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Quick Hits: Orioles, Nationals, Steer

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Orioles general manager Mike Elias told Jim Bowden of MLB Network Radio on Sunday that he expects top pitching prospect Grayson Rodriguez to crack the team’s Opening Day rotation out of camp this spring and that he also believes top outfield prospect Colton Cowser will be ready to make his MLB debut at some point in 2023.

Rodriguez was striding confidently toward Baltimore last summer before he suffered Grade 2 right lat strain while working in a game at Triple-A Norfolk in early June. He didn’t return to action in the minors until September, and by the time he got properly stretched out again, the O’s chances of a late-season push to the playoffs had fully cratered. The 23-year-old ultimately finished with a 2.62 ERA, 109 strikeouts and 28 walks in 75 2/3 innings (17 starts) between High-A Aberdeen, Double-A Bowie and Norfolk. He’s recorded a career 2.47 ERA with 419 strikeouts in 292 total professional frames since the Orioles selected him 11th overall in the 2018 MLB Draft, but the lineups and environments of the AL East obviously present a far greater test than what he’s seen on the farm.

Cowser, the No. 5 overall pick from the 2021 MLB Draft, also reached the Triple-A level in 2022 and produced an overall .278/.406/.469 batting line with 19 home runs and 18 stolen bases in his 138 minor league games. The 22-year-old has experience at all three outfield spots and boasts an .895 OPS so far as a pro. If there’s an injury to Austin Hays, Cedric Mullins or Anthony Santander, the ETA on Cowser could further shrink.

A brighter future is rapidly coming into focus at Camden Yards.

  • Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo spoke glowingly of the organization’s young players and rising prospects at the club’s Hot Stove event for full-season-ticket holders this weekend, as relayed by Stephen Mears of TalkNats.com. CJ Abrams, Luis Garcia, Keibert Ruiz, Cade Cavalli, MacKenzie Gore and Josiah Gray all earned a specific mention. “This is the most lush and successful prospect list that we’ve ever had,” Rizzo said. “It’s the most talented players we’ve ever had in the farm system at one time.” The big buzz is that Cavalli could be positioned to join Gore and Gray in Washington’s season-opening starting rotation with Stephen Strasburg’s health still a lingering uncertainty.
  • Spencer Steer acknowledged at a Reds Caravan event over the weekend that he has his sights set on the everyday third base job in Cincinnati this season. “I’m going to do everything I can to win that spot,” he told MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon. “I think it’s doable and attainable. That will be my focus: getting into that lineup and staying in that lineup.” Acquired from the Twins at the trade deadline last August in the return package for Tyler Mahle, the 25-year-old Steer went on to bat .211/.306/.326 across his first 28 big league games. He was slashing .274/.364/.515 in the minors prior to his promotion to the Reds’ roster.

Red Sox Designate Franklin German For Assignment

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The Red Sox have officially announced their trade that sends right-hander Matt Barnes to the Marlins and sees lefty Richard Bleier come to Boston. To make room on the roster for Bleier, right-hander Franklin German was designated for assignment. Barnes was already off the roster since he was designated for assignment last week.

German, 25, was a Yankee farmhand that came to the Sox in the Adam Ottavino trade in 2021. He had primarily been a starter in the minors but he was used exclusively in relief in 2022. The move seemed to suit him well, as he posted a 2.72 ERA over 49 2/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. His 9.6% walk rate was a tad high but he paired that with a 32.5% strikeout rate. That showing was impressive enough to get him to the majors, though he was lit up for eight earned runs in his first four innings.

The Red Sox will now have a week to trade German or pass him through waivers. Though his first taste of the majors didn’t go well in terms of results, he did average 97.7 mph on his fastball. He could intrigue other clubs with his youth, excellent performance in the minors last year and full slate of options. He has just a few days of MLB service time thus far and can be affordably retained for the foreseeable future.

Red Sox, Marlins Swap Matt Barnes For Richard Bleier

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4:05pm: Both teams have now announced the trade.

1:16pm: The Red Sox are trading right-handed reliever Matt Barnes to the Marlins, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Left-handed reliever Richard Bleier is headed to Boston in return, according to Craig Mish of SportsGrid.

Miami will also receive cash considerations on top of this player-for-player swap, per Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald. Mish has that sum at about $1MM, to offset a portion of the $7.5MM salary that Barnes is owed in 2023 and the $2.5MM buyout on his $8MM club option for 2024. Bleier is due $3.5MM this season and carries a $3.75MM club option (or $250K buyout) for 2024. Assuming this is the final iteration of the deal, Miami is taking on a bit more than $5MM in payroll and parting with the veteran Bleier in an to attempt to get Barnes back on track in 2023.

Barnes, 32, was designated for assignment by the Red Sox last week following the completion of a one-year, $7MM agreement with outfielder Adam Duvall. He served as Boston’s primary closer in 2021, earning a team-leading 24 saves. The 2021 campaign, however, was something of a tale of two seasons for Barnes. He dominated to the tune of a 2.25 ERA and a 42% strikeout rate through Aug. 4. Barnes was impressive enough that the Sox inked him to a two-year, $18.75MM extension in early July.

Over the final two months of the 2022 season, however, Barnes not only struggled but melted down in catastrophic fashion. He pitched just 10 2/3 innings from Aug. 5 onward, yielding a dozen runs on 17 hits and nine walks with 16 strikeouts along the way. It was a calamitous end to a what had begun as one of the best seasons among all Major League relievers.

Barnes hoped to right the ship in 2022 but promptly lost the closer’s job early in the year when he stumbled to a 7.94 ERA through the end of May.  The right-hander was always going to be much lower among the team’s high-leverage considerations in 2023, following the December additions of Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin — a pair of moves that was in large part necessitated by Barnes’ struggles.

Nonetheless, it’s worth pointing out that Barnes finished on a high note that likely intrigued Miami and other clubs. He was on the injured list from early June through early August due to shoulder inflammation, and upon returning, he looked much more like the Barnes of old. Beginning on Aug. 4 — the same point at which he began to struggle a year prior — Barnes pitched 22 2/3 innings of 1.59 ERA ball and picked up four saves. His 21.1% strikeout rate was half that of his dominant 2021 form, but it was still an encouraging note on which to end the season.

Barnes might eventually get a fresh chance to carve out some save opportunities in Miami, though Dylan Floro is the current projected frontrunner for that gig. Floro worked to a 3.02 ERA across 53 2/3 innings with the Marlins in 2022, and he has successfully converted 25 save attempts over the last two years. Barnes tallied only eight saves in 2022 and finished with a 4.31 ERA in 39 2/3 frames. He’ll add quite a bit more bat-missing potential to a team that ranked 13th among MLB clubs with a 24% strikeout rate from its relief corps in 2022, though the downside is obvious.

Bleier, meanwhile, can fill the Sox’s need for left-handed bullpen help, even as he enters his age-36 season. The veteran southpaw has registered a 3.09 ERA in 125 1/3 innings since the beginning of 2020, and he’s held left-handed batters to a .225/.260/.313 slash line since he first reached the major leagues with the Yankees in 2016. Boston traded lefty Josh Taylor to the Royals in exchange for Adalberto Mondesi, sent veteran Jake Diekman (signed through 2023) to the White Sox at last year’s trade deadline and lost Darwinzon Hernandez to the Orioles via waivers earlier this offseason — all of which had thinned out the team’s left-handed depth in the ’pen.

They’ll get some quality left-handed innings out of Bleier, although despite his strong track record there are some red flags of note. The soft-tossing southpaw has never missed many bats, but last year’s 14.4% strikeout rate was his lowest since 2019. Bleier has, in the past, offset his lack of whiffs with enormous ground-ball rates. However, while last year’s 52.5% mark was strong relative to the league-average, it was nowhere close to the 63.5% career mark he carried into the 2022 season. Bleier has also regularly avoided hard contact, but last year’s 89.6 mph exit velocity and 40.8% hard-hit rate were both his worst showings since the aforementioned 2016 debut.

The Sox will shed more than $5MM in payroll with the swap and will also see their luxury-tax ledger reduced by about $4.625MM, as they’ll shed Barnes’ $9.375MM hit and be on the hook for the remaining AAV on Barnes’ deal ($3.75MM) plus the $1MM they’re sending to Miami in the swap. The trade will give them a middle reliever with a solid overall track record and some particularly encouraging numbers against fellow lefties — even if Bleier comes with some potential areas of concern. That he can be controlled through 2024 via that affordable $3.75MM option is icing on the cake.

As for the Marlins, they’ll add more late-inning upside to their bullpen with this swap. The added luxury-tax implications are a nonfactor for a Marlins club that’s nowhere near — and has never come anywhere close — to the luxury-tax line. Fans may bristle at shipping out the reliever with better surface-level numbers for what amounts to a Barnes reclamation project, but the Fish are willing to gamble on the younger, harder-throwing Barnes in hopes of unlocking a high-leverage reliever who can be controlled affordably through the 2024 season via that $8MM option. And, if Barnes is indeed able to round back into form, he’ll give Miami an interesting arm to put on the market this summer if they’re decisively out of postseason contention.

Read The Transcript Of Our Chat Hosted By Former MLB Pitcher Collin Balester

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Righty Collin Balester was part of the last-ever Montreal Expos draft in 2004, as the club took him in the fourth round out of Huntington Beach High School.  Though he came from a surfing family, according to Baseball America, Balester moved quickly through the lower minors.  By 2007, he was considered the Nationals’ best prospect and a future number one or two starter.

During the summer of ’08, Balester was deemed ready to join the rotation of the tanking Nationals club.  He made a career-high 15 starts as a 22-year-old rookie, putting up three quality starts in the process.

Balester eventually moved into a relief role for the Nats, but was traded to the Tigers in December 2011.  His career also included stops in the Rangers, Pirates, Reds, and Giants organizations, as well as a stint with KBO’s Samsung Lions.  Along the way, Balester underwent Tommy John surgery in June 2013, battling to get back to the Majors with the Reds in after a gap of more than three years.

Ultimately, Collin topped 200 total innings in the Majors in parts of six different seasons.  Along the way he managed to strike out Ken Griffey Jr., Buster Posey, Freddie Freeman, and Chipper Jones, among many others.  Now 36, Collin owns a juice shop with his wife called Local Roots, and also does logistics for an expedited shipping truck company.  Give him a follow @Ballystar99 on Twitter.

Collin took questions from MLBTR readers today, covering a wide range of topics including being traded, pitching in Korea, being on the 2012 Tigers, and his juice and smoothie recommendations.  Click here to read the transcript!

If you’re a current or former MLB player, we’d love to host you for a future chat!  It only takes one hour, and you get to choose which questions to publish and answer.  Contact us here!

Giants Sign Joe Ross To Minor League Deal

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The Giants announced that they have signed right-hander Joe Ross to a minor league deal, with Maria I. Guardado of MLB.com among those who relayed the news on Twitter.  Ross has received an invitation to major league Spring Training, though he underwent a second career Tommy John surgery in June of last year and isn’t likely to be ready until midseason at the earliest.

Ross, 30 in May, was a first round draft pick of the Padres in 2011 and once considered one of the top pitching prospects in the league. He was traded to the Nationals alongside Trea Turner in the three-team, 11-player deal that also sent Wil Myers to the Padres and Steven Souza Jr. to the Rays. Over 2015 and 2016, he made 32 starts and three relief appearances, posting a 3.52 ERA over 181 2/3 innings. He made another 13 starts in 2017 before he required Tommy John for the first time, wiping out the remainder of that season and most of 2018 as well.

He stayed healthy in 2019 but didn’t quite get his results all the way back. He had a 5.48 ERA that year, splitting his time between the rotation, the bullpen and making eight starts in Triple-A. He sat out the 2020 campaign due to COVID-19 concerns but returned in 2021. He was quite solid that year, tossing 108 innings with a 4.17 ERA, 23.7% strikeout rate, 7.4% walk rate and 43.2% ground ball rate. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow in August. He tried to rehabilitate the injury via non-surgical means but ultimately had to go under the knife again last summer.

For the Giants, they’re taking a no-risk flier on Ross, hoping that he can perhaps get back into game shape by the later stages of the season. They have six solid rotation options right now, with Logan Webb, Sean Manaea, Alex Cobb, Ross Stripling, Alex Wood and Anthony DeSclafani all in place, as well as long reliever Jakob Junis and depth options such as Tristan Beck, Thomas Szapucki and Sean Hjelle. That’s a fairly crowded mix right now but injuries will inevitably pop up as the season progresses.

For Ross, he’ll get to make use of the club’s facilities and could wind up pitching near his old stomping grounds, as he was born in Berkeley and went to high school in Oakland. The Giants play in San Francisco, of course, and their Triple-A team plays in Sacramento. Despite being drafted over a decade ago, Ross still hasn’t hit his 30th birthday. If he can get into healthy form by the end of the year, he can return to the open market and look to set himself up for a stronger deal in 2024.

White Sox Claim A.J. Alexy From Twins

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The White Sox announced that they have claimed right-hander A.J. Alexy off waivers from the Twins. He had been designated for assignment by Minnesota last week when that club acquired Michael A. Taylor from the Royals.

Alexy, 25 in April, was with the Rangers for the past few years, coming from the Dodgers in the 2017 Yu Darvish trade, but has been moving around quite a bit on the waiver wire this winter. Texas designated him for assignment in December and he went to the Nationals on a waiver claim. The Nats also designated him for assignment a few weeks later and dealt him to the Twins for pitching prospect Cristian Jimenez. The Twins improved their pitching depth by acquiring Pablo López from the Marlins and seemingly felt less need to hang onto Alexy, sending him into DFA limbo last week.

The righty is likely continuing to attract clubs for a few reasons. For one thing, he still has an option year and can be kept in the minors. Starting pitching depth is a perpetual concern around the league and Alexy can be useful in that regard. He also had a really strong showing in 2021, posting a 1.66 ERA in the minors over 65 innings, striking out 29.8% of batters faced. He did walk 10.6% of opponents but still impressed enough to make his major league debut, putting up a 4.70 ERA in 23 innings there.

2022 was a rough year for Alexy, as his four MLB appearances resulted in an ERA of 11.57. He spent most of the year in Triple-A but posted a 5.91 ERA down there. However, he’s still quite young and, as mentioned, still has an option year. He also has just 55 days of MLB service time, meaning he can still be affordably retained for the foreseeable future.

For the White Sox, they will likely have Dylan Cease, Lucas Giolito, Lance Lynn and Michael Kopech taking up four spots in their rotation, but there’s uncertainty around who will be joining them. Mike Clevinger was signed to a one-year deal to fill out the squad but it was recently reported that he’s under investigation for domestic violence allegations. It’s unclear when that investigation will be completed, but it’s possible that Clevinger will be suspended at some point or perhaps placed on administrative leave while the investigation progresses. The club’s options on the 40-man roster to help out include Davis Martin, Jonathan Stiever and Jason Bilous, with Alexy now added into the mix. That latter group will presumably be competing in spring for either an immediate job in the rotation or one down the line as injuries inevitably pop up through the season.

Phillies Designate Sam Coonrod For Assignment

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The Phillies announced their signing of infielder Josh Harrison, making that deal official. To create room for him on the 40-man roster, right-hander Sam Coonrod has been designated for assignment.

Coonrod, 30, was a starting pitcher as a prospect in the Giants’ system when he lost most of his 2018 season to Tommy John surgery. Since then, he’s been working primarily as a reliever, with a blistering fastball but mixed results overall. With the Giants in 2019 and 2020, he made 51 appearances with a 5.74 ERA, 18.9% strikeout rate, 11.9% walk rate and 47.5% ground ball rate.

He was traded to the Phillies prior to the 2021 season and seemed to take a step forward that year. He tossed 42 1/3 innings for the Phils with a 4.04 ERA, striking out 25.9% of batters faced while walking just 8.1% and getting grounders at a 57.1% clip. He surely would have liked to build on that performance in 2022 but he was shut down in the spring due to a shoulder strain and wasn’t able to return to the club until mid-August. He made 12 appearances down the stretch but was torched for a 7.82 ERA in that small sample.

The Phillies will now have a week to trade Coonrod or pass him through waivers. Despite some inconsistency, it’s possible he would find interest from other clubs. His fastball has averaged 97-99 mph in the past few seasons, which he has occasionally used to good effect. He also still has one option year remaining, allowing a club to keep him in the minors as depth so long as they are willing to give him a 40-man roster spot.

Coonrod surpassed three years of service time last year and qualified for arbitration for the first time. He and the Phillies agreed to a salary of $775K for the upcoming season, just above the $720K league minimum. If he were to clear waivers, he would have the right to reject an outright assignment and elect free agency but might opt against it. Players with over three years of service time have that right but only players beyond the five-year mark can both reject an outright and retain their salary. If Coonrod were really motivated to try free agency, he’d have to be willing to leave that $775K on the table in order to do so.

Tigers Sign Jonathan Davis To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers today announced a batch of 22 non-roster players that received invitations to major league Spring Training. That group included plenty of players who had already been in the system, as well as those signed to previously-reported minor league deals. One name on the list that wasn’t already expected to be in camp was that of outfielder Jonathan Davis, indicating he’s been signed to a minor league deal.

Davis, 31 in May, has appeared in the past five major league seasons, but primarily as a reserve outfielder. He didn’t play more than 64 games in any of those campaigns and has appeared in 171 contests overall. He hasn’t been able to take advantage of those brief opportunities thus far, having hit .185/.291/.245 in 350 career plate appearances for a wRC+ of 54. He’s fared much better in the minor leagues, with a Triple-A slash line of .260/.366/.419 for a 113 wRC+, though he hasn’t been able to come close to that in the bigs. The Brewers outrighted him off their roster in September and he became a free agent at season’s end.

Despite that low offensive output, Davis will bring a solid floor thanks to his speed and defense. Statcast considered his sprint speed to be in the 70th percentile last year, which has helped him steal 18 bases in 21 career tries while also producing eight Outs Above Average in 858 2/3 outfield innings.

The Tigers don’t have much certainty in their outfield mix at present. Riley Greene should be getting everyday action in center field but is still very young and has just 93 games of major league experience. Austin Meadows spent much of last year on the injured list and only got into 36 games. Akil Baddoo followed up a breakout 2021 with a dismal 2022 where he hit just .204/.289/.269. Kerry Carpenter had a nice debut but in a small sample of just 31 games. Depth options on the 40-man include Matt Vierling and Tyler Nevin, neither of whom are fully established big leaguers at this point. Davis will serve as a veteran option for a club that was decimated by injuries last year and surely would like to have plenty of depth on hand. If he makes his way back onto the roster, he’s out of options and can’t be easily sent back to the minors, but he could be retained for future seasons since he has between two and three years of MLB service time.

Darren O’Day Announces Retirement

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Right-hander Darren O’Day announced his retirement from baseball on his personal Twitter account on Monday morning.

“The mental, physical, and time demands have finally outweighed my love for the game,” wrote the 40-year-old submarine reliever. “When I started in 2006, I didn’t know if I was good enough to compete in MLB, but I was determined to keep going until someone told me otherwise. I hope anyone out there who does things a little different can find inspiration in my story.”

O’Day went undrafted after a solid NCAA tenure at the University of Florida, but he quickly latched on with the Angels and made his MLB debut with that organization in 2008. He wound up pitching for six total teams — Angels, Mets, Rangers, Orioles, Braves and Yankees — during his impressive 15-year major league career and will hang up his cleats having registered a collective 2.59 ERA with 637 strikeouts, 166 holds and 21 saves in 609 frames at baseball’s highest level. Baseball-Reference has his final career earnings wrapping up just shy of $50MM.

O’Day’s best year on the mound was 2015, when he earned his lone All-Star nod and delivered an overall 1.52 ERA and 82 strikeouts (with only 14 walks) in 65 1/3 innings for the O’s, who then signed him to a four-year, $31MM contract the following winter. The unconventional right-hander was obviously far more than just a one-hit-wonder given how long he lasted in the bigs and how many different clubs saw him as a fit for their respective bullpen mixes along the way. Between the 2009-2021 campaigns, he posted a 2.37 ERA in 586 appearances and collected 21 saves. He also logged 30 postseason appearances in that timeframe, including four in the World Series in 2010 with the Rangers.

O’Day signed a minor league contract with the Braves last winter and put up a 4.15 ERA and 26-to-10 K/BB ratio across 21 2/3 innings in the first half of the 2022 regular season. He suffered a calf injury just before the All-Star break and then a season-ending sprain of his right big toe in September. His last pitch as a major leaguer came on July 11 against the Mets.

MLBTR wishes O’Day well in the next chapter of his life.

Royals To Re-Sign Zack Greinke

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The Royals have reached agreement on a one-year contract to bring back veteran starter Zack Greinke, according to Bob Fescoe of 610 Sports Radio in Kansas City. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand hears that the deal will be worth $8-10MM in base salary, plus performance-based bonuses.

Greinke began his professional career with the Royals way back in 2002 as the No. 6 overall pick in that year’s MLB Draft. He made his big league debut in KC in 2004 and spent his first seven seasons there, highlighted by an AL Cy Young Award win in 2009. Following successful stints with the Brewers, Angels, Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Astros between 2011-2021, the eccentric right-hander returned to his old stomping grounds in 2022 and worked to a 3.68 ERA in 26 starts covering 137 innings.

His paltry 4.8 K/9 last year was a career-low and ranked as the worst K/9 of all 90 major league pitchers who logged at least 130 innings over the course of the 2022 regular season. But the 39-year-old showed terrific control (1.8 BB/9) and was generally able to induce more soft contact than hard contact to help pave over his diminished swing-and-miss stuff. Among the 585 total batters he faced during the 2022 campaign, Greinke surrendered only 14 home runs. That worked out to a 0.92 HR/9, putting him right around rising studs like Nestor Cortes, Logan Gilbert, Ranger Suarez and George Kirby.

Greinke can hopefully again serve as an innings-eater and clubhouse mentor for a Royals rotation that has undergone a few offseason changes but will still be relying on a lot of youth pushing forward. Brady Singer, 26, stands out as somebody who made significant gains in 2022, perhaps thanks in part to Greinke’s tutelage. Brad Keller, 27, and Daniel Lynch, 27, could use a similar type of molding.

Greinke figures to be named the Opening Day starter for the Royals in 2023, as he was last year. Singer and Keller project to fall in somewhere behind him, along with newcomers Jordan Lyles and Ryan Yarbrough. Kansas City finished 27th among all 30 teams in combined starter ERA (4.76) in 2022, despite Greinke’s contributions and Singer’s mini-breakout. KC’s combined starter K/9 of 6.9 ranked 28th.

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