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Nationals Close To Acquiring Alcides Escobar From Royals

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7:26PM: The Royals will receive cash considerations from the Nats in the trade, as per The Athletic’s Maria Torres (via Twitter).

6:41PM: The Nationals are in the process of completing a deal to land minor league shortstop Alcides Escobar from the Royals, reports Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (Twitter link). The 34-year-old Escobar has been with Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate and is not on the 40-man roster.

Escobar is most famous for his first run with the Royals. The slick-fielding shortstop was an everyday player and frequent leadoff hitter for Kansas City’s contending clubs of the last decade. His high batting averages were sometimes enough to offset his lack of power and perennially low walk rates, but the speedster’s production tailed off as he entered his 30’s. Escobar struggled offensively each season from 2015-18 and hasn’t appeared in the majors since.

He spent the entire 2019 season with the White Sox’s Triple-A affiliate, then signed with the Yakult Swallows of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball last year. Escobar returned to the United States in 2021, signing a minors deal with his old club in May. Through 133 plate appearances with Omaha, he’s hit at a passable .274/.311/.452 clip.

That was enough to catch the attention of the Nationals, who have been shorthanded in the infield in recent days. Star shortstop Trea Turner has been dealing with a finger issue. He remains day-to-day, although it’s not clear if the Escobar acquisition suggests he could be facing a stint on the injured list. Expected backup infielder Jordy Mercer just landed on the IL himself, leading the Nats to bring up another former Royal, Humberto Arteaga, from Triple-A this afternoon.

Nationals Select Humberto Arteaga

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The Nationals announced they’ve selected the contract of infielder Humberto Arteaga. He’ll get the nod at shortstop tonight against the Dodgers. Fellow infielder Jordy Mercer has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to July 1, with a right quad strain. To clear 40-man roster space, right-handed pitching prospect Steven Fuentes was placed on the 60-day IL due to a strain in his throwing shoulder.

Washington has been lacking infield depth in recent days. Star shortstop Trea Turner is still day-to-day after jamming his finger diving into third base on a triple on Wednesday, and Mercer has been unavailable with his leg issue. That forced Washington to start catcher Alex Avila at second base last night. While Avila held his own, that’s obviously not a scenario the Nationals wanted to rely on for multiple days.

Arteaga has 135 major league plate appearances to his name, all with the 2019 Royals. He hit just .197/.258/.230 in that brief look. He’s been better at the plate throughout his minor league career, but has struggled immensely with Triple-A Rochester this season. The right-handed hitter has a .288/.321/.379 career mark at the minors’ highest level, but he’s slumped to .227/.266/.280 in 79 trips to the dish with the Red Wings in 2021. He should, however, at least offer a capable defensive option on the dirt while the regulars recover.

Washington selected Fuentes to the 40-man last October. He has yet to make his major league debut, appearing in four games for Rochester this season. Entering the year, Baseball America named the 24-year-old the #20 prospect in the Nationals system, praising his low-mid 90s sinker and quality changeup.

East Notes: Turner, Familia, Nimmo, Sale, Moreno

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It was a banner day for Trea Turner, as the Nationals shortstop celebrated his 28th birthday and tied a Major League record with his third career cycle.  Turner joins Adrian Beltre, Babe Herman, Bob Meusel, and Long John Reilly as the only players since 1890 with three cycles on their resume, putting Turner in good position to claim sole possession of the record before his career is over.

Unfortunately, the achievement wasn’t without some pain for Turner, as he jammed his left middle finger while sliding into third base for the triple that completed the cycle.  Turner told reporters (including Mark Zuckerman of MASNsports.com) that his finger was “pretty sore,” and manager Davey Martinez said Turner is day-to-day for the time being.  Turner’s big day (which also included two stolen bases) only continues what has been a big season for the shortstop, who is now hitting .318/.367/.513 with 14 homers, 18 stolen bases, and an even 50 runs and 100 hits over 341 plate appearances.

Some more injury news from around the NL and AL East divisions…

  • Jeurys Familia is expected to be activated off the 10-day injured list this weekend, Mets manager Luis Rojas told reporters (including Mike Puma of the New York Post).  A right hip impingement sidelined Familia on June 21, so he’ll miss only slightly more than the 10-day minimum.  Despite an ungainly 14.3% walk rate, Familia has a solid 3.63 ERA/4.31 SIERA over 22 1/3 IP, with a 58.5% grounder rate and a lot of soft contact helping offset his lack of control.
  • Brandon Nimmo could also potentially be back on the Mets roster this weekend.  Nimmo hasn’t played since May 2 due to what was initially called a left index finger contusion, then re-diagnosed as a potential nerve problem, and then as a small ligament tear.  This confusion led to a couple of stops and starts in Nimmo’s rehab, and an initial thought that he would be activated off the IL yesterday was held off since the team wanted him to get a bit more prep work in the minors.  Given all the setbacks, it probably shouldn’t be considered a sure deal for Nimmo until he is actually back at Citi Field, but things look promising for the outfielder.
  • Chris Sale threw live batting practice today at Fenway Park, tossing two simulated innings and reaching the 94-95mph threshold with his fastball, Red Sox manager Alex Cora told The Boston Globe’s Julian McWilliams and other reporters.  Sale is slated for another live BP session at the team’s Spring Training facility this weekend, and a rehab assignment could be the next step for the left-hander.  Sale underwent Tommy John surgery in March 2020 and has been projected to return by late July or early August, so he certainly seems to be on track with that timetable.  The Red Sox are leading the AL East despite some struggles within the rotation, and those issues could be greatly mitigated by a Sale who is healthy and anywhere close to his past superstar form.
  • The Blue Jays’ injury woes have extended to the minors, as GM Ross Atkins said that star catching prospect Gabriel Moreno suffered a “minor fracture” of his thumb after being hit by a pitch.  Atkins told Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith and other reporters that Moreno will “most likely” miss several weeks, and surgery hasn’t been ruled out.  Moreno has a whopping .373/.441/.651 slash line and eight homers in 145 PA at Double-A New Hampshire this season, and Baseball America ranks the catcher 32nd on their top-100 prospect list.  While this injury certainly hampers Moreno’s trade value, his development had seemingly made him more of a cornerstone piece for the Jays than a potential trade chip as Toronto approaches the deadline.  Any of Danny Jansen, Alejandro Kirk, Reese McGuire, or Riley Adams could be more likely than Moreno to be dealt as the Jays look for upgrades on the trade market.

Cardinals Sign T.J. McFarland

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The Cardinals have signed left-hander T.J. McFarland to a split contract, The Washington Post’s Jesse Dougherty reports (Twitter link).  McFarland has spent the season pitching with the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate, but he was granted his release earlier today, as the southpaw “felt he had a better shot of being called up by the Cardinals than Washington,” Dougherty writes.

Given the Cards bullpen’s lackluster performance this year, McFarland is probably correct in that assumption, though he has a 5.25 ERA in 24 innings at Triple-A Rochester this season.  However, some bad luck (and three home runs allowed) lies behind that inflated ERA, as McFarland also has a 25.74% strikeout rate, 4.95% walk rate, and 63.6% grounder rate.

Should McFarland reach the Cardinals’ active roster, St. Louis will be the fourth different team of his career and 2021 would be the southpaw’s ninth MLB season.  The groundball specialist (McFarland has a 62.8% career grounder rate) has a 4.08 ERA over 401 career innings in the Show, including a 4.35 ERA over 20 2/3 frames with the Athletics in 2020.

Boras On Scherzer Trade Speculation

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June 28: In an interview with Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post, Boras struck a somewhat different tone: “When players are traded, and you refer to contract amendments, it does not necessarily mean an extension. It could be any amendment that gives him a reason to exercise his rights. That’s up to the player at the time. Max and I have never discussed the subject.”

Moreover, Boras noted that the Nationals’ recent surge in the standings renders any such trade speculation largely “moot,” as the team now increasingly looks like a potential deadline buyer (or, at least, one that won’t sell off major assets).

June 25: With a little more than a month to go before the July 30 trade deadline, some enterprising teams figure to reach out to the Nationals to gauge the availability of ace Max Scherzer. There are myriad roadblocks that stand in the way of a midseason deal, though. Among them: the full no-trade rights granted to players (like Scherzer) who have ten-plus years of MLB service, the past five with the same team. The star hurler’s agent, Scott Boras, suggested Scherzer wouldn’t waive those 10-and-5 rights to facilitate a midseason deal unless he and the acquiring team agreed on a contract extension.

“The reality of it is (a trade) is going to have to lead to something,” Boras told Gordon Wittenmyer of NBC Sports Chicago, clarifying that “something” would have to be an extension. Scherzer is entering the final season of his seven-year, $210MM free agent deal with the Nationals. That pact came with a series of deferrals, with Washington on the hook for successive $15MM payments through the end of 2028. Determining how much of the deferred money would fall on the Nationals versus any potential acquiring team would make a Scherzer trade something of an endeavor to begin with, and the player’s demand for an extension on top of that only further complicates matters.

Scherzer will turn 37 years old before deadline day. Teams are typically wary of investing in pitchers of that age, but he’s obviously no ordinary pitcher. Scherzer’s a three-time Cy Young award winner who looks as good as ever. Through 14 starts this year, he’s worked to a pristine 2.19 ERA/2.73 SIERA. Scherzer’s among the top ten qualifiers in both categories, as well as in strikeout rate (36.1%) and strikeout/walk rate differential (30.3 percentage points).

Justin Verlander, Scherzer’s former teammate, secured a two-year, $66MM extension from the Astros in March 2019. That deal didn’t go into effect until 2020, Verlander’s age-37 season. It came on the heels of a dominant 2018 effort that’s not all that dissimilar from Scherzer’s performance this year. Verlander’s deal was signed a full season in advance of free agency, though, not months-long into an elite platform campaign (although he would go on to post dominant results in 2019 after signing the extension).

With Scherzer halfway through another incredible season, he and Boras can justifiably set their sights higher than Verlander’s mark. Indeed, MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes recently ranked the superstar righty the game’s #10 impending free agent, suggesting he might command a three-year deal despite his age.

Any discussion about Scherzer waiving his 10-and-5 rights might only be academic, anyways. The Nationals have won nine of their last ten games to vault into second place in the National League East. At 36-36, Washington sits just three and a half games back of the division-leading Mets. The Nationals haven’t traditionally been a team that likes to trade away top players midseason, and their recent resurgence has them right in the thick of the playoff mix. Barring a dramatic drop-off over the next couple weeks, general manager Mike Rizzo and the rest of the front office look far more likely to add help to the big league roster rather than entertain offers on players like Scherzer.

Latest On Josh Bell

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TODAY: Bell is in the Nationals’ lineup today after getting good results from the MRI.  “He said he feels fine. We’ll monitor how the game goes with him today, but right now he looks good,” Martinez told MLB.com’s Jessica Camerato and other reporters.

JUNE 24: Josh Bell was a late scratch from the Nationals lineup tonight, and manager Davey Martinez told reporters (including Jesse Dougherty of The Washington Post) that the first baseman is feeling soreness in his right side.  Since Bell’s issue is in his oblique area, the Nats sat him for precautionary reasons, and Bell will undergo an MRI tomorrow.

Bell is the latest in a seemingly unending stream of players dealing with side muscle/oblique injuries this season, and he has dealt with a similar injury in the past.  A minor left oblique strain sent Bell to the 10-day injured list back in 2018, though only for a minimal stint.

Acquired from the Pirates in a trade on Christmas Eve, Bell didn’t officially begin his Nationals tenure until April 12, as he was one of several players sidelined by a COVID-19 outbreak on the Washington roster.  He then struggled to a .487 OPS over his first 91 plate appearances, though Bell proceeded to catch fire, hitting .298/.360/.544 with seven home runs over his past 125 PA.

While more will be known about Bell’s status after the MRI, it would obviously be a real setback for the surging Nats if Bell was lost to the injured list.  Veteran Ryan Zimmerman is the top candidate to play first base in Bell’s absence, though since Zimmerman has stated how he feels he can be more productive by not playing full time, the Nationals might prefer to keep Zimmerman as part of a platoon.  The left-handed hitting Gerardo Parra has first base experience, so a Parra/Zimmerman combo could hold the fort if Bell is sidelined, with Jordy Mercer also available for the odd bit of playing time.

Minor MLB Transactions: 6/24/21

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The latest minor league moves from around baseball…

  • The Nationals outrighted southpaw Ben Braymer off their 40-man roster and assigned him to Triple-A.  Braymer was designated for assignment over the weekend.  The left-hander has worked mostly as a starting pitcher (starting 59 of 82 games) over his six years in Washington’s organization, posting a 3.88 ERA in 366 2/3 overall innings but struggling to the tune of a 7.06 ERA in 88 frames at the Triple-A level.  In terms of Major League experience, Braymer tossed 7 1/3 innings for the Nats in 2020, posting a 1.23 ERA during in his brief stint in the Show.

Mike Rizzo, Clayton Kershaw Weigh In On Scherzer/Girardi Debacle

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We’re just days into the league’s on-the-fly implementation of testing pitchers for foreign substance usage, and the checks have predictably led to some bizarre scenes. A’s reliever Sergio Romo completely removing his belt and dropping his pants will elicit some laughs, but neither the Nationals nor the Phillies found much humor in the new rules yesterday when Philadelphia skipper Joe Girardi called for a check on Washington ace Max Scherzer with a runner on first base in the fourth inning (video link via MLB.com).

An incredulous Scherzer complied, but both he and Nats skipper Davey Martinez were visibly livid with Girardi after the umpiring crew gave us the jarring visual of running a hand through Scherzer’s hair before ultimately clearing him.

Scherzer, who’d already been checked after the first and third innings Tuesday, could visibly be seen yelling, “I’ve got sweat!” to Girardi as he ran his hand through his hair and returned to the mound. He escaped the inning unscathed, went on to complete five frames in his return from the IL and ultimately stared Girardi down as he walked off the field for the last time.

Further fireworks ensued. Girardi was tossed from the game after walking onto the field and challenging the opposing dugout. While some initially believed he was beckoning toward Scherzer, Jomboy astutely points out in a video breakdown that Nats hitting coach Kevin Long, who previously coached under Girardi in New York, was the clear target after lobbing some choice expletives toward his former skipper.

Girardi told reporters after the game that he had all the respect in the world for Scherzer’s career, calling him a future Hall of Famer. However, he also claimed (via Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia) that in more than a decade of watching the three-time Cy Young winner: “I’ve never seen him wipe his head like he was doing tonight. Ever.”

While Girardi insists that he wasn’t “playing games” to disrupt Scherzer’s rhythm on the mound, that defense isn’t flying with the Nationals. Washington general manager Mike Rizzo pulled no punches this morning when calling out Girardi during a weekly radio appearance.

“It’s embarrassing for Girardi,” Rizzo said on 106.7 The Fan (link with audio). “It’s embarrassing for the Phillies. Was he playing games? Of course he was. … He’s a con artist. He’s been doing that for years on TV. … I love Joe Girardi. I’ve seen him play since he was in high school in Peoria, Illinois — scouted him at Northwestern. I know him well. But I know him well.”

Rizzo is hardly the only one taking notice around the league. Fellow multi-time Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw, in his own postgame media session, went out of his way to express bewilderment toward Girardi despite not initially being asked about it (video link via SportsNet LA).

“I will say this,” Kershaw began. “You know how Girardi checked Scherzer, or called him out? I think there should be a punishment if they don’t catch anything on the guy. Scherzer is one of the best pitchers of our generation. To see him get checked … and mess up his rhythm, you better find something if you’re going to call him out like that. Maybe there should be a punishment if a manager checks a guy and there isn’t anything.”

Asked specifically whether managers could deliberately call for a check to disrupt a pitcher, Kershaw acknowledged it as a “good technique” for managers to use. He suggested that perhaps a failed substance check should lead to a team losing a replay challenge to prevent such gamesmanship.

“You get going in a rhythm, and maybe you have a guy on base, and they check you?” Kershaw continued. “It throws you off. It’s something that you’re not used to. … I think there should be some repercussions for managers just doing that on a whim like that, because if you call somebody out — anybody — but [especially] somebody of Max Scherzer’s caliber and you don’t find anything? I think that looks pretty bad on [Girardi’s] part.”

As for Scherzer himself, he expressed frustration regarding not only being called out by Girardi but by the situation in general. The repeated manner in which he ran his hand through his hair, he explained postgame, was in order to get some type of moisture to mix with the rosin he was using. (Pitchers are permitted to either lick their fingers or use sweat in conjunction with rosin under MLB’s current policy.)

“I got sick of licking my fingers and tasting rosin the whole night,” Scherzer explained postgame (video link via MLB.com). “I couldn’t even get sweat from the back of my head because it wasn’t a warm night. The only part that was sweaty on me was my hair, so I had to take off my hat to be able to try to get some moisture on my hand to mix with the rosin.”

Scherzer chuckled as he added that he’d be “an absolute fool” to use any kind of substance on a night when the focus on such usage would be at an all-time high. He further lamented the fact that in the at-bat prior to Girardi calling him out, he’d nearly hit Alec Bohm in the head with a 95 mph fastball that sailed out of his hand due to lack of grip — a common concern we’ve seen expressed both by pitchers and by position players.

Ultimately, Scherzer shifted the focus to commissioner Rob Manfred: “These are Manfred rules — go ask him what he wants to do with this. I’ve said enough.”

Given the ultra-competitive nature of managers and pitchers throughout the league, the stakes that will be on the line as the season progresses and the rather haphazard implementation of the new substance-check policy, it’s likely that Manfred will indeed need to address the issue in a public fashion sooner than later. The Scherzer/Girardi saga may have been the first dust-up but surely won’t be the last.

Nationals Activate Max Scherzer, Place Kyle Finnegan On Injured List

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The Nationals announced Tuesday that they’ve reinstated ace Max Scherzer from the injured list and, in a corresponding move, placed righty Kyle Finnegan on the 10-day IL with a strained left hamstring. Finnegan’s IL placement is retroactive to June 21.

Scherzer, 36, ultimately only required a minimal 10-day stay on the injured list after suffering a groin strain that forced him from his most recent outing. He’ll return to a surging Nationals club that has won seven of its past eight games. That hot streak has only shrunk what was a seven-game deficit in the division to five games, but the Nats’ next seven games will be against NL East opponents (two against the Phillies, four against Miami and one a makeup game against the Mets).

There’s been plenty of speculation that Scherzer will eventually wind up on the trade market, but the Nationals aren’t likely to make any such move unless they’re completely buried in the division. Scherzer, who also has full no-trade protection, has been nothing short of dominant so far in 2021. He’s made 13 starts and tallied 77 1/3 innings while recording a 2.21 ERA with a 36 percent strikeout rate against a 5.2 percent walk rate.

Scherzer will start tonight’s game against the second-place Phillies and hope to continue the Nationals’ recent climb back into the division race. That his stay on the IL proved minimal is of particular importance to the Nats, given Stephen Strasburg’s continued injury troubles in 2021. Lefty Patrick Corbin is also in the midst of a down year, although he’s notched a much-improved 3.97 ERA in 70 1/3 innings after shaking off a pair of disastrous outings to open the season. Fellow veteran Jon Lester and righties Erick Fedde and Joe Ross round out the Washington starting staff at the moment, but rotation help would be a possible focus area if GM Mike Rizzo and his staff look to upgrade on the trade market this summer.

Nationals Select Gerardo Parra, Designate Ben Braymer

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The Nationals have selected the contract of outfielder Gerardo Parra from Triple-A.  Parra will take the active roster spot of infielder Luis Garcia, who was optioned to Triple-A after last night’s game.  Left-hander Ben Braymer was designated for assignment to open up 40-man roster space.

After playing in Japan with the Yomiuri Giants in 2020, Parra made his return to Washington by signing a minor league deal with the Nats in the offseason.  The 34-year-old will now officially return to the big leagues and receive a salute from D.C. fans for his contributions to the Nationals’ 2019 World Series championship club.  After originally joining the Nats on a free agent deal in May 2019, Parra’s clubhouse leadership was praised as a key factor in the team’s midseason turnaround, and he quickly became a fan favorite for his choice of “Baby Shark” as his walk-up music.

In terms of on-field production, Parra hit .250/.300/.447 over 204 plate appearances for Washington in 2019, but it has been a while since he has provided even average offensive numbers.  Since the start of the 2016 season, Parra has hit .273/.315/.404 with 32 homers in 1150 PA for an 80 OPS+, and he batted a modest .267/.305/.384 for the Yomiuri Giants last season.  With Andrew Stevenson recovering from a strained oblique, however, the Nats were in need of outfield depth, so Parra got the call from the minors.

Braymer posted a 1.23 ERA in 7 1/3 innings for the Nationals last season, which represents the only MLB experience of his six-year professional career.  An 18th-round pick for Washington in the 2016 draft, Braymer posted some solid numbers as a starting pitcher until he hit Triple-A, as he has a 7.06 ERA over 88 innings at the top minor league level.  It wouldn’t be out of the question if another team claimed Braymer off waivers to see if they could get him back on track, or perhaps even just give him a look as a relief pitcher.

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