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Rangers Claim Gimenez, Place Kirkman On Outright Waivers

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MONDAY: Kirkman was placed on outright waivers shortly after being designated for assignment, and the Rangers will learn tomorrow whether he has been claimed, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News.

FRIDAY: The Rangers have claimed backstop Chris Gimenez off of waivers from the Athletics, reports Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com (via Twitter). To create roster space, lefty Michael Kirkman was designated for assignment.

The 31-year-old Gimenez provides yet another depth option for a Texas club that just inked Chris Snyder after losing Geovany Soto to start the year. Gimenez most recently saw MLB time with the Rays, but has never stepped up to the plate more than 130 times in any of his five MLB stints. In Triple-A last year, Gimenez hit .224/.350/.305 in 375 plate appearances, though he had much better numbers (.310/.389/.483 in 301 plate appearances) the year prior.

Kirkman, 27, has failed to maintain his form consistently at the MLB level, going from a 1.65 ERA in 16 1/3 innings (2010) to a 6.59 ERA in 27 1/3 (2011), 3.82 ERA in 35 1/3 (2012), and finally to a 8.18 ERA in 22 innings last year. His peripherals reveal a struggle with throwing strikes, as he has struck out 8.9 per nine over his career but walked 4.8 batters for every nine frames thrown.

AL East Notes: Lester, Victorino, Rays, Robertson

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The lack of a contract extension between the Red Sox and Jon Lester now presents the possibility that this could be Lester's last Opening Day with the team, writes Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald. Lauber adds that the season will now be rife with speculation regarding Lester's contract situation and opines that a strong performance out of the 30-year-old lefty could make the Red Sox regret not presenting Lester with a "Scherzer-like offer" (six years, $144MM) when all is said and done. Of course, that deal would hardly represent the discount to which Lester has previously referred.

Here are some more notes on Lester, the Red Sox, and the AL East…

  • Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports appeared on WEEI's Dennis & Callahan show Monday morning and discussed a number of topics, including Lester. Rosenthal pointed to a column he wrote last week in which he said he felt that Lester should end up around five years and $115MM. He adds that the Red Sox won't be able to get a Dustin Pedroia-like extension very often: "Pedroia’s deal is ridiculously club-friendly, and if the Red Sox think they’re getting that deal out of every player they’re out of their minds."
  • The Red Sox announced today that Shane Victorino will open the season on the disabled list with a right hamstring strain, and Jackie Bradley Jr. will begin the year with the big league club. On the Dennis & Callahan show, Rosenthal talked about Victorino's importance to the club, noting that if he misses a significant chunk of time this season, it could lead many to wonder what might've been if the team hadn't let Jacoby Ellsbury go. However, as Rosenthal plainly states, Boston was simply never going to approach the kind of money that Ellsbury got from the division-rival Yankees.
  • Sportsnet's Ben Nicholson-Smith spoke with Rays GM Andrew Friedman about the club's transformation from a perennial 90-loss team to a divisional powerhouse despite one of the game's most modest payrolls. "We have to act decisively but with a smaller margin for error than most clubs, and so we can’t box ourselves in," said Friedman. "We need to react more quickly when circumstances change or opportunities present themselves." Nicholson-Smith's piece is full of excellent quotes from the Rays' GM and reminds how far the team has come since the days of Gabe Gross, Akinori Iwamura and Andy Sonnanstine, who were all on the Opening Day roster as recently as 2008.
  • Some scouts have expressed concern over David Robertson's fastball, George A. King III of the New York Post reported last night. Robertson's heater was sitting between 88 and 90 mph late in Spring Training. King notes that Robertson's fastball typically improves as the season goes on, but a look at his velocity charts (per Fangraphs) shows that he's been inconsistent at best over the past two seasons, and his end-of-season velocity hasn't been much better than his Opening Day heat. As MLBTR's Mark Polishuk noted in his recent review of the Yankees' offseason, the team did little to address the bullpen this offseason and is relying on a group of largely unproven relievers.

Mets Interested In Bobby Abreu

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Though Bobby Abreu was released by the Phillies after failing to make their 25-man roster, he may not have to stray from the NL East to find his next job. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reports (via Twitter) that the Mets are interested in adding the veteran outfielder on a minor league deal to serve as outfield depth.

ESPN's Jayson Stark reported recently that Abreu would seek a Major League deal with another club upon learning that he hadn't made the Phils' big league squad, but it's unclear if such an opportunity will present itself. The 40-year-old Abreu slashed .244/.404/.366 in Spring Training with Philadelphia and is coming off a big season in the Venezuelan Winter League in which he batted .322/.416/.461 in the league's regular season. He then went on a more impressive tear in the league's postseason, clubbing eight home runs in 15 games.

Abreu has a career .873 OPS in 9926 plate appearances at the Major League level, and he last appeared in the bigs with the Dodgers in 2012, batting .246/.361/.344 in 230 trips to the plate.

Jose Contreras Weighing Retirement After Release

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March 31: Contreras has officially been released by the club, according to the team's transactions page.

March 17: The Rangers have informed right-hander Jose Contreras that he will not make the club and offered him reassignment to their minor league camp, according to a team release. However, the press release also says that Contreras is weighing his options, including retiring as an active player.

Contreras, who turned 42 this offseason, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers after tossing just five big league innings in 2013. The Cuban veteran was solid in 29 minor league innings last year though, posting a 2.79 ERA with the Triple-A affiliates for the Pirates and Red Sox. He's struggled in Spring Training to this point, yielding seven runs on 13 hits in six innings of work.

In 1173 Major League innings, Contreras has a 4.57 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 with a record of 78 wins and 67 losses. He had a strong season as a member of the Phillies' bullpen in 2010 but hasn't pitched more than 14 innings in a season since that time. He's earned $67.5MM over the course of his Major League career, according to Baseball-Reference.com.

Quick Hits: Cardinals, Lester, Penny

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John Gibbons of the Blue Jays, Kirk Gibson of the Diamondbacks, and Terry Collins of the Mets are among the managers currently on the hot seat, writes FOX Sports' Ken Rosenthal. Gibbons presided over an extremely disappointing 2013 Jays season, Gibson's Diamondbacks haven't taken a step forward, and Collins might become a victim of unfair expectations. Here are more notes from around baseball.

  • Good closers come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and big-name closers aren't always what they seem to be, Tyler Kepner shows in a long piece for the New York Times. That means overpaying for a closer can be a mistake. "We had a different guy for about six years in a row — Joe Borowski, Todd Jones, Armando Benitez," says Marlins director of baseball operations Dan Noffsinger. "Each one of these guys would have 30-plus saves, be successful and go get a bigger contract elsewhere. We would just move on to the next guy." The Marlins' example shows one reason why the Orioles were willing to trade Jim Johnson this offseason, for example, and the White Sox were willing to deal Addison Reed.
  • The selection of Shelby Miller in the first round of the 2009 draft marked a turning point for the Cardinals, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. "By the time we picked Miller, I think our knowledge base in at least how to avoid the high-risk players had evolved to the point where we felt more comfortable fishing in those waters," says Astros GM Jeff Luhnow, who ran the Cardinals' draft at the time. "He had the delivery. He had the pitches that we thought could develop. The size. The makeup. We had learned from our mistakes." Goold points out that before Miller, the Cardinals hadn't selected a pitcher in the first 30 picks of the draft since 1991. The Cardinals attacked the problem of which high-school pitchers were the best picks by looking at big-league pitchers and figuring out why they succeeded, and they focused on arm strength and athleticism. Later in that same 2009 draft, the Cardinals also selected Joe Kelly and Trevor Rosenthal.
  • Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester isn't concerned about his impending free agency, writes Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald. "If I use that for motivation, I’ve got problems," Lester says. "That’s not what motivates me to go out and pitch and get better. Money has never driven me." Lester and the Red Sox recently suspended negotiations on an extension.
  • Free agent pitcher Brad Penny has changed agencies from to the Legacy Agency to Millennium Sports, MLB Daily Dish's Chris Cotillo tweets. In early March, the Royals released Penny from their minor-league deal with him.

Indians Sign George Kottaras

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The Indians have signed catcher George Kottaras, Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweets. It's a minor-league deal, but Heyman writes that it's likely the Indians will promote Kottaras soon. Kottaras is represented by All Bases Covered.

The Cubs acquired Kottaras from the Royals in November, then released him last week after he lost their backup catcher battle to John Baker. Kottaras hit .180/.349/.370 in 126 plate appearances with the Royals last season.

The Indians currently have just two catchers on their 40-man roster, Yan Gomes and Carlos Santana, and Santana is currently slated to play mostly third base. The team could option fellow third baseman Lonnie Chisenhall to make room for Kottaras in the short term, although they would have to make additional moves once Michael Bourn and Jason Giambi return from injury.

NL West Notes: Cashner, Padres, Rockies

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This evening, Andrew Cashner of the Padres pitched six strong innings against the Dodgers, striking out five and allowing just one run in the first 2014 MLB regular-season game to take place on American soil. That led FOX Sports' Jon Morosi to wonder (via Twitter) who would ultimately win the trade that sent Cashner to the Padres and Anthony Rizzo to the Cubs. That's a question that might not be resolved anytime soon. Early on, the Cubs looked like the likely winners after Rizzo put together an excellent .285/.342/.463 season in 2012, leading to a $41MM extension early in the 2013 season. Rizzo had a disappointing 2013 season, though, and Cashner, with his terrific fastball and strong 2013 season, may be emerging as one of the National League's better young(-ish) starting pitchers. Here are more notes from the NL West.

  • The Padres have about 30 percent of their payroll on the disabled list, Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. That includes Carlos Quentin ($9.5MM), Josh Johnson ($8MM), Cameron Maybin ($5MM) and Cory Luebke ($3MM). Of course, in Johnson's case, the Padres were well aware he was an injury risk before they signed him. "With Johnson, we thought the risk was worth it. That’s what we’re going to do from time to time and we have to," says Padres Executive Chairman Ron Fowler. "To balance things, we have to take some risks that other teams don’t have to take."
  • The rising salaries of Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez might make 2014 their last season as Rockies teammates, Troy E. Renck of the Denver Post writes. "I want to play my entire career with CarGo, but of course I think about how it might not happen. I thought it would be the case with (Matt) Holliday, and it didn't work out," says Tulowitzki, who will make $16MM in 2014 before his salary increases to $20MM in 2015. Gonzalez will make $10.5MM in 2014 and $16MM in 2015. The Rockies say, however, that they won't need to trade either player.

MLBTR Originals

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A look back at the original reporting and analysis found on MLBTR this past week:

  • Zach Links spoke with high-level MLB executives about the much-debated qualifying offer. Unsurprisingly, their take is that while the system favors clubs, players and agents are responsible for anticipating demand appropriately before deciding whether to accept or decline the QO. One AL executive told Zach that if changes are to be made, the union will "have to give something substantial back. Now, whether that's something like an extra year of arbitration, I'm just not sure. I don't think the owners would just give it back to the players, it's something that [the owners] bargained and negotiated for." 
  • The 2013-2014 Offseason In Review series continued with Charlie Wilmoth's examination of the the Rangers, Mark Polishuk's recap of the Orioles and Red Sox, and Jeff Todd's analysis of the Nationals. 
  • Tim Dierkes was the first to report the Royals claimed Rule 5 selection Patrick Schuster off waivers from the Padres.
  • Tim was the first to learn right-hander Jason Bulger, the 22nd overall pick in the 2001 amateur draft, has ended his comeback from shoulder surgery and will retire after seven MLB seasons.

Reds Designate Pedro Beato For Assignment

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The Reds have designated pitcher Pedro Beato for assignment, C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. They also placed third baseman Jack Hannahan and pitcher Brett Marshall on the 60-day disabled list. The three moves cleared roster space to add pitcher Trevor Bell, outfielder Roger Bernadina and infielder Ramon Santiago.

Beato, 27, pitched ten innings for the Red Sox last year. The reliever spent much of the season in Triple-A Pawtucket, where he posted a 2.98 ERA with 7.9 K/9 and 4.2 BB/9 in 51 1/3 innings. The Reds claimed him last fall.

Week In Review: 3/23/14 – 3/29/14

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Here's a look back at this week at MLBTR:

Key Moves

Signed / Agreed To Terms

Trades

Claimed

Designated For Assignment

Outrighted

Released

Returned

Opted Out

Key Minor-League Signings

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