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Minor Moves: Purke, Jensen, Walters, Marks, Hermida, Orr

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Baseball America’s Matt Eddy has this week’s edition of his Minor League Transactions feature up, which, as usual, features several recent minor league signings. Here are a few highlights from his piece, as well as other minor moves from around the league…

  • After releasing him on Friday, the Nationals have re-signed lefty Matt Purke to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite, James Wagner of the Washington Post reports. Purke has never thrown to the potential that the team saw when they gave him a massive bonus to sign out of the 2011 draft, but now he will have a chance to rehab from Tommy John surgery without occupying a 40-man roster spot.
  • The Dodgers have acquired right-handed-hitting outfielder/first baseman Kyle Jensen from the Marlins, the clubs announced. Jensen, 26, has yet to see playing time at the MLB level, but slashed .260/.331/.481 with 27 home runs last year in the PCL. Miami will receive cash or a player to be named later in return.
  • The Phillies have signed right-hander P.J. Walters, according to Eddy. The 29-year-old comes with 152 innings of big league experience, though he’s struggled to a 6.28 ERA in that time. Much of that work came with the 2012-13 Twins, where he posted  a 5.79 ERA in 101 innings. Walters has a 4.70 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 in 735 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level.
  • The D’Backs and left-hander Justin Marks have agreed to a minor league deal, also per Eddy. The 26-year-old Marks picked up his first two big league innings in 2014 and has a lifetime 5.02 ERA with 8.1 K/9 and 4.2 BB/9 in Triple-A. Marks struggled overall in 2014 but was previously excellent against lefties, holding them to a .191/.301/.268 batting line in 2013. He, along with Vin Mazzaro, was one of two players acquired by the Royals from the A’s in exchange for David DeJesus back in 2010.
  • The Brewers announced last week that they have re-signed outfielder Jeremy Hermida and infielder Pete Orr to minor league deals. The 30-year-old Hermida once carried a significant amount of promise — he was the 11th overall pick in 2002 and hit .296/.369/.501 as a 24-year-old in 2007 — but hasn’t seen Major League action since 2012 with the Padres. Orr, 35, has seen MLB action parts of eight seasons, most recently with the Phillies in 2013. He is a career .257/.289/.328 hitter that is capable of playing all over the diamond. He hit .301/.329/.423 with the Brewers in Triple-A last year.
  • The Marlins have inked indy league second baseman Omar Artsen, Eddy reports. The 24-year-old Artsen spent last season playing in the Pecos League where he boasted a gaudy stat line of .397/.480/.576 with nine homers and 52 steals in 353 PA.

AL East Notes: Jays, Sox, Sandoval, Lester, Yankees, Scherzer

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The Blue Jays were the only team that put a fifth year on the table for Russell Martin, tweets Jim Bowden of of ESPN.com, and that was the key to landing the backstop. With Toronto having fired the first major offseason salvo in the AL East, let’s see where things stand elsewhere in the division …

  • Martin’s signing does not mark an early conclusion to the Blue Jays’ offseason, but rather opens up new possibilities for GM Alex Anthopoulos, writes Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca. The move also highlights Anthopoulos’s desire to “rearrang[e] the clubhouse dynamics,” says Davidi.
  • Pablo Sandoval met with the Red Sox today, and the club will also sit down with Jon Lester before the lefty flies off for meetings with other suitors tomorrow, reports WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford. Boston never made an effort to acquire Jason Heyward before he was sent to St. Louis, reports Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald.
  • The Yankees are largely waiting and watching at the moment, according to George A. King III of the New York Post. It is possible that the Rangers would be willing to part with shortstop Elvis Andrus, but it remains unknown whether New York would take on enough cash or part with sufficient prospects to make a deal attractive to Texas. And the team’s own free agents still seem to be feeling out the market at present.
  • King notes that an arm like Max Scherzer could become increasingly appealing to the Yankees as the offseason progresses, and indeed Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports that there has been at least “brief contact” between the team and Scott Boras (Scherzer’s agent) since the GM Meetings. New York “may revisit their initial instinct to largely sit this winter out,” per Heyman, who explains that the silence around Scherzer’s market is rather unusual.

Free Agent Profile: Pablo Sandoval

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Pablo Sandoval has a case as the best free agent hitter this offseason, and demand is strong.  The third baseman reached free agency at age 28, putting an exclamation point on his year with another huge postseason.

Strengths/Pros

Sandoval is a career .294 hitter who has hit .315 or better in multiple full seasons.  Known for his incredible hand-eye coordination, he makes contact about 87% of the time.  His consistency in this area has been uncanny, as he’s never dipped below 86.5% or risen above 86.9% in any of his six full seasons.  What’s more, Sandoval has no clear weakness, as Jeff Sullivan of FanGraphs explained.  He can hit pitches in and out of the strike zone, he can hit all types of pitches, and he can hit with two strikes.  In 2008, Sandoval told Lee Jenkins of Sports Illustrated, “I like every pitch, no matter where it is.”

Pablo Sandoval

Sandoval’s weighted runs created plus (wRC+) of 114 from 2013-14 ranked ninth among third basemen.  This stat is park and league-adjusted, giving Sandoval some credit for playing in a pitchers’ park.

Sandoval’s postseason heroics in 2012 and 2014 are legendary.  He won the World Series MVP in 2012, hitting .500 with three home runs as part of an excellent postseason overall.  This year, he raked to the tune of .366/.423/.465 in the postseason.  Just 28 years old, Sandoval has already collected three rings with the Giants.

Though he’s a big guy, Sandoval plays a solid third base.  His ultimate zone rating and defensive runs saved marks were both above average this year.

We’ve mentioned that Sandoval is just 28 years old.  Such youth is a rarity for a free agent, and it’s a function of Sandoval reaching the Majors at age 21 and not signing an extension that gave up free agent years.  The unique cases of Cuban free agents aside, Sandoval is the youngest prominent free agent hitter along with Colby Rasmus, who was born on the same day.

Weaknesses/Cons

For all his postseason success, Sandoval’s regular season was his worst with the bat since 2010.  His 6.1% walk rate was a career-worst for a full season, and it resulted in an unspectacular .324 on-base percentage.  And while Sandoval flashed 25 home run pop early in his career, he’s averaged about 15 per 600 plate appearances over the last three seasons.  He’s slugged just .416 over the last two campaigns, 67th among qualified hitters.  This year in the regular season, Sandoval was roughly the hitter Trevor Plouffe, Daniel Murphy, or Brett Gardner was.  Those are above average hitters, but not middle of the order cornerstones.

Sandoval’s baserunning has always been a detriment, bringing his overall value down.   He has totaled 7.9 wins above replacement over the last three seasons, 81st in baseball among position players.  He’s in a virtual tie with guys like Jon Jay and Jed Lowrie, who might be described as useful but are certainly not considered stars or among the best as their respective positions.  By measure of WAR, Sandoval ranked 14th among third basemen this year, seven spots below fellow free agent third baseman Chase Headley.

Sandoval is listed at 5-foot-11 and 245 pounds, making him one of the game’s heaviest regular position players.  He’s been at least 30 pounds heavier than that at different points.  Using pounds per inch, Daniel Meyer of Beyond the Box Score noted, “Deep into the history of the past 143 years of recorded baseball history no player of Sandoval’s proportions has played more than a season’s worth of games at third base,” making Sandoval a trailblazer in what he’s done already.  His weight raises questions about how well he’ll age, his future durability, and when he might have to move off the hot corner.  Talk about Sandoval’s weight and conditioning have followed him throughout his career, as chronicled by Jorge L. Ortiz of USA Today in February this year.

Since he received and turned down a one-year, $15.3MM qualifying offer from the Giants, signing Sandoval will require draft pick forfeiture.

Personal

Sandoval was born in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela.  He was born left-handed but learned to throw with his right hand at the age of nine so he could play catcher.  Switch-hitting followed his switch-throwing a few years later.   The Giants signed him in 2003 at age 16, as a catch-and-throw specialist behind the plate.

Sandoval is an exuberant player who usually has a smile on his face and is beloved by fans.  He is nicknamed Kung Fu Panda, a name bestowed on him by teammate Barry Zito in 2008 when Sandoval scored a run by jumping over the catcher’s tag.  The nickname took off, with thousands of Giants fans making Panda gear ubiquitous.

Sandoval has two daughters and resides in Venezuela in the offseason.

Market

So far in free agency, Sandoval has been pursued heavily by the Giants and is in Boston today for a meeting with the Red Sox.  The Padres, Blue Jays, and White Sox have also been connected, and agent Gustavo Vasquez met with most or all of the teams at last week’s GM Meetings.  Just to expand the field as far as possible, teams such as the Yankees, Tigers, Astros, Angels, and Marlins don’t have third base entirely locked down even if they haven’t been linked to Sandoval recently.  Sandoval has been a member of the Giants for his entire career, and after past championships the Giants retained their players.  Prior to the season, the Giants reportedly tried to start the conversation with a three-year, $40MM offer with Sandoval seeking five years and $100MM+.

With Aramis Ramirez having re-signed with the Brewers, Sandoval’s third base competition consists of Headley and perhaps Hanley Ramirez.  Headley holds the advantage of not being eligible for a qualifying offer.  Plus, his defense-oriented profile won’t cost nearly as much.  The trade market at third base is light, with perhaps Luis Valbuena, David Freese, Casey McGehee, Pedro Alvarez, and Plouffe in the mix.

Expected Contract

Perhaps because of the postseason, his age, or the promise Sandoval showed in years like 2009, this is a player who is valued by the market well beyond his regular season statistics.

Vasquez has come right out and said his client is focused on the length of his deal and that six years would be reasonable given his age (Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle reporting).  Most agents don’t speak about that publicly, and most also seek one year more than they might privately expect the player to receive.  I think in this case, Vasquez really does expect six years, and Sandoval will receive such an offer in the end.  It is difficult to picture seven years unless that seventh year comes very cheaply.

Expectations seem to be for an average annual value of $18-20MM for Sandoval.  I’m going with a six-year, $114MM deal.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

NL East Links: J. Upton, Marlins, Nats, Mets

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To say it’s been an eventful few days in the NL East would be a colossal understatement, as the Marlins have reportedly finalized a record-setting 13-year deal with Giancarlo Stanton and the Braves have traded Jason Heyward to the Cardinals. While those transactions are rightfully dominating the headlines, here are a few more notes from around the division…

  • With Heyward now in St. Louis, Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that a trade of Justin Upton can’t be ruled out. Nightengale lists the Mariners as a strong suitor for Upton, should the Braves decide to market him. Upton recently dropped the Mariners from his no-trade list.
  • Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria tells Manny Navarro of the Miami Herald that he plans to surround Stanton with an improved lineup and can afford to go out and add a bat to hit behind him this offseason.
  • The Nationals have hired veteran scout Terry Wetzel as a special assistant to GM Mike Rizzo, reports MLB.com’s Tracy Ringolsby. Wetzel has 32 years of experience, including 17 seasons with the Royals and the past 15 seasons with the Rockies. He was named scout of the year once within each of those organizations.
  • The Mets, to this point, have had very few inquiries on pitchers Bartolo Colon, Jon Niese and Dillon Gee, reports Mike Puma of the New York Post (Twitter link). All three are said to be potentially available this winter, and I’d imagine that interest will pick up to an extent, particularly at the Winter Meetings.

Athletics Claim Alex Hassan From Red Sox

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The A’s announced that they have claimed outfielder/first baseman Alex Hassan off waivers from the Red Sox (Twitter link).

Hassan, 26, made his big league debut with the Red Sox this year, collecting nine plate appearances and picking up his first big league hit — a single. The former 20th-round draft pick had a solid season at Triple-A Pawtucket, batting .287/.378/.426 with eight home runs this season. Those numbers line up well with the .282/.387/.411 batting line that Hassan has compiled over the course of parts of four seasons at that level.

John Hart On The Heyward/Miller Trade

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During a conference call with reporters, Braves president of baseball operations John Hart discussed several aspects of today’s blockbuster trade that saw Jason Heyward and Jordan Walden to go to the Cardinals in exchange for right-handers Shelby Miller and Tyrell Jenkins.  It was “very difficult” for the Braves to trade a homegrown product like Heyward, Hart said, yet it was a move the team felt it had to make “to help not only in the short term but also in the long term.”

With Ervin Santana and Aaron Harang in free agency and Brandon Beachy and Kris Medlen both recovering from Tommy John surgery, Atlanta entered the offseason with a clear need for starting pitching.  There wasn’t much help coming from the farm, given how Hart described the Braves as “woefully thin [pitching-wise] in our minor league system.”  The St. Louis deal, therefore, checked a couple of boxes for the Braves as they were able to add a quality prospect in Jenkins and a young arm who’d experienced some Major League success in Miller.  The fact that Miller isn’t eligible for free agency until after the 2018 season made him especially attractive, Hart said.

“Going into this winter we’d lost over 400 innings in our rotation and we didn’t have any players coming up in our system that were ready to provide those types of innings.  We really needed two starting pitchers.  As we went through the meetings, we went out there with the idea of how do we acquire starters.  We sampled the waters, we talked to literally every club out there and weren’t looking for a one-year sort of fix.  Shelby Miller was one of the younger pitchers that we had identified as a guy who could step in and help us right now and that we would be able to control for a number of years.”

Miller’s status as a piece for both the present and future gives the Braves “the flexibility to go either way” in deciding if other offseason moves will be geared towards next season’s club or perhaps for a few years down the road.

“We’ll take a good look at our competition in our division, take a good look at our club, take a look at what we can do in free agency to allow us to compete and examine other opportunities that might come our way.  I don’t think this trade sets us [in a direction] either way.  It provides us with the opportunity to look at everything independently….It certainly gives us some options for 2015 but there’s certainly a big picture in play.”

One of those big-picture questions involves Justin Upton, who (like Heyward) only has one year remaining on his contract before free agency.  There has been speculation that Atlanta could look to deal both of its corner outfielders this winter, and while Hart said “there is absolutely a legitimate chance” Upton is a Brave in 2015, he also said there hadn’t been any serious discussion of a contract extension.

“There’s nothing definitive as we look to go forward, obviously.  We’re going to continue to explore a lot of avenues with what we do with the ballclub.  As we sit here today, there’s certainly a good chance Justin is back with us next year….I’ve had conversations [about an extension] but they have not been anything in depth so it would be unfair for me to comment much on Justin in that regard.  We’ll certainly continue to talk with his agent but I don’t really have a definitive answer as of yet.”

Heyward was guaranteed $8.3MM in 2015, so the trade also frees up some salary space.  This doesn’t mean the Braves will be in the running for the likes of Max Scherzer or James Shields (“We’re not looking to give up draft picks or financially handcuff this club,” Hart said), yet the extra payroll allows the club to explore both the free agent market and the trade market for further upgrades.

Despite Heyward’s pending free agent status after the 2015 season, the Braves “didn’t go out with the idea that Jason was going to be the guy that we used to get our starting pitching,” and that the club “sorted through a lot of different options before” deciding on this deal.  Last winter, Heyward signed a two-year extension that covered his two remaining arbitration-eligible seasons, and this modest contract stood out amidst much longer-term extensions given to Freddie Freeman, Julio Teheran, Andrelton Simmons and Craig Kimbrel.

When I asked Hart if there had been any recent negotiations with Heyward about an extension, Hart gave the impression that there hadn’t been any further talks since last offseason.

“He wanted a two-year deal and wasn’t interested in a long-term extension unless the dollars were maybe beyond where the club certainly wanted to go.  We had a strong feeling he was going to go on the market.  That’s what he wanted to do.  We wanted to protect ourselves and position ourselves better.  If we elect, next year, to be one of 30 [teams] that compete for Jason on the market then that’s what we’ll do.”

Blue Jays Interested In Jon Lester, Andrew Miller

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As if signing Russell Martin wasn’t enough, the Blue Jays are also looking to address their rotation and bullpen.  Toronto is one of the six teams in the market for southpaw Jon Lester, WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford reports.  The Jays have also been “very aggressive” in courting Andrew Miller, Sportsnet’s Jeff Blair (Twitter link) hears from a source on another team in pursuit of the free agent reliever.

As a durable top-of-the-rotation arm with a lot of AL East familiarity, Lester makes sense for the Jays, though they already have six starters (Mark Buehrle, R.A. Dickey, Marcus Stroman, Drew Hutchison, J.A. Happ, Marco Estrada) in play for their 2015 rotation.  Starting pitching isn’t an obvious need, though since the Blue Jays will probably have to move at least one starter to address other needs anyway, they could package two arms in one deal or make multiple trades.  The Martin signing indicates that Toronto is willing to spend and be players in free agency, though meeting Lester’s projected six-year/$150MM price tag would take things to another level for the Jays.

The Red Sox are known to be one of Lester’s other five suitors, and it’s safe to assume that the Cubs are another given how they’re meeting with him this week and have been so often linked in rumors.

Miller recently met with the Jays, and it’s probably no surprise that Toronto is being aggressive given that they’re one of a whopping 22 teams who have reportedly checked in with agent Mark Rodgers about Miller’s services.  Miller is looking for a four-year deal at minimum, and he’ll likely find it with such a healthy market.  The Blue Jays could offer Miller a closing role, as Casey Janssen is likely to depart in free agency and Toronto has no clear in-house replacement for the ninth inning job.

Mariners Sign Misael Siverio To Minor League Deal

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2:52pm: Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs.com reports that Siverio received a $275K bonus and has a split contract that will pay him $508K in the Majors or $120K in the minors (Twitter links). He adds that Siverio isn’t a big guy — he’s listed at 5’9″ — and is a finesse-type arm that works in the upper 80s with a four-pitch mix, the best of which is his curveball.

1:59pm: The Mariners announced that they have signed Cuban left-hander Misael Siverio to a minor league deal. Siverio, who is a client of the Legacy Agency, passed a physical two weeks ago, according to the Mariners, but the deal wasn’t finalized until today. Jorge Ebro of El Nuevo Herald first reported the signing back on November 6. Siverio expressed his excitement about joining the Mariners organization:

“This is a proud moment for me, to be able to join the Seattle Mariners who have several Cubans in the organization that are my compatriots. I feel very happy because of the way that I have been treated here in Seattle and now the only thing left to do is to do my part, work hard and reach the Major Leagues.”

Siverio, 25, showcased in front of 20 teams back in August and had an earlier showcase in June. He posted a 3.24 ERA with 7.6 K/9 and 3.6 BB/9 over his career in Cuba’s Serie Nacional – a span of 153 games (75 starts). More recently, he pitched in Mexico this past winter, posting a 2.45 ERA and a 36-to-10 K/BB ratio in 29 1/3 innings. His full statistics and some video footage can be seen at ObstructedView.net.

It’s not clear at which level Siverio will begin his Mariners career, but he’ll add some depth to the organization, and given his age and experience, could be a factor in the not-too-distant future if he pitches well in the minors. While he doesn’t come with the fanfare of Yasmany Tomas, Siverio can hope to follow the career path of Odrisamer Despaigne, who signed a minor league deal with the Padres but moved quickly and ended up making 16 starts in San Diego last year.

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Multiple Teams Interested In Justin Masterson

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The Braves, Cubs, Giants, Red Sox, Royals and Twins are six of the teams thought to have asked for Justin Masterson’s medicals or otherwise checked in on the right-hander, ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick reports (Twitter links).  Though Masterson is coming off an injury-plagued season, he is drawing significant interest and could find a two-year deal on the open market.  The Indians, Masterson’s former club, are also reportedly in the mix for the 29-year-old.

It’s no surprise that Masterson is generating this much free agent buzz, as the righty averaged 199 IP from 2010-13 and was one of the game’s best starters during the 2013 season.  As MLBTR’s Zach Links noted in his Free Agent Profile of Masterson, a team could be in for a major bargain if the righty regains his old form.  Whether he signs for one year or two, Masterson seems destined for a short-term deal as he’s banking on that return to form and the opportunity to set himself up for a more expensive multiyear deal next winter or after the 2016 season.

The six teams Crasnick lists present an interesting array of suitors, incorporating the two pennant winners, three teams looking to return to contention in 2015 and the rebuilding Twins, who can offer Masterson a pitcher-friendly ballpark to help rebuild his value.  Team defense is also undoubtedly a big factor for Masterson, an extreme ground ball pitcher with a 56.6% career grounder rate.

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