The latest minor moves from around baseball…
- The Rays have signed righty David Hess to a minors deal, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets. The Orioles, who chose Hess in the fifth round of the 2014 draft, outrighted him in October. He debuted in the majors in 2018 and has since recorded a 5.86 ERA/6.41 FIP with 6.76 K/9 and 3.26 BB/9 in 190 1/3 innings.
Earlier transactions:
- The Rockies announced that they have acquired left-hander Yoan Aybar from the Red Sox for infielder Christian Koss. Aybar, now 23, didn’t produce much as an outfielder through 2017, which led the Red Sox to move him to the mound. With a fastball that can reach triple digits, Aybar pitched to a 4.61 ERA with 11.1 K/9 and 6.5 BB/9 in 56 2/3 innings between the Single-A and High-A levels in 2019. Koss, who will turn 23 in January, was a 12th-round pick of the Rockies in 2019 who hasn’t gotten past rookie ball. He did perform very well there during his first pro season, though, as he slashed .332/.447/.605 with 11 home runs in 238 plate appearances.
- The Brewers tweeted that they’ve signed third baseman Zach Green to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league camp. The 26-year-old was a third-round pick of the Phillies in 2012 who spent the previous two seasons in the Giants organization. Green made his MLB debut in 2020 and totaled 16 plate appearances, though he picked up just two hits. However, Green isn’t far removed from an excellent 2019 showing in Triple-A, where he slashed .282/.380/.659 with 25 home runs in 297 plate appearances.
- Right-hander Zach Thompson announced on Twitter that he has signed with the Marlins. It’s presumably a minors deal for Thompson, who had been with the White Sox since they selected him in the fifth round of the 2014 draft. The 27-year-old topped out in Triple-A ball in 2019 with 70 1/3 innings of 5.50 ERA ball. While Thompson had difficulty preventing runs then, he did post impressive strikeout and walk numbers (10.0 K/9, 2.9 BB/9).
- The Pirates outrighted first baseman/outfielder Will Craig to Triple-A Indianapolis on Wednesday, Adam Berry of MLB.com tweets. Craig joined the Pirates as a first-rounder in 2016, but his major league impact has been minimal to this point. He collected four plate appearances in his Pittsburgh debut last season, but he went hitless in that short span and the Pirates designated him for assignment last week. In his most recent minor league action, in 2019, the 26-year-old batted .249/.326/.435 with 23 homers across 556 plate appearances at the Triple-A level.
I believe Aybar was added to the 40 man roster by Boston to protect him from the Rule 5 draft so this trade opens up a spot on the 40-man for Boston. Now they need to convince Pedroia to retire so they can open up another spot for some free agent signings. The Red Sox have a lot of work to do this offseason. They’ll probably add at least 6 new players to their major league team this offseason, so more roster manipulation is on the way soon!
Being Braves fan I’d like to bring back Ozuna, but I just feel an AL team like the Red Sox will put up the money to make Ozuna their DH. With the Braves non tendering Duvall could you guys see AA offering 1 year prove it deals to either David Dahl or Eddie Rosario to have someone to fill that LF loss of Duvall? Filling this position with Dahl or Rosario would give Anthropolous time to wait for an answer from MLB on whether the National League will move to DH. If that happens then Ozuna comes back into play (if he hasn’t signed) or even now a play on Kyle Schwarber
The Red Sox are stuck paying designated hitter JD Martinez around $38MM for 2021-22. Not much room for Ozuna there.
Aybar was good. I was looking forward to seeing him play more.
Dahl or Rosario might fit ATL bc Braves have OF in the pipeline, but Braves need to cover Freddie in the batting order and a mashing OF or 3B is how they do it.
I believe you meant to link Zack Thompson, who is 27 and not Zach Thompson, who is 22 and in the Cards’ system as a top 20 prospect
Please disregard, I found there are multiple Zach Thompsons! Cards’ have Zack
The correct Zach Thompson was drafted by CHW and born 10/23/93 in Burleson Texas. He’s 6’7″ and has a Sox hat in his minor league profile
Article still links to wrong one. Should be playerID thomps002zac not thomps010zac.
Congratulations to 2021 Cy Young Award winner David Hess.
I thought the same thing lol. Not cy young but I said congrats David Hess on becoming and stud middle rotation guy
More likely that he’ll end up in the bullpen. Still, have to expect big things from Rays pitchers these days.
Why would the Red Sox trade anyone who can pitch as sorry as their bullpen was this past year?
The pitcher in question was so far away from contributing if at all for the big club that it was simply a long term roll of the dice, something Tampa pedigreed staffers like Bloom have excelled at.
If Aybar had not been traded he would have been DFAed as soon as the first free agent was signed as he has not even pitched in AA yet.
Connor, the Zach Thompson linked to the story is wrong. He is 22 and in the story he is 27 with multiple seasons in the minors. Can you fix it?
Will Craig being outrighted both surpises me and not surprises me. I thought some team would claim him as a bench bat or depth, even just some team like the Royals, Orioles, etc., but doesn’t surprise me because he’s an all-or-nothing first base limited player. There are a dozen types of thsoe players avaiable.