The latest minor moves from around the league …
- IF/OF Danny Santana, formerly of the Twins and Braves, has signed a minor league pact with Texas, per Jon Heyman of Fancred on Twitter. Santana, 28, had a brilliant debut season in 2014 with Minnesota, albeit one with an obviously unsustainable .405 BABIP. He’s been mostly awful since, posting below-replacement-level in figures in three of the last four seasons. Santana spent most of last season with Triple-A Gwinnett, slashing .264/.294/.497 in 342 plate appearances.
- The Angels have signed righty Forrest Snow, outfielder Cesar Puello, infielder Wilfredo Tovar, and reliever Matt Ramsey to minor league deals with invites to Spring Training, per MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger. Snow, 29, has spent nine full seasons in the minors without an MLB appearance; in 2018, he struggled with the gopher ball (1.68 HR/9) in 20 starts for Tampa’s AAA affiliate. Puello, 27, has some previous MLB experience with the Angels and Rays and has posted a number of impressive slash lines in the high minors. Last year, he hit .317/.426/.454 in semi-regular time with Triple-A Reno in the Arizona system. Tovar, 27, is a noted defensive wizard at shortstop but offers little at the plate. In his fourth appearance at the AAA level in 2018, he slashed .297/.342/.386 in 389 PA. Ramsey, 29, posted an excellent 10.34 K/9 over 3.06 BB/9 in the hitter-friendly PCL last year, and could be an intriguing early-inning pen option for the Halos next season.
- The KBO’s NC Dinos have signed former big-leaguer Christian Bethancourt to a one-year deal for $1MM, per the Yonhap News Agency. Bethancourt, 27, was acquired by San Diego in 2016 in hopes of becoming a two-way contributor, but was mostly abysmal on both fronts. The C/IF/OF/P posted an uninspiring 113 wRC+ in the rarefied air of AAA Colorado Springs last season, with forays to the mound mostly suspended for the time being.
- The Yonhap News Agency also reports that the SK Wyverns of the KBO have re-signed former Pirate reliever Angel Sanchez to a 1-year, $1.2MM deal. Sanchez, 29, last appeared for the Pirates in 2017, following a mostly-solid career in the minors.
I guess Santana makes fine flexible (albeit bad at every position) minor league roster filler, but I kind of wonder why his name keeps coming up under contracts every year.
As an Indians fan, I’d throw Michael Martinez into that conversation too
This is getting ridiculous none of you are funny. I feel like in the past week I’ve gone from getting insightful info from trusted sources with good discussion to watching you guys try to make each other spell ICUP in front of your crushes at recess.
Ha ha! Excellent! I had to say that out loud to get it! I see you pee!
On another note, surprised to see the KBO teams going over 1mil per year to bring in a former major leaguer. Especially since it’s a team based outside of Seoul. Usually it’s the Doosan Bears of Seoul that are known to be the biggest spenders but now with NC and SK upping the ante, we’ve got to start wondering what impact this might have on our minor league system.
Well my comment looks stupid now because “xabial’s mom” deleted his / hers but I still stand by it.
Stop with the excuses. Get a helmet.
Unnecessary rant! Downvoted.
Do you know how wRC+ works? It’s park-adjusted. The the “rarefied air” of Colorado Springs doesn’t make it any less “inspiring” than it would be anywhere else.
I do. I also know that FanGraphs’ minor-league version of wRC+ adjusts only for league and not for park, and that Colorado Springs’ park is one of the most hitter-friendly in all of professional baseball.
Was kinda hoping that the Brewers would have brought back Betancourt but oh well. I do hope they bring Jake Thompson and Ariel Hernandez back for sure though. It will be a steal if they can sign Tim Dillard again!