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Pirates To Promote Josh Bell

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The Pirates will promote top first base prospect Josh Bell to the Majors to make his big league debut tonight, according to multiple reports (Logan Stout first tweeted word of Bell’s promotion).

[Related: Updated Pirates Depth Chart]

Josh Bell

In Bell, the Pirates are promoting a player that ranks 38th on Baseball America’s just-updated Top 100 prospects list (published today). Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com currently have Bell rated as the game’s No. 43 prospect. A 23-year-old switch-hitter that was selected 61st overall in the 2011 draft, Bell has had a monster season at Triple-A Indianapolis, slashing .324/.407/.535 with 13 homers, 19 doubles and four triples in 359 plate appearances. BA notes that Bell’s defense at first base is somewhat questionable — he just transitioned to the position in 2015 after previously playing right field — but both BA and MLB.com write that he could be a difference-maker at the plate and has middle-of-the-order potential. The 2016 season marks the first in which Bell has truly tapped into the power potential that led the Bucs to give him an over-slot bonus of $5MM back in 2011 when he slipped out of the first round due to signability concerns.

Bell’s promotion could mean that incumbent first baseman John Jaso will move into a bench role. Jaso, inked to a two-year, $8MM contract as a free agent this offseason, has provided his typical brand of steady production against right-handed pitching, but he’s limited to a strict platoon and is more good than great against righties (.285/.362/.413 this season). As Bell’s excellent Triple-A production (which recently landed him on Jason Martinez’s “Knocking Down the Door” series) indicates, he carries significantly higher upside at the plate. And, with an OPS north of .900 against both lefties and righties in Triple-A this season, Bell could be a long-term option that doesn’t require a platoon partner.

Bell becomes the latest top prospect to join the Pirates’ ranks, as they’ve promoted Top 100 mainstays Jameson Taillon and Tyler Glasnow this year and also called up highly regarded organizational prospects such as Chad Kuhl and Steven Brault to make their big league debuts. Even if he’s in the Majors to stay, Bell will accrue just 86 days of big league service time in 2016, which would leave him well shy of eventually achieving Super Two designation. If this promotion to the big leagues proves to be permanent, the Bucs will control Bell through the 2022 season and he won’t be arbitration eligible until the completion of the 2019 campaign.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Latest On Royals’ Search For Rotation Help

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The Royals are known to be on the lookout for starting pitching, having been connected to the likes of Ervin Santana, Rich Hill and Matt Moore in recent weeks. Their needs have been accelerated by the struggles of Chris Young and injury setbacks for Mike Minor and, more recently, Kris Medlen. As Sam McDowell of the Kansas City Star writes, Medlen suffered a Grade 1 strain in his throwing shoulder while pitching on a rehab assignment from rotator cuff inflammation at Triple-A Omaha and will be shut down from throwing for at least the next two weeks due to the injury.

With uncertainty permeating their rotation, Kansas City is casting a wide net in looking at trade candidates, writes MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. Among the pitchers they’re considering are right-handers Jeremy Hellickson and Andrew Cashner as well as lefties Hill and Jorge De La Rosa, according to Morosi. Each of those names would constitute a strict rental, as each is a free agent at season’s end, though previous ties to Santana and Moore suggest that the Royals are possibly open to the steeper price (be it financial or in terms of prospect cost) of adding a player controlled beyond the 2016 campaign. Indeed, McDowell’s colleague Rustin Dodd linked Kansas City to multiple Rays starting pitchers just last night. GM Dayton Moore called the rotation an “area of vulnerability” and confirmed that he’s been “evaluating the landscape” of potentially available options, writes the Star’s Vahe Gregorian.

Royals starters currently rank 29th in the Majors in collective innings pitched at 455 2/3, and they’re a mere one-third of an inning ahead of the rebuilding Reds in that woeful distinction. More troublesome than that sum is the fact Royals starters simply haven’t pitched well even when they’re on the mound. The Royals’ excellent bullpen could perhaps cover persistently short starts if the team were regularly receiving quality five-inning outings from its starting staff, but Royals starting pitchers have posted a collective 5.02 ERA that ranks 25th in the Majors this season. The bullpen has helped to stop the bleeding, but the recent loss of Wade Davis has thinned out the relief corps, and even if he’s not on the shelf for long, they’re on pace for a lofty total of 556 2/3 innings from the bullpen this season.

With that in mind, Hellickson strikes me as the most logical target among the names listed by Morosi. He’s made 18 starts this season and, after a patch of struggles in late April/early May, has averaged 6 1/3 innings per start over his past 11 turns (nine of which have been quality starts). He’s been the most durable of the bunch and probably offers the best blend of affordability in terms of salary ($7MM in 2016) and prospect cost. Hill is earning $1MM less but has pitched considerably better when on the mound, so he should be expected to command a larger return than Hellickson in a trade. Cashner, meanwhile, is earning $7.15MM but has been limited to 59 innings by a hamstring strain and a neck strain. And De La Rosa, a former Royal (2006-07), is earning $12MM this season and lost his rotation spot in May before righting the ship and regaining his starting job recently.

For the time being, the Royals are relying on a rotation consisting of Yordano Ventura, Ian Kennedy, Danny Duffy and Edinson Volquez, with either Dillon Gee or Brian Flynn slated to step into Young’s spot on Sunday following Young’s move to the bullpen. While Duffy has been scintillating since returning to the rotation — a trend that continued last night — and Kennedy has given the club 100 solid innings (3.97 ERA), Ventura has struggled since April. Volquez, meanwhile, has been highly inconsistent, yielding four or more runs in half of his 18 starts this season.

David Huff Signs With KBO’s LG Twins

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Left-hander David Huff has signed a contract with the LG Twins of the Korea Baseball Organization, the team announced (Korean link to Naver Sports; hat tip to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO.net). Huff’s base salary with his new club is $550K, per the announcement.

The 31-year-old Huff made a pair of appearances with the Angels this season but was tagged for seven earned runs in 5 1/3 innings. That marks the second abbreviated season of Major League work for Huff, who last saw significant time in the bigs with the Yankees and Giants in 2014 (combined 59 innings). The Indians selected Huff out of UCLA with the 39th overall pick in the 2006 draft, and while he debuted with Cleveland as a 24-year-old in 2009, Huff never fully established himself as a regular contributor in the Majors. He’s had some solid stretches, to be sure, but the overall result of his time in the Majors is a 5.17 ERA with 5.4 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 in 393 1/3 innings. He’s logged a considerably better 4.06 ERA in 640 1/3 innings of Triple-A ball, however, and averaged more strikeouts (7.0) and fewer walks (2.2) on a per-nine-inning basis at that level.

Huff has been under contract with the Angels and made an appearance for the club’s Triple-A affiliate in Salt Lake City as recently as Sunday, so the Halos are presumably receiving some type of financial compensation for selling his contractual rights to the KBO’s Twins.

Red Sox Acquire Aaron Hill

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JULY 8: Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reports that Hill receives a $1MM assignment bonus due to the fact that he was traded (links to Twitter). Hill received the same bonus this past winter when being shipped from Phoenix to Milwaukee, he adds. Tim Britton of the Providence Journal tweets that the Sox are only paying a “modest” amount of the remaining commitment to Hill, with Arizona and Milwaukee on the hook for most of the remaining money.

JULY 7: The Brewers announced that they have traded Aaron Hill and cash considerations to the Red Sox in exchange for minor league right-hander Aaron Wilkerson and minor league second baseman Wendell Rijo. The Sox announced the trade as well, adding that outfielder Ryan LaMarre has been designated for assignment to clear a spot on the roster.

[Related: Updated Boston Red Sox and Milwaukee Brewers depth charts]

Aaron Hill

The 34-year-old Hill, traded from the D-backs to the Brewers this past offseason, has been enjoying a rebound campaign in Milwaukee, batting .283/.359/.421 with eight homers, 11 doubles and four steals in 292 plate appearances. While he’s played second base for most of his career, Hill has played third base in 59 games this season, compared to just 20 contests spent playing second base. He’ll provide the ailing Red Sox with some infield depth and also presents Boston with a capable platoon partner for Travis Shaw, who has batted .211/.240/.380 against left-handed pitching this year. Hill is in the final season of a three-year, $35MM deal that pays him $12MM in 2016. The D-backs, however, are on the hook for $6.5MM of that sum as part of the aforementioned trade, and the Brewers will cover a yet undetermined portion of the money remaining on his deal, so the financial implications for the Red Sox figure to be relatively minimal.

LaMarre, 27, is the roster casualty for Hill. He signed with Boston on a minor league deal this winter and appeared in six games but has spent most of his time in Triple-A, where he’s batted .313/.383/.475 in 180 trips to the plate. The Sox will have 10 days to trade LaMarre or try to pass him through outright waivers in an attempt to keep him in the organization as a non-40-man player. Prior to this season, the former second-round pick had spent his entire career in the Reds organization. He’s a .267/.332/.409 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons.

For the Brewers, they’ll now turn to a combination of Will Middlebrooks, Hernan Perez and Jake Elmore at the hot corner, GM David Stearns told the media (Twitter link via the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Todd Rosiak). Middlebrooks has enjoyed a nice season at Triple-A Colorado Springs, batting .282/.308/.508 with 10 homers, although that production does come in an excessively hitter-friendly environment. Perez and Elmore give the Brewers a pair of alternatives that come with a fair share of MLB experience, though each is more of a utility player than an everyday option for the club in the long term.

Of the two prospects acquired by the Brewers in this deal, Rijo has received more fanfare on prospect rankings. MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo and Jim Callis have him 17th among Boston farmhands at the moment, while Baseball America rated him 15th following the season and Fangraphs’ Dan Farnsworth placed him 22nd in the offseason. The 20-year-old opened the season at Double-A but struggled as one of the youngest players in the Eastern League, hitting just .186/.245/.266 in 51 games. He was moved back down to Class-A Advanced when Yoan Moncada arrived in Double-A, and he’s batting an improved .270/.364/.324 in 11 games. Callis and Mayo note that a previous ACL injury has dropped Rijo from a plus runner to an average runner, but he offers plenty of gap power and the upside for double-digit home runs once he adds to his 5’11”, 170-pound frame. BA notes that he’s made some improvements at second base and has the potential to be an everyday option that racks up doubles, though Farnsworth pegged him as more of a bench player or fringe regular.

Wilkerson was absent from the club’s prospect rankings, but the 27-year-old did just land on Jason Martinez’s most recent edition of “Knocking Down the Door” here at MLBTR due to his strong performance for Boston’s Triple-A affiliate. In 92 1/3 innings between Boston’s Double-A and Triple-A affiliates this season, Wilkerson has compiled an oustanding 2.14 ERA with 9.9 K/9 against 2.4 BB/9 and a 40.3 percent ground-ball rate (via MLBFarm.com). The Texas native went undrafted out of college due to the fact that he required Tommy John surgery as a senior in college. That unfortunate realization led him to the independent circuit, where eventually caught the eyes of Boston scouts and signed with the Sox as a 25-year-old back in 2014. The Boston Herald’s Evan Drellich profiled Wilkerson’s unusual path to affiliated ball back in April, and as Jason noted in the above-linked piece, that path may have him on the cusp of the Major Leagues. The Brewers are currently relying on Matt Garza, Jimmy Nelson, Chase Anderson, Junior Guerra and Zach Davies in the rotation, but Wilkerson could be one of the top alternatives in the event that the club incurs an injury in the rotation or finds a trade partner for Garza.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Carlos Gonzalez Denies Interest In Being Traded

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7:09pm: Gonzalez went on-record with Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post to deny that he is interested in being traded by the Rockies. “Nothing is true, because, obviously I haven’t talked to anybody and haven’t said that to anybody. Not my wife or my kids or my mom,” said Gonzalez when asked if he wanted out of Denver. “Whenever I get home, I’m frustrated because maybe I didn’t do well, or we didn’t win the game, but I never complain about it  … or say I want to go somewhere else.”

Gonzalez went on to praise the Rockies’ emerging core of young players, mentioning Trevor Story and Jon Gray by name and saying that he wants to be a part of the next contending Rockies club. “I have been here for a lot of bad moments and tough situations, so I want to see the bright (side),” he told Saunders. “I want to be here when that happens.”

4:02pm: Heyman now tweets clarification that Gonzalez is amenable to a trade but hasn’t had a meeting with team officials on the matter. Rockies GM Jeff Bridich denied that a meeting took place when asked by SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (links to Twitter), adding that he’s never had a strong desire to deal his star outfielder and will be “patient as it pertains to the deadline.”

12:25pm: Rockies outfielder Carlos Gonzalez “expressed an interest” in being dealt in a recent meeting with the Rockies’ front office, Jon Heyman of todaysknuckleball.com reports. Colorado could explore deals for both CarGo and fellow outfielder Charlie Blackmon this summer, per the report.

Gonzalez, 30, is running up a .319/.368/.556 batting line with 18 long balls on the year. While you have to discount that somewhat for his home-field advantage at Coors, there’s little question that he’d be a premium offensive asset on the trade market. With a $17MM salary this year and $20MM due for 2017, Gonzalez isn’t cheap — but he does come with a much more affordable contract than he’d command on the open market. Despite his variety of past injury problems, Gonzalez has been healthy in 2016 and doesn’t come with a hugely lengthy contract commitment.

The team has received similar production from Blackmon, who is hitting .305/.371/.496 with a dozen home runs and eight stolen bases. Though he isn’t running as much as he did last year, and is considered more of an average defensive center fielder than a top-flight glove-man, there’s plenty of value here. That’s all the more true given Blackmon’s reasonable $3.5MM salary and two future years of control. He’d quite likely be the premier center field-capable player available.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the club is far from committed to a selling posture, let alone parting with either or both of these core players. Colorado is on the outskirts of the playoff picture, but Heyman suggests that there’s some encouragement on the team’s ability to compete.

Still, there’s a big gulf separating the Rox from the division-leading Giants, and it seems that Gonzalez isn’t sanguine about the organization’s chances. Per Heyman, he’s increasingly frustrated at the club’s performance and wants to play for a winning club.

Rockies GM Jeff Bridich has already shown a willingness to part with well-loved superstars, as he shipped out shortstop Troy Tulowitzki last summer in a bid to bolster the team’s stock of young pitching. Certainly, both Gonzalez and Blackmon would profile as major assets that should draw top-quality prospects if they follow Tulo out the door.

Heyman’s Latest: Diamondbacks, Martinez, Mariners, Rays, Odor, Jays

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Jon Heyman kicks off his latest Inside Baseball column for FanRag sports by making a few predictions on some popular trade candidates. While he forecasts Sonny Gray to be the best pitcher that is seriously discussed in trades, he ultimately believes Gray will stay put, and teammate Rich Hill will be the top arm moved at this year’s non-waiver deadline. On the bullpen side of the equation, Aroldis Chapman has a “pretty good” chance to be moved, whereas teammate Andrew Miller was given a “less than one percent chance” to be traded by one Yankees-connected official, per Heyman.

A few of the more notable items from his lengthy column…

  • Brad Ziegler, Daniel Hudson and Tyler Clippard are generating the most trade interest among D-backs players, per Heyman. Arizona considers Paul Goldschmidt, Jake Lamb and perhaps Brandon Drury to be among its untouchables in trade takes even if the club does elect to sell off some parts.
  • The Marlins continue to hunt for starting pitching and have interest in Rays starters Jake Odorizzi and Matt Moore but also recognize that they don’t have much in the way of prospect capital to offer up for controllable arms of that nature. Miami could turn to Jarred Cosart if a rotation alternative is needed, though Cosart is sporting a pretty pedestrian 3.92 ERA with 6.0 K/9 and 4.6 BB/9 in eight starts (39 innings) since being demoted to the minors earlier this year.
  • The Cardinals are considering a long-term deal for rising young right-hander Carlos Martinez, per Heyman, though there’s no indication of any serious talks between the two sides from his report. Martinez is a logical extension candidate as a 24-year-old former top prospect that has made good on that hype with a 2.97 ERA across his past 282 innings. However, he’s also on track to hit arbitration for the first time this offseason, which does eliminate some of the urgency to take a club-friendly deal from Martinez’s camp. That, of course, doesn’t mean that an agreement can’t be reached, but Martinez is already in line for a sizable payday this winter, and buying out free-agent seasons would be expensive considering the platform he’s in the midst of building.
  • The Mariners could look to upgrade at closer in the coming weeks. Steve Cishek has been a nice pickup for the team (though he did blow a save tonight), but Joel Peralta didn’t pan out in Seattle and Joaquin Benoit has struggled. Heyman notes that GM Jerry Dipoto is a big fan of Angels setup man Joe Smith, which isn’t a big surprise considering Dipoto signed him to a three-year deal when he was the Halos’ GM. Smith, though, doesn’t really fit the description of the closer upgrade Heyman initially mentioned. That’s not meant to downplay Smith’s ability to help the Mariners, but I’d imagine a more powerful arm would be the type of target the club would pursue if looking to upgrade over Cishek.
  • The Rays are getting quite a bit of interest in Moore, Odorizzi and Chris Archer, but there’s no sense that any of the three are available yet. Other teams do expect Tampa Bay to move at least one pitcher, though Heyman notes that it’s highly unlikely that Archer would be moved.
  • The Rangers have exchanged numbers with Rougned Odor’s camp in extension talks, but the two sides aren’t believed to be close to a deal yet. Odor won’t be arbitration eligible until after the 2017 campaign, so he’s a ways off from his first significant salary. We’ve previously seen several second basemen in his service bracket — between two and three years of service once the season is up — sign extensions, so there are a fair number of comparables from which to draw. Brian Dozier signed away his arbitration year for a total of $20MM, while Matt Carpenter and Jason Kipnis each signed away their arb years and a pair of free-agent seasons for about $52MM in total, as can be seen in MLBTR’s Extension Tracker.
  • The Blue Jays may try to add some left-handed pop and could be a landing spot for Jay Bruce, per Heyman. Toronto was known to be interested in Bruce back in Spring Training and even had a reported three-team trade with the Reds and Angels fall through after some medical reports on minor leaguers that were set to change hands derailed the deal. That, of course, looks quite fortuitous for the Blue Jays right now, as Michael Saunders would’ve gone to the Angels in that deal. The bullpen is also a likely area of focus for the Jays, he notes, which makes more sense than a run at Bruce, who doesn’t strike me as a great fit for their roster.

Trade Notes: Ervin, Hellickson, Red Sox, Angels, Royals, Rays

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Ervin Santana is the “most likely” member of the Twins to be traded this summer, per ESPN’s Jayson Stark. However, executives that have spoken to the Twins about trades tell Stark that Minnesota is willing to talk about virtually anyone on their roster. Per one exec to whom Stark spoke, the Twins are telling potential trade partners, “If you’ve got any ideas, throw them out there.” Santana is far from the only trade candidate on the Twins’ roster; Fernando Abad, Eduardo Nunez, Ricky Nolasco and Trevor Plouffe are all free agents at the end of the 2017 season, and Kurt Suzuki is set to hit the open market following the current season. MLBTR’s Jeff Todd has listed several Twins among the game’s top trade candidates over the past few weeks. As for Santana, who tossed a shutout yesterday in Oakland, he’s earning $13.5MM this year and in each of the next two seasons, so he’d be considerably more than a rental piece for an interested club. However, that remaining salary might mean that some interested parties would want the Twins to include some cash in a deal to make the trade more financially palatable.

A few more notes on the trade market…

  • The Red Sox have been scouting Phillies right-hander Jeremy Hellickson lately tweets Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports and MLB.com. Per Morosi, Hellickson is one of many options that Boston is considering as it seeks to upgrade the back of its rotation. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said tonight on the conference call to discuss the Aaron Hill trade with the media that the fourth and fifth spots of his rotation are indeed areas of focus, as ESPN Boston’s Scott Lauber writes. Hellickson could indeed fill one of those spots, as he’s delivered a solid 3.92 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 42.4 percent ground-ball rate in 105 2/3 innings. The Phillies can probably get more for Hellickson than they surrendered to acquire him at this point, and as a free agent at season’s end it seems likely that he’ll be wearing a new uniform by the time the non-waiver deadline passes.
  • Infielder Yunel Escobar and left-hander Hector Santiago are getting hot at an opportune time if the Angels wish to shop them, writes MLB.com’s Alden Gonzalez. However, he also notes that it’s difficult to envision the Halos parting with either player. The Angels have a desperate need for rotation pieces in 2017 after losing Andrew Heaney to Tommy John surgery while Garrett Richards faces the possibility of the same fate. Santiago is controlled through the end of the 2017 season and doesn’t figure to be overly expensive, as he’s earning $5MM this year. Moving Escobar would mean that the Halos need to find a new third baseman for the third time in four years, Gonzalez points out, though he lists the Royals, Mets and Giants as possible suitors for the versatile infielder. Escobar, of course, comes with a questionable clubhouse reputation, but Gonzalez spoke to Santiago about Escobar’s presence in the clubhouse and received a positive review. Santiago admitted that he disliked Escobar when playing against him but enjoys his passion and enthusiasm now that they’re teammates.
  • The Royals are continuing to monitor the market for starting pitchers, reports Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star. The Royals are moving Chris Young to the bullpen and have seen both Kris Medlen and Mike Minor suffer setbacks in their rehab, leaving a very thin supply of starters from which to choose. Either Dillon Gee or Brian Flynn could get a start this weekend, but Dodd cites a source in stating that the Royals have expressed some interest in the Rays’ available starting pitchers. Tampa Bay starters Jake Odorizzi and Matt Moore have each seen their names pop up in trade rumors as of late.

Rangers Release Eric Surkamp To Sign With KBO’s Hanwha Eagles

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The Rangers announced tonight that they’ve requested release waivers on left-hander Eric Surkamp and will sell his contract rights to the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization. Texas had claimed Surkamp off waivers from the division-rival Athletics in late June. The move opens a spot on the Rangers’ 40-man roster.

Surkamp, 28, has a 3.56 ERA and a strong 274-to-82 K/BB ratio over the life of 293 1/3 innings at the Triple-A level but has never been able to transfer that success to the Majors. He’s seen big league time with the Giants, White Sox, Dodgers and A’s but struggled to a 6.68 ERA in 95 2/3 innings of work. He’ll look to follow the path of many other former big leaguers that have struggled to establish themselves in MLB but enjoyed success pitching overseas. The terms of his deal with the Eagles, of course, we not included in this announcement, but it’s fair to expect that he’ll earn a good bit more pitching in the KBO than he would have made pitching in the minors with the Rangers organization. The Rangers, in turn, will receive some degree of financial compensation from the Eagles in exchange for parting with Surkamp.

Dodgers Activate Hyun-Jin Ryu, Designate Will Venable For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced tonight that they’ve activated left-hander Hyun-jin Ryu from the 60-day disabled list and designated veteran outfielder Will Venable for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man and 25-man rosters. The Dodgers also optioned Luis Avilan to Triple-A and recalled right-hander Carlos Frias.

Venable, 33, has appeared in just 12 games and totaled 19 appearances for the Dodgers this season. This marks the second time in the past two weeks that Venable has been designated for assignment by the Dodgers, though last time he accepted an outright as opposed to electing free agency. He’ll again have the opportunity to opt for free agency if he’s outrighted by L.A., which is a fairly likely outcome.

Venable hasn’t hit much in any of the past three seasons, though he was a very solid and underrated outfield piece for the Padres for many years prior to the onset of his struggles. From 2008-13, Venable batted .257/.322/.431 and averaged 17 homers per 162 games despite playing half of his games at the spacious Petco Park. Since 2014, however, he’s limped to a collective .229/.298/.331 line in 857 plate appearances.

Ryu is slated to start for the Dodgers tonight, and when he does so, he’ll be toeing the rubber on a Major League mound for the first time since Sept. 12, 2014. Ryu opened the 2015 season on the disabled list due to an impingement in his throwing shoulder that ultimately required surgery, and he’s been on the shelf ever since. A healthy Ryu would be a boon for the Dodgers, as from 2013-14 Ryu made the club’s six-year, $36MM investment in his left arm look like a bargain. In 344 innings across those two seasons, Ryu pitched to a stellar 3.17 ERA while averaging 7.7 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 to go along with a strong 49.2 percent ground-ball rate. He’s made eight minor league rehab starts this season and posted a 4.23 ERA with a brilliant 23-to-1 K/BB ratio in 27 2/3 innings of work.

Padres, Adrian Morejon Agree To $11MM Bonus

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5:05pm: Badler has an updated scouting report on Morejon and some details on the contract. Morejon’s deal is structured as a 2017 contract, according to Badler, so he won’t play in any official games for San Diego this year. Rather, he’ll spend the next two months pitching in simulated games at the Padres’ academy in the Dominican Republic and then report to the instructional league in September. The structuring of the contract means that they’ll have an extra year before it’s necessary to add him to the 40-man roster as protection from the Rule 5 Draft. Despite his youth, Morejon could be pitching for one of the Padres’ Class-A affiliates next season, Badler adds. The free report has plenty of additional info on Morejon and some quotes from an international scouting director, so it’s well worth a full read-through.

3:55pm: The Padres have agreed to a deal with Cuban left-hander Adrian Morejon that will pay the 17-year-old an enormous $11MM bonus, reports MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). Morejon was formally declared a free agent by Major League Baseball just yesterday. Baseball America’s Ben Badler wrote back in May that the Padres were the favorites to sign Morejon, and Sanchez said the same yesterday when reporting that Morejon had become eligible to sign.

San Diego has already soared past its league-allotted bonus pool, meaning that they’ll pay a 100 percent luxury tax on the signing. As such, Morejon effectively costs the club $22MM. The Padres last week signed 10 of international prospects (including a few of the top names on this year’s market), and while the terms of each agreement aren’t yet available, those expenditures topped $12.5MM. Morejon’s bonus is far and away the largest of the bunch.

Morejon was absent from the rankings of Sanchez and Badler due to the fact that he wasn’t technically a free agent when those reports were published. However, Sanchez notes in his tweet that he’d have ranked Morejon as the No. 2 prospect on this year’s market, and Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen agreed when ranking the international prospects on Fangraphs’ sortable scouting board. Longenhagen’s projections give Morejon the chance to have three plus pitches — fastball, curveball and changeup — with above-average command. He currently sits 89-92 mph with his heater and tops out at 94, per Longenhagen, though given his age, he’s of course quite a ways from realizing that potential. Badler called him one of the best Cuban players available to MLB clubs back in February (Morejon had already left Cuba but was not yet a free agent at that point), writing that scouts to whom he spoke believed Morejon to be a more promising prospect than the considerably more-talked-about Lazaro Armenteros.

The Padres were allotted a bonus pool of $3.347MM, meaning they’ll be faced with more than $20MM worth of luxury tax penalties even if their spending stops today. Given the aggressive nature of their run at this year’s crop of international talent, though, it seems unlikely that the Padres will call it a day right now. They’ll be barred from signing any international amateurs for more than $300K in each of the next two signing periods due to their overspending, so it makes sense to continue to aggressively pursue talent between now and June 15, 2017, when the current international signing period comes to a close.

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