Mining the News (8.29.24)

General

Keep a list of articles on late-season options for next season. Teams will eventually look to the same subs and it’s a good idea to have some evaluation of their talent. Here are some articles from Pitcher List on pitching and hitting stashes.

American League

Angels

• Caden Dana is an end-of-season rotation option.

Dana, though, could force his way into the rotation in September if he continues to put up impressive numbers in Double-A. He’s proved to be durable, as he leads the Southern League in innings and WHIP and also ranks second in ERA. He spoke with MiLB.com this week about his season and how he prepares for his starts.

“I’m just trying not to be stupid,” Dana said. “I’m a big gym rat, and I can easily get carried away in the weight room and do something stupid. So I try not to sometimes. The whole recovery process is about being smart, knowing how your body handles things and taking it day by day.”

The Angels haven’t put any restrictions on Dana despite his age, and he’s topped the 100-pitch mark six times, including 103 pitches in his last outing. So even if he doesn’t get to the Majors this year, he’ll be built up plenty for a full season next year. Dana said it’s important to not let the game speed up on him, and that’s been a big key recently.

Astros

• Kyle Tucker is sending long encouraging texts and must manage pain when he returns.

Tucker did not accompany the Astros on this two-city, seven-game road trip. On Sunday afternoon, manager Joe Espada said “there is nothing new to report” about Tucker’s progress back in Houston.

“He actually sent me a very long, long, long text message and it was full of a lot of positive notes,” Espada added, “so that was very encouraging.”

…

September starts in six days. On Sunday, Espada confirmed Tucker is still not sprinting at full speed, nor has he tested himself running the bases. Until he does, a minor-league rehab assignment won’t be realistic.

Brown has already said Tucker will have to manage some amount of pain upon his return. That Tucker continues to take batting practice and throw without issues is encouraging, perhaps prompting wonder if Tucker could return sooner in a more limited capacity.

• Alex Bregman is taking some reps at first base.

Each day, perhaps for the rest of the season, Astros manager Joe Espada is going to make multiple lineups: One will have Alex Bregman playing third base, another will have him at designated hitter and another will have him at first base – a position he hasn’t played since summer ball in high school.

Which lineup Espada decides to hand over to the umpire will depend on how Bregman tells him he’s feeling earlier in the day. Bregman came down with a sore right elbow about a week ago, and he missed five consecutive games before returning to the lineup at designated hitter on Wednesday. Friday marked the third consecutive day Bregman started at DH, though he was originally scheduled to play third base before Yordan Alvarez was scratched with a stiff neck.

• Chas McCormick tried several things to start hitting. None worked and he’s now in the minors.

McCormick and Houston’s hitting coaches are “trying so many different things” to unlock anything from a player who had a 130 OPS+ and 22 home runs last season. McCormick has tried sitting on specific pitch types in particular quadrants of the strike zone. He has widened his stance and closed it back, fiddled with his hands and contemplated staying back before starting his load. Nothing is working.

“I’ve been getting so much help throughout the year and I’ve been listening. I love the advice. But at this point, it’s on me,” McCormick said. “I have to do it myself. I’m the one f—— going out there. I love the advice and everyone’s been trying to help me. But it’s been six months. I need to go out there and stop being a bitch. I need to find it in myself to get out there, get confident and have good at-bats. It’s on me.”

Athletics

• Mason Miller will likely stay in the bullpen next season. Ed. note: I’ll never forget when Eno Sarris first showed me how “sticky” the bullpen was for guys like this years ago (might’ve been when Trevor Rosenthal was breaking in… I held out hopes he’d develop his change and start in the bigs in 2013-14 after his 23 IP debut in 2012). We’ve seen more guys emerge out of the bullpen lately (Springs, Rasmussen, King, etc…) but it can take some time so Miller not start until he’s in his late-20s if at all.

“It’s a grind pitching out of the bullpen,” Kotsay said. “But he’s done a nice job with handling the workload. We’ll assess at the end of the season. Each season presents new thoughts and new ideas. But to have someone like him in the back end of the bullpen with that much confidence, I think it would be hard to take him out of that role and transition him back to a starter.”

Miller is certainly enjoying the adrenaline that comes with closing out games for the A’s.

“I like that feeling,” Miller said. “I don’t want to take it for granted. But you have to bring a confidence for those last three outs. Every out in the game is important, but those last three sometimes feel like the hardest to get. I’m just coming in and being dialed in from the first pitch and attacking guys.”

Blue Jays

• Davis Schneider is making adjustments with the hitting coach.

Behind the scenes, Schneider is working hard to make the necessary adjustments and it’s in his best interest that he continues that work with the Blue Jays’ hitting coaches, including Matt Hague, with whom he has a strong relationship. Disrupting that process by sending him to Triple-A Buffalo wouldn’t be helpful.

Orioles

• Samuel Basallo will see time in the majors either to end this season or start next season.

“For me, he’s a really rare prospect. There’s a lot of things that he does that I haven’t seen in one player for a while. I’m happy and proud of him for earning this call to Triple-A,” Elias said. “We thought it made sense to give him a taste of Triple-A. He hasn’t been there yet, and, in all probability, there’s a good chance that he starts the season there next year coming out of Spring Training.

“We like the idea of giving him some exposure to that level before he goes home and does his work for the winter.”
…
While Basallo’s bat possesses his best tools — he has 60-grade hitting and 60-grade power — the Orioles believe he can play catcher in the big leagues, where he could eventually complement Adley Rutschman on the roster. But the club is also confident in his burgeoning skills at first.
…
Despite Basallo’s youth, could he be on track to reach the Majors in 2025?

“I think it will be a lot like Holliday,” Elias said. “He’ll have spent the last several weeks of the season at Triple-A. You go into Spring Training as a guy that finished in Triple-A, you’re a real member of Spring Training at that point, and we’ll just kind of take it from there and see what the roster picture looks like and see how Sammy’s looking.

Royals

• Hunter Renfroe has dealt with back and leg soreness.

Manager Matt Quatraro said Renfroe had been dealing with general back and leg soreness recently, but it wasn’t until he felt something in the outfield on Saturday night that a move was required to place Renfroe on the IL with a right hamstring strain.

• Tyler Gentry wants to spray the ball around the field, not pull it.

Gentry was struggling with spraying the ball all over the field, which he called his “bread and butter,” to begin the season, but a mechanical adjustment to his swing has fixed those issues.

It was really just my front shoulder flying open and really controlling my swing, because it’s really hard to stay through the middle of the field, [which is] what you want to do,” Gentry said. “But when your front shoulder is flying open from the beginning, it’s making you cut across everything, and there were points where I was just yanking everything, hitting over the top of everything.

“And so just working on that helped me stay through the middle a lot better, [that] was the key to it.”

Those changes found immediate results. Gentry hit .170 in April and .195 in May before slashing .400/.477/.627 with a 1.104 OPS over 21 games in July.

“ … I got off to a really, really bad start this year in Triple-A, which was really frustrating,” Gentry said. “But just knowing that, [and] working with the hitting coach, [that] I’m still a good hitter. I can still get things done. So I’ve been working ever since then and got my swing in a good spot again about the middle of June. And [I’ve] just been running it since then.”

Tigers

• Before his debut, Ty Madden improved his command and added a splitter.

Ugly as the overall numbers are, Madden is getting this chance in part because his stuff has improved in recent outings.

He has struck out 37 batters over 24 innings in his past four starts and issued only five walks.

Madden, who would have been Rule 5 draft-eligible this winter had he not been added to the 40-man roster, has long been hailed for fastball command. But secondary pitches likely hold the key to his future. Although his slider has generated an impressive 46.8 percent whiff rate this season, Madden has battled inconsistency and hasn’t always had success with the slider in the strike zone. The fastball was in turn overexposed and succumbed to a .350 batting average from opponents.

Madden added a splitter this season in hopes of becoming more of a three-pitch pitcher. He has generated swings-and-misses at a 43.1 percent clip in Triple A but again has struggled with consistency. Batters have hit his fastball and slider hard for much of the season, so there is little margin for error with his command.

Twins

• Trevor Larnach has dealt with turf toe since the spring while working on hitting secondary pitches.

Larnach has dealt with a painful “turf toe” injury since spring training, but it’s affected him mostly when running and fielding, so the Twins have used the designated hitter spot to manage the situation. At the plate, he’s worked to adjust his batting stance, swing mechanics and approach to put up more of a fight versus sliders, curveballs, changeups and other non-fastballs.

Opposing pitchers smartly stopped throwing fastballs to Larnach after he slugged .504, .506 and .527 off them in his first three seasons. He’s seen just 46 percent fastballs in 2024, the second-lowest rate among AL hitters. But while fastballs drying up previously sent him into season-wrecking slumps, Larnach has made enough improvement to avoid that same fate.

• David Festa is struggling the second time through the order.

Hitters against Festa, first time through: .134/.194/.179 (.374 OPS)
Hitters against Festa, second time through: .393/.456/.787 (1.243 OPS)

With that said, Festa has completed five innings in five of his eight appearances this season, and had pitched to a 2.38 ERA with 31 strikeouts in 22 2/3 innings across his previous five outings before Friday. Both Festa and manager Rocco Baldelli also indicated that they didn’t necessarily see this outing as a continuation of the trend.

…

“You look back earlier in the year, the Detroit outing when I went second and third time around, they hammered balls off me,” Festa said. “Tonight, I thought they just did a great job of working at-bats. Even the first time around, I don’t think I was efficient enough.”

I’m pretty sure Festa is/was tipping his pitches with his release point. Here are four graphs highlighting Festa’s vertical and horizontal release points. Here are the two values by start.

By doing a little math, the release point for this fastball was about a half foot different than his changeup, the next closest. He has closed the gap in his last few starts. Here is a comparison between the “widest” start and his last one.

At least in his last start, there was some overlap in his pitches.

• Because of struggles throwing the ball, Royce Lewis is taking some second base reps.

After taking a few days’ worth of grounders at second base, Minnesota Twins infielder Royce Lewis said he’s akin to a fish out of water.

Recently, the Twins spoke to Lewis about working at second base during batting practice to prepare him for game action if he’s ever needed. Remote as Twins manager Rocco Baldelli made the possibility seem, the coaching staff wants Lewis to log time at second base, a position he’s played only five times in his pro career and not since he participated in the 2019 Arizona Fall League.
…
Lewis’s recent struggles throwing from third base — he’s committed six errors in 91 chances — has caught the team’s attention. Whereas he once was deemed the franchise’s shortstop of the future, Lewis currently finds himself splitting time at third with Jose Miranda and starting at designated hitter the rest.

“It’s far from a guarantee that we’ll see him in any games at second base this season,” Baldelli said. “It’s a possibility, I would say that. It’s not a place he’s played a ton of. But when there was a shift, he basically played on the other side of the bag a fair amount. So he’s made a lot of plays over the course of his career on that side of the bag. And we just want to make sure we’re getting him the work. And truthfully, I think getting him some work over there can also help him mix up some of his throwing angles and different types of throws he has to make. I think changing your eye line and sight line can sometimes help you with the position that you are playing. I think some of the work he’s putting in, it’s good for him to go over there and get those reps at second base, but also I think it can help him with his work at third, too.”

National League

Brewers

• Top prospect Jacob Misiorowski is moving to the bullpen in AAA to help the MLB club if they promote a reliever. Ed. note: Speaking of the bullpen being sticky, I’d be surprised if he ever starts in the majors.

Misiorowski’s fastball, which is considered the best among the top 100 MLB prospects per MLB Pipeline, touches 102 mph. He also features a wipeout slider, as well as a curveball and a changeup.

In 24 appearances (21 starts) between Double-A Biloxi and Triple-A Nashville this season, Misiorowski has a 3.36 ERA with a 30% strikeout rate. His walk rate is high — nearly 14% — so he seems to profile better as a reliever. He was recently moved to the Sounds’ bullpen, presumably to prepare him for a potential callup.

Cardinals

• When rosters expand, the team may go with a six-man rotation.

Matz will rejoin the rotation once he completes his rehab assignment, but there is no easy answer as to which spot he’ll fill. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak mentioned the possibility of a six-man rotation earlier in the week. That would seem to be the most logical decision, as it would make no sense to remove Pallante from the rotation at this time.

Cubs

• Pete Crow-Armstrong and Miguel Amaya each made positive in-season swing adjustments …

In-season swing changes are pretty rare – it’s so hard to lock in new muscle memory that quickly – so having two young hitters make relatively significant swing changes mid-season and then immediately show results is crazy. But that is how it’s been for Pete Crow-Armstrong (changes discussed here) and Miguel Amaya, the latter of whom had another huge day yesterday.

“(In-season swing changes are) really hard for hitters to make, and Miggy made a significant one, I think you all can see it,” Craig Counsell said, per the Tribune. “It was significant, and the kind of results beforehand necessitated it, but it’s tough to do, and he’s done a really good job with it.”

… but even with the changes, the team will look for a replacement for Amaya.

Amaya has certainly given them more to think about, though. At a minimum, he’s strengthened the organization’s belief that he can be a really good backup or part of a timeshare. As of now, upgrading at catcher will still be a priority. It’s simply too risky to rely on a few months of information. But Amaya seems to be building a case to be a part of the team’s future. And he’s got another month to continue to build his case.

• The team might not have a set closer to start the 2025 season.

It’s possible the Cubs won’t have a set closer at the start of next season.

“Similar to what I said this spring, one thing you always prepare for is bullpens change year to year,” Counsell said. “Who our personnel is will dictate how we think about it, for sure. Right now, I think we’re in the mode of just creating good options for our relievers, (assembling) a lot of arms that we can consider. Since — whatever day you want to pick, the middle of May — that’s the mode we’ve been in. It’s just trying to bring more options to the table.

“Whether it be through development or some guys we’ve acquired, I think we’re in a pretty good place there. We ran into some injuries with a bunch of young pitchers, unfortunately. But they’ll be back, so we should have a good number of options. And then how that all plays out, it’s way too early to start figuring that out.”

• Matt Shaw cleaned up his swing but it might not work against premium stuff.

Matt Shaw struggled early in the season due to some unintended changes to his swing that occurred naturally over the course of the offseason. After that was cleaned up, Shaw went on an offensive tear, forcing his way to Triple A during his first full season in professional baseball and showing why the Cubs made him the No. 13 pick in the 2023 draft. Still, his swing is unorthodox, which gives some evaluators pause as to how it will play against pitchers at the highest level when he’s attacked with truly elite stuff. The Cubs seem to be aware and Shaw is willing to make changes as needed, though they’re not expected to be drastic.

The swing does look like a hack taken in a slow-pitch softball game.

Matt Shaw really is something. pic.twitter.com/eP7MNx0gjg

— Brad (@ballskwok) August 23, 2024

• Jordan Wicks will likely not join the rotation once he comes off the IL.

The more revealing part is that Wicks, a 2021 first-round pick, may not necessarily be handed a job, or at least that’s how Counsell made it sound: “We’ve definitely lost innings of development. He’s lost time on the mound proving himself, and some other guys have kind of run with that opportunity, like Javy Assad. Competing for starts or a spot is kind of where he’s at.”

Diamondbacks

• Corbin Carroll is hitting more flyballs.

Analysis: Your chances of hitting a home run increase the more often you hit fly balls instead of ground balls. As you recover from receiving that piece of groundbreaking information, know that Carroll turned in a fly ball rate of just 16.2% through July 6. That would rank second to last among qualified batters today.

But the 24-year-old said he has found a more efficient swing recently, and it has contributed to improved batted-ball results.

Over this seven-week stretch, Carroll’s fly ball rate has soared to 31% while he has shaved nearly six points off his ground-ball rate (47.4% to 41.6%). Those extra fly balls are coming with about 4 mph more exit velocity than before, a 62.9% hard-hit rate and a 28.6% barrel rate.

Dodgers

• Chris Taylor has made some “drastic” swing changes.

And the Dodgers are still viewing Taylor as a potential October contributor and “a part of what we’ve done, what we’re doing this year, next year.” He, like Hernández, provides positional versatility, and while his bat floundered in the first half of the season, Taylor said this week he’s worked through some “drastic” changes in his swing to look to drive the baseball more. Taylor is still under contract through 2025, where he’s owed $13 million.

• Shohei Ohtani will continue to ramp up his pitching and face live batters.

Ohtani came out of that session well. Manager Dave Roberts confirmed again Sunday the plan is still for Ohtani to ramp up to the point of facing hitters before being shut down as a pitcher until 2025.

• During his rehab, Tony Gonsolin sat 92 mph to 94 mph.

Tony Gonsolin’s 2024 season might not be over, after all. It’s been just shy of 12 months since Gonsolin went under the knife for Tommy John surgery (on Sept. 1, 2023), but he was back at Dodger Stadium throwing in front of Dodgers personnel Sunday morning. He’s been facing hitters in Arizona, sitting 92 to 94 mph with his fastball. It’s gone even faster than Gonsolin said he expected, especially after pulling his hamstring during spring training. If his next couple of live sessions go well, he could go on a rehab assignment.

Before surgery last season, he was sitting 92.5 mph while averaging 93.4 mph for his career.

Marlins

• Max Meyer is adding a changeup to his fastball-slider mix.

There’s no denying Marlins right-hander Max Meyer possesses an elite four-seam/slider combination. In Friday night’s 6-3 loss to the Cubs at loanDepot park, Meyer showed what is possible if he continues to develop his changeup.

Meyer recorded a quality start for the second time in three outings while throwing his changeup a career-high 24 times. Making his second start since graduating from prospect status, he allowed three runs on six hits – just one against the changeup – with two strikeouts and two walks across six innings.

Padres

• Joe Musgrove added a gyro slider.

Musgrove allowed one hit in seven otherwise perfect innings. He made the most of a capped workload, throwing 58 of 75 pitches for strikes and striking out nine. He debuted a new “gyro” slider with notable success. (He had learned the pitch only a few days earlier, taking teammate Dylan Cease’s slider grip and slightly altering it.) And, in the end, he submitted his finest performance in over a year.

• While Manny Machado’s shoulder feels better each day, it still bothers him.

“Next year definitely will be better, for sure,” Machado said. “I still feel it. There’s days that I’m grinding a little bit, especially with (how) this has been a tough stretch for us. I’ve been out there every day, playing third base, throwing every day, hitting every day. Being able to do what I really want to do offensively puts a little bit more stress on that elbow. And it’s not completely healed. So it’s there, but it’s definitely better than it was months ago.”
…
He added: “My body’s just feeling better, man. Every day just continues to get better. I guess I like the heat. I’m used to the heat a little bit.”

Phillies

• Ranger Suárez should be at 90 pitches in his next start.

Thomson said the maximum number of pitches he would have been comfortable watching Suárez throw in his first game back was 75. But that number will rise “15 to 20 pitches” in each subsequent outing, the Phillies’ manager added.

“Now we can go to six [innings] and probably 90 pitches [in his next outing],” Thomson said.

Pirates

• Oneil Cruz is going to move to centerfield.

Derek Shelton announced during his pregame presser that Oneil Cruz will start seeing time in center field.

— Noah Hiles (@_NoahHiles) August 26, 2024

• Endy Rodríguez is getting all buff.

Endy Rodríguez is here in Pittsburgh (and looks like he put on 10-15 pounds of muscle since we last saw him). Couple of left-handed swings from him pic.twitter.com/afTJ7SIwmg

— Alex Stumpf (@AlexJStumpf) August 2, 2024