Minor Moves: Powell, Mattingly, Hu, Phillips, Herrera
Here’s where we’ll keep track of the latest minor moves…
- Athletics catcher Landon Powell has accepted his assignment to Triple-A, MLB.com's Jane Lee tweets. Powell cleared waivers about a week ago.
- The Yankees signed Preston Mattingly to a minor league deal, tweets Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus. The 24-year-old former first rounder posted a .232/.281/.354 line in the lower minors last year. He is the son of current Dodgers manager and former Yankees star Don Mattingly.
- The Indians signed former Dodgers and Mets shortstop prospect Chin-lung Hu, Goldstein tweets. The 27-year-old has a .296/.339/.412 line in nine minor league seasons. He appeared in 22 games with the Mets last year and also has MLB experience with the Dodgers.
- The Brewers announced that they signed catcher Paul Phillips to a minor league deal that includes an invitation to MLB Spring Training. The 34-year-old has MLB experience with the White Sox, Royals and Rockies. He spent the 2011 season with the Indians' top affiliate, posting a .237./281/.305 line.
- Danny Herrera cleared waivers and will remain in the Mets’ organization as a non-roster player, ESPNNewYork.com’s Adam Rubin tweets. The 27-year-old sidearmer joined the Mets in last summer's Francisco Rodriguez trade. He pitched 9 2/3 innings in the Major Leagues in 2011 and spent most of the season at Triple-A, where he posted a 2.20 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9.
- The Angels signed outfielder Doug Deeds to a minor league deal, Matt Eddy of Baseball America tweets. Deeds posted a .249/.304/.444 line for the Rangers' top affiliate in 2011.
- The Angels also signed outfielder Drew Macias, Eddy tweets. Macias, 28, has a .249/.363/.376 line in four Triple-A seasons and picked up some MLB experience with the 2007-09 Padres.
Boras, Amaro Discuss Madson Deal
Ryan Madson has agreed to sign with the Reds, but it wasn’t so long ago that he and the Phillies seemed close to a four-year, $44MM deal. It’s not clear what happened between Madson, agent Scott Boras, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and Phillies president David Montgomery, but Boras and Amaro have different accounts of the process. Boras says the sides agreed to a four-year, $44MM deal at which point the Phillies moved on.
"It's very simple," Boras told ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick. "We never rejected any offer from Philadelphia at four years and $44 million. We advised Philadelphia that we would agree to such a proposal. And Philadelphia decided upon hearing that to go in a different direction."
Amaro has a different account of what happened leading up to the Phillies’ deal with Jonathan Papelbon. He told Crasnick that Madson and the Phillies never agreed to a deal.
"There's no question we had discussions with Ryan about bringing him back,” Amaro said. “We had several discussions about it. But no agreement was made. If we had come to an agreement, we would have signed him.''
Amaro has said Montgomery knew where discussions between Madson and the Phillies stood all along. However, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com has heard that the sides were discussing details such as incentives when Amaro explained that he’d need to run the deal past Montgomery. Boras told Crasnick Madson had "numerous offers" on the table before agreeing to terms with Cincinnati.
Astros Designate Henry Villar For Assignment
The Astros announced that they designated right-hander Henry Villar for assignment to create 40-man roster space. Houston claimed outfielder Fernando Martinez from the Mets earlier today.
Villar, 24, did not appear with the Astros in 2011, though he pitched in eight MLB games in 2010. He spent last year with Houston's top two affiliates and posted a 5.45 ERA with 5.7 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 76 total innings. In six minor league seasons with the Astros, Villar has a 3.63 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9.
Red Sox Acquire Brad Emaus
The Red Sox acquired infielder Brad Emaus from the Rockies for a player to be named later or cash considerations, the Rockies announced. He'll provide Boston with insurance at second and third.
The Mets selected Emaus from the Blue Jays in the 2010 Rule 5 draft and returned him to Toronto the following April. The Blue Jays then flipped Emaus to the Rockies, who assigned him to Triple-A. The 25-year-old posted a .313/.389/.564 line in 186 plate appearances for the Rockies' top affiliate last year after struggling through 14 games with the Mets.
Astros Claim Fernando Martinez
1:35pm: The Astros claimed Martinez, tweets ESPNNewYork's Adam Rubin. They had the first crack at Martinez in the waiver process, with MLB's worst record in 2011.
11:53am: Mets outfielder Fernando Martinez will be claimed shortly by an NL Central team, tweets ESPN's Enrique Rojas. The team appears to be the Astros, based on this tweet from Rojas.
Baseball America named Martinez one of the top 100 prospects in the game before each of the 2007-10 seasons, and at age 23, he's worth a 40-man roster spot for new Houston GM Jeff Luhnow. Injuries, selectivity, and plate coverage have limited Martinez thus far, wrote Baseball America a year ago.
Brewers Claim Jeff Bianchi
The Brewers claimed infielder Jeff Bianchi off waivers from the Cubs, according to a press release. The addition brings Milwaukee's 40-man roster count to 39 and opens a spot for new Chicago starter Paul Maholm.
Bianchi, 25, was drafted by the Royals in the second round in 2005. He spent his entire career with their minor league teams, until the Cubs claimed him on waivers in December. Bianchi hit .259/.320/.333 in 499 Double-A plate appearances last year, playing the middle infield positions.
Cubs Close To Deal With Kerry Wood
The Cubs are close to a one-year deal with reliever Kerry Wood, tweets Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. The contract will include a club option for 2013. Earlier today, Cubs president Theo Epstein told reporters, "If we can't figure this out, something's wrong."
Wood, 34, was drafted fourth overall in 1995 by the Cubs and stayed in the organization through the 2008 season. Injuries pushed the hard-throwing Texan to a relief role, and he spent the 2009-10 seasons with the Indians and Yankees. Wood returned to the Cubs for the 2011 season on a below-market deal with a $1.5MM base salary. It was suggested he sought a salary closer to market value this time around, and yesterday Cubs GM Jed Hoyer said the team offered Wood a substantial raise.
Wood posted a 3.35 ERA, 10.1 K/9, 3.7 BB/9, 0.88 HR/9, and 35.8% groundball rate in 51 innings for the Cubs last year. He missed time with a blister, and also saw his season end about a week early due to a torn meniscus in his left knee. With Carlos Marmol tying for the MLB lead with 10 blown saves last year and Sean Marshall now with the Reds, Wood will be next in line to close for the Cubs if Marmol falters.
Pirates Sign Doug Slaten
The Pirates signed lefty reliever Doug Slaten to a minor league, deal, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports.
Slaten, 31, tossed 16 1/3 innings for the Nationals this year and another 10 1/3 in the minors, missing much of the season with an elbow injury. He was effective against lefty batters in 2010, although he faced only 81 of them. Slaten was non-tendered by the Nationals last month after earning $695K in 2011. He also had minor league offers from the Brewers and Rangers, tweets Rosenthal.
Slaten is represented by Paragon Sports International. Another PSI client, Jo-Jo Reyes, signed a minor league deal with the Pirates eight days ago.
Boras Blast From The Past: Maddux Accepts Arbitration
Nearly three years have passed since I did an entry in the Boras Blast From The Past series, but Ryan Madson's surprising one-year, $8.5MM contract yesterday with the Reds got me thinking about whether agent Scott Boras had previously settled for a one-year contract for a top client in his prime coming off a strong season. Madson is clearly at the top of his game, as a durable 31-year-old reliever who posted a 2.37 ERA, 32 save season. So far I haven't found a similar situation with Boras, although the story of Greg Maddux accepting arbitration as a free agent in 2002 is an interesting one.
At age 36, Maddux hadn't won a Cy Young award in a while, but he was still very good. In 2002 the Professor posted a 2.62 ERA, second in the National League behind Randy Johnson. Teammate Tom Glavine, who is a few weeks older than Maddux, finished third in NL ERA and signed a three-year, $35MM deal with the Mets in early December 2002. Later that month, Maddux made the surprising decision to accept arbitration, the equivalent of a one-year deal for 2003.
According to Murray Chass of the New York Times, Boras explained the decision by saying, "At this point in time it was a choice of venue for him. He had multiple offers, but he really wanted to have another crack at it in Atlanta. He's confident he's going to be pitching for a long, long time and he's very durable, so working on a one-year contract won't bother him. He has some goals that he has not yet achieved in Atlanta that he wants to resolve." According to the AP, Boras said "many clubs at the ownership level were interested" in Maddux, adding, "At this point in time, at least for this year, they wanted to return to Atlanta and give it one more shot of winning there." Boras' choice of "they" rather than "we" leads me to believe the decision came more from the client than the agent. After all, Boras is known for pulling rabbits out of his hat in January (Madson notwithstanding).
Despite Boras' claims, it seems possible that Maddux's market was limited. The AP article said no other teams publicly talked about pursuing him. Part of the problem was the recent collective bargaining agreement, which added a 175% luxury tax on the portion of teams' payrolls over $117MM in 2003. According to SI's Tom Verducci in November of 2002, "Most teams are expected to treat the luxury-tax threshold as a de facto salary cap," and teams like the Yankees, Dodgers, Rangers, and Red Sox were anxious to avoid it. It also appears Boras came out of the gate aggressively for Maddux, seeking a five-year deal according to Verducci.
The Braves had already planned for life without Maddux and Glavine, having acquired Russ Ortiz and Mike Hampton and signed Paul Byrd. Maddux's decision to accept arbitration busted the Braves' budget, so the team immediately traded Kevin Millwood to the rival Phillies for Johnny Estrada. GM John Schuerholz said, "We had no choice but to move payroll." Seven years later, a similar situation occurred with the Braves when reliever Rafael Soriano accepted arbitration and had to be traded due to payroll constraints. Soriano did not become a Boras client until several months later.
Maddux seemed headed for a hearing to determine his 2003 salary, but a few days prior he split the difference between his and the team's arbitration submissions, agreeing to a $14.75MM salary. It was the largest one-year contract in baseball history. Though Maddux led the NL in walk rate in '03, he posted his highest ERA since 1987 in his final and most expensive season with the Braves.
Scott Proctor Signs In Korea
Reliever Scott Proctor signed with Korea's Doosan Bears, reports Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net. The team added Dustin Nippert back in November.
Proctor, 35, pitched for the Braves and Yankees in 2011. He posted a 7.14 ERA, 6.5 K/9, 6.9 BB/9, 2.5 HR/9, and 31.6% groundball rate in 40 1/3 innings. Proctor's average fastball velocity was up to 93.8 miles per hour, but it didn't translate into outs.