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Archives for February 2015

Blue Jays Designate Chris Colabello For Assignment

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The Blue Jays announced that they have designated first baseman/outfielder Chris Colabello for assignment in order to clear room on the 40-man roster for newly acquired left-hander Jayson Aquino.

Toronto claimed the 31-year-old Colabello off waivers from the Twins back in December. Colabello was a feel-good story for the Twins and for baseball fans in general over the past two seasons, making his big league debut at the age of 29 after spending seven season in the independent Canadian-American Association. Much was written about Colabello refusing to give up his dream, and the Massachusetts native made the most of an invitation to big league camp with the Twins in 2012 by posting gaudy numbers at Double-A and Triple-A before finally getting a look in the Majors.

Colabello enjoyed a big month of April this season, hitting .295/.343/.484 and driving in 27 runs, but much of that was attributable to a .379 BABIP, and he quickly saw his production deteriorate. While the former indy ball star is just a .214/.284/.364 hitter in 401 big league plate appearances, he’s authored a massive .319/.393/.574 batting line with 34 homers in 629 Triple-A plate appearances.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: Wednesday

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There are still nearly 30 players whose arbitration cases need to be settled, and as our Arbitration Tracker shows, the Royals (four remaining cases) and Pirates (three) have the most work ahead of them. We’ll run down today’s minor arbitration settlements here, with all projections coming courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz…

  • The Orioles settled one of their two remaining cases by agreeing to a one-year deal with closer Zach Britton, tweets Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports tweets that Britton will earn $3.2MM with $300K available in incentives for games finished (beginning at 45). The 27-year-old Britton enjoyed a scintillating breakout season with Baltimore in 2014, stepping into the ninth-inning spotlight and amassing 37 saves along with a pristine 1.65 ERA, 7.3 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9. Perhaps most impressive, however, was Britton’s historic ground-ball rate; since batted-ball data tracking began in 2002, only one pitcher (Brad Ziegler) has posted a higher single-season ground-ball rate (min. 20 IP) than Britton’s 75.3 percent mark in 2014, as can be seen at Fangraphs. His $3.2MM payday was the midpoint between the $4.2MM figure he submitted and the Orioles’ $2.2MM counter, and matches Swartz’s projection exactly.

Rockies Deal Jayson Aquino To Blue Jays For Tyler Ybarra

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The Blue Jays and Rockies have agreed to a swap of southpaws. The Rockies will acquire minor league lefty Tyler Ybarra, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports. In return, Toronto will add recently-designated hurler Jayson Aquino, his colleague Shi Davidi tweets.

Ybarra, 25, reached the Double-A level last year, tossing 53 innings and compiling a 4.42 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 5.1 BB/9. The 2008 draftee has put up some impressive earned run totals and strikeout figures in the lower minors, though he also tallied around five free passes per nine.

Meanwhile, Aquino was in need of a new home after losing his place in Colorado. Just 22, Aquino has also made it to the Double-A level and is still being worked out as a starter. Once a top-ten organizational prospect, Aquino has fallen down the charts in recent seasons. In 107 frames at High-A and Double-A last year, he worked to a 5.13 ERA with 7.0 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9.

Trade Rumors App Now Has Notifications

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The world’s best app for staying up-to-date on MLB, NFL, and NBA trades and free agency just got better.  I’m happy to announce that our free Trade Rumors app, available for iOS and Android, now has notifications!  You can set up notifications at the sport, team, or even player level, and receive a notification as soon as a new article is posted on that topic.

We’ve also rolled out an improved, more intuitive layout to the app, with each feed represented by a vertical column on the home screen.  Switch between your feeds by swiping left on the home screen.  Vertical columns allow for easier one-hand scrolling.

[Download Trade Rumors for iOS and Android]

But wait, there’s more!  Other features of the Trade Rumors app:

  • Customize your home screen.  The app has feeds for MLB Trade Rumors, Pro Football Rumors, and Hoops Rumors by default, but if you’re more of a one or two-sport person, you can easily remove and reorder feeds.  You can also add a feed for any of the 92 MLB, NFL, or NBA teams, as well as the thousands of players in the archives of our three sites.
  • We’ve also allowed for filtering of all stories versus top stories, for what is shown on the home screen as well as for notifications.  This allows you to limit yourself to just the most important news for a feed, if you prefer.
  • Article sharing options are plentiful: choose Facebook, Twitter, email, and text message.
  • Once you’ve clicked an article in a feed, you can swipe to read the next article in that feed.
  • Did we mention the Trade Rumors app is completely free?  Download today for iOS and Android.

Wondering what’s next for the always-improving Trade Rumors app?  We intend to add comments, but must first switch to a native commenting system on the three websites.

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Rangers Sign Ryan Ludwick To Minor League Deal

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The Rangers have agreed to sign outfielder Ryan Ludwick to a minor league deal with a spring invite, executive VP of communications John Blake announced on Twitter. Ludwick can earn $1.75MM if he makes the big league roster out of camp, Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram tweets.

A 36-year-old veteran of a dozen MLB campaigns, Ludwick has had a fairly rough go of things since inking a two-year, $15MM with the Reds before the 2013 campaign. He missed much of the first year with shoulder surgery, then slashed .244/.308/.375 over 400 plate appearances last year. In the aggregate, he provided below-replacement-level production to Cincinnati in that stretch.

Of course, a more optimistic look would note that Ludwick was a .275.346/.531 hitter and provided 26 home runs as recently as 2012, and had generally hit at a comfortably above-average clip prior to that season. Texas will be glad to take a risk-free look this spring before deciding whether to commit to Ludwick.

Cubs Claim Drake Britton, Designate Gonzalez Germen

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The Cubs have claimed lefty Drake Britton off waivers from the Red Sox, the club announced. Fellow reliever Gonzalez Germen has been designated to clear roster space.

Britton, 25, has been productive at the big league level over the past two seasons in fairly limited action. In 27 2/3 total frames, he owns a 2.93 ERA with 6.8 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9. He did have a rough go of things at Triple-A Pawtucket last year, however, posting 58 1/3 innings of 5.86 ERA ball.

The game of musical roster spots continues for Germen, who has now been on four 40-man lists since mid-December. The 27-year-old righty should have a decent chance at earning a big league bullpen slot once he does settle in somewhere for camp.

White Sox Request Release Waivers For Dayan Viciedo

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The White Sox have requested unconditional release waivers for outfielder Dayan Viciedo, the club announced. Viciedo had been designated for assignment, so this move primarily indicates that he will not bring Chicago any return via trade.

Unless he is claimed, Viciedo will enter the free agent market still shy of his 26th birthday and already having claimed 66 MLB home runs. Of course, in spite of that impressive power, he has failed to reach base at a reasonable clip (.298 career OBP) and is generally rated a sub-par defender.

Viciedo’s $4.4MM arbitration salary for 2015 surely provides a significant disincentive to otherwise interested clubs, and makes a claim unlikely. Chicago will remain responsible for about $733K of that sum.

This is surely not the end that either side hoped for when Viciedo signed out of Cuba as an international free agent, receiving a big league contract and $10MM guarantee. Another team will presumably take a shot on Viciedo, who comes with two more years of commitment-free control through arbitration and figures to be available for a minimal financial outlay.

 

White Sox, Angels Complete Gordon Beckham Trade

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The Angels have sent righty Yency Almonte to the White Sox to complete last August’s Gordon Beckham swap, Chicago announced. Beckham has since reached free agency and re-signed with the South Siders, of course.

The Angels selected Almonte in the 17th round of the 2012 draft and went significantly over the $100K slot that applies to all picks beyond the 10th round, signing him for $250K. Baseball America ranked him 16th among Halos farmhands that offseason, noting in their scouting report that Almonte had generated some buzz heading into the draft before a dead arm cost him several weeks of the season and submarined his stock, to an extent. Per BA, his fastball sits in the low 90s and reaches 94, and he at one point showed feel for a breaking ball as well.

Durability concerns were a significant factor with Almonte, per the BA report, and two years later, they still appear to be a factor. Almonte began the season in the Class-A Midwest League but missed a month and had to rehab in Rookie Ball before rejoining the team. Overall, he pitched just 45 2/3 innings this season despite working exclusively as a starting pitcher. In 11 starts, he posted a 5.91 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9.

Pirates Acquire Arquimedes Caminero From Marlins

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The Pirates have acquired right-handed reliever Arquimedes Caminero from the Marlins in exchange for cash, Pittsburgh announced. Caminero had been designated for assignment by Miami.

Caminero has an enticing arm that has delivered an average of 11.0 K/9 (against 4.5 BB/9) in his nine years of minor league action. He has seen only limited action at the big league level, posting 19 2/3 frames of 5.49 ERA pitching (albeit with many of the credited runs coming in one rough outing last year).

As he was added to the 40-man roster in advance of the 2011 season, it would appear that Caminero has exhausted his optional assignment seasons. Pittsburgh will take a flier on his mid-90s heater, but it seems he will need to break camp with the big league club or face the waiver wire.

Rockies Designate Yohan Flande

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The Rockies have designated lefty Yohan Flande for assignment, the team announced. His roster spot will go to righty Kyle Kendrick, whose signing was also announced.

Flande, 29, threw 59 innings of 5.19 ERA ball last year in his first big league stint, generating a healthy 58.2% groundball rate. He struck out 5.2 and walked 2.4 per nine over ten starts and six relief appearances.

The southpaw has never posted a sub-4.00 ERA over a full season in the upper minors, but ERA estimators all valued his work in the bigs at or below that mark last year. Nevertheless, Flande is probably best characterized as an organizational depth piece at this stage of his career.

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