Weekly Wrap: July 28, 2017

To The DL

Nationals RF Juan Soto had been out for a while rehabbing his ankle. Well, now he is sidelined a bit longer after having his hamate removed. According to Nationals Director of Player Development Mark Scialabba, he should be back in the lineup in a few weeks.

Mets RHP Joe Shaw is on the DL. A powerful arm that can reach as high as 98 though sits mid-90s with sinking action paired with a fringy slider, Shaw lacks a third pitch, presently a changeup, and control to stick in the rotation. He profiles to be a reliever.

San Francisco Giants RHP Tyler Beede was placed on the DL because of a groin injury. In 19 starts in Triple-A, he has pitched to a 4.38 DRA. To get an idea of what he is, you can read this well-written Eyewitness Report. His timeline is uncertain.

Tigers placed RHP Wladimir Pinto on the DL with a lat strain. He was a third of an inning into his first Low-A game before he was pulled. Being used exclusively as a reliever in his young career, Pinto has struck out 74 rookie batters across 61 1/3 innings in three seasons spread between Low-A and the Dominican Summer League.

Brewers SS Gilbert Lara was placed on the 60-day disabled list for an undisclosed reason. The 19-year-old has been struggling this season slashing .193/.226/.269 in 234 plate appearances.

Padres INF Luis Urias, though not on the DL, is in a boot with a sprained left ankle. Injury does not seem serious for the 20-year-old. Wilson Karaman profiled him last season, pegging him as a bat-first utility.

Similarly, Mets SS Amed Rosario was out a couple of games with a bruised index finger and now with a stomach ailment, but is fine slashing .462/.462/.538 since returning.

Also, not on the DL but out a few games is Orioles outfield prospect Austin Hays. He sustained 10 stitches after fouling a ball off his face. You can read about Hays on an Eyewitness Report written by Greg Goldstein here.

Off the DL

Aside from Hays injury, which could have been worse, it has been a good week for the Orioles.

Orioles CF Cedric Mullins was activated after going down with a tweaked hammy. Additionally, 3B Jomar Reyes, though not yet off the DL, is rehabbing with the GCL Orioles. He broke his finger by punching a wall, which later required surgery. RHP Cody Sedlock, 2016’s first-rounder, was also activated after straining his right forearm in late June. His first outing was not so good, finishing with this stat line: 1 2/3 IP 6 H 2 ER 2 BB 1 SO.

Marlins activated RHP Cody Poteet on the High-A squad. Poteet projects to be a swingman, as he manipulates his fringe fastball into sinkers and cutters. He also throws a slider—his best secondary—a curveball and a changeup for enough strikes.

Reds activated RHP Vladimir Gutierrez. I mentioned his DL’ing last week, perhaps the injury is not anything serious.

Dodgers CF Yusniel Diaz was activated from the DL after sustaining a hand injury. The stint was short.

Padres CF Michael Gettys was activated from the DL. His injury was undisclosed.

Diamondbacks RHP Tommy Eveld was activated.

Astros OF Kyle Tucker was activated off the DL, after suffering a back issue. He homered In his first game since being activated. No problems here.

Up the Ladder

Braves continue to be aggressive in their promotions, this time with LHP Luis Gohara being promoted to Triple-A and RHP Touki Toussaint to Double-A. Gohara, previously mentioned here for both being promoted and DL’d, is an easy-throwing lefty with a plus-plus fastball, a good slider and decent changeup. He has battled control and weight issues, but seems to have shored up the former thus far. 21 in four days, Gohara will need to maintain his weight. Toussaint, a 21-year-old from Florida, has struggled with control, pulling and yanking his body and pitches to the right field line. His fastball is 92-96 with sinking action. He also throws a changeup at 83-87 with a bit of fade and good bottom, and his best offspeed is a curveball that shows 11-6 break at 73-76 mph with big depth. Touki has gotten real hot of late, not walking a batter in his last 13 innings striking out 19, albeit against two weak High-A lineups.

Nationals promoted CF Victor Robles from High-A to Double-A, and RF Daniel Johnson from Low-A to High-A. Robles, 20 years old, is a potential five-tool prospect, and has been asked about repeatedly in multiple DC trade talks. A quick look at his stat line shows speed, hit and pop with 25 doubles, seven triples, seven home runs to go with 16 stolen bases, over 338 High-A plate appearances. He demonstrated that speed and pop in his first game shown here. Robles in the Midseason Top 50 was ranked fourth behind Yoan Moncada, Amed Rosario, and Francisco Mejia. As for Johnson, Greg Goldstein wrote an Eyewitness Report about him here. He hit for average, power, and speed in Low-A Hagerstown slashing .300/.361/.529 with 12 stolen bases and four triples over 364 PA.

Nationals also promoted LHP McKenzie Mills to High-A. As a 21-year-old in Low-A Mills has performed well, with a DRA of 2.96, a strikeout percentage of 28.4 and a walk rate of 5.3 percent, over 18 starts.

Brewers LF Troy Stokes, Jr. was promoted to Double-A. In 100 games in High-A, he showed power and speed, slugging 14 home runs, 19 doubles, and five triples to 21 stolen bases. Greg Goldstein had to say this about him:

Stokes Jr.‘s best tool is clearly his plus speed, but besides that, nothing really stands out to make you think that he can consistently find a place on a major league roster. He’s not a bad enough hitter where he has no chance, but he’s much more likely to spend most of his time in Triple-A as outfield depth due to his fringe bat speed not translating versus better stuff.

Many thanks to Greg!

Astros promoted C/3B Abraham Toro-Hernandez from Short-Season to Low-A. The tri-lingual draftee has a plus arm and…that’s all I can give you. He has played more games at third, which is where I have not seen him yet.

Rockies RHP Yency Almonte was promoted from Double-A to Triple-A. Acquired in a trade from the White Sox, after they acquired him as a PTBNL from the Angels, the 23-year-old has had performed better across the board in his second stint. He has improved his walk rate, strikeout rate and DRA to more favorable numbers of 10.0, 22.8 percent and 4.33, respectively. Though his DRA is one of the higher ones I have come across, it still is better than the average DRA in Double-A, at about five percent. Jeffrey Paternosto Ten Packed him this week.

Rays promoted SS Lucius Fox from Low-A to High-A. Turning 20 roughly three weeks ago, Fox attended the famous American Heritage High School in Delray Beach, relocated to the Bahamas and received a $6 million dollar signing bonus from the San Francisco Giants. Fox was later traded in the Matt Moore at the 2016 deadline. Fox, across two seasons in Low-A in 676 plate appearances, has slashed .244/.334/.320 with four home runs, 52 stolen bases and 156 strikeouts to 70 walks.

Padres promoted Cuban LHP Adrian Morejon from Short-Season to Low-A. Just 18 years old, he is in his first pro season accumulating 35 strikeouts to three walks in 35 1/3 innings pitched, all in Short-Season. DRA is not in favor of his performance to the tune of 5.19.

Phillies promoted LHP Jeff Singer from High-A to Double-A. An undrafted signee, Singer has an unusual delivery, turning in far enough that batters see his numbers clearly, which arguably affects his control. Singer has walked 13.3 percent of High-A batters. Fortunately, Singer strikes out enough batters to keep him around. However, before reaching his middle reliever role, he will need to cut his walk percentage significantly.

Phillies also promoted C Deivi Grullon from High-A to Double-A. Grullon, 21 years old, has a plus arm, both accurate and strong, and is a solid defender, though can get very lazy with balls in the dirt and showing poor technique. There is leverage to his power game, but his weight pulls him out of really driving into pitches. Furthermore, he pulls everything, with a 49.1 percent pull rate, and swings very often, walking in 4.2 percent of his High-A plate appearances. These numbers don’t portend well to providing a good bat. He is at least a back-up catcher, should he improve his receiving skills.

Marlins promoted RHP Tyler Kinley from High-A to Double-A. Kinley is blessed with a gifted arm, throwing as hard as 98 complemented with a 90 mph two-plane slider. The knock on Kinley is the fastball is very hittable and the control is well below average. This is his third-go in Double-A and things could fair better, especially after working with pitching guru Jim Benedict. Kinley has the stuff to be a shutdown set-up man, but control limits him to a lesser prominent role.

Also promoted was LHP Jose Quijada. A 21-year-old Venezuelan, Quijada works quickly, throws strikes and goes after hitters. His delivery is a bit herky-jerky and pulls off to the left field foul line, but he repeats it well and is on time. His fastball sits 92-93 and can reach back for more to put a hitter away, topping 95. Furthermore, he has a changeup and slider complimenting his fastball. He utilizes both off-speeds against either batter handedness, with his slider being his preferred pitch, as he can bury it glove-side down and away. The changeup has good bottom, and is disguised with a quick arm.

Another Marlins lefty LHP Dillon Peters was promoted to Double-A after rehabbing with the GCL Marlins and High-A team. He spent a significant time on the DL with a broken thumb, suffered on a comebacker on April 17^th. He manipulates his low-90s fastball into cutters and sinkers, commanding it to either corner and occasionally revving it up to 95 to put hitters away. He mixes speeds with a big curveball—which he can manipulate—that he can place where ever he likes to either lefties or righties as well as a change-up with bottom that he uses to righties, mostly. He has no problem throwing strikes and sequencing his pitches. Peters, 26 years old, is an emergency starter/long reliever.

Mets promoted RHP Tyler Bashlor from High-A to Double-A. Like Kinley, he is blessed with a fastball that can get as high as 98 with well below average control. Bashlor can occasionally cut it for some moderate depth, especially against righties. Bashlor’s second pitch, however, is a major league curveball, that is 78-80 mph. Bashlor is also a potential major league reliever, but needs to fix his control problems first and foremost. He sports a minor league career 13.22 percent walk rate.

Cardinals promoted RHP Dakota Hudson from Double-A to Triple-A. Hudson has pitched to a 2.76 DRA striking out 16.0 percent of his batters faced while walking 7.1 percent of them. He has managed to induce his batters also to hit grounders often, with a 57.6 percent groundball percentage.

RHP Johan Oviedo was promoted from Rookie Plus to Short-Season ball. a 19-year-old Cuban that signed for $ 1.9 million last July. And thank you, Delvin Perez. You have made it back to Johnson City from the GCL Cardinals. Now, do not goof it up.

Indians promoted RHP Shane Bieber from High-A to Double-A. Victor Filoromo caught a look on him this season, and Ten-Packed him a few weeks ago.

Dodgers 2017 first-rounder OF Jeren Kendall has escalated to Low-A Great Lakes Loons, after a quick five game stint in their Short-Season affiliate in Ogden, Utah.

Blue Jays promoted very young, and I mean very young, RHP Felipe Castaneda from the Gulf Coast League to the Appalachian League. According to Steve Givarz, Castaneda is intriguing for his ability to throw strikes and natural feel for change-up to which he used to both lefties and righties. The feel for spin is questionable, but is a player to keep an eye on as he grows into his body.

Trade Assignments

White Sox OF Tito Polo was assigned to the Birmingham Barons, Double-A.

Cardinals OF Tyler O’Neil to Triple-A Memphis Redbirds who was playing at the Mariner’s Triple-A affiliate. He homered in his third game for the Redbirds.

Marlins RHPs Pablo Lopez and Lukas Schiraldi, acquired in the David Phelps from the Mariner’s was assigned to High-A Jupiter.

Phillies RHP JD Hammer, acquired in the Pat Neshak to Colorado, was assigned to High-A, Clearwater.

Mets RHP Drew Smith was assigned to Double-A, Rumbling Ponies. You can read the TA here.

Down the Chutes

Dodgers demoted LF Mitchell Hansen, their 2015 second rounder, from Low-A to Short-Season A. In 74 games, Hansen slashed .198/.288/.312 with 75 strikeouts.

Don’t hear this too often, and even less likelier in the minors, A’s RHP Norge Ruiz was suspended 10 games for doctoring a ball. The Cuban signed in December 2016 for $2 million.

Reds RHP Brian Hunter was suspended 80 games for testing positive for Ipamorelin. He had been enjoying a good season for the Daytona Tortugas with a DRA of 2.22.