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Archives for February 2016

Free Agent Notes: Buehrle, Thornton, Mets, Torres

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Today represents the forty-year anniversary of the advent of modern free agency, as Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan explores. The piece includes some interesting quotes from some of those involved at the time.

As the market marches forward this winter, here’s the latest:

  • Free agent southpaw Mark Buehrle remains in a sort of holding pattern as he ponders retirement, Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com reports on Twitter. The durable veteran is neither planning to sign for 2016 nor ruling out a “possible comeback down the road,” says Crasnick. That seems largely to confirm prior reports, but dangles the interesting possibility that Buehrle could take some time off and look to make a return in the future.
  • Lefty reliever Matt Thornton is among the solid players still looking for a deal, and he joined MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM to discuss his status (links to Twitter). The hard-throwing southpaw is getting on in years, but says he’s “not a typical 38-year-old” — a proposition that’s hard to dispute given that he still throws a 93.5 mph average heater (though that’s off a bit from recent years). Though Thornton said it’s been a “slow” market, he isn’t looking to settle. “I’m not taking an invite,” he said. “I’m getting a Major League deal or I need to look at myself and decide if I need to walk away.”
  • Mets GM Sandy Alderson addressed reporters today at the press conference to re-introduce Yoenis Cespedes. He says the club is done with major league signings for the winter, as Adam Rubin of ESPNNewYork.com tweets. That’s not too surprising, of course, as New York has already given out six MLB deals this winter.
  • One of those Mets signings left righty Carlos Torres without a roster spot, and he has drawn quite a lot of interest since he cleared waivers and hit the open market, NJ.com’s Brandon Kuty writes. The Yankees have reached out, as have several Asian clubs, per the report. Torres has been a sturdy pen presence in recent years despite tough results in 2015.

Pirates To Acquire Jesse Biddle

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12:46pm: Right-hander Yoervis Medina, himself just designated, will go to the Phils in the deal, the team announced. Since he was already outrighted from Pittsburgh’s 40-man, he won’t require an immediate roster spot with the Phillies.

10:31am: Biddle is headed to the Pirates, Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com tweets.

10:20am: The Phillies have reached a deal to trade southpaw Jesse Biddle to an unidentified club, Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports (Twitter link). The former top prospect had recently been designated for assignment.

Since he was in DFA limbo, Biddle was destined to land elsewhere unless he went unclaimed on waivers. Clearly, with a trade being reached, there was sufficient interest that a claim was inevitable anyway.

Once a consensus top-100 prospect league-wide, Biddle showed plenty of upside to go with some command issues while rising through the system. Still just 24, Biddle is set to miss the coming year after undergoing Tommy John surgery last fall.

But he had fallen off track even before the elbow issue cropped up. Since a promising 2013 at the Double-A level in which he posted a 3.64 ERA with 10.0 K/9 against 5.3 BB/9, Biddle’s strikeout numbers have fallen even while he’s continued to issue too many free passes. Clearly, though, there’s still enough talent to bet on that multiple other organizations were willing to commit a 40-man spot to the lefty — at least for the time being.

Mariners Sign Dae-ho Lee

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12:18pm: The Mariners have announced the minor league signing.

11:56am: The deal is done, with a physical already completed and an announcement expected in short order, according to Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times.

10:51am: Korean first baseman Dae-ho Lee has long been rumored to be negotiating with MLB clubs, and it appears that a deal could be in the works with the Mariners. A report from Korean baseball analyst Michael Min (Korean language link) says that Lee is in agreement on a one-year contract with Seattle that could pay him up to $4MM. (Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap conveys the information in English.)

If something gets finalized, though, it may only be a minor league pact, Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News Tribune suggests (Twitter links). In that scenario, Lee would presumably need to crack the MLB roster out of camp and reach some incentives to maximize the available earnings.

Lee, 33, declined a player option with Japan’s Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in order to become a free agent and pursue an MLB opportunity. He is said to have been weighing offers from several MLB teams as well as his former employers in Nippon Professional Baseball. Because he is a true free agent with advanced professional experience, there is no posting fee or international spending cap involved in the deal.

After establishing himself in the Korea Baseball Organization, where he starred for the beter part of a decade, Lee moved to Japan for the start of the 2012 campaign. He’s been a steady producer there, generally mixing good on-base ability with a low strikeout rate and solid power. Last year, though, he took things to a new level, hitting 31 home runs and slashing .282/.364/.524 over 584 plate appearances.

It’s important to bear in mind, when weighing Lee’s numbers overseas against those carried by fellow Korean crossovers Jung Ho Kang and Byung-ho Park, that the NPB doesn’t feature the kind of unusually inflated batting lines found in the hitter-friendly KBO. Lee’s ..892 OPS last season was the fourth-best mark in the league. In fact, only eleven players reached the .800 threshold — including familiar names such as Wily Mo Pena, Cuban star Alfredo Despaigne, and Lee’s former teammate Nobuhiro Matsuda, who flirted with his own MLB bid this winter.

Ultimately, Lee is a hard player to peg, but obviously has shown enough with the bat to intrigue. He’s quite sizable and seems unlikely to see the field without a first baseman’s mitt, if he does more than DH. MLBTR’s Zach Links (Twitter link) recently asked a Korean scout for a comp for the veteran slugger. “Maybe Carlos Lee minus some power,” he was told. “It’s tough. He is not typical, that’s for sure.”

For Seattle, that skillset would seem to put the Korean star on track to pair up with Adam Lind in a first base platoon. He could also see time in the DH slot when Nelson Cruz slots in at right field. Regardless, the fit is clear, and Lee would figure to receive a fair number of plate appearances in part-time duty.

Notably, that role had seemed destined to go to former top prospect Jesus Montero, with former big leaguer Gaby Sanchez providing competition in camp. Instead, it seems, Montero may need to compete with Lee to earn his way onto the active roster and remain a significant part of the organization’s plans moving forward.

Minor MLB Transactions: 2/3/16

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Here are the latest minor moves of note:

  • The White Sox have re-signed righty Maikel Cleto and added outfielder Vinny Rottino, according to Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. Cleto, 26, has been hit around in his limited MLB experience but has shown the ability to miss bats. He spent last year at Triple-A, working to a 3.00 ERA in 51 frames with 10.8 K/9 against 4.2 BB/9. The 35-year-old Rottino has not seen the majors since 2012. He slashed .266/.346/.390 over 514 plate appearances at Triple-A in 2015.
  • The Marlins have added first baseman Zach Lutz, per Eddy. Lutz saw only minimal time in the Mets system last year, but did briefly reach the majors with New York in the 2012-13 seasons.
  • Lefty Edgar Ibarra has joined the Phillies on a minors pact, Eddy adds. The 26-year-old cracked the bigs for the first time last year, but only made two appearances. At Triple-A, he worked o a 5.43 ERA over 66 1/3 innings with 9.1 /9 vs. 4.7 BB/9.
  • Fellow southpaw Chris Dwyer is going to the Orioles on his own new deal, according to the BA report. He had spent his entire career in the Royals organization, briefly making it up to the show in 2013. Dwyer was a fourth-round pick out of Clemson back in 2009.
  • The Braves reached agreement with Blake Lalli, per MLB.com’s Mark Bowman (via Twitter), and expect to utilize him as one of the team’s catchers at Triple-A. The 32-year-old has served in just that role with the Diamondbacks over the last two seasons.

Braves Notes: Diaz, Rebuild, Draft, Olivera, Minor

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Earlier today it was reported that the Braves are expected to make a push for much-ballyhooed Cuban prospect Lazaro Armenteros (aka “Lazarito“), though it’s worth noting that they’d need to convince Armenteros to wait to sign until after July 2 (otherwise, their previously reported plan of shattering their international signing pool in the 2016-17 period would go out the window due to penalties from Armenteros’ bonus). As Braves fans ponder the chances of seeing their favorite club land Lazarito, here are few more items pertaining to Atlanta…

  • The Braves “worked hard” to try to find a way to acquire infield prospect Isan Diaz from the Diamondbacks prior to his inclusion in the trade that allowed the D-backs to shed much of Aaron Hill’s salary, tweets MLB Network’s Peter Gammons. Per Gammons, the Braves appeared to have a similar idea to the Brewers (who acquired Diaz, Chase Anderson and much of Aaron Hill’s contract in exchange for Jean Segura and Tyler Wagner). Gammons notes that the Braves were trying to “alleviate [the] D-backs’ cash issues,” but a deal was never reached.
  • Mark Bradley of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution spoke to GM John Coppolella about the team’s rebuild and the differences between the trades he and president of baseball ops John Hart have made this winter and the ones the pair made last offseason. “In a lot of the trades we made in the 2014-2015 offseason, the players were a lot further away,” said Coppolella in reference to trades that netted the likes of Mallex Smith, Max Fried, Tyrell Jenkins, Rio Ruiz and others (although names like Shelby Miller and Mike Foltynewicz did represent MLB-ready options acquired last winter). “With [with the Miller and Andrelton Simmons trades], you really got six players you could see (in Atlanta) in 2016. A lot of the deals we made last year … were more to restart the system than have major-league impact in the short term.” Atlanta landed Major Leaguers Ender Inciarte and Erick Aybar in those trades as well as near-ready prospects Sean Newcomb, Chris Ellis, Aaron Blair and Dansby Swanson.
  • Coppolella and scouting director Brian Bridges met with draft hopefuls A.J. Puk (LHP) and Buddy Reed (OF) recently, reports Scout.com’s Bill Shanks. Either Florida Gators star could be a candidate for the Braves’ top pick, per Shanks, though as he notes, Coppolella recently stated that the team’s preference would be to draft a hitter.
  • In his latest Braves Inbox column, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman notes that while the jury is out on the Hector Olivera trade, it’s fair to wonder whether Olivera’s stock can recover from the hit it took with shaky performances in the Majors and in the Puerto Rican Winter League. Bowman also fields a question on left-hander Mike Minor, replying by saying that Minor’s “days of pitching for Atlanta appear to be over, at least for now.” Minor is still recovering from his shoulder surgery, Bowman writes, adding that it sounds like Minor could sign with a new club within the next month.

Minor MLB Transactions: 2-2-16

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Here are the day’s minor signings and outright assignments from around the league…

  • Right-hander Yoervis Medina has been outrighted to Triple-A Indianapolis, according to the Pirates’ transactions page on their web site. Medina delivered strong results for the 2013-14 Mariners, pitching to a combined 2.81 ERA with 9.4 K/9, 4.9 BB/9 and a 53.5 percent ground-ball rate before taking a significant step backwards in 2015. This past season, he logged a 4.71 ERA with an unsightly 16-to-11 K/BB ratio in 21 innings for the Mariners and Cubs. Notably, his fastball velocity, which had averaged 94.8 mph in 2014, sat a full two miles per hour lower at 92.8 in 2015, and his ground-ball rate dipped to 36.8 percent.
  • The Angels announced that they’ve signed outfielder Andrew Brown and right-hander Yunesky Maya to minor league contracts. Both players most recently appeared in the Korea Baseball Organization — Brown with the SK Wyverns and Maya with the Doosan Bears. Brown, 31, batted .261/.360/.496 with 28 homers in 539 plate appearances in a strong season with Doosan. He’d previously spent parts of the 2010-14 seasons in the Majors, batting a combined .220/.281/.390 between the Cardinals, Rockies and Mets. Maya, formerly a fairly high-profile international signee with the Nationals, struggled tremendously in the KBO, yielding 62 runs in 68 1/3 innings. He last appeared in the Majors in 2013, though he threw just a third of an inning that season. Prior to that, the Cuban righty posted a 5.52 ERA in 58 2/3 innings from 2010-11. Both players were invited to Major League Spring Training.
  • Sticking with players coming back over from the KBO, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports that the Yankees have signed right-hander Tyler Cloyd and third baseman Deibinson Romero, who spent the past season with the Samsung Lions and Doosan Bears, respectively. Cloyd, a former Phillies farmhand, logged 159 2/3 innings with the Lions but also posted a 5.19 ERA in the KBO’s extremely hitter-friendly environment. Prior to his KBO stint, Cloyd spent the 2014 season with the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate and posted a 3.90 ERA with 6.4 K/9 against 1.7 BB/9 in 166 1/3 innings. The 29-year-old Romero is a former Twins farmhand that batted .253/.328/.449 with a dozen homers in 305 trips to the plate.
  • The Tigers have signed Cuban shortstop Leonardo Laffita to a minor league deal with a $250K bonus, according to Eddy. The 24-year-old Laffita spent a bit of time in the Mexican League last season, where he batted .280/.345/.360 in 57 plate appearances. Within Eddy’s piece, BA’s Ben Badler weighs in on Laffita, noting that he’ll have to move to center field or second base. Laffita stood out for his speed, hand-eye coordination and bat speed, per Badler, but he’s a free swinger with questionable plate discipline.
  • Veteran catcher Miguel Olivo has a minor league deal with the Giants, per Eddy. A lifetime .240/.275/.417 hitters in 3993 plate appearances at the Major League level, Olivo hasn’t appeared in the bigs since 2014, although the 37-year-old did bat .281/.347/.470 across 378 plate appearances in Mexico over the past year.

AL East Notes: Uribe, Yankees, Guthrie, O’s, Red Sox

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While many Yankees fans have speculated on the possibility of Pedro Alvarez coming to the Bronx as a replacement for the injured Greg Bird (a notion with which I disagree, as Bird wasn’t projected to be on the 25-man roster barring a Mark Teixeira injury, and Alvarez is undoubtedly seeking fairly regular at-bats), Joel Sherman of the New York Post opines that the Yankees should instead make a play for Juan Uribe. Adding Uribe to the mix would allow the Yankees to use Chase Headley at first base in the event of an injury to Teixeira, with Uribe slotting in at the hot corner in his stead. Additionally, Uribe’s ability to still capably play second base could make him an option there as well, should Dustin Ackley prove to be an unsuitable backup from a defensive standpoint. As Sherman notes, however, there’s competition for Uribe’s services — namely in the form of the Indians, as ESPN’s Buster Olney mentioned earlier today. There does appear to be room for a veteran infield addition on the Yankees’ roster, although Uribe would make it difficult to envision Rob Refsnyder having any kind of regular role with the team in 2016.

More on the Yankees and the rest of their division…

  • In a second column, Sherman spoke to Yankees GM Brian Cashman and asked whether the delayed diagnoses in the injury cases of Teixeira and Bird led to any concerns about the team’s medical evaluation process. “We deal with two of the biggest and best hospitals in the world – New York Presbyterian and the Hospital for Special Surgery,” said Cashman. “Both of them were completely on top of this and both saw it the same way. There is no second-guessing involved. Both [hospitals] saw [Bird] last May, they saw him in October and they both saw him now. Nothing was missed.”
  • As Spring Training draws nearer, it becomes increasingly likely that the Orioles will look internally to fill out their rotation, writes Eduardo A. Encina of the Baltimore Sun. Encina notes that a number of free agents remain as possibilities — Yovani Gallardo, Mat Latos and Tim Lincecum — but each comes with his own issues (draft pick compensation, character concerns and health, respectively). Encina hears that the Oriols have even considered a reunion with right-hander Jeremy Guthrie, although he characterizes that as an unlikely outcome. Encina goes on to profile the team’s top internal candidates for the back of the rotation, including Vance Worley, Mike Wright, Tyler Wilson and even Brian Matusz.
  • CSN New England’s Sean McAdam suggests three offseason moves that the Red Sox should have made but didn’t as well as some offseason decisions that he feels the team would have been better off not making. An extension for Mookie Betts tops McAdam’s list of suggestions for moves that the team should have made (there is, of course, still time for that to play out), while banking on Hanley Ramirez to be their everyday first baseman is a misstep in McAdam’s mind. He also mentions obtaining a second left-handed reliever and taking advantage of a deep outfield market would have been wise for the BoSox.

Dodgers Hire Greg Maddux, Raul Ibanez As Special Assistants

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The Dodgers have hired former MLB stars Greg Maddux and Raul Ibanez as special assistants to president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and the club’s baseball operations department, per a team announcement.

Maddux and Ibanez are both highly decorated ballplayers, of course, and also have accumulated a fair bit of experience since their playing days ended. They’ll assist in scouting and player development functions, according to the team’s press release.

The 49-year-old Maddux — a recent Hall of Fame inductee — has worked with both the Cubs and Rangers front offices in recent years, as J.P. Hoornstra of the Los Angeles News Group writes. During the 2013 World Baseball Classic, he was the pitching coach for Team USA.

Ibanez, meanwhile, worked as a television analyst last year after wrapping up his 19-year-career following the 2014 season. The 43-year-old has seen his name come up as a possible field staff candidate, but will instead make his first foray into the front office world with Los Angeles.

Blue Jays To Acquire Darrell Ceciliani

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The Blue Jays acquired outfielder Darrell Ceciliani from the Mets, as Chris Cotillo of SB Nation first tweeted. Toronto will send a player to be named later in the deal, per a team announcement, though New York calls it a cash deal in its own release.

The 25-year-old had been designated for assignment to clear roster space for Yoenis Cespedes. He’ll provide another outfield option for Toronto, which sacrificed some depth when it shipped Ben Revere to the Nationals for reliever Drew Storen. A left-handed hitter, Ceciliani did reach the bigs last year for New York but accrued only minimal major league experience.

It remains to be seen what the youngster can do with a full opportunity, but he’s shown some promise. He logged an impressive .345/.398/.581 slash and contributed nine home runs and 16 steals in his 255 plate appearances at Triple-A last year, and has generally swung the bat well during his time on the farm.

Notably, too, Ceciliani drew strong ratings from defensive metrics in his short, 129-inning run in the majors last year. He can be deployed all across the outfield, too, adding to his versatility.

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