017-18, so he should give manager Dave Martinez another solid bat to add to the mix.
Nationals Notes: Deadline, Scherzer, Zimmerman
The resurgent Nationals have won eight of their past 10 games and reached the .500 mark at 40-40. The Nats’ season looked to be completely unraveling in May, but they’re now within seven games of the division lead and just two and a half games back in the Wild Card chase. While the team’s recent play is encouraging, general manager Mike Rizzo isn’t making any proclamations about his team’s approach to the July 31 trade deadline. “We’ve got time to continue to evaluate before we have to make a decision, before the trade deadline, and we’ll do so,” Rizzo tells Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com. “…We’re going to see what the needs of the team are. We’re going to see where we’re at, what opportunities we have to make any kind of changes. This is our time to evaluate.” Rizzo also discusses the team’s bullpen, addressing the unsuccessful Trevor Rosenthal signing as well as the recent pickups of Fernando Rodney and Jonny Venters. The ‘pen would clearly be a primary area of focus for Washington if the team does indeed operate as a buyer next month, though it sounds as if they’ll take some time before setting a course.
More from D.C….
- The Athletic’s Brittany Ghiroli takes a look at the logic behind the Nats buying and behind them turning into sellers next month (subscription required). Notably, she writes that even the Nats do sell there “remains almost no chance” that Max Scherzer would be traded. Scherzer would surely be in high demand, sizable contract notwithstanding, given his continued dominance at the front of the Nats’ rotation, but he’s also under control for another two seasons. The Nats will find themselves in a tough spot if they continue to hover around this mark; as Ghiroli points out, the team’s rotation and starting lineup are excellent, but the glaring lack of depth behind its stars would make an injury or two to a key player even more detrimental than it would to many other teams.
- Ryan Zimmerman is making good progress on a Double-A rehab assignment and could rejoin the Nationals as soon as this weekend, writes Christina De Nicola of MLB.com. Zimmerman, 34, has appeared in five games with Harrisburg and has played a full nine innings at first base on multiple occasions. He’s been limited to just 22 big league games this season thanks to a bout of plantar fasciitis, but his return would add another solid bat to the Washington lineup. Zimmerman didn’t hit much when on the active roster earlier this season, but he slashed .264/.337/.486 in 323 plate appearances last year and hit a combined .289/.350/.542 in 2017-18. The Nats have received strong production from Howie Kendrick and the red-hot Matt Adams of late, so Zimmerman may not step back into a full workload right away.
Alex Meyer Retires
Right-hander Alex Meyer has announced his retirement via Instagram, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reports.
“After multiple surgeries and countless hours of rehab, the end of the road for my baseball career has come,” said the 29-year-old.
As Meyer noted, injuries were a problem throughout his career, which began in 2011 when the Nationals chose the ex-Kentucky Wildcat 23rd overall. The 6-foot-9 Meyer’s union with the Nationals came together three years after he declined to sign with the Red Sox for $2.2MM as a 20th-rounder in 2008.
Meyer lasted with the Nationals through the 2012 season, after which they traded him to the Twins for outfielder Denard Span. While the hard-throwing Meyer eventually blossomed into one of baseball’s top 50 prospects with Minnesota, he dealt with shoulder issues as a member of the organization and made minimal impact in the majors. Meyer totaled 6 1/3 innings as a Twin from 2015-16, and the team traded him to the Angels in an August 2016 deal that delivered Hector Santiago to Minnesota.
Meyer ultimately garnered almost all of his major league experience as an Angel, with whom he pitched to a 3.94 ERA/4.09 FIP and posted 10.01 K/9 against 5.56 BB/9 across 89 innings and 18 starts from 2016-17. Meyer then underwent surgery on a torn shoulder labrum in September 2017 and never made it back to the majors, though the Angels did re-sign him to a minor league contract last December.
Although Meyer’s time in pro baseball didn’t go the way he wanted, he still ended on a high note. In the final appearance of his career July 19, 2017, Meyer tossed seven innings of shutout, one-hit ball with seven strikeouts against one walk in a 7-0 win over his first team, the Nationals.
Nationals Select Jonny Venters
3:25pm: To make room for Venters and Rodney, the Nationals moved injured right-hander Jeremy Hellickson to the 60-day IL and optioned fellow righty Kyle McGowin to Triple-A Fresno.
11:30am: The Nationals will select the contract of left-hander Jonny Venters prior to tonight’s game against the Marlins, reports Grant Paulsen of NBC Sport Washington (via Twitter). He’ll join fellow veteran Fernando Rodney in a constantly changing Nats bullpen mix; the Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty reported yesterday that Rodney is also set to have his contract selected. Both promotions will require corresponding 40-man and 25-man roster moves.
Venters, 34, was the National League Comeback Player of the Year in 2018 after he returned from three Tommy John surgeries and a five-year MLB absence in 2018 to give the Braves 34 1/3 innings of 3.67 ERA ball. Along the way, the southpaw averaged 7.1 K/9, 4.2 BB/9 and 0.26 HR/9 to go along with a superlative 69.1 percent ground-ball rate while holding left-handed opponents to a laughable .133/.200/.200 batting line.
The Braves naturally tendered a contract to Venters following that performance, but the 2019 season was nothing short of a nightmare. Venters appeared in just nine games with the Braves, pitching a total of 4 2/3 innings but surrendering nine earned runs (plus another four unearned runs). He faced 31 batters and allowed more to reach than he retired (nine hits, eight walks) before being released in May.
Since signing with the Nats on May 29, Venters has been pitching for the team’s Double-A club. While he’s allowed just one run in seven innings, the control problems that dogged him in Atlanta earlier this season have persisted. Venters has issued six walks in seven innings and also hit a batter. He’s generated grounders at a ridiculous 72.7 percent clip in that tiny sample, and lefties are hitting just .194 against him with a .323 slugging percentage between the Majors and Minors in 2019. However, he’s also walked 11 of the 43 lefties he’s faced (against 10 strikeouts), so he’ll need to quickly rediscover some semblance of control if he’s to have much hope of sticking in the Washington ‘pen.
As has been well documented, the Nationals’ bullpen has been an unmitigated disaster so far in 2019, although they no longer lay claim to the league’s worst collective ERA, having narrowly squeaked ahead of Baltimore for that onerous distinction (6.29 to 6.34). Nationals relievers have the game’s fifth-worst collective FIP and second-worst xFIP, and they rank in the bottom third of MLB in BB/9 and HR/9 as well.
Nationals To Select Fernando Rodney On Tuesday
The Nationals will add right-handed reliever Fernando Rodney to their roster before Tuesday’s game against the Marlins, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post reports. Rodney’s not on the Nationals’ 40-man roster, though they do have an opening after releasing fellow reliever Trevor Rosenthal on Sunday.
Rodney’s addition will be Washington’s latest attempt to repair what has been a horrible bullpen in 2019. The Rosenthal signing didn’t work, leading the team to jettison him, nor has picking up Kyle Barraclough over the winter. Barraclough has been on the IL since June 16 with a forearm issue.
Including Rosenthal and Barraclough, the Nationals have shuffled threw 17 relievers this year. The group has combined for an unsightly 6.29 ERA, which helps explain the Nationals’ 37-40 record. It’s anyone’s guess whether Rodney will be able to help the team’s cause, though there’s little risk in trying from its perspective. Washington brought in the 42-year-old on a minor league contract three weeks ago. He then allowed five runs (four earned) with 11 strikeouts and nine walks in eight innings with the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate in Fresno.
Rodney has been a solid major league reliever for most of his career, though the journeyman began so poorly this season that the low-budget Athletics paid him to go away. Oakland had to pay $3.53MM to part with Rodney, who logged a 9.42 ERA/5.55 FIP with 8.79 K/9 and 7.53 BB/9 in 14 1/3 innings. Rodney’s just a year removed from recording a 3.36 ERA/4.03 FIP with 9.79 K/9, 4.48 BB/9 and a 44.4 percent groundball rate in 64 1/3 frames, though. The Nationals, who haven’t found capable bridges to closer Sean Doolittle this year, would sign up for that type of production.