Mining the News (8/13/24)

American League

Angels

• Jo Adell simplified his swing by removing his leg kick.

So Adell made a major change at the plate against the Rockies on July 30, ditching his leg kick in an attempt to cut down on his strikeout rate and put the ball in play more often. It’s worked so far, as he’s hitting .286/.388/.476 with two homers, two doubles and seven RBIs in 12 games since. He looks much like he did early in the year and he’s struck out just nine times in 49 plate appearances over that stretch after having previously struck out in 29% of his plate appearances.
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“The no leg kick, at times it takes some getting used to, but my contact rate has gone through the roof,” Adell said. “I’ve been really able to make a lot more contact, and that’s something where it’s not always about the big fly. We’ve talked about this before, but being able to put the ball in play hard [going] forward should be my goal every time — and I think it’s given me a better chance to do that.”

Adell, 25, added that he doesn’t believe the change will have a negative impact on his power, and so far, the results have shown that. He hit a two-run homer on Friday into the bullpen in left-center field at Nationals Park that went a Statcast-projected 431 feet. And he has four extra-base hits since making the change.

• Even though he was just drafted, Christian Moore may get a cup of coffee this season.

“We’ll see, we’re going to take it day-to-day,” Angels GM Perry Minasian said on Aug. 1 when asked about moving Moore up quickly. “Hopefully he’ll get his feet wet. Similar to what we did with Nolan last year, get his feet wet, play some games, see how it goes.

“There’s no timeframe. It’s an individual that’s worked really hard to get to this point. He’s very talented. The makeup is outstanding. He’s someone that we feel like we can challenge to a certain extent. We’ll see.”

Astros

• Zach Dezenzo is taking some outfield reps.

Zach Dezenzo tracked a few fly balls from a fungo bat, bounded into the left-center field gap at Tropicana Field and got familiar with a foreign spot. The rookie alternated turns with Tucker, who did intense, on-field defensive drills for the first time since bruising his shin on June 3.

Blue Jays

• Yariel Rodríguez will have a 90-pitch limit this season.

Performance and circumstance earned Rodríguez a rotation spot despite some hard-and-fast limits to his workload early on. The Blue Jays plan to up his pitch count to around 90 pitches in the upcoming weeks, but you probably won’t see Rodríguez go too far past that mark this year, regardless of results.

Orioles

• For rotation depth, the team is considering Cade Povich, Cole Irvin, and Brandon Young.

Asked whether he’s confident that the Orioles have sufficient rotation depth, Elias replied, “I hope we do. We’re testing it the hard way.”

Elias mentioned Cade Povich and Cole Irvin at Norfolk and also said the Tides’ Brandon Young is “on the radar screen.”

Red Sox

• Rafael Devers has dealt with a shoulder injury all season.

There was star slugger Rafael Devers, needing a day off to rest after playing day after day with a left shoulder injury that has nagged him all season.

Twins

• Brooks Lee has been playing through biceps tendinitis for about a month.

Brooks Lee’s right biceps tendinitis emerged from nowhere.

The rookie was taking infield practice in New York last month when his shoulder began to bother him. Throwing at 90 feet, he felt a pinch and it quickly got worse. Lee tried to play through the pain, making a switch from shortstop to second base to reduce the amount of effort he needed to put in his throws.

Though the training staff continued to manage Lee’s shoulder, it only worsened. Expected to start Friday’s first game, Lee, who had an MRI on Thursday which revealed no structural damage, was scratched. Lee also confirmed he received a cortisone shot in his shoulder and is waiting for the medicine to clear before resuming throwing activity. In the meantime, Lee is working out and trying to ensure the rest of his body is physically ready when his arm is cleared.

Yankees

• Aaron Judge adjusted his stance in early May.

On May 5, he walked to the plate to face Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal with two outs in the first inning. Instead of assuming his usual open batting stance — with his left foot angled toward the third baseman — he switched things up. He slightly closed his stance, pointing his foot more toward the pitcher. He also stood a little straighter.

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First, he said, it made him feel more comfortable. Second, it allowed him to be more effective against sliders and away pitches in general. Through May 4, Judge was batting just .154 with a .333 slugging percentage vs. sliders. After May 5, he’s hit .348 vs. them while slugging .812.

• Jon Berti will join the team once rosters expand.

So, it seems likely that the Yankees will wait to start Berti’s rehab assignment clock and then bring him back around Sept. 1 when rosters expand to 28 players — provided he doesn’t have another setback. That would allow them to keep Berti, who plays all over the infield and brings speed and contact, as well as Oswaldo Cabrera, a switch-hitter who has been a threat from the left side of the plate this season and particularly since the All-Star break.

National League

Cardinals

• The team is focusing on winning so Jordan Walker will be on the short side of an outfield platoon.

The Cardinals plan to platoon Walker. He’ll start in right field against left-handed starters and come off the bench in games started by righties. That decision might come as a surprise, as St. Louis has been adamant about prioritizing Walker’s development. But with six weeks remaining in the regular season, maximizing lineup production takes priority over player development, leading the Cardinals to temporarily deviate from the course.

• Jordan Walker is trying to make his swing more consistent.

“I’ve been working with Antico every day and we’ve been hitting off the tee with foam balls and working with Howie [Clark] and Hawks,” Walker said. “They pointed out how my hands were inconsistent. I wasn’t getting into consistent firing positions every time. So, I’ve just started getting my hands back earlier, and I’ve been more consistent and things have started going my way. Those three guys have helped me get through a lot of stuff, and it’s happened to go my way.”

Cubs

• Management views Miguel Amaya only as a backup catcher.

In that case, signing a catcher like Carson Kelly this winter could make sense. If paired with Miguel Amaya as the backup — which is how the Cubs ultimately view Amaya — that could at least get the Cubs to the middle of the league as far as catcher value — a big step up from where they are.

Dodgers

• Enrique Hernández got new glasses and is now hitting baseballs better.

That group will continue to change over the next week. Cutting Rosario gives Hernández — who entered Monday hitting .278/.342/.444 since the All-Star break, apparently in part due to new glasses he’s wearing to correct the astigmatism in his right eye — a continued chance to keep rolling until Muncy returns at third base.

• Top-catching prospect Dalton Rushing is now playing in the outfield.

Well, this is interesting. Per manager Travis Babary, Dalton Rushing will exclusively play left field to start his time in OKC. #Dodgers

— Alex Freedman (@azfreedman) August 6, 2024

Giants

• Wilmer Flores was dealing with a knee injury all season.

Flores made his way to Los Angeles on Monday and was scheduled to undergo a Tenex procedure on his right knee with Dr. Steve Yoon on Tuesday to address the tendinitis in his right knee. There is still no word on the outcome of the procedure.

“Obviously it affected what he was doing this year,” Melvin said. “He was the guy last year who led the team in home runs and he was about as clutch as you can possibly have. He was fighting it all year and unfortunately, we’re losing him for the rest of the year, which isn’t ideal.”

Mets

• Since joining the team, Paul Blackburn changed his pitch mix.

Since being acquired by the New York Mets at the trade deadline, Blackburn has altered his pitch mix to emphasize his cutter and changeup at the expense of his four-seam fastball and curveball. It was not something the Mets told him explicitly to do, but they built it into the game plan for Blackburn’s starts against the Angels and Rockies. He had a 1.50 ERA over 12 innings with 12 strikeouts and four walks in those games.

Padres

• Joe Musgrove will continue to pitch with a bone spur that caused him to go on the IL.

The right-hander, who struck out just one Pirates batter, missed more than 10 weeks because of inflammation and triceps tendinitis caused by a bone spur in his pitching elbow. He received a PRP injection and refrained from throwing for a month.

Once he got back on a mound during his ramp-up, Musgrove pulled double duty. He not only was rehabbing the elbow, but he was tweaking his delivery. The intent was to ease the burden on his elbow in the hope of avoiding a third trip to the IL this season.

Phillies

• Tyler Phillips is considered to be the team’s sixth starter.

In fact, Phillips is the most likely candidate to be the sixth starter, if the Phils want to go to a six-man rotation at some point. It is something they have discussed.

“If we did go to a sixth, he’d probably be in it, because he’s pitched well for us,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “The one thing about a six is it taxes your bullpen because you’re one man short, so we’d have to really think deeply on that one.”

• Spencer Turnbull will return and go to the bullpen.

The Phillies are awaiting rotation reinforcements, but Spencer Turnbull will not be one of them. It’s been six weeks since he suffered a strained muscle in the back of his shoulder — an injury the Phillies said would require six to eight weeks of recovery time.

He has begun to throw bullpen sessions. Whenever he returns, it’ll be as a reliever.

Turnbull prefers to start, but Thomson said there are clear eyes regarding this situation.

“I think he’d be very comfortable with it,” Thomson said. “Because I think he understands that we don’t have a whole lot of time here. And he wants to win. He’s pitching for a contract too. I talked to him earlier in the year while he was still in the rotation. I said, ‘You know, there’s a lot of value in a guy that teams know can start and know he can come out of the bullpen too.’ There’s contracts out there for that guy.”

Reds

• This article on Hunter Greene is loaded while going over several changes he made. Below is just one bit on his splitter but if you want more, read the entire article.

The big, obvious change Greene made between 2023 and 2024 was scrapping his changeup in favor of a new splitter.

His splitter has the same basic function as his changeup did, as an offspeed pitch to attack left-handed hitters, but the splitter is a much more successful version.

It’s getting significantly better results, with a higher whiff rate (28.9% on the splitter vs. 24.2% on the changeup) and weaker quality of contact induced (hitters have a .205 xBA and .244 xSLG against Greene’s splitter in 2024 vs. a .306 xBA and .494 xSLG against his changeup in 2023).