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Archives for January 2019

Diamondbacks, T.J. McFarland Avoid Arbitration

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8:22pm: MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand tweets that McFarland will earn $1.4MM in 2019, and his 2020 option is valued at $1.85MM with a $50K buyout (thus comprising the $1.45MM guarantee).

7:59pm: The D-backs announced Wednesday night that they’ve avoided arbitration with left-handed reliever T.J. McFarland. The southpaw’s one-year contract also includes a club option for the 2020 season. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the two sides settled at a $1.45MM salary for the upcoming season.

McFarland, an Octagon client, enjoyed a career year with the Diamondbacks this past season, pitching to a flat 2.00 ERA with 5.3 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 0.50 HR/9 and a whopping 67.9 percent ground-ball rate in 72 innings out of the bullpen. The former Orioles hurler was particularly lethal against left-handed opponents, who managed a downright pitiful .163/.182/.206 slash against McFarland in 100 plate appearances. After earning a modest $850K salary in 2018, McFarland and his reps filed for nearly double that sum in arbitration, countering Arizona’s $1.275MM figure with a $1.675MM submission.

[Related: MLBTR 2019 Arbitration Tracker]

The club option on McFarland’s deal will cover what would be his final season of arbitration, meaning the two sides have most likely avoided a hearing not only this offseason but next offseason as well. Technically speaking, the D-backs could decline the option and retain McFarland as an arb-eligible player for his final season of control. However, it’s likelier that if McFarland pitches well, they’ll simply exercise his option or, if he performs poorly, that the Diamondbacks would move on entirely.

Marlins Hire Juan Pierre As Minor League Outfield Coordinator

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The Marlins announced Wednesday that they’ve hired former big league outfielder Juan Pierre as their new minor league outfield coordinator. It’ll be the first professional coaching assignment for the 41-year-old Pierre, who retired as a player upon conclusion of the 2013 season.

Pierre spent more time with the Marlins than any other organization over the course of a 14-year MLB career, first playing every game from 2003-05 for the then-Florida Marlins and eventually returning to Miami for his final season in ’13. A career .295/.343/.361 hitter in 1994 games (8280 plate appearances), Pierre was best known for the blistering speed that helped him to swipe 614 bases. He never stole fewer than 23 bags in a full big league season and topped 40 steals on nine occasions (including three different seasons with 60-plus steals). As one might expect from a player with that type of speed, Pierre drew consistently strong defensive marks for his range, though his throwing arm weighed down his overall defensive ratings.

Miami also announced a slew of other hirings, including former Twins third base coach Gene Glynn, who’ll serve as a minor league infield and baserunning coordinator for the organization. Glynn was Minnesota’s third base coach for each of the past four seasons and served as the manager for the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate in Rochester prior to that. Miami also hired Eric Duncan away from the Yankees to serve as minor league hitting coordinator and tabbed longtime big league catcher Jamie Quirk as the organization’s new minor league catching coordinator.

Orioles Announce 2019 Coaching Staff

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The Orioles on Wednesday formally announced their coaching staff for the 2019 season under first-year skipper Brandon Hyde.

Don Long will serve as the team’s new hitting coach, and Howie Clark will reprise his previous role as assistant hitting coach, making him the lone holdover from last year’s big league staff. Doug Brocail, meanwhile, will join the organization as the new pitching coach and work alongside former O’s minor league pitching coordinator John Wasdin, who is being promoted to bullpen coach. Arnie Beyeler and Jose Flores will handle first and third base coaching duties, respectively. Tim Cossins has been named Major League field/catching coordinator, and Jose Hernandez will join the club as a Major League coach. It seems, then, that Hyde will operate without a bench coach in his first year on the job, as Baltimore’s release makes no mention of the position.

Several of the new hires have ties to Hyde or new Orioles GM Mike Elias. Brocail, 51, spent a combined six years as a pitching coach with the Astros and Rangers before being replaced in Texas just this offseason. His time with the ’Stros from 2011-13 overlapped with the early stages of Elias’ time in Houston. Similarly, the 48-year-old Cossins is a known commodity to Hyde, as the two spent time together in the Cubs organization, where Hyde was the Cubs’ first base coach and bench coach and Cossins was the organization’s minor league field/catching coordinator. Flores, too, comes to the Orioles with Cubs connections. The 48-year-old spent the 2013-17 seasons as Chicago’s minor league infield coordinator before being hired as the Phillies’ first base coach in 2018.

While Clark is the lone holdover from former skipper Buck Showalter’s staff, there are still a pair of O’s minor league coaches joining the MLB staff. Hernandez, 49, may be a familiar name for some O’s fans, as he’s spent the past six seasons as a coach with the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Norfolk. He should have plenty of familiarity with the bevy of young players who’ll receive an extended opportunity at the MLB level in the early stages of Baltimore’s rebuild. Wasdin could be described similarly, having spent the past two years as the Orioles’ minor league pitching coordinator.

The 54-year-old Beyeler spent the past three seasons as the manager of the Marlins’ Triple-A affiliate and has been involved in baseball as a manager, coach or scout for nearly three decades. Long, meanwhile, joins the Orioles on the heels of a five-year stretch as the Reds’ hitting coach. The 56-year-old has more than three decades of coaching and managerial experience, having also spent time with the Angels, Phillies, Pirates and Braves.

Giants Sign Drew Pomeranz

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2:55pm: The incentive pay is quite achievable, so long as the Giants keep Pomeranz on board and keep him in the rotation. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic has the details (Twitter link).

Pomeranz gets $500K if he’s on the active roster coming out of camp and upon the season’s 150th day, in addition to a quarter million apiece for being on the roster 90 and 120 days into the 2019 campaign. He also receives $250K for reaching 25 and 50 innings, a provision which will be met early if he’s a starter and can still be triggered if he works from the pen.

The rest of the cash requires Pomeranz to open ballgames. He gets $125K apiece upon his second, fourth, sixth, and eighth start; $100K upon reaching 10, 14, 16, 18, 20, 24, 27, and 30; and a final $200K if he records a full 32-start campaign.

2:05pm: The Giants announced the move, with outfielder Mike Gerber being designated for assignment to clear roster space.

12:43pm: The Giants have agreed to terms with southpaw Drew Pomeranz, according to Larry Krueger of KNBR. Pomeranz will be guaranteed just $1.5MM, Jeff Passan of ESPN.com tweets. There are incentives that can push the total value to $5MM, though, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com (Twitter link).

Pomeranz becomes the second veteran lefty to sign no in San Francisco this winter, joining Derek Holland in that regard. He’ll be looking to follow Holland in a different regard as well — namely, utilizing the opportunity to work in the spacious ballpark to help spur a career turnaround.

New Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi may have relied on the opinions of preexisting staff members in bringing back Holland, but he’s no doubt applying plenty of his own experience in securing a deal with Pomeranz. Zaidi was a key member of the Oakland front office during the lefty’s tenure with the Athletics.

At thirty years of age, Pomeranz could still author a second bounceback, having done so previously when he landed with the A’s after washing out with the Rockies. It wasn’t long ago, after all, that Pomeranz was wrapping up a four-year run in which he threw 499 1/3 innings of 3.24 ERA ball with 9.1 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9.

Unfortunately, Pomeranz’s final season with the RedSox — who gave up a top prospect to get him in a trade that ultimately came under scrutiny for the Padres’ failure to disclose medical info — did not go as well as his first full year in Boston. Making it through just 74 innings in an injury-ravaged 2018 season, Pomeranz worked to an ugly 6.08 ERA while allowing 5.4 free passes and 1.5 home runs per nine innings. Arm issues clearly nagged him all year long, with a flexor tendon strain and biceps tendinitis ultimately identified as specific maladies, as Pomeranz lost nearly two ticks on his average fastball.

All things considered, this seems like a rather easy and minimal risk for the Giants to take. It stands to reason that the club offered Pomeranz a clear path to a rotation job as part of its sales pitch, though the plans are not fully clear. If he does take a spot in the starting five, it would appear to bump fellow lefties Andrew Suarez and Ty Blach out of the prospective Opening Day rotation (at least on paper).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Cubs To Sign Colin Rea

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The Cubs have agreed to a minors deal with righty Colin Rea, Matt Eddy of Baseball America reports on Twitter. Details otherwise remain unclear.

Now 28 years of age, Rea at one point seemed likely to be a steady rotation piece at the game’s highest level. In fact, the Marlins acquired him on just that premise in the middle of the 2016 season.

Things took a stunning turn when Rea exited his first start in Miami with an elbow injury, teeing up a controversy with the Padres that resulted in Rea being shipped back to San Diego. Rea ended up undergoing Tommy John surgery not long thereafter, costing him all of the 2017 season.

Though he returned to the hill last year, Rea managed only a 5.73 ERA in 75 1/3 innings in the upper minors. The San Diego club dropped him at the outset of the offseason. He’ll look to get back on track in Chicago and perhaps provide an interesting depth option for the Cubs.

Also joining the Chicago organization is outfielder Zach Borenstein, Eddy adds. The 28-year-old has yet to crack the bigs, but has posted some solid numbers at times at Triple-A. In five total seasons there, he carries a .260/.337/.476 slash, popping 65 home runs but also going down on strikes 493 times in 1,657 plate appearances.

Padres “Checked In” On Four Prominent Free Agents

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Those wondering whether the Padres will make a big move or two this winter still don’t have an answer, but indications are that the club is at least exploring the possibility of just that. Per Jon Heyman of Fancred, via Twitter, the San Diego organization has “checked in” on four prominent free agents.

Most notably, the Friars are said to have at least reached out to both Manny Machado and Bryce Harper, the top two available free agents. San Diego GM A.J. Preller has also put in calls regarding utility man Marwin Gonzalez and third baseman Mike Moustakas, per the report.

Importantly, it’s far from clear whether the Padres are a serious pursuer of any of these high-profile names. Indeed, Heyman says it’s not even known if any have received offers. And it stands to reason that the club will tread carefully.

Still, it bears mentioning that the Pads are among the organizations hunting around in these markets. Though we’ve heard some chatter on all four players throughout the winter, it’s entirely unclear at this point where they’ll end up.

It’s worth noting, of course, that Machado and Harper are in a different stratosphere altogether from Gonzalez and Moustakas. Landing one of the former two would be a franchise-altering decision that would come with huge consequences — and, as Heyman notes, ramped-up expectations of a near-term competitive timeline. The latter two ballplayers are established, quality veterans who would no doubt improve the overall roster but not come with nearly the upside (or require nearly the same level of investment).

Having shocked the market by landing Eric Hosmer last year, and with a clear imperative to make some strides in the standings, the San Diego organization has to be considered at least a conceptually possible dark horse threat on these (if not also other) players. That’s true even if adding one of these players would require some corresponding trades, as the Padres’ mass of intriguing but not-yet-fully-established MLB talent has long seemed likely to be cleared out to some degree.

Diamondbacks To Sign Travis Snider

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The Diamondbacks have agreed to a minor-league deal with outfielder Travis Snider, according to Matt Eddy of Baseball America (via Twitter). It’s not evident whether it includes an invitation to MLB Spring Training.

Snider, 30, has spent eight years in the big leagues, compiling nearly two thousand plate appearances along the way. The former top prospect had some productive campaigns, but never established himself as more than a part-time player. All told, he’s a .244/.311/.399 hitter in the big leagues.

It has been three seasons now since Snider touched the majors. After a tepid 2015 campaign, Snider played the ensuing two seasons on minor-league deals. He found himself out of the affiliated ranks altogether in 2018, instead heading to the indy ball circuit and posting a .290/.374/.463 slash in his 404 plate appearances for the Long Island Ducks.

The vast majority of Snider’s opportunities in the majors came against right-handed pitching. It’s likely he’ll be viewed as a platoon option moving forward — if, that is, he can show enough in the upper minors to get a chance if a need arises.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/23/19

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We’ll use this post to catch up on some recent minor moves and track any new ones that emerge …

  • The Dodgers reportedly have a minors deal in place with veteran backstop Josh Thole. Per Bob Nightengale of USA Today (via Twitter), the arrangement includes a $600K potential MLB salary as well as an opt-out opportunity on July 1st. Thole has seen time in eight MLB seasons, slashing a cumulative .242/.313/.306 through 1,499 plate appearances, but hasn’t been asked up to the bigs since 2016. He plied his trade last year at Double-A with the Tigers organization.
  • Meanwhile, righty David Hale is reportedly headed to the Yankees on his own minor-league accord. The 31-year-old bounced on and off of the New York roster last season (as well as that of the Twins) and will again represent a depth piece for the Yanks. Hale’s chief appeal is his ability to function in a swing capacity, giving innings from the bullpen or if needed taking a spot start. He spent most of 2018 at Triple-A, working to a 4.20 ERA in 55 2/3 innings through 11 starts while compiling 7.1 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9.
  • The Nationals have reportedly lined up on an agreement with outfielder Tyler Goeddel, the terms of which remain unknown. He’ll be hoping for an eventual shot to return to the majors after struggling in a 92-game stint with the Phillies back in 2016. Goeddel, 26, hit just .219/.298/.329 last year in the upper minors with the Reds and Dodgers organizations.
  • Finally, the Cubs have also reportedly added a player on a minors deal, with infielder Cristhian Adames slated to join the organization. Now 27 years of age, the switch-hitter saw time over four MLB seasons with the Rockies but failed to make it back up last year. In his 498 Triple-A plate appearances with the Marlins org, Adames, put up a .269/.324/.370 batting line. Adames is capable of playing all over the infield and has primarily appeared at shortstop as a professional.

Brewers Promote, Extend David Stearns

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The Brewers have promoted David Stearns to the position of president of baseball operations, per a club announcement. He has also received a contract extension of unknown length.

The news comes as little surprise after a strong Milwaukee run in 2018, with the club taking the NL Central title and advancing to the NLCS. Stearns, who took over as the club’s GM in the fall of 2015 (on a contract of still-unknown duration), drew interest from other organizations this winter but was obviously viewed as a critical piece in the Brewers’ own long-term plans.

Also receiving a title bump from the organization was Rick Schlesinger, who becomes the president of business operations. He had previously functioned as the chief operating officer for eight years.

While the news is certainly not without its ramifications — a longer, presumably better-compensated tenure for both men, along with new business cards and office placards — it largely represents a confirmation that the Milwaukee club is pleased with its current trajectory. In addition to the successes on the field, the announcement lauds the business-side efforts to continue improving Miller Park and launch a new Arizona facility.

Of course, the organization also had a significant announcement yesterday: Miller Park will have a new name after two more seasons. It’s not yet known exactly what the facility will be called, but American Family Insurance will own the rights for the next 15-year period. That will help boost revenues, with a prospective new television rights deal also on the horizon as a means of potentially enhancing the income stream.

If owner Mark Attanasio has his way, the business and baseball ops departments will continue to boost one another — the former helping to charge fan interest and the latter providing the funds needed to boost payroll. According to Schlesinger, that’s how things have gone to this point. “David and I both understand the importance of our two disciplines working together as one, cohesive unit, and we embrace that approach throughout the organization,” he said.

From a hot stove perspective, it seems that things will largely continue on as before. Presumably, Stearns will continue to function in much the same capacity. Whether or not assistant GM Matt Arnold — who joined the organization shortly after Stearns did — will get his own new title remains to be seen.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Wilin Rosario Seeking Deal With MLB Organization

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Former major leaguer Wilin Rosario has spent the past several seasons plying his trade in Asia. Now, he’s seeking a return to the affiliated ranks, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link).

Soon to turn 30 years of age, Rosario spent five seasons with the Rockies but found his opportunities fizzle out as he struggled behind the dish and declined at the plate. At his best a high-power, albeit defensively middling catcher, Rosario finished his run in Colorado in 2015 as a first baseman who slashed just .268/.295/.416.

Of course, it was still clear that Rosario had ample pop in his bat, having swatted 71 home runs and compiled a .200 isolated power mark through 1,601 MLB plate appearances. That made him an appealing target for Asian ballclubs, many of which have unearthed sluggers in need of a new opportunity in recent years.

Rosario thrived in a two-season run in Korea’s top league, equaling his tally of 71 major-league long balls in just 1,069 trips to the plate. That showing led to a deal that brought him to Japan last year, though Rosario stumbled in Hanshin. In 302 plate appearances, he managed only a .242/.285/.374 batting line with eight home runs.

Under the circumstances, it’s clear that Rosario will be looking for a minor-league deal. He’ll surely draw interest on a risk-free arrangement, but he’ll need to earn his way back into the majors with a strong showing in camp and/or at the Triple-A level.

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