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Archives for February 2017

Hoops Rumors: The Best Source For NBA Trade Deadline Coverage

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The NBA trade deadline is just 16 days away, and our sister site Hoops Rumors is on top of all the latest news and rumors for each of the league’s 30 teams.

Will the Carmelo Anthony era come to an end in New York, given the trade rumors surrounding the Knicks star? Will the Sixers clear their logjam at center by trading Jahlil Okafor and/or Nerlens Noel? Will the Magic trade Serge Ibaka less than eight months after acquiring him in a draft-day blockbuster? Is this the year that Danny Ainge and the Celtics finally cash in some of their assets to make a major trade?  Bookmark Hoops Rumors today, and follow us on Twitter @hoopsrumors.

Padres, Erick Aybar Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Padres are in agreement on a minor league contract with veteran infielder Erick Aybar, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports (on Twitter). The 33-year-old Roc Nation Sports client will compete with Luis Sardinas for the shortstop gig in San Diego.

Aybar opened the 2016 season with the Braves after being included alongside Sean Newcomb and Chris Ellis in the Andrelton Simmons trade with the Angels, but he slumped terribly to open the season. A summer surge led to a trade to the Tigers, where he improved with the bat and slashed .250/.341/.350 in a small sample of 91 plate appearances. Overall, however, his .243/.303/.320 batting line left plenty to be desired and forced the longtime Angels infielder to settle for a non-guaranteed deal.

Last season marked the second straight down season for Aybar, but from 2011-14, he was a consistently, if unspectacular option at shortstop in Anaheim. In those four seasons, he batted a combined .279/.317/.399 with solid glovework, above-average baserunning and modest pop. The Padres will be hoping for a return to that form or for Sardinas to continue the production he demonstrated following a trade last August.

In a tiny sample of 120 plate appearances with the Padres, Sardinas hit .287/.353/.417 with a pair of homers, six doubles and a triple. He’s long been praised as an above-average defender at shortstop, too, so if he can continue to provide some semblance of offense, he could emerge as a long-term option for GM A.J. Preller and manager Andy Green. The addition of Aybar, though, suggests that the Padres won’t simply hand over the shortstop reins to the 23-year-old Sardinas. The Friars could continue to look for additional options at shortstop, though the free-agent market is lacking in that regard outside of former Padre Alexei Ramirez, whose time in San Diego did not go well. Spring Training, though, could lead to the emergence of alternatives on the waiver wire as well as out-of-options players who look unlikely to break camp with their clubs.

Tigers, David Lough Agree To Minor League Deal

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The Tigers have agreed to a minor league contract with outfielder David Lough, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com (Twitter link).

Lough, 31, spent last year with the Phillies and Marlins organizations. All 79 of his major league plate appearances came with Philadelphia, which designated him for assignment June 2 after he hit .239/.342/.313 there and .270/.331/.365 in 139 PAs with its Triple-A affiliate. Lough also struggled with Miami’s Triple-A club, albeit over a mere 32 PAs, with a .200/.226/.267 line.

In 820 trips to the plate with the Royals, Orioles and Phillies, the lefty-swinging Lough has batted .254/.300/.371 while garnering time at all three outfield spots. Detroit has two proven corner outfielders in Justin Upton and J.D. Martinez, but its only center field options – Tyler Collins, Mikie Mahtook, JaCoby Jones and Anthony Gose – haven’t established themselves. Neither has corner outfield reserve Steven Moya, so Lough could perhaps find his way to the Tigers’ bench at some point this year.

Indians Designate Austin Adams For Assignment

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The Indians have designated right-handed reliever Austin Adams for assignment to make room for the addition of left-handed reliever Boone Logan, whose deal with the team is now official, reports Jordan Bastian of MLB.com (Twitter link).

Adams, whom the Indians chose in the fifth round of the 2009 draft, has seen action with the Tribe in each season since making his major league debut in 2014. The results have been largely underwhelming, though, despite the fact that Adams possesses a fastball that averages 96 mph.

In 58 2/3 major league innings, Adams has logged a 6.29 ERA, 6.75 K/9 and 3.22 BB/9. A significant portion of the damage came last season, when the 30-year-old pitched to a sky-high 9.82 ERA across 18 1/3 frames. While Adams posted a career-high K/9 (8.35), he surrendered home runs on 25 percent of fly balls and allowed a .333/.386/.679 batting line and .439 wOBA (for reference, David Ortiz led the majors with a .419 wOBA). Adams, to his credit, has been a lot better at the Triple-A level, where he has managed a 3.47 ERA with 9.5 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in 103 2/3 innings.

Angels Sign Dustin Ackley To Minor League Deal

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FEB. 7: Ackley’s pact features a $2.25MM major league salary and $1.4MM in incentives, per FanRag’s Jon Heyman (via Twitter).

FEB. 4: The Angels have announced the signing of infielder/outfielder Dustin Ackley to a minor league contract. The deal comes with an invitation to spring training for Ackley, a Boras Corporation client.

[RELATED: Updated Angels Depth Chart]

It took Ackley just under three months to land anywhere after the Yankees released him in late November. That came on the heels of a truncated season in which the 28-year-old accrued a meager 70 plate appearances and hit an ugly .148/.243/.148 before undergoing surgery on a torn right shoulder labrum in early June.

Ackley was far more successful in 2015, a year divided between Seattle and New York, as he slashed a still-unremarkable .231/.284/.429 in 264 trips to the plate. All told, Ackley has posted a .241/.304/.367 line over the first 2,347 PAs of his career, which makes the lefty-swinger’s major league tenure a substantial disappointment after the Mariners took him second overall in the 2009 draft. Ackley then ranked as one of Baseball America’s 12 best prospects to conclude both the ’09 and ’10 campaigns.

On the bright side, Ackley has mostly earned plus defensive grades at second base and in left field – his primary positions – and comes with first base experience. Defensive Runs Saved (plus-19) and Ultimate Zone Rating (10.7) have liked his work in 2,514 innings at the keystone, while he’s at plus-2 DRS and 3.7 UZR in 1,588 innings as a left fielder.

In his return to the American League West, Ackley figures to vie for a bench role behind Angels second baseman Danny Espinosa, first base options Luis Valbuena, C.J. Cron and Albert Pujols, and outfielders Mike Trout, Kole Calhoun and Cameron Maybin. The club’s top bench choices entering the spring are light-hitting infielder Cliff Pennington and outfielder Ben Revere, whom the Angels gave a guaranteed $4MM earlier this winter.

Pro Hockey Rumors Has The NHL Trade Deadline Covered

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The NHL trade deadline is less than a month away, and our sister site Pro Hockey Rumors has all the breaking news and rumors. Will the Dallas Stars finally upgrade their goaltending? Will the Arizona Coyotes pull the trigger and trade the face of the franchise? Will the Red Wings stand pat or make moves to preserve their record playoff streak?  Visit Pro Hockey Rumors today and follow us on Twitter @prohockeyrumors!

Phillies, Chris Coghlan Agree To Minor League Deal

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FEB. 7: Coghlan’s contract comes with a $3MM major league salary and $1MM in incentives, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman.

FEB. 2: The Phillies and utilityman Chris Coghlan have agreed to a minor league contract, reports Todd Zolecki of MLB.com (Twitter link). The deal includes an invitation to spring training.

[RELATED: Updated Phillies Depth Chart]

Coghlan is settling for a minors pact on account of a subpar 2016 spent between the Athletics and Cubs, with whom he won the World Series. The 31-year-old hit a meager .188/.290/.318 across 300 plate appearances (and went hitless in eight postseason PAs), which represented a sharp decline from his output with the Cubs from 2014-15. Coghlan combined for a quality batting line of .265/.346/.447 and 5.7 fWAR over that two-year, 935-PA stretch.

Prior to his first of two stints with the Cubs, Coghlan spent the initial five years of his career as a member of the Marlins, who selected him in the first round of the 2006 draft. The lefty-swinging Coghlan won the National League Rookie of the Year with the Fish in 2009 on the strength of a .321/.390/.460 showing in 565 trips to the plate, though he never came close to replicating that success over his final four years in Miami.

Defensively, Coghlan has primarily been an outfielder during his career – mostly left field – but he does bring some infield experience. Despite his versatility, he’ll seemingly face an uphill climb in securing playing time with the Phillies. While Coghlan’s a more established option than reserve outfielders Aaron Altherr and Tyler Goeddel, the team is all set in center field with Odubel Herrera, and it has added a pair of somewhat pricey corner outfielders this offseason in Howie Kendrick and Michael Saunders. Philadelphia also has Maikel Franco and Cesar Hernandez locked in at third and second base, the two infield spots where Coghlan has most frequently lined up, and Andres Blanco as a backup infielder.

Red Sox Sign Mike Olt To Minor League Deal

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12:38pm: As expected, it’s a minor league contract, per Tim Britton of the Providence Journal (Twitter link).

9:21am: The Red Sox have signed corner infielder Mike Olt, who announced the news on Instagram (h/t Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe). It’s presumably a minor league deal for Olt, who didn’t crack the majors in 2016 after inking a minors pact with the Padres last March.

The 28-year-old Olt went to the Rangers in the first round of the 2010 draft and eventually topped out as Baseball America’s 22nd-best prospect after the 2012 campaign. The Rangers then sent Olt to the Cubs the next season in a trade centering on right-hander Matt Garza, but he failed to live up to his considerable promise in Chicago. In 2014, the only season in which Olt has seen extensive major league action, he batted .160/.248/.356 and struck out in 38.8 percent of his 258 plate appearances. All told, Olt has slashed .168/.250/.330 in a combined 400 PAs with the Rangers, Cubs and White Sox. He has been more successful, albeit not great, at the Triple-A level, having posted a .234/.318/.429 line in 774 PAs.

Primarily a third baseman, the Connecticut-born Olt, an ex-UConn star, will now return to his native New England and attempt to stick with the Red Sox organization. Boston does have questions at the hot corner, where Pablo Sandoval is aiming to bounce back from a horrid 2015 and a lost 2016. Brock Holt and Josh Rutledge are on hand as major league depth, while another of BA’s former top 100 prospects, Matt Dominguez, is in the minors.

Yankees “Have Checked In On” Travis Wood

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With no established major league starters beyond Masahiro Tanaka, C.C. Sabathia and Michael Pineda on their roster, the Yankees “have checked in on” free agent left-hander Travis Wood, tweets FanRag’s Jon Heyman. However, the Yankees “don’t necessarily seem at the forefront of talks” for Wood, whose market has heated up in recent days.

Wood, who turned 30 on Monday, worked exclusively out of the Cubs’ bullpen last season, but “multiple teams” have offered him opportunities to return to a starting role this winter. That could include the Yankees, who are currently set to have Luis Severino, Chad Green, Bryan Mitchell, Luis Cessa and Adam Warren battle for their final two rotation spots during the spring. Those five have combined for just 68 big league starts, whereas Wood piled up nearly twice as many (133) with the Reds and Cubs from 2010-15. Wood was fairly effective during that six-year, 776-inning span, too, as he recorded a 4.19 ERA, 7.11 K/9 and 3.15 BB/9.

While Wood is coming off a career-best season in terms of run prevention (2.95 ERA in 61 innings), he also had the good fortune of pitching in front of the Cubs’ all-world defense. His ERA masked a subpar K/BB ratio (1.96; well below the 2.53 league-average mark for relievers), and advanced metrics like FIP (4.54), xFIP (4.83) and SIERA (4.46) weren’t particularly impressed with his performance. Further, Wood generated ground balls at a meager 37.4 percent clip, and his careerlong trend of relying on fly balls – not to mention his below-average velocity and struggles against right-handed hitters – could make him a poor fit for Yankee Stadium and the AL East. To his credit, Wood has somewhat offset his lifetime 33.6 grounder percentage with an 11.9 percent infield fly rate, which climbed to a lofty 17.8 percent in 2016.

Regardless of whether it’s with the Yankees, Wood seems likely to land a deal soon. With spring training closing in and former Cubs teammate Jason Hammel now off the market, Wood is arguably the top starting-caliber arm available in free agency.

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