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Mariners Claim David Freitas From Braves

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The Mariners have claimed catcher David Freitas off waivers from the Braves, as per a team press release.  Right-hander Rob Whalen has also been reinstated to Seattle’s 40-man roster, thus filling every available spot on the 40-man.

Freitas was originally a 15th-round pick for the Nationals in the 2010 draft, and he has since been part of two notable trades (from Washington to Oakland for Kurt Suzuki in August 2012 and then from the A’s to the Orioles as a PTBNL in the Jim Johnson deal in December 2013) and also been selected by the Cubs in the Rule 5 draft.  No matter the organization, Freitas has hit well in his pro career, with a .272/.358/.414 slash line over 2665 career minor league plate appearances.  Freitas made his big league debut this past season, appearing in six games for Atlanta.

With Carlos Ruiz hitting free agency, the Mariners could see Freitas as a candidate for the backup catcher’s job; Mike Marjama is currently the top choice on the depth chart behind starter Mike Zunino.  At the very least, Freitas gives the M’s additional catching and first base depth in the minors.

Whalen also came to Seattle from Atlanta, coming to the Mariners along with Max Povse in exchange for Alex Jackson and Tyler Pike last December.  Whalen appeared in just two games at the MLB level for Seattle in a season marked by several shuttles to and from Triple-A Tacoma, where he made just 10 starts.  His year began with a month-long DL stint due to a sore shoulder and Whalen didn’t appear in another game after being placed on the team’s restricted list in early July due to undisclosed personal issues.  In addition to 32 big league innings with the Mariners and Braves, Whalen has a 2.99 ERA, 7.9 K/9 and 2.59 K/BB rate over 413 career innings in the minors.

NL East Notes: Braves, Baker, Asdrubal, Marlins

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Major League Baseball is expected to render a decision on its investigation into the Braves’ front office practices soon after the World Series concludes, FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reports.  “Just about every member” of the team’s baseball ops department has been interviewed by the league, including vice chairman John Schuerholz and president of baseball operations John Hart, the latter of whom has been interviewed on multiple occasions.  Owing to the uncertainty about Hart’s own future with the team, Heyman reports that Hart and the club have yet to begin interviewing candidates to replace John Coppolella as the new general manager.  Names such as Ben Cherington, Dan Jennings and Doug Harris have been linked to the Braves job, though it isn’t clear if any would still be candidates should Hart no longer continue with the organization.

Here’s more from around the NL East…

  • The way the Nationals went about not re-hiring Dusty Baker as manager is viewed by some around the team as a “train wreck,” FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman reports in an in-depth look at the Nats’ decision.  Heyman dispels several rumors about why Baker was fired, as it simply seemed that it came down to the Nats again failing to advance past the first round of the playoffs.  GM Mike Rizzo “fought for” Baker to be given a new contract, according to one source, though Rizzo lost influence on managerial decisions due to his failed hire of Matt Williams.  Nationals players are “generally upset” both that Baker isn’t returning, and also at the controversy that continues to surround the team’s managerial decisions.
  • Asdrubal Cabrera wants to return to the Mets and is hopeful that the team exercises its $8.5MM club option on his services for next season, Kristie Ackert of the New York Daily News reports.  Though recent reports indicate that the Mets are likely to pick up Cabrera’s option, there hasn’t been any official word on between the team and Cabrera’s representatives, though the Mets said they would be back in touch after team meetings concluded.  Notably, agent Scott Pucino said his client has “accepted playing third base,” which is key to Cabrera’s future given that he was initially displeased over being moved off shortstop to accommodate top prospect Amed Rosario.  Cabrera would provide New York with depth at both second and third base as the team figures out its uncertain infield mix.
  • Jeff Conine won’t be returning to the Marlins front office, according to Clark Spencer and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald.  A longtime fixture as both a player and special assistant in Miami, Conine and fellow assistants Andre Dawson, Jack McKeon, and Tony Perez were all fired by the team’s new ownership group but then, somewhat confusingly, were all approached by Derek Jeter about new roles with the club.  Conine said he turned down a position that offered half of his old $100K salary and less responsibility than his old job.  It isn’t clear if Conine will continue in his other role calling Marlins games for Fox Sports Florida, as he described that as a “totally separate deal” than his job with the organization.

Reds Claim Micah Johnson Off Waivers

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The Braves announced Thursday that infielder/outfielder Micah Johnson has been claimed off waivers by the Reds. Cincinnati has plenty of open space on its 40-man roster, so a corresponding move isn’t needed to accommodate his addition.

Once considered the second baseman of the future for the White Sox, Johnson went from Chicago to the Dodgers by way of the three-team trade that sent Todd Frazier to the Reds to the ChiSox. Johnson spent the 2016 season in the Dodgers’ organization but was flipped to Atlanta last January. He enjoyed a solid run with Atlanta’s Triple-A affiliate, hitting .289/.377/.400 in a small sample of 155 plate appearances but also missed a significant portion of the year due to a fractured left wrist.

Minor MLB Transactions: 10/25/17

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Here are the latest minor moves from around the game, all via Baseball America’s Matt Eddy unless otherwise noted:

  • Likewise, the Red Sox will bring back outfielder Aneury Tavarez on a minors pact. The 25-year-old qualified for minor-league free agency after a 2017 season in which he missed significant time due to injury. Tavarez had been taken in the Rule 5 draft by the Orioles, but was returned to Boston before playing in the Baltimore organization. He ended up slashing .244/.292/.400 in 145 Triple-A plate appearances.
  • Braves lefty Ian Krol has elected free agency following his outright, as ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick first tweeted. The 26-year-old reliever worked to a 5.33 ERA over 49 frames in 2017, with 8.1 K/9 against 3.9 BB/9. The results weren’t exciting, obviously, but Krol did still average a healthy 93.7 mph with his fastball and recorded a career-best 11.4% swinging-strike rate, so he’s likely to draw plenty of interest from organizations looking for bullpen competition and depth in camp.
  • Similarly, Athletics righty Chris Smith took free agency after being outrighted off of the 40-man roster. The 36-year-old handled 55 2/3 MLB innings in Oakland over nine starts and five relief appearances, but surrendered 2.6 homers and 6.79 earned runs per nine innings. Smith had never before topped 46 innings in a single season over his unusual career.
  • Other right-handed pitchers taking free agency include Jacob Turner of the Nationals and Jose Valdez of the Padres. The 26-year-old Turner made it back to the majors with the Nats, but managed only a 5.08 ERA in his 39 frames of action. A former top prospect, Turner averaged better than 95 mph on his fastball for the first time in his career, but carried a marginal 6.0% swinging-strike rate. Valdez, 27, was knocked around for 15 earned runs on seven home runs in 17 MLB frames last year, though he did record 16 strikeouts against just four walks. He has spent time in the bigs with three organizations in the past three campaigns.

NL Notes: Seager, Cabrera, Braves, Dickey

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After going without him in the NLCS, the Dodgers have officially activated star shortstop Corey Seager for the World Series. Given his balky back, however, the team may look to  him as a DH for the games played in Houston, as J.P. Hoornstra writes in the Orange County Register. Those interested in some reading in advance of the Fall Classic may also like to check out the Register’s Bill Plunkett’s piece on the analytics-driven organizations squaring off this year.

Here’s more from the National League:

  • The Mets are “almost certain” to exercise their option over infielder Asdrubal Cabrera, according to a tweet from Marc Carig of Newsday. We have heard such indications previously, to be sure, though it’s fair to say there have been countervailing considerations as well. With much of the offseason planning likely already completed, though, the Mets seem largely to have decided upon a course. As I discussed about six weeks back, there’s a solid case to be made that Cabrera’s $8.5MM option will deliver greater value than the team could find by paying a $2MM buyout and pursuing an alternative. Most of MLBTR’s readers favored the Mets hanging onto Cabrera in the poll available at that link.
  • A former Braves scout has written a letter to David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, in which he offers something of a different perspective on recently-resigned GM John Coppolella. The scout credited Coppolella for his respectful interactions with similarly situated employees, painting rather a different picture than some other accounts have. Of course, the letter does not seem to speak to any assessment of alleged international signing violations against Coppolella or others in the organization.
  • With Atlanta parting ways with R.A. Dickey, C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer considers whether the veteran knuckler could make sense for the Reds. Dickey has indicated that Cincinnati is on a very short list of cities he’d consider playing in, given its proximity to his home in Nashville. But Rosecrans also suggests the Reds would likely not be willing to pay Dickey in quite the same range that the Braves did. The contract he signed last winter guaranteed $8MM, though he earned every penny with 190 innings of 4.26 ERA ball. That made it seem likely that the Braves would bring him back, with the move perhaps hinting that Dickey was already determined to hang up his spikes. Still, if there is some possibility of Dickey carrying on, the Reds would likely be wise to explore a deal with him as a means of addressing the team’s dearth of established rotation pieces.

Elected Free Agency: Siegrist, Edgin, Hutchison, Locke, Bolsinger, Van Slyke, Maness

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The indispensable Matt Eddy of Baseball America provides an overview of a vast number of players electing free agency following the 2017 season in his latest Minor Transactions roundup. Eddy largely focuses on players with big league service time (significant service time, in some cases) that were outrighted off the roster that are now hitting the open market for the first time. (Players with three-plus years of service that are not on the 40-man roster at season’s end can elect free agency, as can any player that has been outrighted on multiple occasions in his career.)

While the vast majority of these players seem likely to sign minor league pacts this winter — they did, after all, go unclaimed by 29 other teams on waivers — a number of them are still intriguing with recent success in their past and/or multiple years of arbitration eligibility remaining. Eddy’s rundown also contains a number of re-signed minor leaguers and released minor leaguers without big league experience as well as Arizona Fall League assignments on a per-team basis, so it’s well worth a full look.

We’ve updated our list of 2017-18 MLB free agents accordingly, and here are some of the new names now checking in on the list…

Depth options in the rotation

Josh Collmenter, Asher Wojciechowski, Drew Hutchison, Jeff Locke, Kyle Kendrick, Mike Bolsinger, Christian Bergman, David Holmberg

Collmenter is just two seasons removed from being the D-backs Opening Day starter but hasn’t had much success of late. Hutchison had solid Triple-A numbers and once looked like a long-term rotation piece in Toronto before Tommy John surgery. He can be controlled for another three seasons in arbitration. Locke was injured for most of an ugly first (and likely only) season in Miami, and Kendrick made just two starts for the Red Sox.

Wojciechowski (6.50 ERA in 62 1/3 innings with the Reds), Bolsinger (6.31 ERA in 41 1/3 innings with the Jays), Bergman (5.00 ERA in 54 innings with the Mariners) and Holmberg (4.68 ERA in 57 2/3 innings with the White Sox) all soaked up innings for injury-plagued pitching staffs. Bolsinger has had the most MLB experience of the bunch.

Corner Bats

Scott Van Slyke, Tyler Moore, Cody Asche, Conor Gillaspie, Jaff Decker

Van Slyke has long been a solid bat against left-handed pitching but appeared in just 29 games with the Dodgers and didn’t hit well with their Triple-A affiliate or with the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate. (He was included in the Tony Cingrani trade to balance out the financial side of the deal.) Moore, also a right-handed bat, showed power but struggled to get on base.

Once one of the Phillies’ top prospects, Asche hit well in Triple-A Charlotte but flopped in a brief stint with the ChiSox. Gillaspie was unable to replicate his 2016 rebound with the Giants, while Decker showed some on-base skills in the Majors and minors but didn’t hit much overall. (He can play center but hasn’t graded well there in the Majors.)

Utility Infielders

Ruben Tejada, Phil Gosselin, Dusty Coleman, Chase d’Arnaud

Each of the four can play all over the diamond, but none provided offensive value in 2017. Tejada has the most big league experience but hasn’t received much playing time since 2015 (and hasn’t performed well when he has gotten opportunities). Gosselin has a solid defensive reputation but a light bat through 551 MLB PAs. Coleman hit four homers in 71 PAs in his MLB debut this year but logged a .268 OBP. d’Arnaud saw his fair share of 2016 action with the Braves but has never produced much at the plate.

Bullpen options

Kevin Siegrist (L), Josh Edgin (L), Seth Maness, Kevin Quackenbush

Siegrist and Edgin are intriguing names for clubs in need of left-handed bullpen help. Both have recent success on their track records, though Edgin wasn’t as sharp in 2017 as he was prior to 2015 Tommy John surgery. Siegrist’s control eroded in 2017 as he missed time due to a back/spinal injury and tendinitis in his left forearm, but he was one of the Cardinals’ top setup options in both 2015 and 2016. Both lefties are controllable through 2019.

Maness drew headlines for returning from a torn UCL in roughly seven months thanks to an experimental new “primary repair” procedure, but while he stayed healthy in 2017, the results weren’t great in the Majors and especially not in Triple-A (6.13 ERA in 47 innings). Quackenbush was excellent as a rookie in 2014 and solid in 2015-16 before imploding in 2017 (7.86 ERA in 26 1/3 innings). He was better but not great in Triple-A (3.90 ERA, 7.8 K/9, 2.9 BB/9). Maness could be controlled through 2019, while Quackenbush would have three more years of control.

Braves Exercise Tyler Flowers’ Option, Decline R.A. Dickey’s Option

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The Braves announced on Monday that they’ve exercised their $4MM club option on catcher Tyler Flowers and declined their $8MM club option over R.A. Dickey in favor of a $500K buyout. Dickey will receive that $500K payout even if he decides to retire, MLB.com’s Mark Bowman tweets. Atlanta also announced that Flowers underwent an arthroscopic debridement surgery on his left wrist on Oct. 9, though the press release states that he’s expected to be ready for Spring Training 2018.

Tyler Flowers | Jennifer Stewart-USA TODAY Sports

The decision to exercise Flowers’ affordable option was among the easiest calls in baseball this offseason. The 31-year-old Flowers (32 in January) enjoyed a career year at the plate, hitting .281/.378/.445 with a dozen homers and 16 doubles. He also rated as baseball’s top pitch-framing catcher, per Baseball Prospectus, and he halted 23 percent of stolen base attempts against the Braves’ pitching staff in 2017. Flowers will once again pair with Kurt Suzuki, who signed a late-season extension with the Braves, to shoulder the bulk of the catching duties for the Braves in 2018.

Dickey, 43 this weekend, was one of three veteran acquisitions for the Braves’ rotation last offseason and proved to be the only one that truly panned out. Bartolo Colon was released over the summer, while Atlanta was content to simply allow the Twins to eat the remainder of the salary on left-hander Jaime Garcia’s contract and took less in return than they surrendered to acquire Garcia when dumping him on Minnesota.

R.A. Dickey | Adam Hagy-USA TODAY Sports

Dickey, though, proved to be exactly what the Braves hoped: a stabilizing innings eater that soaked up some starts while the Braves’ young arms continued their development in the upper minors. The knuckleball specialist took the hill 31 times for the Braves, with his final outing of the year representing his 300th career start and his 400th career MLB appearance. In those 31 starts, he logged 190 innings with a 4.26 ERA, 6.4 K/9, 3.2 BB/9 and a 46.9 percent ground-ball rate.

There’s been talk that the 2017 season may have been the final chapter of Dickey’s career, though his overall performance certainly seems to suggest that he could return for a 16th Major League season if he still has the desire to continue pitching.

The Braves, clearly, are now set at catcher with Flowers and Suzuki in tow for the 2018 campaign, but their rotation presents a far bigger question mark. Julio Teheran and Mike Foltynewicz both struggled through pedestrian campaigns in 2017, while top prospect Sean Newcomb yielded slightly better results but continued to demonstrate sub-par control. Each of Lucas Sims, Luiz Gohara and Max Fried made his MLB debut for the Braves in 2017, but none from that group of top prospects saw enough time or experienced enough success to be considered locks to hold down a 2018 rotation spot. Atlanta also has former top prospects Aaron Blair and Matt Wisler on the 40-man roster, but neither has created much cause for optimism in the Majors to this point in his career.

Suffice it to say, while the Braves possess a wealth of intriguing upper-level arms, it’d be something of a surprise if the team did not once again look to bring in some veteran arms to augment a young core of talented but unproven rotation candidates.

Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Braves Outright Ian Krol, Armando Rivero

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The Braves announced earlier this week that left-hander Ian Krol and right-hander Armando Rivero were outrighted off their 40-man roster.  Both pitchers have been assigned to Triple-A Gwinnett.

Krol posted a strong 3.18 ERA over 51 relief innings for the Braves in 2016, with an 0.7 HR/9 rate that seemed to indicate he had corrected his past issues in keeping the ball in the park.  This wasn’t the case in 2017, however, as Krol’s HR/9 jumped to 1.5 and his ERA (5.33) reflected that increase.  The southpaw also posted an 8.1 K/9 and 2.1 K/BB rate over 49 innings.

MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projected Krol to earn $1.3MM in his second winter of arbitration eligibility.  (Krol and the Braves avoided arbitration last winter by agreeing to a $900K deal.)  Krol agreed to the minor league assignment rather than opting for free agency, which could indicate some type of deal between he and the club to continue their relationship past the non-tender deadline.  Atlanta could still non-tender Krol but then re-sign him to a minor league deal worth less than that $1.3MM figure.

The Braves selected Rivero out of the Cubs organization in last December’s Rule 5 draft, and Rivero ended up spending the entire season on the DL due to shoulder problems.  In clearing outright waivers, the Cubs would have had to pass on taking Rivero back, so the Cuban right-hander is now officially under the Braves’ control.

Rivero originally signed with the Cubs for a $3.1MM bonus in March 2013 and posted some eye-popping strikeout numbers in Chicago’s minor league system.  Rivero posted a 12.4 K/9 over 220 career relief innings in the minors, with a 2.70 ERA and 4.4 BB/9.  Those walk totals crept upwards in 2015-16 when Rivero was pitching at Triple-A, so between that decrease in control and the Cubs’ loaded roster, Rivero was available last winter for the Braves to grab in the Rule 5 draft.

NL Notes: Braves, Bosio, Righetti

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The Braves are in an unfavorable position headed into the offseason. John Coppolella has already resigned due to a breach of MLB’s rules regarding the international players market, leaving a dark cloud hovering over the organization and rumors swirling as to whether or not John Hart will remain with the organization. Braves beat reporter Mark Bowman of MLB.com writes about some of the inconveniences the organization faces due to this uncertainty. Because the Braves don’t know who will be “steering the ship”, as Bowman puts it, the club cannot yet decide on its direction for the upcoming winter. Decisions such as R.A. Dickey’s contract option and potential trades to clear a spot for top prospect Ronald Acuna are floating in baseball operations limbo. In the meantime, director of player personnel Perry Minasian and assistant general manager Adam Fisher have scrambled to learn as much as they can about the club’s assets and needs, having been with the organization for just one month. The club will hope for answers on Hart’s future in Atlanta sooner rather than later in order to gain clarity on the club’s direction for the offseason.

More news from around the National League…

  • The Cubs have dismissed longtime pitching coach Chris Bosio, according to a tweet from Bob Nightengale of USA Today. Robert Murray of FanRag sports later confirmed the news. Bosio had been the club’s pitching coach since 2012, including earning a World Series ring with the club just last season after guiding the Cubs pitching staff to a 3.15 team ERA. Murray names Jim Hickey as a potential candidate to fill Bosio’s role.
  • Earlier today, Nightengale also tweeted that the Giants dismissed pitching coach Dave Righetti, shifting him to a role in the front office. Murray was able to confirm the reassignment of Righetti through his own sources. Righetti had been the pitching coach in San Francisco for 17 years, making him the longest-tenured pitching coach in major league baseball before his reassignment, as well as the longest-tenured pitching coach in all of Giants history. Murray notes that the club’s 4.50 ERA in 2017 can’t all be blamed on Righetti; ace Madison Bumgarner missed a large portion of the season due to a shoulder injury sustained in a dirt bike accident. According to a later tweet by Jon Shea of the San Francisco Chronicle, Righetti will serve as a special assistant to GM Bobby Evans. Shea also adds that bullpen coach Mark Gardner will also be shifted to a special assignment role in the front office, while assistant hitting coach Steve Decker will take on a special assistant role in baseball operations.

NL East Notes: Braves, Hart, Weiss, Marlins, Frazier

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Major League Baseball will interview Braves president of baseball operations John Hart as part of its investigations into the club’s international dealings, tweets MLB.com’s Mark Bowman. To this point, it’s unclear whether Hart is at risk of discipline, though the very fact that he remains with the club after former GM John Coppolella has been forced to resign could be telling. The Macon Telegraph reported over the weekend that Hart was by no means an innocent bystander in the scandal, though it’s unlikely that the league will announce anything definitive in the near future. Braves CEO Terry McGuirk said this morning that MLB’s investigation is near its conclusion, per Tim Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, but McGuirk also stressed that the league isn’t likely to reveal its findings until the World Series has concluded. McGuirk sidestepped making any telling comments about the investigation but did say: “I don’t think there will be any questions (unanswered) when we are able to discuss it.”

More on the Braves and their division…

  • Bowman also reports (on Twitter) that former Rockies manager and Braves infielder Walt Weiss is among the candidates to join the Braves’ coaching staff in 2018. Weiss could slot in as the bench coach under manager Brian Snitker, replacing Terry Pendleton in that role.
  • The Marlins are likely to retain Stan Meek to oversee the June amateur draft even after bringing Gary Denbo over from the Yankees, reports MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro. While Denbo was tabbed as the team’s VP of player development and scouting, it’d be a tall task to head up the team’s player development efforts and also dedicate the time and energy needed to oversee the team’s draft process. Manager Don Mattingly and most of his coaching staff are expected to be retained, though Frisaro notes that there could be some changes depending on other teams’ managerial pursuits. Third base coach Fredi Gonzalez, for instance, has already interviewed to serve as the Tigers’ next skipper.
  • Joel Sherman of the New York Post makes a case for the Mets to bring Todd Frazier on board as a free agent this offseason. Frazier’s penchant for drawing walks and slugging homers are appealing to GM Sandy Alderson, Sherman writes, and he could help the team in the likely event that David Wright again misses significant time due to injury or should Dominic Smith prove to need further minor league refinement. Frazier’s clubhouse persona would also be a boost for a team that is trying to alter its clubhouse culture for the better. It’s possible that clubs in more dire need of a third baseman would offer more than the Mets, though Sherman also points out that the New Jersey native could be particularly intrigued by playing close to his home.
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