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Reds To Non-Tender Jose Peraza

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The Reds have elected not to tender a contract to infielder Jose Peraza, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). MLBTR had projected him to earn $3.6MM in his first season of arbitration eligibility.

This is a tough pill for the Reds to swallow, as it had seemed entering the 2019 season that Peraza could turn into a steady regular. But he fell far shy of expectations in the just-completed campaign.

There’s no questioning the depth of Peraza’s struggles. He stumbled to a .239/.285/.346 batting line in 403 plate appearances. He didn’t even grade as a positive overall baserunner despite his obvious talent in that regard. Though Peraza continued to show well with the glove, it wasn’t enough to convince the Reds to keep the faith entering a must-win season.

In spite of the difficulties, it’s still a bit of a surprise to see Peraza cut loose at 25 years of age and with three seasons of arbitration control remaining. He may not quite have turned into the player they hoped he would when they acquired him back in 2015, but Peraza was a 2.6 fWAR performer in 2018 and has at times shown an ability to produce at a league-average rate with the bat despite a minimal walk rate.

With Peraza out of the mix at shortstop, the Reds depth chart is presently topped by Freddy Galvis. The club picked up his option at $5.5MM. Whether he’ll end up serving as a utility piece or semi-regular at short remains to be seen.

Phillies Claim Trevor Kelley

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The Phillies announced that they have claimed righty Trevor Kelley off waivers from the Red Sox. He had been selected to the Boston roster in July.

Kelley, 26, didn’t exactly stake a claim to a permanent job in his brief action last year at the game’s highest level. He didn’t get many swings and misses and surrendered eight earned runs in his first 8 1/3 big league innings.

But there was a reason that the Red Sox called upon the sidearming, sinkerballing newcomer. In his 65 1/3 Triple-A innings, Kelley carried a 1.79 ERA that stood out in the hitter-friendly International League. While his peripherals — 8.7 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, 1.10 HR/9, 33.5% groundball rate — weren’t exactly eye-popping, Kelley showed enough to make the Phils believe he can at least serve as worthwhile pen depth.

Rangers Claim Jimmy Herget, Designate Jeffrey Springs

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The Rangers announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-hander Jimmy Herget off waivers from the Reds and designated left-hander Jeffrey Springs in a corresponding move. The Rangers’ 40-man roster remains full.

Herget turned 26 late last season after receiving his first MLB look. He didn’t produce a single strikeout in 6 1/3 innings in the majors, but ran up 10.4 K/9 over his 58 2/3 Triple-A innings. The funky righty posted a 2.91 ERA at the highest level of the minors but has largely been stalled there for the past three seasons.

The Texas org obviously preferred Herget’s outlook to that of Springs, who turned in good results in 2018 but couldn’t follow that up last year. In his 32 1/3 innings in the majors, Springs scuffled to a 6.40 ERA with 8.9 K/9 and 6.4 BB/9.

Koda Glover Announces Retirement

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In a surprising and saddening development, Nationals reliever Koda Glover has announced that he’s retiring as a player at just 26 years of age. Injuries have ravaged the former eighth-round pick’s promising career and limited him to just 55 1/3 innings since making his Major League debut as a 23-year-old back in 2016.

Glover had Tommy John surgery before he was even drafted by the Nationals and has also battled a torn labrum in his hip, repeated back and shoulder troubles and, in 2019, a forearm strain that generated concerns about yet another elbow surgery.

“I write to you all today with great despair, that I will be announcing my retirement from professional baseball,” Glover writes. “I have experienced a number of injuries the past three years and I believe it is time to step away from my playing career. I have loved this game from the moment I took my first steps and I will continue to love it for the rest of my life.” His statement goes on to thank the Nationals organizations, its fans, and the coaches and teammates who’ve impacted him throughout his brief career.

Glover was heralded by managerial legend Dusty Baker as the Nationals’ potential closer of the future, and given his possession of a fastball that averaged better than 96 mph and a wipeout slider, it’s easy to see why Baker wasn’t alone in thinking that. Glover did save eight games for the Nationals in 2017, but injuries never allowed him to reach even 20 innings in a big league season — and they surely contributed to some of his struggles on the mound as well. Glover revealed after the 2016 season that he’d been pitching through a torn labrum in his hip, and he pitched through rotator cuff issues the following year.

Overall, he’ll be forced to step away from the game after pitching 55 1/3 innings with nine saves, a 4.55 ERA and a 42-to-21 K/BB ratio. His retirement will open a spot on the Nationals’ 40-man roster — it’s now at 31 players — and will only further underscore the team’s need for bullpen help. Best wishes to Glover in whatever path he chooses to pursue in his post-playing days.

Braves To Non-Tender Charlie Culberson

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The Braves will non-tender infielder/outfielder Charlie Culberson prior to tonight’s deadline, Robert Murray reports (via Twitter). MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweeted not long before that the organization was considering such a move. Culberson will immediately become a free agent who is eligible to sign with any team.

It’ll go down as an unpopular move among Atlanta fans, as Culberson has not only distanced himself from a woeful slump to begin his Braves tenure in 2018 (.203/.266/.339 through his first two months) but also emerged as something of a fan favorite after excelling in some clutch situations in 2018. Overall, his 2018 campaign resulted in a productive .270/.326/.466 batting line through 322 plate appearances.

However, Culberson was limited to just 144 plate appearances in 2019 despite appearing in 108 games, and he wasn’t particularly productive when he did step to the plate, hitting .259/.294/.437 (83 OPS+, 85 wRC+). His 2019 season was cut short in September by a fractured cheek bone suffered upon being hit by a Fernando Rodney fastball, but there’s no indication to this point that he’s expected to miss time in 2020. Still, this year’s downturn in production landed him on our list of non-tender candidates late last week.

In all, Culberson posted a respectable .267/.316/.457 batting line in 466 plate appearances as a Brave, but the team apparently wasn’t comfortable with what he might earn in arbitration. (MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected a $1.8MM salary.) Any club that picks him up would be able to sign him to just a one-year pact and still control him through the 2021 season via arbitration.

Blue Jays Announce Several Minor League Signings

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The Blue Jays announced Monday that they’ve signed five players to minor league contracts with invitations to Major League Spring Training: right-handers Justin Miller, Phillippe Aumont and A.J. Cole (as had been previously been reported in Cole’s case), outfielder Patrick Kivlehan and infielder Andy Burns.

Miller, 32, has the most notable recent experience at the MLB level among the newly known signees. He spent the 2018-19 seasons pitching out of the Nationals’ bullpen and looked to be a savvy bargain find in the first of those two campaigns. The 2018 season saw Miller work to a 3.61 ERA with 10.3 K/9, 2.9 BB/9 and a 33.6 percent ground-ball rate. He was prone to home runs (1.72 HR/9), but Miller’s ability to miss bats and limit walks allowed him to produce a rather solid season.

Things went south in 2019, as Miller’s already homer-prone arsenal was clobbered among a leaguewide home-run surge; in 15 2/3 innings he posted a 4.02 ERA but a 7.11 FIP thanks to five home runs allowed. Those 2019 struggles notwithstanding, Miller has averaged better than a strikeout per inning in 156 1/3 MLB frames.

Aumont, 30, was also in the Jays’ system back in 2015. The Gatineau, Quebec native spent the 2019 season pitching with the Ottawa Champions of the independent Canadian-American Association, where he logged a 2.65 ERA with a scintillating 145-to-23 K/BB ratio in 118 2/3 innings (18 starts). He’s struggled mightily in 43 2/3 MLB innings but has averaged better than 10 strikeouts per nine innings pitched in parts of seven Triple-A campaigns. Walks have previously been an issue for him, but his control was exceptional in ’19. Aumont has worked for more as a reliever than a starter in his professional career, but perhaps the Jays could utilize him as rotation depth this time around.

Kivlehan, 30 later this month, had a productive season between Toronto’s Double-A and Triple-A clubs in 2019, so it’s not a surprise that they opted to bring him back. He’s a career .208/.302/.401 hitter in 242 MLB plate appearances but a .262/.325/.480 hitter in his Triple-A career. He has experience at all four corner positions.

Burns, another familiar face for Toronto fans, followed up a nice two-year run in the KBO from 2017-18 with a .275/.364/.470 showing with the Jays’ Triple-A club in Buffalo in 2019. With the exception of that two-year stint in South Korea, Burns has spent his entire career in the Blue Jays organization.

Rangers Claim Nick Goody

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Dec. 2: Goody has accepted the assignment and been added to the Rangers’ 40-man roster, per a club announcement. The team’s 40-man roster is now full.

Nov. 26: Indians right-hander Nick Goody has been claimed off waivers by the Rangers, per an announcement from the Texas organization. (MLBTR reported that he’d been claimed by an unknown team this afternoon.) Players claimed off release waivers have five days to accept the assignment to their new club or reject in favor of free agency.

Goody, 28, is projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to receive a $1.1MM salary via arbitration this winter. The right-hander had a terrific 2017 season for the Indians, compiling a 2.80 ERA with 11.9 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and 1.2 HR/9 in 54 innings out of the bullpen. Goody logged an eye-popping 16.1 percent swinging-strike rate that season and whiffed nearly a third of the hitters he faced. His slider, in particular, gave opponents fits, as evidenced by a 24.2 percent swinging-strike mark and an awful .147 opponents’ average against the pitch.

An elbow strain caused Goody to miss most of the 2018 season, however, limiting him to 11 2/3 innings of 6.94 ERA ball. He was healthy again for most of the 2019 season and turned out a solid 3.54 ERA with a 50-to-22 K/BB ratio in 40 2/3 innings. Control was an issue for Goody this past season, and his 25.7 percent fly-ball rate was a career-low. But the right-hander’s 92.8 mph average fastball was a career-high, and his slider, which was hammered in 2018, appeared to be back into good form in 2019 (.123 average against; 23.2 percent swinging-strike rate).

If Goody does indeed accept his assignment to the Rangers and go through the arbitration process, he’d be controllable for not only the 2020 season but also the 2021-22 seasons.

Red Sox Will Tender Contract To Jackie Bradley Jr.

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Despite some recent speculation that the Red Sox could non-tender Jackie Bradley Jr. prior to tonight’s 8pm ET deadline, the organization will tender him a contract for the 2020 season, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe reports (Twitter link).

The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal suggested last night that a non-tender of Bradley could be possible (subscription required), pointing out that the $11MM that MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Bradley to earn in his final season of club control may be steeper than the team prefers. But Bradley’s strong defensive track record, extra-base pop and speed are seemingly enough that the Boston organization feels he’ll at least be valued at that rate elsewhere. The dearth of useful center fielders in free agency certainly makes that likely.

It stands to reason that Bradley is still a candidate to change hands between now and Opening Day 2020. Boston’s payroll is already in the $230MM neighborhood (including arbitration projections and pre-arbitration salaries to round out the roster), and there are notable holes to address on the roster. Moving Bradley would be the second of what could be several moves designed to scale back on the 2020 payroll; the Red Sox also traded catcher Sandy Leon to the Indians earlier this morning, shedding a projected $2.8MM salary in the process.

The 29-year-old Bradley hit .225/.317/.421 with 21 long balls, 28 doubles and three triples in 567 plate appearances with the Sox this past season. However, he hasn’t had an above-average year at the plate (by measure of OPS+ or wRC+) since his All-Star 2016 season, and his typically brilliant defensive ratings slid in 2019 as well. Bradley drew ratings of -1 Defensive Runs Saved and a -1.2 Ultimate Zone Rating, although Statcast’s Outs Above Average still pegged him as a quality defender (+6). The 2018 Gold Glover has long been considered to be one of the game’s better defensive outfielders.

Looking around the league, several teams (Cubs, Mets, D-backs, Braves, Phillies, Reds, White Sox) could be in the market for a short-term addition in center field. The D-backs, in particular, seem like a plausible fit given the presence of former Boston execs Mike Hazen, Amiel Sawdaye and Jared Porter in the front office and given the team’s history of acquiring former Red Sox players (Clay Buchholz, Blake Swihart, Robby Scott, Deven Marrero, Henry Owens). Arizona “would have interest” in acquiring Bradley, Rosenthal wrote last night, which would allow them to play Ketel Marte at second base rather than in center field.

Twins Rumors: Ryu, Rotation, Cron, Gibson

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The Twins, in need of rotation upgrades, have been in touch with agent Scott Boras about left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu, Darren Wolfson of 1500 SKOR North reports in his latest podcast (audio link, Twins talk beginning at 25:10 mark). It’s hardly surprising, as Minnesota figures to gauge the prices of virtually every top starter available, but the connection is nevertheless of some note. La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune also links the Twins to Ryu, and he adds that manager Rocco Baldelli and pitching coach Wes Johnson have been involved in the early recruiting process for the team’s top pitching targets. The general goal of those efforts is to help paint a picture of the culture the Twins try to foster and the means by which they feel they can help pitchers improve. “Making sure that people are comfortable and are going to a place with the right people they want to be with and they want to work with,” Baldelli said of the process. “…I enjoy talking with guys. Some of them end up Twins and some of them don’t. All of those conversations are worthwhile in every way.”

Some more notes out of the Twin Cities…

  • Also within his podcast, Wolfson adds that there’s some internal trepidation about paying first baseman C.J. Cron at the $7.7MM rate projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz. They’ll have until 8pm ET tonight to tender Cron a contract, and it’s possible that they could try to bring him back at a lower rate. But the Twins have also continued to discuss the possibility of moving Miguel Sano from third base to first base, which would free up the possibility of acquiring a third baseman either via free agency (e.g. Josh Donaldson, Todd Frazier) or trade. If the Twins part ways with Cron, they’d be at $48.9MM in guaranteed contracts plus another $41.1MM in projected arbitration salaries and pre-arbitration contracts. That rough $90MM sum is well shy of the $130MM record payroll with which they opened the 2018 season, and the team’s 2019 attendance rose by nearly 250,000 over the 2017 season that preceded that record level of spending.
  • Longtime Twins righty Kyle Gibson will embark on the next chapter of his career with the Rangers after agreeing to a three-year, $30MM deal last Wednesday. The former first-round pick apparently bet on himself in 2019, as MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (via Twitter) that Minnesota had tried to sign Gibson to a two-year pact worth $17MM a year ago. Gibson, however, spurned what would’ve been the first multi-year guarantee of his career and came out ahead as a result. He ultimately earned $8.125MM in his final season of arbitration eligibility and will take that home on top of the additional $30MM he’ll be guaranteed with Texas once his deal is formally announced.

KBO’s KT Wiz Re-Sign William Cuevas

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The KT Wiz of the Korea Baseball Organization announced they have re-signed right-hander William Cuevas (h/t to Dan Kurtz of MyKBO). The deal comes with a $900K guarantee, with an additional $100K available in incentives.

Cuevas, 29, pitched in parts of three MLB seasons with the Red Sox and Tigers, although he combined for only 22.1 innings at the highest level. He’d typically been on hand as high minors starting pitching depth between 2015-18. Cuevas is probably most well-known for his time with the Red Sox, who originally signed him out of Venezuela a decade ago. In addition to Detroit and Boston, Cuevas briefly pitched in the Marlins’ system, although he never made the big leagues with Miami.

Cuevas made the jump to Korea after the 2018 season. In his first season with the Wiz, he tossed 184 passable innings. His 3.62 ERA ranked 14th among 27 qualifiers, per MyKBO Stats, while his 17.8% strikeout rate (11th) and 8.3% walk rate (22nd) were more serviceable than remarkable. Nevertheless, the Wiz were evidently encouraged enough to commit one of their three roster spots available for foreign-born players to Cuevas in 2020.

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