Here are Friday’s minor moves from around the league…
- Chris Cotillo of SB Nation has the news of yet another minors deal, this time a pact between the Twins and Andy Wilkins. The lefty-hitting first baseman has 72 plate appearances and one homer to his name at the big league level (with the White Sox and Brewers), though his career .124/.194/.224 slash line perhaps paints a better picture of his MLB performance thus far. And yet, taking into consideration the 29-year-old’s .254/.358/.474 performance with the Twin’s Double-A affiliate last year, there might still be cause for optimism surrounding his potential to provide value for Minnesota.
Earlier…
- The Cubs have elected to bring left-hander Michael Roth to the organization on a minor-league deal, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation reports (Twitter link). Bob Nightengale of USA Today Sports tweets that Roth will be paid a $560K salary if he’s able to crack their big-league roster. The former ninth-round pick is entering his age-28 season; he’s made 22 total MLB appearances out of the bullpen for the Rangers and Angels, along with a single start for the latter. He owns a career ERA of 8.50, though run-prevention estimators such as xFIP (4.46) and SIERA (4.04) suggest his actual skill set isn’t quite in line with those disastrous results. Roth has also spent time at the Triple-A affiliates of the Rays, Giants and Indians.
- The Indians announced that they’ve signed right-hander Preston Claiborne to a minor league deal and invited him to Spring Training. The 30-year-old Claiborne tossed two innings for the Rangers in 2017 and has a total of 73 1/3 innings of Major League work under his belt — all but last year’s two innings coming with the Yankees in 2013-14. The former 17th-round pick has a career 4.05 ERA with 7.4 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a 42.7 percent ground-ball rate. Claiborne owns a lifetime 3.09 ERA in 102 Triple-A innings, including a stellar 1.89 mark in 38 innings ith the Rangers’ affiliate last season.
- The Rays have agreed to minor league deals with catcher Johnny Monell and righty Forrest Snow, per Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (Twitter links). Monell, 32 in March, has 61 MLB plate appearances on his resume, most of which came with the 2015 Mets when he hit .167/.231/.208. He’s a career .278/.350/.460 hitter in part of five Triple-A seasons. Snow, 29, has never appeared in the Majors and carries a lackluster 4.84 ERA in parts of seven Triple-A campaigns. However, he’s posted sub-4.00 overall ERAs in each of the past two seasons and thrived in the Venezuelan Winter League last offseason. Snow has significantly bolstered his strikeout rate and lowered his walk rate as well over the past two seasons. Both Monell and Snow will be in Major League camp with the Rays this spring.
- Tampa Bay also picked up right-hander Ryan Weber on a minor league pact, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. The 27-year-old has big league time with the Braves and Mariners. Weber logged a scintillating 0.85 ERA, 1.1 BB/9 and 72.5 percent ground-ball rate in 31 2/3 innings with Seattle’s Triple-A affiliate last year, though his 5.4 K/9 mark wasn’t nearly as impressive. Weber appeared in just six games (five starts) all season in 2017 thanks to a biceps strain that kept him on the disabled list for most of the year.
Claiborne might be an under the radar type of signing for the Indians. He was not bad with the Yankees and the Indians have done very well with Yankee bullpen castoffs.
Indians seem to get lucky on signings like this. Maybe I’ll get a chance to see him pitch in Goodyear?
I miss Goodyear. I lived there for a year and, although not a Tribe fan, it was great to go out there in Saturday morning at their training complex with my 2 son’s to watch guys like Edwin and Lindor work out. Good times!
Went for the first time last spring. I loved it, and considered moving there.
One of my favorite things was going to the practice fields. Even got a ball from Gio Urshela.
I liked it there. Compared to Chicago prices, housing is much more affordable. Weather is great – until summer time. Really hard to do anything outside the house when it’s 115 degrees day after day lol
The Cubs are just blazing this off season. I hope they don’t plan on actually having this guy in the rotation.
Guess that depends on if they sign Darvish. Lmao
Give him a chance, and see if he belongs in Triple-A Iowa. He might make for a useful coach somewhere on down the line.
Hey look it’s the Cubs troll Yank. He can’t seem to get enough of the Cubs. Think this is the 52 post he’s made a comment on the Cubs. Deep down he loves the Cubs or he wouldn’t talk about them every post pops up on the MLB site. He can’t read either as this is a minor league signing. Lol.
Cubs doing fine. Don’t see much need for anything except a SP. that will be soon enough. But he will through in his troll hate post there too. Over paid, over rated, garbage. Lol. Get over it n grow up. I’m just entertained going to each post knowing your going to say something stupid lol.
good for Roth! was a pleasure to watch pitch for the Gamecocks on their National Championship teams! real crafty lefty
The same guy who is saying Weber to Tamba said the Cubs signed him a couple weeks back.
Weber could be good, he pitched well in AAA for Seattle before he got hurt. He could thrive there. Great under the radar pickup
I could’ve sworn that the image was of good ‘ol Joba Chamberlain. Dang it!
Lol. Not even close.
Hat not flat enough and face not fat enough.
Cubs will need to sign some kind of front line pitcher(s). I’m not sure you can make it signing up several lower level minor leaguers, then hoping that they become world beaters.
This is true, but the Cubs see it differently. They will be relying on one of these signings to replace Jake Arrieta in the rotation and that is foolish. This is the type of thinking that led to seasons 1909 to 2016. Most people long for the good old days but I don’t think you can count Cubs fans among such people.
? dude…what? you think that the cubs front office is relying on a minor league signing (which is nothing more than for depth/taking a flyer) to replace Arrieta…on their MLB roster? Are you 5? I think you should have to take a quiz to be able to post on here to weed out commenters like this…