The Rangers brought back Sam Huff on Monday, but Josh Jung remains in Triple-A. Jung was hitting .311/.363/.635 in 17 Triple-A games when the team passed him over for a Sept. 1 callup. Unfortunately, he hasn’t added to his case since then, going 3-for-21 with 12 strikeouts in his last five games. It still seems likely that he’ll be promoted at some point, but he needs to snap out of the slump quickly.
Huff was also striking out a bunch in Triple-A (46 times in 31 games during his latest stint), but he did hit four homers in his final six games before returning to Texas. Overall, he hit .260/.336/.533 with a 31% strikeout rate in 274 plate appearances for Round Rock. This isn’t do-or-die time for the 24-year-old, but his future with the Rangers has gotten murkier. Jonah Heim has clearly established himself as the team’s No. 1 catcher going forward, and Huff is going to have to cut back on the strikeouts some if he’s going to hit enough to be a factor at DH and first base. At the moment, it seems likely that the Rangers will choose to put him back in Triple-A next year rather than carry him as a backup. However, he has four weeks here to try to convince them he’s ready.
American League notes
- With Eric Hosmer progressing slowly from back inflammation, the Red Sox found some room for Triston Casas over the weekend, promoting him to take over at first base. Casas definitely earned the opportunity, batting .341/.460/.571 in his final 25 games for Triple-A Worcester. He’s struck out in five of his 12 major league at-bats thus far, but he did hit his first homer Tuesday against the Rays. My guess is that Casas won’t be of much use in fantasy leagues the rest of the way; he won’t embarrass himself, but it’s still a little soon to expect a quality average or a barrage of homers.
- Andrew Benintendi appears likely to miss the rest of the regular season with his broken hamate bone and Anthony Rizzo is set to join him on the IL on Wednesday because of his back issues and subsequent headache problems, leaving the Yankees lineup is quite a bit of flux at the moment. That helped Aaron Hicks get four straight starts last week, though he did nothing with them. With DJ LeMahieu typically playing first, the door is open for Oswald Peraza to make his presence known. He looked a little overmatched in his debut against the Rays over the weekend, but it was just eight plate appearances. He’s a fine basestealer -- he was 33-for-38 in Triple-A this year -- so if he can force the Yankees to play him, he’ll probably be a factor in fantasy leagues. He needs a couple of good games here to help his case.
- The Astros’ Hunter Brown, who pitched six scoreless innings against the Rangers in his major league debut Monday, is assured at least one more start next week against the Tigers and will again be worth using in fantasy leagues.
- Yuli Gurriel has hit .222/.273/.265 since the beginning of August, leaving him at .237/.288/.359 for the year, and it’s still impossible to get him out of the Astros lineup. Yainer Diaz got one start at DH the day after he was called up, but he’s been missing the four games since. J.J. Matijevic got the nod at DH in two of those. David Hensley got one start at third. I’m not sure if Diaz, who is primarily a catcher, is particularly trustworthy at first base, but it’s not like the Astros need their Gurriel alternative to play first; Trey Mancini is at least Gurriel’s equal on defense. Christian Vazquez can also play the position and is easily outhitting Gurriel this year. Dusty Baker obviously thinks his 38-year-old first baseman will come through in the end, and it’s not like the Astros are feeling any pressure to make changes at the moment. Still, at some point in October, it seems like refusing to put the best team on the field will come back to bite the club.
- The Tigers called up Ryan Kreidler last week and are giving him regular playing time at the expense of Jeimer Candelario (who is likely to be non-tendered) and others. Kreidler is sort of interesting, in that he has decent pop for a middle infielder, some speed and a patient approach at the plate. Unfortunately, he also had a .213 average and a 29% strikeout rate in Triple-A this year. It’s going to be a struggle for him.
National League notes
- A second straight miserable season for Mike Moustakas came to an official end last week when he was transferred to the 60-day IL with a calf strain. On the plus side, the move ensured he’d finish the year with more homers (seven) than IL stints (six). Moustakas hit .214/.295/.345 in 78 games this year. He hit .208/.282/.372 in 62 games last year. He’s posted career-high strikeout rates in three straight seasons. This year, he fanned 26.3% of the time. His career rate coming into 2022 was 16.3%. The Reds still owe him another $18 million next year and then a $4 million buyout of his $20 million option for 2024, and there’s nothing to suggest he’s going to return to being useful.
I had to write that out because I’ll be furious if Moustakas takes even one at-bat away from Spencer Steer next year. I’m sure major league pitchers will find some vulnerabilities with Steer, but I was already very high on him based on his minor league performance this year and he’s shown an outstanding approach in four games since arriving in the majors. With Great American Ballpark helping him out, he might be a 25-homer guy as a rookie. He could hit a few over the rest of this season, too.
- Although Lewis Brinson hit .299/.356/.574 for their Triple-A affiliate this year, the Astros never thought the former top prospect and Grapefruit League hero could help with their center field situation. The injury-plagued Giants picked him up on Sept. 1, and he’s since hit three homers in five games. It’s like spring training all over again. Still, I think I’m with the Astros here. Brinson has legitimate power, but not to the point that he’ll hit enough homers to make up for his strikeout rate and lack of singles. If the Giants start playing him against righties, he’ll likely fall off quickly.
- It made sense that Taijuan Walker fell apart in the second half of last season; he had pitched a total of 67 innings in three years, so fatigue was bound to be a factor. This year, his collapse isn’t so explicable, but after another shoddy outing against the Pirates on Tuesday, he sports a 6.26 ERA and a 23/15 K/BB ratio in 36 innings since the All-Star break. Mixed leaguers pretty much have to move on, even with a favorable start against the Marlins coming up, and I would think the Mets would benefit from sliding David Peterson into his rotation spot.
- Following an uneventful six-game rehab stint, Avisail Garcia went 0-for-4 against the Phillies in his first game back from the IL on Tuesday, leaving him at .229/.226/.318 in 89 games this year. The Marlins have a pretty generous schedule following this weekend’s series against the Mets, including an eight-game week against the Rangers, Phillies and Nationals coming up, so I’d love to recommend Garcia and maybe another Marlin or two if there were just anything to be encouraged about there. I’m not really seeing much, though. Aside from Jon Berti, Nick Fortes might be the team’s most interesting option next week, if only in two-catcher leagues.
- By the way, Jesus Sanchez is hitting .169/.258/.289 in 22 games since being sent down to Triple-A, just in case anyone thought we might see him again this year.
- Jack Flaherty was quite a bit stronger in his return Monday than when he originally tried to come back from shoulder issues. His average fastball came in at 94 mph, which is up two mph from June and even a tad north of his career norm. Whether he can sustain it remains to be seen, but I’m a lot more optimistic about him now than I was a week ago. He’s definitely worth trying down the stretch here.
- It can’t bode well for Victor Robles that the Nationals would rather play César Hernández -- a 32-year-old second baseman having a brutal season -- in the outfield than use their 25-year-old former top prospect. Hernandez has started three of the team’s last four games in left field, while Robles has played just once in that span. Robles doesn’t really deserve any better at this point, but that he’s mostly on the bench while the team is playing out the string here suggests that Mike Rizzo and company are already set on letting him go this winter.
