Here are Thursday’s minor moves from around the game…
- The Rays re-signed outfielder Jason Coats to a minor league pact and invited him to MLB Spring Training, tweets Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Coats, who’ll turn 29 later this month, spent the 2018 season with Tampa Bay’s Triple-A affiliate, where he hit .247/.293/.448 with 15 home runs. Coats has a bit of big league time under his belt, having tallied 28 games with the White Sox in 2016. While he struggled to get on base last season, though, he has a stronger track record in Triple-A overall, where he’s a .277/.327/.462 hitter in nearly 1300 plate appearances.
- The Dodgers have signed righty J.D. Martin to a minor league pact, tweets Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. A first-rounder way back in 2001, Martin never established himself in the Majors but has been working to reinvent himself as a knuckleballer over the past three seasons. Martin spent last year with the Rays’ Double-A affiliate, where he posted a 4.49 ERA with 5.1 K/9 against 4.3 BB/9 in 124 1/3 innings of work. Those numbers aren’t exactly encouraging, though the knuckleball is still fairly new to Martin. As Rosenthal notes, he’ll work with Dodgers adviser Charlie Hough on further refining his ability to utilize the increasingly rare pitch.
- The Dodgers have also signed veteran Cody Asche to a minor league deal, tweets J.P Hoornstra of Southern California News Group. Asche, 28, spent the entire 2018 season in AAA, hitting .220/.304/.399 across 368 plate appearances. He last appeared in the majors with the Chicago White Sox in 2017, where he played 19 games mostly as a DH. Hoornstra notes that Asche will not receive an invite to spring training with Los Angeles.
- The Mets have signed left-handed pitcher Sean Burnett to a minor league contract, tweets the New York Post’s Ken Davidoff. The deal, Davidoff notes, does not include an invite to MLB spring training. Burnett spent the 2018 season pitching primarily with the Marlins’ AAA affiliate, where he posted a 5.49 ERA, although he flashed more promising peripherals. He struck out 10.5 batters per nine innings while walking just 2.3, good for a 4.6 K/BB ratio. Burnett, 36, has not pitched in the majors since 2016. For his career, he has pitched to a 3.52 ERA in 378 1/3 major-league innings.
Jeez, I cannot believe Cody Asche is only 28? Sat through his 4 bizzaro years in Philadelphia waiting for him to do something. Management treated him like he was Chase Utley II. Best wishes to a Phillie alum…
I was thinking the same exact thing. I’m happy that he continues to try though.
Coats didn’t sign with the Orioles as a 12th round draft pick out of TCU. The next year he was drafted in the 29th round. OUCH…..
J.D Martin to the Dodgers no way…oh wait
hmm, Martin is working with Charlie Hough. interesting.
I love it. I love knuckleballers because they are so unique in baseball history. I think Steven Wright is the only current one….I think failed hitting prospects should try pitching, and failed pitching prospects should try becoming knuckleballers. It can’t hurt, and batters just really don’t know how to adjust to them.
Ryan Feierabend also throws a good knuckleball, but he uses his around 20% of the time in the KBO.
Rays to enter Spring Training with Coats.
yay
Anticipating cold spring temperatures, Rays to bring COATS to Spring Training.
LOL.
lmao
This is the best… worst… best joke I’ve seen today.
Phillies had a lot of BUSTS in the last 10 years including Dominick Brown who was supposed to be a star and is either in the minors or out of Baseball altogether.
All teams have had a lot of busts. It’s the nature of baseball.
Yeah, it’s not like the Mets have been perfect with their prospects. Or should I bring up Lastings Milledge, Fernando Martinez and Gavin Cecchini?
I think you could do this exercise with pretty much every team. I’m a Padres fan and I remember very well the names Donovan Tate and Matt Bush. Baseball is just really hard to predict. Obviously pitcher injuries are a huge reason why lots of prospects don’t pan out, and there’s a risk in any sport to trying to predict what will happen to an 18-year-old as he matures physically, especially as hitters make adjustments to wooden bats and much larger parks
Brown had a tremendous age-25 season – 272/324/494 with 27 homers, 124 OPS+, made the All-Star team. The league caught up with him and he couldn’t adjust. It happens.
I’m pretty sure 20 of those 27 HR came within a 1 month span. He had a crazy hot streak, but was never really a good player.
I think Harper stays in the NL East. Whether with Washington or Philly.
This division is going to be fun. I think 4 out of the 5 teams will be competitive.
4 out of 5 dentists concur.