It’s really too soon to say which minor-league signees are going to turn out to be exceptional values. But we can assess which have earned significant roles out of the gates. Whether they’ll be called upon with such frequency the rest of the way will depend in no small part upon what they do with the initial opportunity.
Let’s start by looking at the 16 position players that signed minor-league deals and have accrued thirty or more plate appearances. It’s a list chock full of notable names:
Gerardo Parra, OF, Giants: The veteran is receiving heavy playing time, leading all minor-league signees with 63 plate appearances, but hasn’t yet justified it with his play. Parra carries only a .218/.302/.327 slash on the year. The roster spot could be at risk if the Giants ultimately find a better use for it, but the club needs decent veteran play in the outfield at the moment.
Jesus Sucre, C, Orioles: Sucre has been the Orioles’ primary option behind the dish, bringing his usual blend of weak offense and solid defense to the table. He’s hitting just .213/.260/.255 through 50 PAs while catching four of eight would-be base thieves. Chance Sisco may eventually unseat him, but Sucre is locked into a prominent role for now.
Hanley Ramirez, DH, Indians: One of the most interesting minor-league signees to watch, Ramirez has generated a healthy 14.0% walk rate but has otherwise done little else of note. It’ll be interesting to see how much patience the Cleveland organization shows.
Curtis Granderson, OF, Marlins: Trusted with a big role, the respected veteran is struggling at the plate (.149/.268/.298). But the Marlins need a few players of this type and surely won’t be in any rush to push him off of the MLB roster.
Melky Cabrera, OF, Pirates: Thrust into an unexpectedly robust role, the Melk Man has delivered with his typically high-contact approach. He’s sporting a BABIP-driven .367/.392/.490 slash through 51 trips to the plate. The Bucs will reevaluate as time goes on and they welcome back some injured players, but Cabrera now has a path to a job all season long.
Logan Forsythe, INF, Rangers: After a few lost seasons, Forsythe settled for a minors pact and has settled in nicely in Texas. He has rediscovered his ability to play short from time to time and exhibited a revamped mastery of the strike zone thus far in 2019. The odds seem pretty solid that Forsythe will continue to hold down a roster spot with the Rangers.
Mark Reynolds, 1B, Rockies: Reynolds is walking more than ever and showing typically strong pop, but still isn’t anything close a league-average producer (83 wRC+) owing to his lagging batting average (.206) and adjustment for hitting at Coors. Odds are the Rox will continue to carry Reynolds as a bench bat and part-time first baseman, though it’s possible the calculus could change once the club’s at full health.
Yangervis Solarte, UTIL, Giants: The 31-year-old is being asked to move around the diamond, but he’ll soon be out of opportunities if he doesn’t get things going at the plate. He’s slashing a meager .200/.256/.300 through 44 plate appearances.
Jose Iglesias, INF, Reds: With Jose Peraza off to a dreadful start, Iglesias is receiving a bigger slice of the playing time pie. He’s not hitting a ton but remains one of the game’s most gifted infield defenders.
Derek Dietrich, INF, Reds: Another player that surprisingly failed to get a MLB deal and landed in Cincinnati, Dietrich is mashing thus far — albeit in a lopsided fashion. He’s carrying only a .200 batting average and .300 OBP but has launched four long balls and owns a hefty .629 slugging percentage.
Brad Miller, INF Indians: Though he was one of the team’s few solid offensive performers in the early going, Miller was jettisoned recently to make way for the return of Jason Kipnis. That sudden change of direction is a good indication of the uncertainty faced by players in this situation.
Lucas Duda, 1B, Royals: Though it’s still hard to understand why the Royals have set up their roster with so many defensively limited players, the veteran slugger is performing at the plate. Duda’s power is down some but he’s walking more than he’s striking out thus far. Barring a change in organizational philosophy, it seems he’ll continue in his role.
JB Shuck, OF, Pirates: As injuries mounted, the door opened wider in Pittsburgh. Shuck has responded with a .259/.429/.333 slash in 36 plate appearances to begin the season. That’s a nice development for him, but he’ll have to show quite a bit more to stave off an eventual roster cut.
Hunter Pence, OF, Rangers: Another veteran keeper in Texas, Pence has carried a middling .276/.323/.379 batting line to begin his comeback bid. He’s probably got some leash as a highly respected veteran but will ultimately need to show some life to stay on the MLB roster.
Nick Hundley, C, Athletics: He’s not hitting at all, but Hundley is a respected veteran receiver. The A’s could in theory make a change at just about any time but the club doesn’t have any other catchers in the organization with substantial MLB experience — at least until Chris Herrmann is back to health.
Peter Bourjos, OF, Angels: Already slated for a fourth outfielder job, Bourjos was thrust into a large role when Justin Upton went down. But he’s off to a wretched beginning of the year and is now firmly in danger of being dropped by the Halos.
I hope the Angels drop all their damn players and bring up everyone from AAA
You can just do that we have guys who sign one year major league deals they would have to clear waivers and then we would still be responsible for the money. There’s also no evidence that our farm system can produce better results than what we are already getting. The one guy I’d like to see is canning but it would be smart to let him continue to develop in salt lake
I’m well aware of that and you obviously can’t read into my sarcasm.
No offense but it didn’t really read like sarcasm, or have a sarcasm disclaimer. Maybe I just got too used to chats that allow italics.
“I hope the angels drop everyone and call up their AAA team” seems sarcastic to me.
yeah, especially with the best player on the planet, it read as sarcastic to me.
downvote
This writing is terrible. Saying someone like Pence is essentially struggling while saying Duda is performing with a .200 average is ignorant.
Duda has .100 more OPS than Pence. Who is really the ignorant one here?
It’s a 30 AB sample size. Tough to draw anything from any of it. I don’t think they’re ignorant for writing something that is factually correct but the difference between Duda’s 117 OPS+ and Pence’s 85 is two more extra base hits. Which is why small sample sizes are pretty worthless.
They really should not be making these kinds of articles THIS early. Wait til May at least next time, please. No one cares about splitting hairs based on miniscule sample sizes, its clear click bait nonsense to watch us argue over, which doesnt do anything for anyone – FYI.
OPS+ Duda 117. Pence 85
Seriously thought the entire batting average end all be all crowd spontaneously combusted like three years ago.
I thought it was over a decade ago.
It’s as reasonable a stat as any of the others, and has its place. I still say watch the games if you wanna know though.
I agree jleve. It’s people who look at it and say somebodies a bad hitter because they hit .240 or try to argue a guy hitting .300 without any context is a good hitter. BA really doesn’t show anything by itself, like most stats, but it seems a lot of people believe it does.
JD – Have you not watched the Blue Jays this year? Because they score runs when they hit the ball, which they do not do often. Keyword, hit. Hitting boosts the batting average. The fact that you push your own ignorance to batting average is a clear indication you haven’t properly observed baseball, well, ever.
Can you please just for once look at what is being said and not who is posting. If you would you would clearly see that your response has nothing to do with what I said.
Duda has 2 less hits than Pence, only one more home run, and one more at bat alongside being a defensively challenged player. You can’t say Duda has significantly performed better.
what’s the high and low of middling?
Dude look in the playoffs like mookie betts and Jose altuve. They led the league in hitting because they can actually hit when it means to. Power guys doesn’t play in the playoffs maybe in the regular season but playoffs they are crap. You need a high contact hitter than a guy who bats around the Mendoza line every year
Duda also has 6 more walks and 1 more double.
Batting average is worthless, throw it out.
Duda has clearly been the better hitter in this short season so far.
Lmao Duda’s OPS+ is now 93 btw. Which again is why small sample sizes are worthless and there really isn’t much of a difference in their slash lines thus far.
JFactor a walk with a runner on second makes the situation first and second.
A hit with a runner on second potentially scores a run.
Hit the ball.
Your argument is now worthless.
Pence has a 86 wRC+ and Duda a 89 wRC+, so it looks like Duda is outperforming Pence by a little.
Hard time figuring out why Iglesias isn’t in the Majors. One of the best with the glove around and hits a little. Have a feeling Boras started out looking for multiple years and stopped dreaming way too late.
He still should have big league job it seems and Forsythe is a useful utility type. Miller can see getting cpl more cups of coffee. Duda, Granderson, Reynolds are really no better than Pedro Alvarez types who was left off the list.. 1 dimension HR guys who won’t hit for much power, won’t get on base much at all, but K a ton.
Johnny Boy, Jose Iglesias is starting half the games at SS for the Cincinnati reds. Logan Forsythe is the Texas Rangers utility man. Lay off the pipe and re-read. These guys signed minor league deals. They aren’t all in the minors. Which is blatantly obvious if you even attempted to read this article.
Typical Red Sox homer talking his nonsense lol
Careful, next he might start telling us how good Blake Swihart is
Keep your eye on Eric Sogard. He’ll have 30 ABs in no time!!
I’d rather have Andy Burns up
Andy Burns is useless. Stop that crap. Andy Burns is Korea material.
Kimbrel should have grabbed that minor league deal while it was on the table.
I know he has not play much, but where is Matt Weiters? He is going to stay with the Cardinals.
The title of the article specifically says “seeing significant playing time.” There’s your answer. Comprehension must be hard these days
Take off your last sentence, and your reply would have been sufficient enough. No need for that ahole commit when he already stated he is not playing much. Hundley is seeing only slightly more playing time than Wieters, but he is on the list.
Sucre has 50 PA and isn’t on the list, so it’s not like this list is complete in the slightest.
Wieters has 9ABS. Hundley is receiving 3x as much work. I agree the tone wasn’t necessary but he was a deserved omission. That’s a real stretch saying hundley is only playing slightly more.
What about Jesus Sucre?
I wonder how many of these players signed Advance Consent contracts?
I just love all the media crap 15 games into the season. Bourjos won’t bat .100 all year and Goodwin won’t bat .350 with an OPS north of .900. When Upton and Ohtani come back, I would not drop Bourjos. He brings more in a utility role than Goodwin and Fletcher. I can’t believe they have Fletcher playing in the OF over Bourjos? With that horrible pitching staff, that team needs all the defensive help it can get.
Bourjos shouldn’t be on a major league roster. He’s never shown the simple ability to hit in his whole career.
Hey, I haven’t seen you since you were whining about the Angels picking up Goodwin and insisting Bourjos is the best 4th Outfielder the team has had for yours!
I see watching him flounder up close and personal, with your own eyes, still isn’t enough for you to recognize he is no longer the same player you remember from 2011?
So what exactly will it take for you to realize 2011 is long gone? I have to ask, since neither statistics nor watching his inability yourself seems to be working here.
Talk to me at the end of the season about Goodwin and tell me how he did. Keep getting wrapped up in small sample sizes
It doesn’t matter what Goodwin does by the end of the season, it wouldn’t erase the fact that Bourjos can not play the game at an even semi-respectable level anymore at all, by any statistical or visual evidence you use.
Even giving Bourjos a realistic BABIP ends with this as his batting line (added 2 singles, 1 double, doubling his hits perfectly)
.188./.206/.250/.456 @ .273 BABIP
That is not a MLB worthy player – just as he hasn’t been MLB worthy for the last 4 years either, when being honest about his skills
Dude, no one cares about playing silly “gotcha” games when it comes to talking pro sports. What are you even trying to do with this? Shame him from never having an opinion again so you’re top dog ’round these parts? GTFO with that. These are random comments sections, everyone can sound off, and you dont win anything for calling out when someone was wrong. Grow up, buttercup. Be better.
Longstanding argument you were never apart of, and know nothing about.
But glad to know your opinion is one Angels fan is not allowed to ask another Angels fan what it would take to finally change a persons adamant opinion (which he openly admits hasnt changed since 2011) when all statistics and visual evidence isn’t enough.
There is no argument. I call it an opinion. Apparently numerous GMs in the league think Bourjos has value of some kind. Your opinion is based solely on hitting because that’s all you comment on about him. When we are 3 weeks into the season, and a guy gets 8-9 at bats a WEEK, it’s hard to look at anything offensively. Most of the Angels offense has been horrible. Should they go ahead and release Cozart, Bour and Kevan Smith too? Kalhoun has been in the tank offensively since last year. Yes he hits a HR every now and then, but in between it’s a whole lot of nothing. I’ve never disagreed on the point of Bourjos being an offensive guy. My stance has always been spot starter, defensive replacement, pinch runner late. Every team needs that type of guy. The guy who should be concerned about his job is Cozart, but this is baseball, and stupid baseball plays the contract. That’s why teams continue to flounder in mediocrity. Just like they’ll get Upton in there as soon as possible, so he give up dozens of runs defensively, can’t run the bases, but will hit a HR a week and strikeout 8 times a week. Upton is the poster child of 2019 baseball. That’s why it’s a boring product.
I will never understand the appeal of Hundley. he’s the worst defensive catcher in all of baseball for the last 5+ years and he doesn’t really hit. Him as your backup catcher is a wasted roster spot!
He’s a threat with the bat. He hit around 10 HR in the spacious confines of SF’s ballpark last year. He should still have enough left in the tank to get it going at some point.
Catcher is one of those positions where it’s inadvisable to take hitting over fielding, unless the hitting is exceptional. There’s no way, his modest bat can counteract his career -85 DRS.
Hundley is in great danger of being DFA’d if he doesn’t pick it up with the bat, especially if his defense has little value compared to Phegley. Murphy was considered an elite defender behind the plate and his bat, like Chapmans, has caught up to the defense.
I know .370/.463/.500 in only 50 or so PA’s in his second cup of coffee in Triple A is a small sample size, but his defense means he’ll stick, and we can see he’s got the pitch recognition skills, approach necessary at the major league level and ability to make hard contact that should help him stay up.
Love these kinds of articles. Interesting stuff that I would never be able to gather on my own.
Interesting that the writer didn’t include Jesus Sucre that was signed a minor league deal with the O’s and ended up being their main catcher. MLBTR seems to have a little antipathy towards the Orioles.
Seeing what the paid attendance is for the Orioles games, seems that is true of their fans also.
Still, the Royals and Marlins are on this list, and they are just as bad of teams as the O’s. There’s always been a few teams the media’s not a fan of. The anti-Rockies bias is clearly number one, but the O’s are probably a top 5 or at least top 10 hated team by sportswriters.
“The anti-Rockies bias is clearly number one, but the O’s are probably a top 5 or at least top 10 hated team by sportswriters.”
Literally never ever heard of this even once in my life. Take the tin foil cap off, chief. Homerism is mental illness.
Sean Murphy, one of the best C prospects in MLB who’s known more for his glove and defense than his bat, has a .993 OPS at AAA right now and if he can bring that plate mastery to MLB will be on the verge of being a superstar (or at least one of the better C’s in the game) at the highest level.
Nick Hundley, a 35 year old C (the year a great deal of C’s bodies totally give up on them), currently sports a .237 OPS.
Why Oakland, why?
Since Murphy played a little more than half of the season last year thanks to a broken hamate bone, the A’s felt he needed some time at AAA since he only saw 12 AB’s there last year. They’ve said all along that he’s going to be up some time this year, I think it’s coming sooner than later. Josh Phegley hasn’t been healthy for a full season since he’s been with the A’s, so asking him to be a full-time backstop now is risky at best.
I guess Brian Goodwin was never enough of an Major League player to make this list, but as a Nats fan who always appreciated him I’m glad to see he’s done well since his call up for the Angels.
Maybe it’s me, but the line “… Hundley is a respected veteran receiver”, implies that he’s a good defensive catcher. Not sure if it was intended that way, but he’s not anywhere near being good defensively.