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Dodgers Outright Scott Alexander, Two Others

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The Dodgers outrighted three players off the 40-man roster this evening, the team informed reporters (including Juan Toribio of MLB.com). Relievers Scott Alexander and Jimmie Sherfy and utilityman Andy Burns have all passed through waivers unclaimed. All three players have the right to become minor league free agents.

Alexander is the most notable of the group, as he’d been a productive bullpen option for manager Dave Roberts when healthy. That’s a rather significant qualifier, though, as he hasn’t eclipsed twenty innings in any of the past three seasons. Alexander posted a sub-4.00 ERA in all four seasons as a Dodger (and in two preceding years with the Royals), but he’s been plagued by injuries in recent years.

The southpaw missed a good portion of the 2019 campaign with forearm inflammation, and he missed around four months of this past season because of a shoulder issue. Alexander didn’t pitch after July 19, and Los Angeles elected to clear a 40-man roster spot rather than bring him back for his final year of club control on a projected $1.3MM arbitration salary. Before the injury, the 32-year-old put up numbers right in line with his career trend. He’d tossed 15 1/3 frames of relief with a strong 2.93 ERA, making up for a minuscule 11.9% strikeout percentage with one of the game’s highest ground-ball rates (61.1%).

Sherfy also ended the season on the injured list, in his case due to a bout of elbow inflammation.  L.A. had claimed him from the archrival Giants not long before, and Sherfy’s time in Dodger blue looks likely to consist of just four appearances. Between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the 29-year-old tossed 15 frames of 4.20 ERA ball in 2021. He spent the 2017-19 campaigns with the D-Backs and owns a 3.28 ERA with roughly average strikeout and walk rates (23.8% and 8.3%, respectively) in 60 1/3 big league innings.

Burns played in just nine regular season games before being outrighted off the roster. He was re-selected back after Justin Turner’s season-ending injury during the NLCS necessitated the club adding some extra infield depth. Burns didn’t wind up appearing in a playoff game, though, and he’s likely headed back to the open market. The 31-year-old hit .232/.361/.412 over 216 plate appearances with Triple-A Oklahoma City this year but has very limited MLB experience.

Dodgers To Select Andy Burns, Remove Justin Turner From NLCS Roster

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The Dodgers will remove third baseman Justin Turner from the team’s roster for their ongoing NLCS against the Braves, manager Dave Roberts told reporters (including Juan Toribio of MLB.com). Turner suffered a hamstring injury in last night’s contest that’ll prove to be a season-ending issue. To replace him on the postseason roster, Los Angeles will select the contract of utilityman Andy Burns.

Injured players can be removed from a playoff roster mid-series with approval from the Commissioner’s Office. There’s not yet been any formal announcement, although there’s no reason to believe the Dodgers’ request to remove Turner won’t be granted. Doing so renders the injured player ineligible to return for the remainder of the current series and the following series, should the team advance. So even if the Dodgers erase their 3-1 deficit against Atlanta to advance to the World Series, Turner cannot return this year.

Even before the injury, it was a difficult postseason for Turner, who reached base in just six of his 38 playoff plate appearances. He offered the kind of consistently strong performance we’ve come to expect from the 36-year-old in the regular season, hitting .278/.361/.471 with 27 home runs over 612 plate appearances.

Burns briefly appeared on the active roster, getting into nine games in June. The right-handed hitter posted a .232/.361/.412 line with six homers and ten stolen bases over 216 plate appearances with Triple-A Oklahoma City during the regular season. He covered each of first, second and third base as well as both corner outfield spots. Roberts could deploy Burns as a late-game defensive sub at a few different positions or use him as a pinch runner off the bench.

Dodgers Designate Andy Burns For Assignment

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The Dodgers announced they’ve designated infielder Andy Burns for assignment. The move creates space on the 40-man roster for the promotion of top pitching prospect Josiah Gray, which has been made official.

Los Angeles selected Burns, a longtime minor league veteran, to the roster last month. He tallied fifteen plate appearances over nine games, his first MLB action since a cameo with the 2016 Blue Jays. Burns has spent the bulk of the year with Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he’s performed quite well. The 30-year-old has a .259/.382/.459 line with five home runs and a massive 16.4% walk rate over 165 plate appearances with the Dodgers’ top affiliate this year.

The Dodgers will have a week to trade Burns or place him on waivers. He has previously been outrighted in his career, so Burns would have the right to reject a minor league assignment in favor of free agency if he passes through waivers unclaimed.

Dodgers Designate Dennis Santana, Select Andy Burns

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The Dodgers announced a trio of roster moves, with Andy Burns joining the active roster after the infielder’s contract was selected from Triple-A.  Right-hander Dennis Santana was designated for assignment to open up a spot for Burns on the 40-man roster, and right-hander Mitch White was optioned to Triple-A.

Burns’ big league resume consists of 10 games with the Blue Jays back in 2016.  Since being drafted as an 11th-round pick in 2011, Burns’ pro career has been mostly spent in Toronto’s farm system, but he also spent parts of three seasons playing overseas in South Korea and Australia.  After signing a minor league deal with Los Angeles last winter, Burns has been ripping up Triple-A pitching, with a .330/.427/.598 slash line over 117 plate appearances with Oklahoma City.

As is typical with most Dodgers players, Burns offers defensive versatility.  The 30-year-old has mostly played second and third base over his career, but also has quite a bit of experience at shortstop, first base, left field, and a handful of games as a right fielder.  Burns joins Zach McKinstry and Matt Beaty as L.A. bench options who can handle multiple positions, while Albert Pujols remains limited to first base and pinch-hit duties.

Santana has appeared in each of the last four seasons for the Dodgers, totaling a 6.42 ERA and 18.7% strikeout rate over 40 2/3 Major League innings.  Control has increasingly emerged as a problem for Santana, with inflated walk totals at both the MLB and Triple-A levels in 2019 and 2021 — this season, the righty has 11 walks against only eight strikeouts.

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.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/9/17

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Some minor moves from around baseball to kick off the week…

  • KBO’s Lotte Giants have re-signed left-hander Brooks Raley and signed second baseman/third baseman Andy Burns out of the Blue Jays organization, per Jee-ho Yoo of Korea’s Yonhap News Agency. Raley will receive $850K to return for his third season, while Burns will be venturing overseas for the first time in his career. Raley, 28, pitched 38 1/3 innings with the Cubs from 2012-13 and spent time in the Twins and Angels organizations after being claimed off waivers following that stint. Raley has turned in a 4.06 ERA while averaging 175 innings, 7.0 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in the past two seasons with Lotte. As for Burns, the 26-year-old made his MLB debut last season but tallied just seven plate appearances in Toronto. He’s a career .263/.320/.363 hitter in 237 contests at the Triple-A level.
  • The Pirates announced a list of non-roster invites this morning, which includes former Rockies catcher Jackson Williams. The 30-year-old saw brief action with the Rox from 2014-15 (30 plate appearances) and has batted .232/.303/.356 in just over 1200 Triple-A plate appearances. He’s halted 36 percent of stolen base attempts against him in his minor league career and draws average to slightly below-average marks in terms of pitch framing, per Baseball Prospectus.
  • Former Cardinals/White Sox right-hander Maikel Cleto has signed a minors pact with the Cubs, as his representatives at Jackson Management Group noted, on Twitter. The hard-throwing 27-year-old’s last MLB work came with the ChiSox in 2014 and resulted in a 4.60 ERA with 9.8 K/9 against an unsightly 7.1 BB/9. Cleto averaged 97.1 mph on his fastball that year and doesn’t have difficulty missing bats (10.1 K/9 in his Triple-A career), but walks have been a persistent issue for him in the Majors and in the minors. He split the 2016 season between the Mexican League and the Braves organization. In 21 innings with Atlanta’s Triple-A affiliate, he posted a 2.14 ERA with 31 strikeouts against 13 walks.
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