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D-backs Notes: Wieters, Swihart, Vazquez, O’Brien Trade, Relievers

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The latest column from the Arizona Republic’s Nick Piecoro is packed with quotes from GM Mike Hazen and info pertaining to the team’s offseason plans and 2017 outlook, with a heavy focus on the catching situation. Some highlights from the column, which I’d recommend checking out in its entirety…

  • The D-backs have already non-tendered Welington Castillo, signed Jeff Mathis and claimed Juan Graterol off waivers this winter, but Hazen tells Piecoro they’re still keeping an eye on the catching market, including Matt Wieters. “Matt’s a really good player and a good leader,” said Hazen. “We’ve kept up on everybody on the catching market.” Per Hazen, the likely course of action for the D-backs is to add a third catcher-capable player to partner with Mathis and Chris Herrmann in a “three-way system,” but that does not appear set in stone. “If we found more of a long-term replacement for the position, it could morph into something different,” said Hazen, though he did note that a long-term option is likelier to surface on the trade market than in free agency.
  • To that end, Piecoro again reports that the D-backs spoke to the Red Sox about catchers Blake Swihart and Christian Vazquez. However, he also reports that Boston is considered “unlikely” to move either young backstop. It’s not surprising to see a new-look D-backs front office that contains former Red Sox execs Hazen, Amiel Sawdaye and Jared Porter all show interest in two of their former top prospects — especially when the Diamondbacks lack a clear long-term option behind the plate. Piecoro has already reported on Arizona’s interest in Swihart and Vazquez once earlier this winter, and it doesn’t seem like anything has changed since that time. Vazquez, a defensive standout with a perhaps questionable bat, is controlled through the 2020 season. Swihart carries a much higher offensive upside but isn’t as proficient as Vazquez with the glove. He’s controlled through 2021.
  • Hazen also tells Piecoro that catcher-turned-outfielder Peter O’Brien, whom the club recently designated for assignment, has drawn trade interest from both American League and National League teams. Hazen cited a need “to improve our defensive versatility and flexibility” as the driving factor behind removing O’Brien from the 40-man roster. The 26-year-old O’Brien has in the past posted impressive power numbers in the minors, but he’s never hit in the Majors and is also strikeout prone (32 strikeouts in 79 MLB plate appearances). Beyond that, scouts have long suggested that he’s a man without a position on the diamond, and the old front office regime had already moved him off his original position of catcher. Nonetheless, O’Brien has 50 homers across his past two Triple-A seasons plus another six big flies in the Majors in that time (albeit all in hitter-friendly settings).
  • The D-backs are still on the hunt for another bullpen arm but would like to keep the commitment to one year, Piecoro writes. Hazen explained to Piecoro that there are enough (relatively) young arms already in the organization that have piqued the interest that the front office doesn’t want to potentially block someone down the road by committing to a multi-year deal.

Diamondbacks Sign Reymond Fuentes To Minors Deal

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  • The Diamondbacks have added outfielder Reymond Fuentes, whom the Royals released in September. Kansas City’s decision to move on from Fuentes came after he hit just .254/.325/.317 in 272 plate appearances with Triple-A Omaha in 2016. The 25-year-old was more successful last season with the Royals, albeit over just 44 PAs, with a .317/.364/.341 line.

Diamondbacks Claim Juan Graterol, Designate Peter O’Brien For Assignment

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The D-backs announced today that they’ve claimed catcher Juan Graterol off waivers from the Reds and designated catcher-turned-outfielder Peter O’Brien for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster.

Graterol, 27, made his MLB debut and logged 15 plate appearances with the Angels this past season. The former Royals farmhand spent the 2015 season in the Yankees organization before inking a minors pact with the Halos last winter. He’s a career .274/.306/.338 hitter in parts of three seasons (95 games) at the Triple-A level and has halted stolen base attempts at a very strong 38 percent clip in the minors. Baseball Prospectus gives him average pitch-framing grades in the minors as well. He’s made his way from the Angels to the Reds to the Diamondbacks on the offseason waiver wire thus far and will give the new Arizona front office a seemingly solid defensive depth option behind the dish.

O’Brien, meanwhile, has drawn his fair share of attention over the years due to his gaudy power numbers in Triple-A. Now 26 years old, he’s compiled a career .270/.315/.530 batting line in Triple-A stints with the D-backs and Yankees — New York sent him to Arizona in the 2014 Martin Prado trade — and hit 35 homers in Triple-A as recently as 2015. However, while O’Brien began his career as a catcher, few scouts gave him much of a chance to stay behind the plate due to defensive concerns. Many scouting reports have suggested that O’Brien lacks any real position on the defensive spectrum, and he’s struggled in his brief taste of the Major Leagues to date (.176/.228/.446 with six homers but 32 strikeouts in 79 plate appearances). His pop could make him alluring to another organization, but questions surrounding his defense may limit the interest.

Diamondbacks Sign Brooks Hall To Minors Deal

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  • The Diamondbacks have added righty swingman Brooks Hall on a minors deal. Hall, 26, went to Milwaukee in the fourth round of the 2009 draft and stayed with the organization through last season, but he hasn’t yet cracked the majors. He saw his first action at the Triple-A level in 2016 and struggled with a 6.94 ERA, 4.24 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9 in 23 1/3 frames. Most of Hall’s recent work has come at the Double-A level, where he has logged a 3.90 ERA with 6.5 K/9 against 2.9 BB/9 across 267 2/3 innings since 2013.

Diamondbacks To Sign Oswaldo Arcia

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3:15pm: It’s a minor-league contract, tweets Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic.

2:38pm: The Diamondbacks have agreed to a deal with free-agent outfielder Oswaldo Arcia, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). Terms — including whether it’s of the major or minor-league variety — remain unreported.

Arcia, 25, ended up spending time with four organizations — reaching the bigs will all of them — during the 2016 season. Over 222 plate appearances split between the Twins, Rays, Marlins, and Padres, he slashed just .203/.270/.366 with eight home runs. While the constant movement probably didn’t help, that represented a continued decline for the still-youthful Venezuelan.

Never regarded as a good defender, Arcia blasted his way through the minors and posted just-above-average batting numbers during his first two years in the majors with Minnesota. But his on-base abilities have lagged his power at the game’s highest level. Even as he posted a strong .220 ISO over 410 plate appearances in 2014, Arcia went down on strikes in 31.0% of his trips to the dish while walking 7.6% of the time.

Still, there’s reason to hope that Arcia can turn the corner. He carried much more palatable K/BB numbers before his initial promotion, though he struggled at Triple-A in 2015 after a demotion, and he could perhaps have some development left given the rapidity with which he initially ascended the ladder. (Arcia played in only 107 games in the upper minors before his first call-up.) He does carry pronounced platoon splits, limiting his appeal, though his career 110 wRC+ against righties could make him a useful platoon/bench piece.

Earning playing time in the majors with the D-Backs likely won’t be straightforward, though it certainly seems there’s a path to opportunity in Arizona. Other left-handed corner options include David Peralta, Jeremy Hazelbaker, Socrates Brito, Zach Borenstein, and minor-league signees Reymond Fuentes and Jason Pridie.

Diamondbacks Sign Keyvius Sampson To Minor League Deal

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The Diamondbacks have signed righty Keyvius Sampson to a minor league deal, and he’s expected to compete for a bullpen role this spring, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets. Sampson is a client of Reynolds Sports Management.

The Reds non-tendered Sampson earlier this month after he posted a 4.35 ERA with 9.6 K/9 but also 6.2 BB/9 in 39 1/3 innings in 2016. The 25-year-old Sampson did have success at Triple-A Louisville, though, posting a 1.88 ERA, 9.0 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in 62 1/3 innings while both starting and pitching in relief.

Sampson has yet to latch on in two seasons with the Reds and didn’t attract a waiver claim either time he was designated for assignment this year. He is, however, young for a minor league signee with big league experience, and he has never gotten an extended chance, either in the Majors or the minors, to blossom as a reliever rather than as a starter. His fastball has also averaged about 93 MPH in the big leagues.

Diamondbacks Sign Jeff Mathis

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DEC. 14: Mathis will earn $2MM in both 2017 and 2018, tweets Jack Magruder of FanRag Sports.

DEC. 2, 6:44pm: It’s a two-year, $4MM deal, according to reports from SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo (via Twitter) and Piecoro (Twitter link).

6:35pm: The Diamondbacks have agreed to a deal with free agent catcher Jeff Mathis, Jon Heyman of Fan Rag reports on Twitter. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic had just tweeted the connection between player and team.

Mathis will step into the fold as Welington Castillo departs, with the Diamondbacks electing to go with a less-costly, more defensively proficient option behind the dish. He’ll presumably share time in some manner with Chris Herrmann, who posted a big offensive season (albeit in a short sample) in 2016. Oscar Hernandez also remains an option on the 40-man.

Unlike Castillo, who is a shaky framer, Mathis has long been viewed as a strong gloveman. Both StatCorner and Baseball Prospectus rate him as one of the game’s better receivers at winning borderline strike calls for his pitchers.

Of course, Mathis also brings little to the table offensively. He’s a lifetime .197/.254/.308 hitter over his dozen seasons in the majors. Though his 63 OPS+ last year was his best mark since 2012, Arizona won’t expect much at the plate.

Latest On Brad Ziegler, Diamondbacks

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  • The reliever-needy Diamondbacks have checked in with free agent and longtime D-back Brad Ziegler about a reunion, but a deal is unlikely because the 37-year-old has received far more lucrative offers than the $2.75MM the club gave Fernando Rodney, according to FanRag’s Jack Magruder. In the wake of picking up Rodney, new GM Mike Hazen told Magruder that he’s “very comfortable with the group we have right now.” Only five teams amassed fewer wins than the Diamondbacks’ 69 in 2016, but the team has “a lot of talent,” Hazen said.

Diamondbacks Hire Dan Haren For Background Role

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  • The Diamondbacks recently added retired righty Dan Haren as a “pitching strategist,” but D’backs manager Torey Lovullo says not to expect Haren to be in the public eye. “I think he’s going to be somebody behind the scenes, and that’s by his choice,” Lovullo says. “He wants to just remain behind the scenes and help our pitchers be successful. I think he has an attachment to Arizona. … So I think there’s a good starting point for him to come in and come up with a game plan as to how to reach some of these guys and how to help them as quickly as possible.”

Diamondbacks Sign Fernando Rodney

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DECEMBER 9: Arizona appears to have acknowledged the signing via Twitter, with a clever nod to Rodney’s post-save, arrow-shooting celebration.

Jack Magruder of Fan Rag tweeted the details of the incentives clause, which he says maxes out at $4MM. That includes $250K apiece if and when Rodney reaches 40, 50, and 60 appearances, with a $500K payout if he gets to 70.

DEC. 7: SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets that Rodney’s deal would max out at $5MM if all of the incentives are reached.

DEC. 6: The Diamondbacks have agreed to a one-year deal with free agent reliever Fernando Rodney, Jon Heyman of FanRag writes (Twitter links). Rodney will receive $2.75MM guaranteed, plus considerable incentives, and he’ll open the year as the Diamondbacks’ closer. Heyman had previously tweeted that the Diamondbacks and Padres were in talks with Rodney, who is an Octagon client.

It was a tale of two seasons for the Rodney in 2016 — he was brilliant for the Padres to start the year, allowing just one earned run through 28 1/3 innings in San Diego, but then he allowed twice as many walks in 36 2/3 innings after a trade to Miami. His 5.89 ERA, 10.1 K/9 and 6.1 BB/9 in Florida led the Marlins to decline his 2017 option, which was effectively worth $4.5MM after incentives.

Where that leaves Rodney for 2017 is unclear — on one hand, he has closing experience, can still strike batters out and induce grounders, and managed to post a reasonable composite line in 2016 (3.44 ERA, 10.2 K/9, 5.1 BB/9). On the other hand, he faded down the stretch, walks too many batters, and will be 40 in March.

In any case, the Diamondbacks didn’t have an established closer, so the deal provides both player and team with an opportunity. Rodney can reestablish himself as a big-league closer. The Diamondbacks, who don’t appear likely to contend, can either keep him for the year or attempt to trade him, much as the Padres did last season — San Diego received a decent starting pitching prospect, Chris Paddack, when it dealt Rodney last June.

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