Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Rays released catcher J.P. Arencibia after recently designating him for assignment, per the team’s transactions page. Arencibia, 29, had an impressive 24-game run with Tampa Bay late in the season, but it wasn’t enough for the club to tender him a contract. He ought to get plenty of interest as a free agent from teams looking for major-league-capable receiving options.
- Mariners lefty Danny Hultzen cleared outright waivers, the club announced. Though his talent has always been evident, Hultzen’s shoulder has not been willing. Despite going second overall in the 2011 draft, Hultzen has yet to tally 200 professional innings pitched.
- Backstop Adrian Nieto tweets that he’s signed on with the Marlins. Nieto was a Rule 5 pick of the White Sox who stuck on the big league roster for all of 2014, but the switch-hitter didn’t hit much at the Double-A level last year and lost his roster spot in Chicago.
- The Orioles announced a host of minor league signings today. Among the notable names are righties Pedro Beato and Todd Redmond, lefty Cesar Cabral, and catcher Audry Perez. The 29-year-old Beato has 93 1/3 innings of MLB experience under his belt, while Redmond was a regular part of the Blue Jays’ pen from 2013-14 before losing his job last year. Cabral and Perez both have much more limited MLB experience. They each return to the Baltimore organization after spending most of 2015 at Triple-A Norfolk.
- The Blue Jays have signed lefty Scott Diamond to a minor league deal, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports. The 29-year-old will receive a big league camp invite after tossing 150 1/3 solid Triple-A frames last year in the Rays organization.
Really surprised JP didn’t get tendered a contract given his performance last year (albeit in a small sample size). He should garner a ton of interest on a one year incentive-laden deal.
I agree. jpa had 20hr in two seasons, close to 20 in another while a jay.. so far in his career hes been horrible at throwing base runners out and pitch framing… not to mention a free swinger, his #s are high.
1b or a dh he has some experience with as a ranger. hes only 30, he may suddenly put it together with the bat… . jpa been involved with community stuff like hospital trips, fan interaction, ect, and is good that way.. But he also called our ‘bluejays central’ former bluejay greg zaun something along lines of “you’ve done roids before, no respect for him… zaun (and broadcasters I think, but not sure) had frequently mentioned at the times that arencibia shouldn’t be the starting catcher.
I’d be kind of afraid to give up entirely on Hultzen quite yet. He just might be another Andrew Miller type who can be rescued, only not from wildness and mechanics who has been abandoned by an organization, but injury. Sometimes it takes quite some time to overcome rotator cuff surgery, longer than a year and a half, even 2 years for some guys way back when it was sort of common, then of course some never made it back really like Wayne Garland.
He is well worth attempting to pick up if some team can as a power reliever convert.
I agree 100% I hope the Phillies or the Pirates don’t over look him, he still has potential as s shutdown lefty specialist
He already cleared waivers and was outrighted. The Mariners still have 2 option years on him if they ever add him back to the 40-man.
Yes, he did clear waivers and was outrighted(it was his first outright assignment).
However, no, he doesn’t have 2 options left. He has zero, which was the point of the DFA. The M’s could have kept him on the 40-man roster for now and DFA’ed someone else, but by next spring training, they would have had to do the same thing, since he would not be ready to make the 25-man roster out of spring training and would have to be sent to AA or AAA and clear waivers to do so.
And, while it’s just an opinion of mine, it’s harder to sneak someone through waivers during spring training, when more teams have room on their 40-man rosters than it is now, when most teams are trying to make hard decisions on who to keep on their 40-man roster before the Rule V draft.
So, Hultzen went unnoticed and/or unclaimed and stays in the M’s system. Yay!
Is Andrew Miller the one who was in the Cleveland organization and had a major injury a few years ago ?
Miller had mechanical issues with the marlins around 4 years ago, no health.
Wayne garland had rotator cuff blowout in either 79-80, early on, like year 2 of a 10y deal with the Indians and was never the same and retired before year 5 of the deal. Then Cleveland has still Nick Hagadone, who had UCL just before they got him from Boston in… .10 maybe?? I honestly amd not that much up on any recent injuries off hand in that organization. Sorry.
that was adam miller. and it wasn’t even a major arm injury that did him in, in the usual way. something went wrong with his finger joints, like he tore knuckle ligaments or something, and he just could never throw his pitches right again after that