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Archives for August 2015

Pirates Outright Vance Worley

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AUGUST 8: The Pirates have outrighted Worley to Triple-A Indianapolis, according to the MLB.com transactions page. The money remaining on Worley’s $2.45MM contract — modest, but still well above the league minimum — might have prevented other teams from making a claim. Either way, Worley has been relatively effective in his two years with the Pirates, and he’ll likely rejoin them in September, if not before.

JULY 30: The Pirates have designated righty Vance Worley for assignment, the club announced. His roster spot was needed after the club acquired Joe Blanton late yesterday.

Phillies teammates for three years, Worley and Blanton won’t have a chance to pitch together for a second Pennsylvania club. Both have experienced modest career resurgences, and now it’s Worley’s turn to see if he can find a new opportunity.

The 27-year-old Worley had a great year for Pittsburgh last year, with a 2.85 ERA over 110 2/3 innings earning him a $2.45MM arbitration payday. He’s been solid again in 2015 — he carries a 3.78 ERA over 69 innings, with 6.1 /9 against 2.5 BB/9 — but lost his rotation spot along the way. He could draw some interest from teams looking to add innings, though his salary may complicate things.

Astros Acquire Oliver Perez

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The Astros announced they acquired veteran lefty reliever Oliver Perez from the Diamondbacks for minor league southpaw Junior Garcia.  Houston moved righty Sam Deduno to the 60-day DL to open a spot for Perez, while Arizona announced that it will select the contract of lefty Keith Hessler to take Perez’s place on its active roster.

USATSI_8562304_154513410_lowresPerez, 34 next week, has a 3.10 ERA, 11.5 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 0.62 HR/9, and 38.9% groundball rate in 29 innings for Arizona this year.  This year he’s faced an even number of lefty and righty hitters and has been more effective against left-handed batters, as you would expect.  Perez joins Tony Sipp as another lefty option out of Houston’s bullpen, which ranks second in the American League with a 2.70 ERA.  The Astros had designated lefty reliever Joe Thatcher for assignment on July 21st, though he remained in the organization on a minor league deal.

Perez spent his first nine seasons in the Majors as a starter for the Padres, Pirates, and Mets before beginning a bit of a career renaissance as a reliever for the Mariners.  He signed a two-year free agent deal with the Diamondbacks in March 2014 and will be a free agent after the season.

Garcia, 19, signed with the Astros out of the Dominican Republic for $200K late in 2012. He mostly pitched in the Gulf Coast League in 2014 and got good results, although he posted a 3.9 BB/9 for the season. He’s improved upon that mark in 2015 while pitching in the Appalachian League and the NY-Penn League, posting an 0.96 ERA, 6.3 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9 in 37 1/3 innings. He’s so far from the Majors, though, that parsing his statistics probably misses the point. He’ll provide the Diamondbacks’ system with a bit of left-handed pitching depth and upside.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Week In Review: 8/1/15 – 8/7/15

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Here’s a look back at this week at MLBTR.

Key Move

Trades

Signings

Top Prospect Promotions

Claims

Designated For Assignment

Outrights

Released

Key Minor League Signings

Minor MLB Transactions: 8/7/15

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Let’s check in on the day’s minor moves …

  • The Astros have placed righty Roberto Hernandez on release waivers, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle tweets. The veteran intends to seek an opportunity with another big league club, Drellich adds. Hernandez signed a one-year, $2.65MM deal to join Houston over the offseason and contributed 84 2/3 innings of 4.36 ERA pitching before his release.
  • Cubs catcher Taylor Teagarden has accepted an outright assignment with the club, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation tweets. The 30-year-old has seen action in each of the last eight big league seasons, though he’s racked up just 563 plate appearances in that span (with a .202/.260/.376 cumulative slash). He put up a strong .826 OPS in his 148 plate appearances at Triple-A earlier this year.

East Notes: Braves, Albies, Craig, Jennings, Garcia

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Earlier today, the Braves shipped third baseman Chris Johnson to the Indians for Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher. Atlanta had long been said to be shopping Johnson, who expressed relief to MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (Twitter link) that his status was finally resolved. Meanwhile, Swisher indicated that he, too, is excited to get started “right away” with a new organization, as Paul Hoynes of the Plain Dealer tweets.

  • Top Braves prospect Ozhaino Albies will miss the rest of the season after breaking his thumb, Bowman tweets. The 18-year-old shortstop has been solid this year at the Class A level, slashing .310/.368/.404 with 29 steals. While he’ll lose a bit of development time, the injury doesn’t seem to be much cause for concern given his young age.
  • After dealing Mike Napoli to the Rangers, Red Sox GM Ben Cherington said today that he “expects there will be another opportunity” for Allen Craig at the big league level this year, as Scott Lauber of the Boston Herald tweets. It’s not yet clear when that will occur, but Craig isn’t exactly knocking on the door. He’s slashed .274/.379/.341 over 298 plate appearances at Triple-A since his demotion, continuing a notable power outage that dates back to the start of 2014.
  • Marlins sources say that GM-turned-skipper Dan Jennings is expected to return to the club’s front office after the year, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. If and when the club enters the managerial market, says Jackson, it could consider names like Mike Lowell, Bud Black, Dusty Baker, Terry Kennedy, and Doug Mientkiewicz.
  • While Mychal Givens was strong in his first few outings with the Orioles, the club is demoting him to provide another shot to Rule 5 pick Jason Garcia, as Rich Dubroff of CSNBaltimore.com writes. Garcia, 22, is back from an extended DL stint after allowing nine earned runs (and eight strikeouts against 11 walks) in his first 13 2/3 innings with Baltimore. In spite of those difficulties, the club seems fairly committed to locking up Garcia’s future rights by keeping him on the active roster the rest of the way.

Podcast: New Brewers Righty Zach Davies

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In our third and final interview with just-traded young players, host Jeff Todd spoke with Brewers pitching prospect Zach Davies before he took the hill for his first outing with his new organization. (It went quit well: six innings, one earned run, and seven strikeouts against three walks.) Davies represents a nice, near-to-the-majors starter for Milwaukee, which added him in the Gerardo Parra trade.

Be sure to check out the previous podcast episodes featuring key deadline movers Brett Phillips of the Brewers and Daniel Norris of the Tigers.

Click here to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, and please leave a review! The podcast is also available via Stitcher at this link.

The MLB Trade Rumors Podcast runs weekly on Thursday afternoons.

Rangers Acquire Mike Napoli

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8:21pm: Texas will pay $1.5MM of Napoli’s salary, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets, with Boston keeping the rest.

7:06pm: The deal is for Napoli and cash in exchange for a player to be named later (or cash considerations), the clubs have announced.

6:14pm: The Rangers have agreed to acquire first baseman Mike Napoli from the Red Sox, Rob Bradford of WEEI.com reports on Twitter. Boston pulled Napoli from its lineup at the last minute, leading to speculation of a deal that appears to have come to fruition.

Jul 31, 2015; Boston, MA, USA; Boston Red Sox first baseman Mike Napoli (12) watches his home run land in the green monster seats during the seventh inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports

Texas continues to be a fascinating to team to watch. The team added Cole Hamels at the deadline, seemingly more for his future value, while shopping (but not dealing) veteran Yovani Gallardo. Now, after a solid run coming out of the deadline, Texas is just five-and-a-half back in the division and 2.5 games out of Wild Card contention.

Napoli represents a right-handed power bat to plug into a heavily left-handed lineup. The club has utilized Prince Fielder and Mitch Moreland at first base and DH for much of the season, but can now deploy Napoli at both positions as well. Unsurprisingly, Napoli has been much better against southpaws this year than same-handed pitching.

As he rejoins his former club, Napoli will look to carry forward a strong start to the second half. Having scuffled badly early in the year, over his last 69 turns at bat, Napoli owns a .267/.362/.533 batting line.

It remains to be seen what the return is, but in all likelihood Boston’s primary benefit here will be salary relief (along with freeing a roster spot). Napoli is earning $16MM on the season before hitting the open market this winter.

Napoli played mostly at catcher when he last suited up for the Rangers, but in spite of the team’s needs in that regard, it would be rather surprising at this point if he got back behind the dish. Bradford notes on Twitter that Napoli’s limited no-trade clause gives him veto power over a move to Texas, but obviously he’s decided to waive that.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Orioles Designate Travis Snider

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The Orioles have designated outfielder Travis Snider for assignment, the club announced. He’ll be replaced on the active roster by the just-acquired Junior Lake.

It had seemed that Snider was on his way out with the acquisition of Gerardo Parra, but the club ultimately decided instead to part with Chris Parmelee. Snider did not hang on for much longer, though, ultimately ceding his spot on the ballclub to Lake, who was acquired in return for Tommy Hunter.

Snider came over from the Pirates this winter as Baltimore sought to mix and match pieces to fill in for the departed Nelson Cruz and Nick Markakis. There was never much hope of fully replicating their collective production, but the O’s have nevertheless largely been disappointed by their Opening Day corner outfield platoon, leading the team to add Parra.

For Snider, still just 27, the 2014 season looked like something of a breakout, as he slashed .264/.338/.438 with 13 home runs, seemingly making good on his former top-prospect ratings. But he was not able to carry that forward in Baltimore, as his current .659 OPS attests.

Mets Acquire Eric O’Flaherty, Designate Alex Torres

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AUGUST 7: Righty Dawrin Frias will head to Oakland to complete the deal, the A’s announced. The 23-year-old has been hit hard at the Class A level this year, while also showing significant control problems.

AUGUST 4: The Mets announced tonight that they have acquired left-handed reliever Eric O’Flaherty and cash considerations from the Athletics in exchange for a player to be named later. Fellow southpaw reliever Alex Torres has been designated for assignment to clear space for O’Flaherty on the 40-man and 25-man rosters.

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The Athletics designated O’Flaherty for assignment over the weekend to clear a roster spot for trade acquisition Aaron Brooks. The former Braves setup ace was in the second season of a two-year, $7MM contract he signed prior to the 2014 campaign as he recovered from 2013 Tommy John surgery.

O’Flaherty, 30, was sharp in 2014 — his first year back from Tommy John surgery — working to a 2.25 ERA with 6.8 K/9 against 1.8 BB/9 in a small sample of 20 innings at the big league level. His backloaded contract paid him just $1.5MM in 2014 due to uncertainty surrounding how much he’d be able to pitch and $5.5MM in 2015, with the A’s expecting him to be a significant piece in their bullpen.

That didn’t work out, though, as O’Flaherty has struggled to a 5.91 ERA in 2015. While a .354 BABIP has been a significant factor in the regression of O’Flaherty’s ERA, so, too, a marked step back in his control. O’Flaherty averaged just 2.3 unintentional walks per nine innings from 2009-14 after establishing himself as a quality relief option in the Majors, but he’s issued 12 unintentional free passes in 21 1/3 innings this season. On the plus side, O’Flaherty has a track record of success — he posted a 1.99 ERA, 7.2 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 249 1/3 innings from 2009-13 with Atlanta — and he’s dominated opposing lefties in 2015, holding them to a .186/.286/.209 batting line.

O’Flaherty is owed about $1.86MM through season’s end, though the A’s appear to be picking up at least some of the tab there. He becomes the second reliever to make the cross-country journey from Oakland to Queens, as he’ll join former teammate Tyler Clippard in manager Terry Collins’ bullpen.

Torres doesn’t immediately look like a DFA candidate upon first glance, as he’s worked to a 3.15 ERA and struck out 35 batters in 34 1/3 innings. However, Torres has also walked 26 batters this year, and opposing lefties are hitting an alarming .268/.406/.393 against him in 69 plate appearances. Torres’ ERA is largely a product of a minuscule .233 BABIP and a bloated 83 percent strand rate — neither of which figures to be sustainable down the stretch.

A relatively quick DFA certainly isn’t what the Mets had in mind this spring when they traded Cory Mazzoni and a player to be named later (Brad Wieck) to the Padres in exchange for what they hoped to be several years of Torres’ services. Torres is not yet arbitration eligible — though he will be this winter — and enjoyed better performances from 2013-14 with the Rays and Padres, so perhaps a team looking for left-handed bullpen depth will give him a look if he’s placed on outright waivers. If not, the Mets will be able to outright him to Triple-A Las Vegas and keep him in the organization with the hope that some time in the minors will help to sort out his command issues.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. This post was originally published at 9:48pm CT.

Dodgers Release Chris Heisey

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The Dodgers announced that they’ve released outfielder Chris Heisey. The 30-year-old was designated for assignment on July 30 upon completion of the three-team, 13-player blockbuster between the Dodgers, Braves and Marlins.

The Dodgers acquired Heisey from the Reds this winter in exchange for right-hander Matt Magill. He came to L.A. with a relatively productive track record as a fourth outfielder with some pop, but Heisey received little playing time with the Dodgers due to their glut of outfield options. Heisey tallied just 34 plate appearances and batted .154/.353/.192 as a member of the Dodgers. He was more productive in the minors, slashing .236/.355/.481 with 14 homers in 63 games.

From 2010-14, Heisey appeared in 543 games for the Reds and batted .247/.299/.422 with 50 homers. He has experience at all three outfield positions and does have a strong 18-homer season campaign under his belt, though that came back in 2011. Despite a lack of recent productivity, I’d imagine Heisey will be able to find multiple minor league offers around the league.

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