Here are today’s minor moves from around the league.
- The Mariners’ deal with Travis Ishikawa appears to have fallen apart, Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News-Tribune tweets. The Mariners had agreed to a minor-league deal with first baseman and corner outfielder Travis Ishikawa, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo wrote (Twitter links). The deal would pay Ishikawa $900K if he were in the Majors. Ishikawa, a surprising 2014 postseason hero, played sparingly with the Pirates and Giants in 2015, missing time due to back issues and hitting .267/.337/.420 in 169 plate appearances in the minor leagues. The 32-year-old has a career .852 OPS at the Triple-A level, but he’s collected more than 174 big-league plate appearances in only one season in his career.
- The Cubs have signed utilityman Kristopher Negron and catcher Tim Federowicz to minor-league deals, tweets Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. After a promising 2014 season in Cincinnati, the 29-year-old Negron flopped in 2015, batting .140/.238/.161 in 107 plate appearances. He did, however, play every position but pitcher and catcher, potentially making him an interesting bench piece if he can recover his hitting stroke. The 28-year-old Federowicz missed most of the 2015 season with a knee injury. He had previously hit .194/.247/.300 in parts of four seasons as a reserve with the Dodgers.
- The Yankees have signed righty Anthony Swarzak to a minor-league deal, Eddy tweets. Swarzak, a longtime swingman in the Twins organization, pitched reasonably well in 13 1/3 innings with Cleveland last year before the Indians sold his contract to the Doosan Bears in Korea. Swarzak served as a starter there and posted a 5.26 ERA, 7.0 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 — not terribly impressive numbers, but also not as bad as they look given how tough the KBO is on pitchers. His ability to start and relieve could make him a useful depth piece for the Yankees.
- The Giants have signed lefty Mike Kickham and righty Vin Mazzaro and re-signed center fielder Darren Ford, Eddy tweets. Kickham, who briefly appeared for the Giants in 2013 and 2014, struggled at Triple-A stops in the Mariners and Rangers organizations in 2015, walking 35 batters in 27 innings. Mazzaro held his own in 12 innings of relief with the Marlins last season but spent most of the year at the Triple-A level, where he posted a 2.70 ERA, 7.7 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9. Ford, now 30, spent 2015 at Triple-A Sacramento, hitting .261/.333/.403 and stealing 33 bases.
- The Padres have signed 2B/CF/SS Jemile Weeks to a minor-league deal, Eddy tweets. Weeks, formerly a regular with the A’s, has played mostly at Triple-A the last several seasons. Last year, he batted a mere .204/.297/.281 for Pawtucket in the Red Sox organization, although, as Eddy notes, he has a strong track record at Triple-A, with a .371 career OBP there.
Negron could be a nice pickup if he remembers to bring a bat to the plate. Always good to have depth that can play all over the field, regardless.
Weeks is a solid depth pickup for the Pad’s. Was hoping he’d sign with the Sox yet again for the 3rd straight season. Can play SS/2b fairly solid and steal a few bases.
Better than most retread types teams sign.
Just noticed Fed-X signed with Cubbies also.. Epstein still going after all his old Sox players huh? fed-X can sure play defense and throw, His MiLB bat just never translated over to the bigs.
Sox organization, at one time had these prospect catchers in it.. Hard to imagination:
Ryan Lavarnway
Fed-X
Christian Vazquez
Blake Swihart
Dan Butler
Now? Not a prospect catcher (real) in the system.
One of my baseball coaches, was actually ishakawas middle and high school coach, he says he was a stud in highschool
Ishakawas grew up very close to Seattle
A guy in the majors was a stud when he was younger? That’s hard to imagine.
I know right
i hope Ishikawa makes the team so we can see Iwakuma making pickoff throws to Ishikawa.
The Giants made a big mistake in dumping Ishikawa. When the injuries kept multiplying, they really could have used him.
They have a reputation of bringing back players they’ve let go, like Ishikawa, but I’m not sure I see why they would bring back Kickham. He has been just awful since the Giants brought him up for a few starts a couple of years ago. Not sure what they see in him at this point.