Archives for 2016

Angels Designate Daniel Nava, Craig Gentry For Assignment

By Steve Adams | July 30, 2016 at 5:12pm CDT

The Angels announced today that they’ve designated outfielders Daniel Nava and Craig Gentry for assignment. Outfielder Shane Robinson has been reinstated from the DL in a corresponding move.

The news brings to end a left field platoon that was widely panned by Angels fans this offseason, as the Halos elected to pursue bargain options with rather than incur luxury tax penalization when addressing its left field vacancy. Nava and Gentry have both spent significant time on the DL this season, and neither was overly productive at the dish. Nava batted .235/.309/.303 in 136 plate appearances while Gentry slashed .147/.237/.176 in just 39 trips to the plate.

Diamondbacks Designate Josh Collmenter, Mike Freeman For Assignment

By Steve Adams | July 30, 2016 at 5:03pm CDT

The D-backs announced that they’ve designated right-hander Josh Collmenter and utilityman Mike Freeman for assignment. The moves clear room for lefties Steve Hathaway and Adam Loewen on the 40-man and 25-man rosters. Arizona also optioned Zac Curtis to Triple-A Reno.

The DFA of Collmenter, who was Arizona’s Opening Day starter in 2015, is at least somewhat surprising. While the right-hander has had mixed results after assuming a bullpen role this season, he’s pitched to a 4.84 ERA with 17 strikeouts against 11 walks to go along with a 47.7 percent ground-ball rate this season. Collmenter has made 15 appearances and, as the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro points out (via Twitter), delivered a scoreless outing in 12 of those games. However, he’s been torched in his other three appearances, allowing four runs in each of them, resulting in his lackluster earned run average.

Collmenter is earning just $1.85MM this season, and his track record — 3.49 ERA in 637 MLB innings prior to this season — makes that a reasonable enough price to expect that the D-backs could get some trade interest in him. At the very least, Collmenter’s salary is reasonable enough that a contending club in need of arms could place a claim if he’s placed on waivers.

Freeman, 28, made his big league debut in Arizona this season and went hitless in 11 plate appearances. He’s a career .315/.376/.421 hitter in Triple-A and has significant experience at second base and all three outfield positions.

Mets Place Jose Reyes On DL, Sign Justin Ruggiano

By Steve Adams | July 30, 2016 at 4:11pm CDT

The Mets have placed infielder Jose Reyes on the 15-day disabled list with a strained left intercostal muscle and signed veteran outfielder Justin Ruggiano to a Major League deal, the team announced. Ruggiano is in the lineup for tonight’s game.

The Mets reunited with Reyes earlier this year in spite of a dreadful 2015 season and a 51-game suspension under Major League Baseball’s domestic violence policy. Reyes has shown more extra-base pop than he has in years, but his overall productivity hasn’t been especially impressive; he’s hitting .239/.278/.493 in 72 plate appearances while primarily playing third base. The extent of Reyes’ injury isn’t known, but if he’s expected to miss significant time it could further motivate the Mets to add a bat to spend some time at third base.

Ruggiano, 34, was released from the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate earlier this week, where he’d batted .226/.321/.427 in 191 plate appearances. Those numbers are fairly pedestrian, but Ruggiano has a long track record of hitting left-handed pitching quite well at the Major League level. In parts of eight MLB seasons, he’s slashed .273/.336/.521 with 25 homers (538 PAs).

Nationals Acquire Mark Melancon

By Jeff Todd | July 30, 2016 at 3:54pm CDT

3:54pm: FanRag’s Jon Heyman reports that the Pirates sent about $500K to the Nationals as part of the deal (Twitter link).

2:00pm: The Nationals officially have struck a deal to acquire Pirates closer Mark Melancon, finally getting the late-inning upgrade they’ve been seeking. Southpaw Felipe Rivero is heading to Pittsburgh in return, with lefty pitching prospect Taylor Hearn rounding out the package.

Washington also gets cash in the deal, per Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post (via Twitter). Melancon is playing on a $9.65MM salary this year before reaching free agency. As a result of the mid-season move, the righty will not be eligible to receive a qualifying offer, which means he’ll enter the market free and clear of draft compensation.

The Nats have long been connected to the top of the relief market with incumbent Jonathan Papelbon struggling to hold down the ninth. The Nats picked him up this time last year, but while he had at least gotten the job done despite declining peripherals, the results have been bleak of late. While the team chased Aroldis Chapman, it wasn’t willing to meet the high asking price. And the Nats also balked at the apparent requests of a top-tier prospect in exchange for top closers Andrew Miller and Wade Davis — each of whom come with future control.

[Related: Updated Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates Depth Charts]

Melancon, 31, unquestionably constitutes a significant upgrade, though the loss of Rivero means that the team has lost a high-powered lefty from its roster. Still, it’s hard to argue with the decision to plug an established late-inning arm into the mix. The Nats can still turn to another power southpaw in Sammy Solis as well as crafty veteran Oliver Perez. Taking the broader perspective, the club certainly got more than it might have hoped for when it acquired Rivero as part of the early-2014 deal that brought backup catcher Jose Lobaton to D.C. in exchange for righty Nate Karns.

Interestingly, Melancon fits more the profile of Papelbon than of the other arms that D.C. reportedly targeted. He works in the 91 to 92 mph range with his average fastball and carries a swinging strike rate in the low-double digits. But as the now-aging Papelbon once did, Melancon has an increasingly lengthy record of pure excellence. Since coming to Pittsburgh in a seemingly minor trade, he has pitched to a 1.80 ERA with 8.3 K/9 and just 1.5 BB/9 across 260 1/3 innings. It has been more of the same this year, though Melancon’s typically outstanding groundball rate has dipped just below 50%. He currently sports a 1.51 ERA with 8.2 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9, right at his now-established rates.

For the Bucs, it’s surely tough to part with such an integral part of the team with contention still in sights. But the club faces something of an uphill road despite its 52-49 record, with a powerful Cubs team still pacing the division and several other quality clubs angling for a Wild Card berth. After losing two consecutive play-in games, Pittsburgh obviously felt it wasn’t worth passing on this opportunity — particularly since it still figures to have a solid combination of Tony Watson and Neftali Feliz working to close out wins.

After all, Rivero will likely slot right into the Pirates pen, possibly constituting part of the Bucs’ late-inning mix — in the future, if not right away. The 25-year-old has monster stuff, even if his results have been uneven. The Pirates obviously put a high value on him, which is understandable given that he’s controllable through 2021 and is perhaps only just touching his potential. Rivero owns a 4.53 ERA in 49 2/3 innings on the year, but has posted 9.6 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9. If we’re being honest, it’s not out of the question that he could be every bit as good as Melancon right off the bat, though obviously he doesn’t come with anything near the veteran’s track record.

Hearn looks to be something of a younger version of Rivero. The 21-year-old features a huge fastball, but hasn’t yet advanced past the Class A level, where he owns a 3.18 ERA with 12.3 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 over 22 2/3 innings. Hearn was originally drafted by Pittsburgh, then ended up going to the Nats after being taken in the fifth round of last year’s draft.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports reported the deal (links to Twitter), with Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweeting Hearn’s inclusion.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Padres Working To Trade Matt Kemp, Talking With Braves

By Steve Adams | July 30, 2016 at 3:34pm CDT

4:31pm: MLB.com’s Mark Bowman implies that talks between the two sides aren’t especially active at the moment, tweeting that “if the Braves revisit” Kemp discussions with the Padres, then San Diego would “seemingly have to be willing” to take on the remaining money owed to Hector Oliver in a swap of bad contracts. Currently serving a suspension under MLB’s domestic violence policy, Olivera is owed $28.5MM from 2017 through 2020.

3:34pm: The Padres are working to trade Matt Kemp and are willing to eat the vast majority of the money he is owed, reports ESPN’s Jim Bowden (via Twitter). The Braves are one of two teams to which San Diego is currently talking he adds. FOX’s Ken Rosenthal tweets that he hears similar chatter. The Padres are working to move Kemp, and they’ve talked to the Braves, who are looking for ways to add to their offense.

Kemp, 31, is owed $21.5MM in each of the next three seasons, and the Padres are on the hook for $18MM of that sum on an annual basis. (The Dodgers are picking up the other $3.5MM in each of those seasons.) Trading him has long seemed like a difficult feat, as Kemp’s considerable power is largely negated by his poor defense and his difficulty getting on base. Though he’s clubbed 24 homers this season, Kemp is hitting .262/.285/.489 overall, which translates to just a few ticks above the league-average batting line, per park-adjusted metrics like OPS+ and wRC+.

The Braves have, in the past, been said to be willing to take on large contracts in order to acquire meaningful prospects from a trading partner. It seems unlikely, however, that the rebuilding Padres, who have been accumulating as much minor league talent as possible as of late, would give up any of their top-tier talent to shed Kemp’s deal. From a speculative standpoint, the Braves could look to utilize Nick Markakis’ contract to balance out some of the salary involved, though taking on Markakis could prove troublesome for the Padres, who undoubtedly would like to give slugging corner outfield prospect Hunter Renfroe a chance to bring his career .323/.351/.594 batting line at Triple-A to the Majors.

Rotation Rumors: Pirates, Quintana, Gray, Hill, Twins

By Jeff Todd | July 30, 2016 at 3:13pm CDT

After dealing Mark Melancon, the Pirates may not be done with their deadline moves, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. The team isn’t necessarily looking to act as a seller, though; instead, Pittsburgh is targeting a starter. The Melancon swap, after all, doesn’t represent full-blown capitulation, as it brought back a quality, major league level reliever in Felipe Rivero. Pittsburgh is said to be talking with the Rays, among other teams, and one can’t help but wonder whether the Bucs see an opportunity to achieve some value on an underperforming arm with a favorable contract situation.

Here are some more notes on major pitchers whose names are in discussions as the deadline approaches:

The Rangers have spoken with the White Sox about Jose Quintana as well as Chris Sale, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets, but there’s no more reason to believe the sides are closer on the former than there is to think they’ll line up on the latter. At this point, there’s a difference of opinion between the teams on those southpaws’ values, per Rosenthal.
There’s no chance that the Athletics will deal righty Sonny Gray at the deadline, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports. It is hard to call that a surprising revelation, given that we’ve heard no signals out of Oakland that he’d be made available. The A’s are obviously uninterested in selling low on a 26-year-old pitcher who had pitched like an ace heading into this season, but who has struggled badly in 2016. Gray’s strikeout rate has held steady, and he isn’t giving up many more walks than is typical, but he carries a 5.43 ERA over 107 2/3 innings and missed time with a trap strain. The 2016 downturn will at least tamp down Gray’s arbitration salary, and with three more years of control, it certainly behooves the Athletics to hold onto him at least until he can rebuild some value.
Meanwhile, word is the Athletics could still deal southpaw Rich Hill even though he won’t return to the mound before the deadline and just hit the 15-day DL. Heyman tweets that there’s still “significant interest” in the veteran despite his lingering blister issues. Though he carries a risky profile given his recent and prior injury issues and lack of a productive big league track record prior to his out-of-nowhere breakout late in 2015, Hill has been aces when healthy in 2016. Over 76 frames, he owns a stellar 2.25 ERA with 10.7 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9.
While none of these names are of the level of the pitchers discussed above, the Twins are said to be shopping Ricky Nolasco, Tommy Milone, and Fernando Abad, according to ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick (via Twitter). Nolasco and Milone could both conceivably be looked at by teams in need of some rotation depth, while Abad remains a useful LOOGY option for organizations that hope to bolster their pen. None, of course, seem particularly likely to draw major returns; if anything, Nolasco would likely be moved for a bit of salary relief.

Athletics, Royals Swap Billy Burns, Brett Eibner

By Jeff Todd and Steve Adams | July 30, 2016 at 2:53pm CDT

The Athletics and Royals have announced a swap of outfielders, with the fleet-footed Billy Burns headed to Kansas City in exchange for Brett Eibner. Both were playing at the Triple-A level for their respective teams, but have been in the majors at points earlier in the year.

[Related: Updated Oakland Athletics and Kansas City Royals Depth Charts]

Burns, 26, brings to Kansas City an elite set of wheels that should play well in the spacious outfield at Kauffman Stadium, and his overall skill set should fit in well with the Royals’ general style of play. Burns boasts an extremely high contact rate and has fanned in just 13 percent of his plate appearances at the Major League level, which is characteristic of the approach the Royals have utilized to great effect in the past two seasons. However, his overall offensive game took a notable step back in his sophomore season. After posting a .294/.334/.392 slash in 555 PAs last season (good for fifth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting, though that award was really a two-horse race), Burns batted just .234/.270/.302 in 292 PAs before being optioned back to Triple-A earlier this summer.

Eibner, 27, has just 85 plate appearances at the Major League level, where he’s batted .231/.286/.429 with three homers and six doubles. He ranked among the Royals top 30 prospects, per Baseball America, in each of the past five offseasons, checking in at No. 17 overall on the two most recent iterations of said list. Though the former second-rounder is older than most would associate with the term “prospect,” he does have an impressive track record in Triple-A, where he’s hit .280/.354/.471 with 37 homers in 961 plate appearances in parts of three seasons. Oakland has been home to no shortage of late bloomers under president of baseball operations Billy Beane, and the hope for Eibner is that he’ll seemingly be the next such success story.

Depending on the Royals’ plans for Burns, he could be controllable through the 2020 or 2021 season. Burns entered the season with one year and 20 days of big league service time, and he picked up an additional 97 days of Major League service before being optioned out earlier this month. He’d need another 55 days of service time in the Majors this year to reach two full years, which would put him on track for free agency following the 2020 season. However, if the Royals view him as more of a September call-up for the expansion of Major League rosters, Burns will fall shy and won’t be eligible until following the 2021 campaign. Eibner, meanwhile, is controllable through the 2022 seeason.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Giants Activate Hunter Pence, Designate Ramiro Pena

By Jeff Todd | July 30, 2016 at 1:41pm CDT

The Giants have activated outfielder Hunter Pence, who had been out after undergoing surgery for a hamstring tear, the club announced. Infielder Ramiro Pena has been designated to open a roster spot.

San Francisco will surely be glad to see Pence back in the lineup, as he was producing at a .298/.375/.486 clip before going down with the injury. There had been talk that the team might need to make a deal to fill in for Pence, but that doesn’t look to be necessary at this point. The Giants are still said to be looking into corner outfield additions, though. Adding offense would be the primary purpose, but it probably wouldn’t hurt to reduce the burden a bit on the 33-year-old veteran.

As for Pena, 31, the writing was probably on the wall when the Giants struck a deal to acquire Eduardo Nunez. With fellow infielders Matt Duffy and Ehire Adrianza also on the comeback trail, there just wasn’t space for the switch-hitter. He has actually been quite a useful fill-in, though, posting a quality .299/.330/.425 slash line in his 91 plate appearances on the year.

Rangers Looking At Derek Norris, Kurt Suzuki

By Jeff Todd | July 30, 2016 at 1:32pm CDT

1:28pm: Texas is also doing diligence on Twins catcher Kurt Suzuki, per Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (via Twitter). He has been a popular deadline candidate in years past, twice changing hands to help bolster a contender’s catching situation.

Suzuki is for all intents and purposes a rental piece, as his vesting option (485 plate appearances) is unlikely to be triggered. The 32-year-old struggled out of the gates but has recovered to the point that he’s now among the game’s better-hitting catchers on the year, with a .288/.327/.441 slash in 246 trips to the plate.

9:32am: Padres backstop Derek Norris is a “near-lock” to be dealt before Monday’s deadline, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (via Twitter). The Rangers are one team in on the receiver, he reiterates, though there are others as well.

The catching position has seen some serious depth issues arise this year, so it’s not surprising to hear that there’s interest. And from the Padres’ perspective, giving Christian Bethancourt an expanded role while bringing up top prospect Austin Hedges obviously holds appeal.

Norris, 27, is earning $2.925MM this year with two more season of arbitration control yet to come. He is carrying only a .196/.256/.365 batting line on the year, with his slugging percentage and 12 home runs not quite offsetting a precipitous dive in the on-base department.

After a jump up in June, Norris has turned in a rough July, but he has done much more with the bat in the past. Over the prior three campaigns, he ran up a .256/.333/.405 slash. That rated out to a 108 OPS+ when factoring in the pitching-friendly parks in which he hit, which is quite productive for a backstop.

Even better, Norris has seemingly shown vast improvement in his receiving skills, with StatCorner and Baseball Prospectus rating him among the league’s best pitch framers both this year and last. And though it’s surely an imperfect measure, Defensive Runs Saved values him as the game’s second-best overall defender behind the dish.

Nationals “Focused” On Mark Melancon

By Jeff Todd | July 30, 2016 at 1:08pm CDT

As the Nationals continue their effort to add a quality reliever at the back of the pen, the club is “focused” on striking a deal to add Pirates righty Mark Melancon, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. The Nats have also been tied to hurlers such as Andrew Miller of the Yankees and Wade Davis of the Royals, but the asking prices have been incredibly steep.

That’s not to say that the Bucs will let Melancon go lightly. Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports that the team would be looking for a deal along the lines of the Aroldis Chapman pact. The Cubs parted with one high-quality prospect in Gleyber Torres as well as a useful major-league arm in Adam Warren and two other nice prospect pieces to add the flamethrowing lefty.

It’s easy to see the analogy between the Cubs-Yankees agreement and what Pittsburgh would like to accomplish. They, too, reportedly hope to receive a useful set-up option in return — giving the team a player to slot in front of Tony Watson and Neftali Feliz while continuing to compete in 2016. And the Bucs obviously would only be motivated to make that kind of exchange if they can get a truly enticing prospect out of the bargain.

Washington was unwilling to go too big on Chapman, who is a more obviously dominant pitcher than is Melancon. Still, it’s hard to argue that Melancon has been any less effective. Quite the contrary, in fact: the 31-year-old owns a sparkling 1.80 ERA over his four years and 260 1/3 innings with Pittsburgh, and while he doesn’t carry an elite strikeout rate (8.3 K/9), he has issued only 1.5 free passes per nine.

Melancon isn’t cheap at a $9.65MM salary, but most of that has already paid down and it’s not the kind of number that should pose problems. Though the Nationals have been said in the past not to be willing to take on salary at the deadline, the team’s payroll is far lower than it was last year and there are always creative solutions.

In terms of a return, the Nats could theoretically offer up some of its youthful, high-upside relief arms, such as Blake Treinen and Felipe Rivero. And the club has a bevy of top prospects. It was reportedly not interested in giving up Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Trea Turner, or Victor Robles in a deal for Chapman, so it stands to reason the same holds true here — though the ongoing struggles of Jonathan Papelbon have perhaps made the Nats’ needs yet more pronounced.

Giolito, at least, isn’t going to be moved in such a trade, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter), and it’s nearly impossible to imagine Turner going in a trade given his role on the current MLB roster. There may be somewhat more flexibility on Lopez, at least in theory; like Giolito, he has received a few major league spot starts (including one tonight), but Joe Ross is expected to return in short order. Righty Erick Fedde is another quality young top-100 prospect that could be discussed — though that’s pure speculation at this point.

« Previous Page

Load More Posts

Headlines

Archives for 2016

Navigation

MLBTR INFO

Connect