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Phil Bickford Receives 50-Game Suspension For Drug Of Abuse

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Brewers righty Phil Bickford has been hit with a 50-game suspension after testing positive for a drug of abuse for the second time, as Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times tweets. Bickford reportedly tested positive for marijuana before being drafted in 2015. Players on 40-man rosters are not at risk of suspension for marijuana use, but Bickford is not on Milwaukee’s big-league roster.

Bickford, 21, has long been seen as a high-quality pitching prospect. He has maintained double-digit strikeout-per-nine tallies throughout his minor league career since heading to the Giants with the 18th overall selection. (Bickford was also previously taken tenth overall by the Blue Jays in 2013, but did not sign at the time.)

The suspension won’t have an impact on Milwaukee’s immediate plans, as Bickford has yet to reach the upper minors. But it will have at least some impact on his developmental timeline, which certainly rates as a disappointment for the organization. The Brewers added Bickford from the Giants along with catcher Andrew Susac in the trade that sent lefty Will Smith to San Francisco at the trade deadline.

Bickford delivers a big four-seam fastball, diving two-seamer, promising slider, and developing change, MLB.com’s prospect team explained in ranking him the fifth-best talent on the Brewers farm. There are still some who think he’ll end up in a major league pen, but regardless the expectation remains that he’ll make an impact. Last year, working at the Class A and High-A level, Bickford threw 120 innings of 2.92 ERA ball with 10.1 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9.

Diamondbacks Sign Fernando Rodney

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DECEMBER 9: Arizona appears to have acknowledged the signing via Twitter, with a clever nod to Rodney’s post-save, arrow-shooting celebration.

Jack Magruder of Fan Rag tweeted the details of the incentives clause, which he says maxes out at $4MM. That includes $250K apiece if and when Rodney reaches 40, 50, and 60 appearances, with a $500K payout if he gets to 70.

DEC. 7: SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets that Rodney’s deal would max out at $5MM if all of the incentives are reached.

DEC. 6: The Diamondbacks have agreed to a one-year deal with free agent reliever Fernando Rodney, Jon Heyman of FanRag writes (Twitter links). Rodney will receive $2.75MM guaranteed, plus considerable incentives, and he’ll open the year as the Diamondbacks’ closer. Heyman had previously tweeted that the Diamondbacks and Padres were in talks with Rodney, who is an Octagon client.

It was a tale of two seasons for the Rodney in 2016 — he was brilliant for the Padres to start the year, allowing just one earned run through 28 1/3 innings in San Diego, but then he allowed twice as many walks in 36 2/3 innings after a trade to Miami. His 5.89 ERA, 10.1 K/9 and 6.1 BB/9 in Florida led the Marlins to decline his 2017 option, which was effectively worth $4.5MM after incentives.

Where that leaves Rodney for 2017 is unclear — on one hand, he has closing experience, can still strike batters out and induce grounders, and managed to post a reasonable composite line in 2016 (3.44 ERA, 10.2 K/9, 5.1 BB/9). On the other hand, he faded down the stretch, walks too many batters, and will be 40 in March.

In any case, the Diamondbacks didn’t have an established closer, so the deal provides both player and team with an opportunity. Rodney can reestablish himself as a big-league closer. The Diamondbacks, who don’t appear likely to contend, can either keep him for the year or attempt to trade him, much as the Padres did last season — San Diego received a decent starting pitching prospect, Chris Paddack, when it dealt Rodney last June.

Cardinals Notes: Encarnacion, Trumbo, Fowler, Prospects

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While the Cardinals have already made two significant additions via free agency, they could consider a third, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. St. Louis is expected to consider free agents Edwin Encarnacion and Mark Trumbo, both of whom exited the Winter Meetings without a contract. Either of those players would presumably factor at first base for the Cards, if they are ultimately pursued. Though the team has said it intends to utilize Matt Carpenter there, he could theoretically shift back to third base if one of those big bats were to be added. (Matt Adams also remains on hand, though the organization already has signaled that it will not use him as a regular option at first with Carpenter’s position change.) Of course, both Encarnacion and Trumbo are somewhat questionable targets for a National League team, since both could well need to shift to a pure DH role at some point in the coming years. Unsurprisingly, then, it seems the Cardinals’ interest may be limited to a scenario where Encarnacion or Trumbo is forced to consider a shorter-term pact, ESPN.com’s Mark Saxon notes on Twitter.

  • The most recent Cardinals’ signing was a five-year arrangement with center fielder Dexter Fowler. It’s a sensible deal from the team’s perspective, Keith Law of ESPN.com opines (Insider link). Fowler’s high-OBP bat is a perfect fit for the lineup, Law writes, and he steps right in at a position of obvious need. While Law argues that Fowler came at a solid value, even with a $82.5MM guarantee, the Cards surely would’ve preferred to spend less. But that became nearly impossible when Ian Desmond signed with the Rockies and Adam Eaton went to the Nationals via trade, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag notes on Twitter. St. Louis had been pursuing Desmond along with Fowler, and its hand was forced somewhat by those other moves.
  • St. Louis seems inclined to continue focusing on the free-agent market rather than pursuing major trades, MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch writes. GM John Mozeliak explains that the organization remains loath to part with talented young righty Alex Reyes. After him, he suggests, “maybe we just didn’t have that next tier [of prospects] that was good enough to compete with some of the names being bantered about.” This prospect “gap,” as Mozeliak terms it, would have forced the team either to sacrifice Reyes or a number of other youngsters to find significant upgrades via trade. “The problem you start to run into there is then quantity, and how much are you willing to part with if you’re not willing to move Reyes?” Mozeliak explained. “And that can be a pretty big hit from a volume standpoint. We finally got this system up to where we have some confidence in it. And to move four or five players from there, that would be hard to do.”

Tigers Sign Omar Infante, 13 Others To Minors Deals

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The Tigers have announced a barrage of minor-league signings, most notably including a reunion with former Detroit infielder Omar Infante. Other players receiving Spring Training invites include pitchers Ruben Alaniz, William Cuevas, Logan Kensing, Dustin Molleken, as well as catcher Miguel Gonzalez.

Infante, who’ll soon turn 35, enjoyed two prior runs in the Motor City. His most recent stint came in 2012-13, with a strong final season leading him to land a four-year deal with the Royals. Things didn’t go well in Kansas City, where Infante scuffled to a .238/.269/.328 batting line over 1,179 plate appearances. He was cut loose in the middle of last year, leaving the Royals still on the hook for his $8MM salary this season.

The team also reached agreement on minors deals without a non-roster invite with a variety of other players: pitchers Johan Belisario, Endrys Briceno, Jeff Ferrell, Santiago Garrido, and Arcenio Leon along with infielders Argenis Diaz and Gustavo Nunez.

Padres To Acquire Rule 5 Picks Miguel Diaz, Luis Torrens

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TODAY: Cincinnati will pick up infielder Josh VanMeter from the Padres in the trade for Torrens, per club announcements. The 21-year-old struggled after a promotion to Double-A last year, but earned that bump up with a strong .267/.355/.443 batting line over 401 High-A plate appearances. Notably, he ended up hitting 14 total home runs in 2016 — a rather significant tally for a player who had hit just three total long balls as a professional coming into the year.

YESTERDAY: The Padres will acquire the top two Rule 5 Draft picks, righty Miguel Diaz (in a trade with the Twins) and catcher Luis Torrens (in a trade with the Reds), MLB.com’s Jonathan Mayo writes (Twitter links). (Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper tweeted that the Reds would trade Torrens to San Diego.) The Padres already had the third Rule 5 pick and used it to select infielder Allen Cordoba, so it appears they’ve ended up with the first three Rule 5 picks.

The Reds will receive a player to be named and cash from the Padres. The Twins will receive a player to be named or cash, LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune tweets, and they’ll also get Rule 5 pick Justin Haley, who the Padres had previously acquired from the Angels. Diaz and Torrens were previously with the Brewers and Yankees, respectively. Haley had been with the Red Sox.

That’s all incredibly confusing, so here’s a different way of representing where each player went this morning:

Diaz: Brewers –> Twins –> Padres
Torrens: Yankees –> Reds –> Padres
Haley: Red Sox –> Angels –> Padres –> Twins

The 22-year-old Diaz ranked 21st on MLB.com’s list of the Brewers’ top prospects. He throws in the mid-90s from a three-quarters arm slot, and he has the makings of a good slider, according to MLB.com. He’s a bit small, at 6’1″ and 175 pounds, and he’s had elbow trouble in the past. He fared well for Class A Wisconsin in 2016, however, with a 3.71 ERA, 8.7 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 94 2/3 innings.

Torrens, 20, ranked as the Yankees’ 17th-best prospect. The Yankees signed him out of Venezuela for $1.3MM in 2012. He hasn’t hit much, batting .250/.350/.337 in the lower levels in 2016, and his experience is limited, due to shoulder troubles that cost him much of 2014 and all of 2015, but MLB.com praises his work behind the plate. He seems hard-pressed to stick in the Majors all season, but perhaps it’s not out of the question he could make the Padres out of Spring Training as Austin Hedges’ backup.

Braves Acquires Tyler Pike From Mariners As PTBNL

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The Braves have acquired lefty Tyler Pike from the Mariners as the player to be named later in the recent trade between the organizations, per club announcements. The late-November swap sent righties Rob Whalen and Max Povse to Seattle in exchange for outfield prospect Alex Jackson, who’ll now be joined by Pike.

A third-round pick in the 2012 draft, Pike has twice reached the Double-A level, but spent all of 2016 at High-A Bakersfield. In his 125 2/3 innings there, Pike worked to a 4.01 ERA with 9.6 K/9 against 4.9 BB/9. While that’s obviously a rather hefty walk total, it’s actually just below his career levels. Clearly, he’ll need to lock in his command to earn a shot at making the Braves’ MLB staff at some point in the future.

Tigers, A.J. Achter Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers and right-hander A.J. Achter have agreed to a minor league contract with an invite to Major League Spring Training, reports SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (on Twitter).

Achter, a longtime Twins farmhand, will return to the American League Central after spending the 2016 season with the Angels organization. The 28-year-old made his big league debut with the Twins back in 2014 and has appeared in parts of each season since, but he received his lengthiest and most successful Major League stint with the Halos last year. In 37 2/3 innings out of the Angels’ bullpen, Achter worked to a 3.11 earned run average. Achter displayed solid control (2.9 BB/9) and posted a roughly league-average ground-ball rate, but he also showed an inability to miss bats at the Major League level. In his 37 2/3 frames, he picked up just 14 strikeouts (3.3 K/9). Achter entered the 2016 campaign with a career 9.1 K/9 rate in the minors and with 19 strikeouts in 24 1/3 Major  League innings, but the extreme levels of contact against him led ERA estimators such as FIP, xFIP and SIERA to each peg him well north of 5.00.

With a career 2.79 ERA and solid K/BB numbers in Triple-A, Achter is at the very least a solid depth piece to have on hand. He’ll have a homecoming of sorts in joining the Tigers — Achter is from Ohio and went to college at Michigan State — and hope to force his way to the bullpen of a Tigers team that is attempting to trim its payroll this winter.

Pirates Unlikely To Trade Andrew McCutchen

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The Pirates reportedly spent the bulk of the Winter Meetings fielding offers on center fielder Andrew McCutchen, but GM Neal Huntington said at the end of yesterday’s Winter Meetings that it’s now unlikely that McCutchen is moved this winter, as MLB.com’s Adam Berry writes.

“Our intent coming in here was to have Andrew McCutchen in our lineup going forward,” Huntington explained. “No one changed that. It’s unlikely that someone changes that going forward. We’re not going to close the door, but we’re not going to be making calls.”

That’s not a definitive statement that McCutchen will be in Pittsburgh’s Opening Day lineup come April, but it certainly casts further doubt on the possibility of a McCutchen trade. The larger question surrounding the former NL MVP may now focus on where he’ll play in 2017, as there have been multiple suggestions that the Pirates prefer to play Starling Marte in center field while moving McCutchen to a corner slot.

Both the Nationals and Rangers were linked to McCutchen over the past week, with Washington in particular reported to be in heavy pursuit. The Nats, though, shifted course and opted to secure a younger, more controllable piece — and one that enjoyed a markedly better 2016 season — in picking up Adam Eaton from the White Sox. Texas, meanwhile, re-signed Carlos Gomez to a one-year deal (though the team could still fit McCutchen into the lineup, from my vantage point). Huntington acknowledged that he did speak to other teams about McCutchen, but the GM also labeled his asking price as “significant,” Berry writes.

The decision to hang onto McCutchen may well prove to be shrewd. He’s still controlled for another two seasons by way of a $14MM guarantee in 2017 and a $14.75MM club option for the 2018 season. McCutchen’s .256/.336/.430 batting line represented the worst full offensive output of his exceptional career, and he turned in the highest strikeout rate and lowest walk rate he’s posted as a Major Leaguer. Questions about his defensive performance have been chronicled at length. That made it difficult for the Bucs to secure the premium return they sought for the longtime face of the franchise, but a rebound in 2017 could allow the Bucs to land such a return if McCutchen is marketed either next July or next offseason, depending on the team’s performance next year.

Huntington admitted that he listened to offers on multiple players with one and two years of team control remaining, which is an unfortunate but often necessary course of action for small-market clubs like the Pirates. As such, it’s certainly plausible to expect that the Bucs could yet make a deal later this winter, even if McCutchen isn’t the player that is shipped out. Tony Watson’s name came up in rumors this past week, for instance, and others fitting that description on the Pittsburgh roster include Juan Nicasio, John Jaso, Jordy Mercer, Jared Hughes and Antonio Bastardo (as can be seen over at Roster Resource). Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported earlier this week that the Pirates were willing to pay a portion of Bastardo’s $6.25MM guarantee in 2017 in order to facilitate a trade.

Astros Agree To New Deal With Cuban Lefty Cionel Perez

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The Astros and young Cuban left-hander Cionel Perez have agreed to a new deal that comes with a $2MM signing bonus, reports MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). Houston and Perez had originally agreed to a $5.15MM signing bonus back in September, but in October it was reported by Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen and ESPN’s Keith Law that the deal had been voided for medical reasons. The precise medical problem that derailed the first deal remains unclear.

The new arrangement comes with less financial risk for Astros, who in addition to the bonus figure are also on the hook for a 100 percent luxury tax due to the fact that they’d already exceeded their 2016-17 international bonus pool. As such, Perez drops from a $10.3MM total expenditure to a $4MM total expenditure for the Astros, who clearly are intrigued by Perez’s talent despite some apparent physical red flags.

Perez, 21 next April, ranks fourth on Sanchez’s list of top 30 international prospects at MLB.com. He’s undersized, though Sanchez notes that he still has room to add to his 5’11”, 170-pound frame. Perez already features a fastball in the 92-95mph range, and that velocity could tick upward a bit as he continues to grow. Perez also shows good feel for a slider and changeup, Sanchez continues. Longenhagen offered similarly high praise for Perez at Fangraphs, rating him seventh among international prospects. While Longenhagen’s report is down a bit more on Perez’s slider, he also notes that Perez flashes a potentially plus curveball. At the time of Perez’s original signing, Baseball America’s Ben Badler wrote that the changeup was a fairly new pitch for Perez, who has only added it since leaving Cuba. His slider has improved since leaving Cuba as well, Badler notes.

Perez spent just two seasons playing in the Cuban National Series, logging a 2.20 ERA while pitching as a professional at ages 17 and 18. He totaled 139 innings with 100 strikeouts against 61 walks, although 13 of those free passes were issued intentionally. Perez should be ticketed for the lower levels of the minor leagues to begin his pro career in the United States.

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