Mining the News (6/26/24)

American League

Mariners

• Ryan Bliss is taking some outfield reps.

To further boost his functionality, Bliss also began taking pregame outfield reps on Monday at Tropicana Field, where the bright rooftop lights within the concrete-laden venue warrant extra prep.

No, the Mariners don’t see him working into a platoon, as his arm strength is probably the weakest among Seattle’s position players. But if there’s a chance to bring him off the bench, especially in a close game, they’re creating the possibility for left field to be a spot he can slide into.

Orioles

• Jackson Holliday will just DH for a few weeks.

The Orioles have announced that Jackson Holliday is coming off the IL. As he works back from his elbow injury, he will only DH for the next few weeks.

Enrique Bradfield will miss at least a few games with left wrist tendinitis.

— JJ Cooper (@jjcoop36) June 25, 2024

National League

Braves

• Ian Anderson is supposed to return after the All-Star break.

That could change after the All-Star break with the expected return of Ian Anderson, who will have missed 1 1/2 seasons recovering from Tommy John surgery. He’s pitching in games with the Florida Complex League rookie team but could begin a minor-league rehab assignment next week.

• The team plans to continue to play Orlando Arcia no matter how poorly he hits.

Arcia, who’s 1-for-24 with eight strikeouts in his past seven games and batting an anemic .212 with a .586 OPS overall, has built up such goodwill and plays such strong defense in Brian Snitker’s view that the Braves manager is apparently going to keep playing him every day for the foreseeable future.

Cardinals

• Tommy Edman and Lars Nootbaar should return around the All-Star break.

The Cardinals received good news on Tommy Edman (right wrist surgery) and Lars Nootbaar (oblique strain) over the weekend. Both are inching closer to rehab assignments, and there is optimism both can return before the All-Star break.

Cubs

• Sounds like Ben Brown’s neck will bother him for two to three months even when he returns to the mound.

Brown says that he was told at the time of his diagnosis that he’s already through the worst of his ailment. Montemurro describes the prognosis as a “two- to three-month burnout period,” with the first month being the worst.

Giants

• Marco Luciano is starting some AAA games at second base.

When Luciano made his first start as a second baseman last week, club officials said it was because they wanted Nick Ahmed to start at shortstop while with the River Cats on a rehab assignment. But Ahmed is back in the big leagues and Luciano is still getting reps at second base. Utilityman Tyler Fitzgerald started at shortstop across from Luciano on Sunday.

It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if the Giants move Luciano off shortstop — his bat was always going to be what carried him to the big leagues and made him a potential impact player — but the process of figuring out his ultimate major-league position is a fascinating one. And it’ll be worth watching all season.

• Robbie Ray was sitting 93 mph in his rehab start and should be back after the All-Star break.

It was a rare double-rehab feature at Sutter Health Park as another recent Cy Young Award winner, Robbie Ray, made his first Triple-A appearance while ramping up from Tommy John surgery. Ray’s fastball sat at 93 mph as he threw 45 pitches in 2 1/3 innings
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Ray wasn’t sure when he would make his next rehab start, but if he recovers well, he’s likely to pitch for Low-A San Jose toward the end of the week. He’s likely to bounce between San Jose and Sacramento — whoever happens to be home — as he continues to build his pitch count. Without any hiccups, he could make his Giants debut shortly after the All-Star break next month.

“I feel I’m hitting the milestones,” Ray said. “It’s obviously a long process, but I’m starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

Over his career, Ray has averaged 93.7 mph on his fastball, so it seems like his velo is almost back.

Mets

• With Edwin Diaz suspended, the team might need to demote David Peterson or Tylor Megill to maintain a fresh bullpen.

Díaz’s suspension puts the Mets in a tough situation regarding their roster. It’s hard enough for the Mets to replace their star closer, who was just starting to resemble his old self; Díaz solidified the bullpen, put roles in order. But New York will also be down a pitcher. Thus, some nimble roster maneuvering may be required.

For example, it wouldn’t be shocking if David Peterson and Tylor Megill both got optioned to Triple A following their next starts — assuming the Mets stick with their current rotation for the next few games — for relievers. Then, when those turns in the rotation pop up again, the Mets could option those relievers for Christian Scott and Jose Buttó. To be clear, that’s just one path the Mets may take, and there are more.

The Mets aren’t positioned to do a ton of shuffling with their bullpen, but they can shuttle a couple of pitchers down to the minors, if needed. Dedniel Nunez and Danny Young — both have been effective — are the only Mets relievers with minor-league options beyond Reed Garrett, whom the Mets would presumably lean on even more for high-leverage situations without Diaz.

• Brett Baty is getting some minor league reps at second base.

Brett Baty (left-handed batter), who has played three games for Syracuse at second base since his demotion last month, and prospect Luisangel Acuña are infielders on the 40-man roster.

Phillies

• Spencer Turnbull started last season’s fiasco with the Tigers when he didn’t admit an injury. Now he’s saying he did nothing wrong and the whole thing was out of his hands.

Turnbull waited until the end of the season to publicly state he had fractured his neck and torn ligaments around his C6 vertebrae after dodging a line drive earlier in the season against the Boston Red Sox.

“I should have spoken up about it,” Turnbull said on May 26, 2023. “I shouldn’t have tried to play through it. That was on me for not saying something about it sooner, just trying to be tough.”

A similar dilemma arose in August when the Tigers optioned Turnbull at the end of his minor-league rehab assignment. Turnbull said he was pitching with a toenail avulsion. By November, Turnbull had turned to the Major League Baseball Players Association to file a grievance. The Tigers agreed to grant him a full year of service time.

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Monday in the dugout, Turnbull was asked whether he would change anything about how he handled the situation last season.

“I feel like there’s probably not much (I would have done) different last year,” Turnbull said. “A lot of things were out of my hands, out of my control. Didn’t really have a lot of say in a lot of stuff that went down last year. … Everything, all the drama or whatever it was, a lot of the negative press and things like that, nobody knows the real story. No one knows, really, what happened. But it was definitely not the spin that was maybe told on me. … I don’t really care too much about how that was framed and stuff and what some people may think or whatever.

“Some of that is dumb. It’s not even close to the truth. But a lot of that was out of my control.”

Just admit you messed up and not look like a prick.

Pirates

• The team will manage the workload of Paul Skenes and Jared Jones this year instead of shutting them down.

That should help take a little off of Skenes’ and Jones’ plates, perhaps putting them in a position to take a breather, whether that means implementing a six-man rotation or just skipping them intermediately. Cherington does not sound keen in shutting them down for an extended period of time, though, like they did with Roansy Contreras in 2022.

“Shutdown doesn’t make sense from where I sit right now because that would mean no activity and then you have to come back from that and there are risks associated with that, too,” Cherington said. “I think this is much more about making sure, outing to outing and when we look at the short term, we’re really mindful about recovery and picking spots. There may be times where we pick a spot to add a little more recovery, but we’ll see.”

Reds

Even though Noelvi Marte is struggling at the plate in AAA (.143/.143/.163), his at-bat reports are good.

Reds manager David Bell was asked on Friday about Marte’s struggles and said he didn’t know Marte’s statistics. Bell said he’s read the internal reports daily, but those aren’t focused on the results of at-bats.

“I don’t know where he stands statistically, but it’s more important what our player development people are saying, what they’re seeing,” Bell said. “We get process grades on every at-bat he has. Reading those, everything has been right on track.”

Those grades have nothing to do with the result of the at-bat, instead focusing on his swing decisions, pitch recognition and what kind of contact is made, including exit velocity.

Bell said that not only have the reports been good, but Marte has looked good physically.

“He’s doing his part to get himself ready,” Bell said. “No decision has been made yet. I know that’s coming up. He’s almost all the way through this, but over the next week we’ll be talking about that, but everything looks good so far.”