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Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Bud Norris left Sunday’s contest against the Arizona Diamondbacks with a back injury, per an announcement from the team.  

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Norris Dealing with Muscle Tightness

Sunday, July 31

The Dodgers shared an image of the pitcher leaving the field Sunday: 

Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times reported Norris will have to go through a bullpen session before knowing if he’ll be able to make his next scheduled start. 

Norris pitched a mere 0.1 innings and allowed an earned run and a walk before leaving Sunday’s contest.

Ross Stripling entered the game for Norris as a long reliever who can also start and eat up innings. Stripling is a potential candidate to shoulder more of the load until Norris is ready to return because of his ability to serve as a spot starter (eight starts in 2016) or in middle relief.

Los Angeles acquired Norris from the Atlanta Braves via trade in June after it placed ace Clayton Kershaw on the disabled list. What’s more, Alex Wood is on the 60-day DL, which increased the need to add someone such as Norris at the time.

Entering play Sunday, Norris had 28 appearances for the Dodgers and Braves this season with a 4.27 ERA, 1.31 WHIP and 92 strikeouts in 99 innings. He struggled in 2015 (6.72 ERA for the Baltimore Orioles and San Diego Padres) but was an effective starter in 2014 with a 3.65 ERA and 1.22 WHIP in 28 starts for Baltimore.

Norris’ injury is exacerbated by the fact the Dodgers can ill afford any more setbacks in their starting rotation.

Three-time Cy Young winner Kershaw is suffering from a herniated disk, and the team is unsure if or when he will return for the 2016 campaign. With Wood also out, Shaikin said the Dodgers are expecting Brett Anderson to make two additional rehab starts before joining the team.

It raises the question whether they will attack Monday’s non-waiver trade deadline with even more aggression following Norris’ injury. Shaikin said Sunday’s setback means “additional urgency” for the search.

Los Angeles is two games back of the San Francisco Giants in the National League West. However, the Giants are 3-7 in their last 10 games, which has allowed Los Angeles to make up some ground despite the injury concerns. The Dodgers were 4-2 in their previous six contests before Sunday’s game.

Unless the Dodgers acquire anyone before the deadline, they will likely rely on pitchers such as Stripling, Kenta Maeda and Scott Kazmir until the injury woes subside.

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After leaving Saturday’s game against the New York Mets early, Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story is out of the lineup Sunday with a jammed left thumb.

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X-Rays on Story’s Thumb Come Back Negative

Sunday, July 31

Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post was the first to report Story’s absence, and he added that X-rays on the rookie’s thumb were negative.

The 23-year-old Texas native is enjoying a spectacular season, hitting .272 with a National League-leading 27 home runs and 72 RBI.

He is the clear front-runner for the NL Rookie of the Year Award, and along with Nolan Arenado and Carlos Gonzalez, Story gives Colorado one of the most potent and powerful lineups in Major League Baseball.

The Rockies are the hottest team in baseball with a record of 9-1 over their past 10 games, and they have gotten themselves within four games of the second and final wild-card spot in the NL.

They trail the San Francisco Giants by eight games for the NL West lead, so their only hope of sneaking into the playoffs requires them to chase down the Miami Marlins and St. Louis Cardinals.

Doing so without Story over the long haul seems unlikely, but the fact that X-rays on his thumb were negative suggests that a stint on the disabled list may not be necessary.

Colorado has some depth at shortstop in the form of veteran Daniel Descalso and Cristhian Adames, but Story’s absence takes a huge element of power away from the Rockies’ talented lineup.

Follow @MikeChiari on Twitter.

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Just hours after he was dealt from the Atlanta Braves to the San Diego Padres, infielder Hector Olivera was designated for assignment by his new team on Saturday, per MLB Network’s Jon Morosi.

The 31-year-old Olivera came to the United States from Cuba in 2015 and has played in just 30 games. He is currently serving an 82-game suspension for violating the league’s domestic violence policy that will end on Monday.

Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune added that the DFA will not become official until he gets off of the league’s suspension list on Tuesday. 

The Padres sent veteran right fielder Matt Kemp to the Atlanta Braves, per ESPN.com, as the team was able to shed his big contract. 

Per Lin, Olivera was expected to be designated for assignment upon the deal’s completion as the Padres continue to shed big-name players in order to rebuild the franchise.

Kemp was owed $21.5 million in each of the next three years through the 2019 season as San Diego also dealt $10.5 million to the Braves to help them deal with his big contract. 

San Diego has also parted ways with Fernando Rodney, Melvin Upton Jr, Andrew Cashner, Drew Pomeranz and James Shields this summer.

Olivera though also had a big contract of his own as he signed a six-year, $52.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers before he was dealt to the Braves. Per USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale, Olivera is expected to make $25.5 million in the remainder of his deal.

As a player who hit .322 with 96 home runs and 438 RBI in 11 seasons in Cuba, Olivera has failed to live up to the height during his time in the majors. 

In his 30 games over two seasons, he’s batted .245 with two home runs and 13 RBI. 

He began his rehab assignment in July 15 in the minor leagues as he prepared to come back from his suspension, which came after an April 13 arrest outside of a hotel in Washington, D.C., where he was charged with assault and battery of a woman.

Now just days before being eligible to return to the majors, Olivera might have to find a new home to try and get his professional career in the United States on track. 

Contract figures courtesy of Spotrac.com. Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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The San Diego Padres lost 6-0 to the Cincinnati Reds on Friday, marking the end of a National League record-tying streak of 25 consecutive games with at least one home run as a team, per ESPN Stats & Info.

The Padres eked out just five singles and a double in Friday’s ugly home loss, allowing Reds starter Brandon Finnegan (six innings) to improve his record to 6-8 and ERA to 4.68.

Padres starter Edwin Jackson (1-2) took the loss, giving up six runs (all earned) on 10 hits and two walks over five innings.

The team needed just two more games to tie the all-time record of 27 straight games with a home run, set by a 2002 Texas Rangers squad that featured sluggers Alex Rodriguez (57 homers), Rafael Palmeiro (43) and Ivan Rodriguez (19 in 104 games).

The Rangers still only won 72 games that year, which is about where the Padres (44-59) seem to be headed.

Although the recent power surge has led to some long-awaited excitement regarding the team’s young batters, San Diego still only went 11-14 during the streak, largely due to poor pitching.

Still, the team has to be thrilled to finally possess some building blocks on the offensive side, with 25-year-old first baseman Wil Myers the most promising of the bunch.

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By the time you finish reading this sentence, Jay Bruce may have already become the newest member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

But if he’s still on the Cincinnati Reds by the time you’ve gotten to this sentence, we can only go so far as imagining how well Bruce would fit in Dodger blue.

Bruce’s name has been linked to the Dodgers, who began Friday with just a two-game deficit in the NL West, on the rumor mill here and there throughout the last couple of weeks. But the real whopper came Friday evening. As reported by ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark, there’s a plot afoot that could land the veteran right fielder in Los Angeles ahead of the August 1 non-waiver trade deadline:

We don’t know much more, save for one detail that’s equal parts plausible and significant.

Twitter was abuzz with speculation about Yasiel Puig possibly being involved in the deal, but Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports reported the Dodgers and Reds couldn’t work out a deal involving Puig and Bruce. 

With Puig out of the picture, a report from Jon Morosi of MLB Network suggests the Dodgers will need to pony up prospects to get Bruce. Because Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman has been protective of his farm system, it shouldn’t be taken as a certainty that a deal will get done.

But if a deal is made, Bruce will be a fit for the Dodgers lineup in more ways than one.

With an .895 OPS through 95 games, Bruce would be a major upgrade for a right field spot that hasn’t given the Dodgers much offensive production. No thanks to Puig and his disappointing .693 OPS, the Dodgers entered Friday getting just a .713 OPS out of right field. That ranked in the bottom five of MLB.

But Bruce’s real appeal? Pictured here, that would be his expertise in the matter of clobberage:

With six dingers in his last five games, Bruce is already up to 25 home runs in 2016. That puts him just one short of his 2015 total and within reach of his career high of 34.

A power bat of that magnitude is just what the doctor ordered for this Dodgers lineup. It entered Friday ranked ninth in the National League in home runs and 12th in slugging percentage.

The Dodgers have hitters with good power, to be sure, but some of them come with question marks. For example, here’s Buster Olney of ESPN.com with a not-so-encouraging Adrian Gonzalez observation:

Super-rookie Corey Seager is also struggling with power all of a sudden, as there’s a goose egg in his home run column for July. Albeit with an injury absence in the middle, Joc Pederson has homered only six times since May 18.

Of course, it’s fair to view both Bruce’s power and overall production with a skeptical eye. He’s 29, which is a little old to be coming into career-best power. And after he managed just a .695 OPS across 2014 and 2015, what he’s doing this year may also seem too good to be true.

But poor health played a significant role in Bruce’s struggles in ’14 and ’15. He had to have surgery on his left knee in 2014, and his recovery from that seemed to last into the next season.

One way to tell he’s legitimately back this season, though, is by looking at how hard he’s hitting the ball. It shows in his surface-level stats, but even better is how he entered Friday with a career-best 37.8 hard-hit percentage.

“I just feel stronger,” Bruce told Anthony Castrovince of MLB.com in May. “I hit a lot of balls on the ground the last two years, and I usually don’t do that too, too much. I think in 2014, it had something to do with my knee. And I think in 2015, the bad habits I had carried over. So it’s just fixing that. I haven’t felt terrible, haven’t felt great. I’m just trying to keep my blinders on and go to work.”

As August Fagerstrom of FanGraphs highlighted in the spring, another thing to look for in 2016 would be whether the lefty-swinging Bruce was capable of hitting with power to the opposite field. Sure enough, his oppo power has gone way up:

• 2014: .313 SLUG%
• 2015: .374 SLUG%
• 2016: .686 SLUG%

To boot, Bruce hasn’t needed the cozy confines of Great American Ball Park to boost his power. He has hit for more power (.608 SLUG%) on the road than he has at home (.538 SLUG%).

Add it all up, and you get power that would play at Dodger Stadium and make the Dodgers lineup more dangerous. That’s not a happy thought for the San Francisco Giants. Their lead in the NL West has shrunk in part because the Dodgers offense has gotten better every month even without a steady power presence.

If there’s a silver lining for the Giants and others who would be tasked with silencing a Dodgers lineup with Bruce in it, it’s that adding him wouldn’t provide the kind of balance L.A. needs.

Justin Turner and Howie Kendrick aside, the Dodgers offense skews left-handed. That’s helped lead to the league’s worst OPS against left-handed pitching. The struggle would continue with Bruce, who turns into a lesser hitter against same-side pitching.

Still, the Dodgers’ platoon split hasn’t barred them from getting this far. That has a lot to do with how their offense is coming together at the right time. Adding Bruce to the mix could allow it to take off.

All they have to do now is get a deal done.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted/linked.

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The San Francisco Giants announced Thursday they acquired infielder Eduardo Nunez from the Minnesota Twins in return for minor league pitcher Adalberto Mejia.

Entering Friday’s slate of games, Nunez is batting .296 with 12 home runs, 47 RBI and a league-leading 27 stolen bases. 

The 2016 American League All-Star spoke with MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger about leaving the team with which he’s spent the past two-plus seasons:

The 29-year-old has been enjoying his best year in the major leagues and was one of the only bright spots on a Twins team that is one of the worst in the big leagues. 

His 110 hits led the team, and his 12 home runs were tied for third behind Brian Dozier and Miguel Sano, respectively. Nunez has experienced a major jump in the power department, as he had never hit more than five home runs in a season since coming up with the New York Yankees in 2010.

He collected one of his homers in an unconventional way:

Nunez will hit his third year of arbitration after the campaign ends, per Spotrac. He’s set himself up for a nice payday, after earning the first All-Star appearance of his career this season.

Now on his way to San Francisco, Nunez is joining a contender that enters Friday with a 2.0-game lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West. That’s a major change compared to playing on a last-place Twins team that improved to 38-63 after Thursday’s win over the Baltimore Orioles.

This acquisition addresses a big problem the Giants have been dealing with for over a month. They have been without starting third baseman Matt Duffy since June 19 because of a strained Achilles, which has forced the team to use a platoon of Conor Gillaspie and Ramiro Pena in his place.

Nunez will likely slot into the starting third base role until Duffy returns. According to John Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, Duffy will begin playing minor league rehab games Saturday. 

The Giants will be able to take advantage of Nunez’s versatility and play him all over the infield when Duffy returns.

But to get him, San Francisco had to part with its seventh-best minor league prospect in Mejia, per MLB.com.

Twins interim general manager Rob Antony told Bollinger that six teams were interested in Nunez, adding that Minnesota was looking for “close-to-MLB-ready pitching.”

Mejia is 7-3 with a 2.81 ERA in 18 starts between Double-A and Triple-A this season, as he’s rebounded from a 50-game suspension in 2015 for testing positive for a banned stimulant.

MLB stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Boone Logan is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career, but he could be on his way out of town before Major League Baseball’s Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline. 

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Rockies Shopping Logan

Thursday, July 28

On Thursday, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi reported the Toronto Blue Jays “have discussed” a possible deal with the Rockies for Logan.

Toronto’s bullpen is in desperate need of a serviceable left-handed arm as the team looks to stay in contention in the American League East. Entering Thursday, the Blue Jays were two games behind the first-place Baltimore Orioles.

Brett Cecil, the only lefty Toronto has, is 0-6 with a 6.00 ERA in 27 appearances this season, and a lack of a lefty specialist could come back to haunt the Blue Jays as August approaches.

Logan could provide a huge boost, as the 31-year-old southpaw has been the best arm in Colorado’s bullpen this season.

He’s recorded a team-best 2.48 ERA to go with 34 strikeouts in 29 innings. He’s been especially stellar as of late, not allowing a run in his last 10 outings.

In contrast, no other Rockies reliever who has appeared in 35-plus games has an ERA lower than 3.86.

Because of that, Morosi forecast on July 19 that Logan would “be among the most talked about bullpen arms across the industry in the coming days.”

Logan’s three-year, $16.5 million deal will expire at the end of the season, per Spotrac, and due to such great interest, it might be best for the Rockies to deal him to get something in return instead of taking their chances in free agency.

That way, Colorado could acquire some pieces to help the team develop into a contender in the National League West, which has been dominated by the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

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The San Diego Padres tied a franchise record during Wednesday’s 8-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, hitting at least one home run as a team in a 25th consecutive game, per ESPN Stats & Info.

Infielder Adam Rosales did the honors with a two-run shot off of Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey in the top of the third inning, and was later joined by first baseman Brett Wallace (fifth inning) and outfielder Alex Dickerson (eighth inning), both of whom hit solo home runs that provided insurance.

Per ESPN Stats & Info, 10 different Padres have hit home runs during the 25-game stretch, including outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. (five), who was traded to the Blue Jays on Tuesday.

Upton made his first start for Toronto on Wednesday, recording a single and a run scored in four at-bats.

Padres second baseman Ryan Schimpf (nine homers) leads the team in home runs over the course of the streak, followed by outfielder Matt Kemp (eight), utility man Yangervis Solarte (six) and the aforementioned Dickerson (five).

Rosales and Wallace have contributed just two apiece, both serving in part-time roles.

While encouraging for the franchise’s future, the recent power surge hasn’t led to improvement in the win column, with San Diego going just 11-14 during the streak.

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The Colorado Rockies don’t have to trade Carlos Gonzalez.

He’s under contract through 2017, and he’s having an All-Star season.

If Colorado is serious about a rebuild and wants to maximize CarGo’s value, however, the moment for a blockbuster deal could be now or never.

After playing just 180 games combined in 2013 and 2014 because of injuries, Gonzalez bounced back last season with 40 home runs and a .271/.325/.540 slash line in 153 contests.

This year, he’s shown that was no fluke, slashing .317/.370/.544 with 20 homers and 22 doubles entering play Thursday.

Even adjusting for the Coors Field effect—Gonzalez’s career slugging percentage is 176 points higher at home—those are numbers that would leave any offense-hungry contender salivating.

There are likely other power-hitting corner outfielders on the market as the Aug. 1 non-waiver deadline approaches, including the Cincinnati Reds‘ Jay Bruce and, possibly, the New York Yankees‘ Carlos Beltran.

Gonzalez, though, would be the biggest prize if the Rockies were to dangle him, a middle-of-the-order bat capable of tipping a race anywhere he goes.

In June, Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post laid out the case for moving Gonzalez:

CarGo is making $17 million this season and $20 million in 2017, the final year of his contract, so the Rockies would like to get something for him before he leaves. He’s not the complete, five-tool player he used to be, but he’s still a legitimate slugger.

If general manager Jeff Bridich doesn’t believe the Rockies can make the playoffs this season—and I think in his heart of hearts he knows this team is at least a year away—then moving CarGo makes sense. The fact that outfield prospects David Dahl and Raimel Tapia look like potential stars makes a CarGo trade even more likely.

Saunders concluded that Colorado is more likely to trade Gonzalez in the offseason. It’s a salient argument. Next winter’s free-agent cupboard is notably bare, so CarGo ought to draw ample interest, assuming he stays healthy and productive for the remainder of 2016.

Then again, there’s no guarantee that’ll happen. Gonzalez turns 31 in October. He’s always been a streaky hitter. And to repeat, he wore the label “injury-prone” until recently, missing time with various maladies and undergoing knee surgery in 2014.

Surely some clubs that would surrender a shiny package for a healthy CarGo in the offseason would cough up more to get him in the heat of the playoff push.

Mix in the risk of a disabled-list stint or a cold couple of months, and the Rockies might never be able to sell higher than they could right now.

Colorado has done an admirable job bolstering its farm system, which Bleacher Report’s Joel Reuter ranked No. 6 in the game after the 2016 amateur draft.

A few more quality pieces—particularly on the pitching side—could solidify the future. Plus, there are already club-controlled stars on the big league roster, including 25-year-old third baseman Nolan Arenado and 23-year-old shortstop Trevor Story.

At 49-52, the Rockies are six games off the wild-card pace and a long shot at best to sniff the playoffs. Their eyes should be trained on the horizon.

So which teams might be willing to part with meaningful chips to land Gonzalez? Potentially a lot.

Jon Heyman of Today’s Knuckleball linked him to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Sporting News’ Ryan Fagan noted CarGo “makes sense” for the Boston Red Sox, San Francisco Giants, Cleveland Indians, Baltimore Orioles, Kansas City Royals, Detroit Tigers and Chicago White Sox.

That’s not to say all those squads would have the assets or motivation to make it happen, but it gives a sense of the wide net Colorado could cast.

On July 7, Gonzalez indicated he’d like to remain in the Mile High City as the Rockies’ young players develop. He’s played in only one postseason, in 2009, when the Philadelphia Phillies eliminated Colorado in the division series.

“I have been here for a lot of bad moments and tough situations, so I want to see the bright [side],” he said, per Saunders. “I want to be here when that happens.”

Maybe he will be. The Rockies don’t have to trade him.

But if they’re planning on doing it and maximizing the return, now seems like the time.

All statistics courtesy of MLB.com and Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.

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The San Diego Padres are not realistic contenders as the Aug. 1 non-waiver trade deadline approaches, and they are reportedly looking to trade catcher Derek Norris as part of a selling effort, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports.

Continue for updates.    

Padres ‘Pushing Hard’ on Norris

Sunday, July 24

In addition to the Norris news, Passan noted San Diego is also attempting to move pitcher Andrew Cashner.

Norris was a 2014 All-Star who played for the Oakland Athletics from 2012 to 2014 before joining the Padres. While he is struggling some at the dish in 2016 after hitting .250 in 2015 and a career-best .270 in 2014, he has reached double-digit home run totals in each of the last three years and brings some pop to the lineup from the catching position:

That type of long-ball potential from a catcher is likely attractive to teams looking to add some firepower, but Norris is arguably most valuable in the field when he is managing pitching staffs and nailing runners on the basepaths.

He led the major leagues with 44 runners caught stealing in 2015 and is responsible for a career-high eight total defensive runs saved above average this season with more than two months remaining on the schedule, per FanGraphs.

From San Diego’s perspective, trading Norris could open the door for another contributor. Mark Polishuk of MLB Trade Rumors noted “Norris has been rumored as a trade candidate for months, thanks to the Padres’ rebuilding plans and the club’s desire to permanently promote top prospect Austin Hedges (who has crushed Triple-A pitching over the last two seasons).”

According to MiLB.com, Hedges is hitting .367 with 17 home runs and 61 RBI through 47 games at Triple-A this season.

While the Padres will likely be set at catcher with Hedges, any team that lands Norris will receive a former All-Star who is only 27 years old with a contract that is controllable through the 2018 season, per Spotrac. That formula could help a contender chase playoff spots for the next couple of years.

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