Quick Hits: Pompey, Ross, Reds
The Blue Jays have moved center fielder Dalton Pompey from Triple-A Buffalo to Double-A New Hampshire, as Ben Nicholson of Sportsnet.ca notes. It’s been a rough season for the 22-year-old Pompey, one of the Jays’ top prospects. He hit .193/.264/.337 in 91 plate appearances in the Majors before being sent to Buffalo, where he continued to struggle offensively while also dealing with knee trouble. “He just hasn’t gotten it going yet,” says Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos. “I don’t know that there’s anything specifically. … Some guys just aren’t swinging well at a certain time.” Here’s more from around the game.
- The Nationals lost 4-2 to the Cubs Saturday, but top prospect Joe Ross had a reasonably good big-league debut, allowing three runs over five innings but striking out four without walking a batter. Ross’ promotion caught him by surprise, as Chase Hughes of NatsInsider.com writes. Padres starting pitcher Tyson Ross, Joe’s brother, watched him make his big-league debut in Washington, and Cubs manager Joe Maddon noted similarities between the two pitchers. “Quick arm. Velocity was there. Really, an effective slider, not unlike his brother,” says Maddon. “Great athlete… He’s going to be very good for them. Coming out of Double-A, he represented himself really, really well.”
- With his big-league debut Friday, Jon Moscot became the fourth rookie pitcher to start for the Reds this season, MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon writes. Moscot joins Anthony DeSclafani, Michael Lorenzen and Raisel Iglesias. “Well, we’re playing with what we have,” says manager Bryan Price. “[W]e had to make some roster adjustments for some payroll flexibility which led to some of the offseason moves. And it also created some opportunities for these young guys when needed to come in and pitch, but we knew this was our fall back.” The Reds currently have Homer Bailey and Iglesias on the disabled list, and they recently designated Jason Marquis for assignment after nine unsuccessful starts, leaving Johnny Cueto and Mike Leake as the only veterans in the rotation at the moment.
Minor Moves: Santos, Solano, Sands, Hester
Here are today’s minor moves from around the game.
- Reliever Sergio Santos has cleared waivers and will elect free agency, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times tweets. The Dodgers designated Santos for late last month after the former White Sox closer struck out 15 batters and walked seven while allowing seven runs in 13 1/3 innings this season.
- The Marlins have announced that they’ve outrighted catcher Jhonatan Solano to Triple-A New Orleans. The designated him for assignment yesterday. The 29-year-old has a career .184/.222/.301 line in 108 career plate appearances with the Nationals and Marlins, hitting a somewhat better .241/.286/.346 in about two seasons’ worth of plate appearances at the Triple-A level.
- The Indians have announced that outfielder Jerry Sands has cleared waivers and accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A Columbus. Last week, the Indians designated Sands for assignment for the second time this season. The 27-year-old Sands has hit 9-for-27 with a home run and two doubles for the Indians this year. Perhaps more representative is his .257/.385/.473 at Triple-A, a line consistent with the strong minor-league performances he’s posted throughout much of his career.
- The Phillies have released catcher John Hester, MLBTR’s Steve Adams tweets, noting that Hester had surgery on his meniscus this spring but is now healthy. The 31-year-old has played in ten minor-league games this season. He spent 2014 with Triple-A Salt Lake in the Angels organization, batting .261/.338/.411. He has a career .216/.294/.351 line in 232 big-league plate appearances spread over four seasons with the Diamondbacks and Angels.
Diamondbacks Designate Jordan Pacheco
The Diamondbacks designated C/IF Jordan Pacheco for assignment, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets. The move clears space for third baseman Jake Lamb, who returns from the disabled list.
The Diamondbacks claimed Pacheco from the Rockies last season, then outrighted him and signed to a minor-league deal over the winter. He’s been one of many catchers who’ve suited up for the D-backs (who’ve also used Tuffy Gosewisch, Gerald Laird, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and now Welington Castillo at the position), but Pacheco doesn’t have a strong defensive reputation and was hitting just .242/.333/.333 in 78 plate appearances. Pacheco can also play the corner infield spots, but with Saltalamacchia and Castillo at catcher and Lamb returning, there weren’t many opportunities available to him at any position.
Rockies Outright Charlie Culberson
The Rockies have announced that they’ve reinstated infielder Charlie Culberson from the 60-day disabled list and outrighted him to Triple-A Albuquerque. The Rockies placed Culberson on the DL in April with a bulging disc in his back.
The 26-year-old Culberson collected 233 plate appearances in 2014 but hit for a .195/.253/.290 line that was especially meager given that he played half his games at Coors Field. He’s capable of playing all four infield positions when healthy and has also played left field, though, so he does provide a bit of versatility. He’s a career .284/.316/.469 hitter at the Triple-A level, although he’s mostly posted those numbers in the offense-friendly environment of Colorado Springs.
Royals Could Renegotiate Salvador Perez’s Deal, But Should They?
The Royals plan to approach Salvador Perez soon about a new contract at some point soon, Yahoo! Sports’ Jeff Passan writes, citing a team source. Perez’s is currently in the midst of a five-year, $7MM deal that Passan aptly calls “the best bargain in the big leagues.”
The Royals signed Perez before the 2012 season, when Perez was still remarkably unproven and not the sort of player who would typically receive a multiyear deal. Via MLBTR’s Extension Tracker, at the time of the deal, just two players in recent history had received extensions while they had less service time than Perez did. Both those players, Evan Longoria and Matt Moore, were widely regarded as top young talents. Not only did Perez have just 158 big-league plate appearances to his name, but he also hadn’t been an outstanding minor-league hitter. Now, of course, Perez has made two All-Star teams and won two Gold Gloves, and he’s been a key part of the Royals’ last two successful seasons.
“When I signed my contract, I was 100 percent sure I wanted to sign it,” says Perez. “I didn’t want to feel like, ‘Why am I doing that?” But I didn’t know what kind of player I was going to be like.”
At this point, there are plenty of valid reasons for the Royals not to negotiate a new deal with Perez, just as the Cardinals have not negotiated a new deal with John Lackey, another valuable player whose contract called for him to be wildly underpaid this year. Perez’s current deal calls for him to be paid $1.75MM in 2015, followed by $2MM in 2016. The Royals have options on his services for $3.75MM in 2017, $5MM in 2018 and $6MM in 2019, with the salaries in those three years increasing a total of $5MM based on awards bonuses. As Passan points out, those very low figures could allow the Royals to spend money elsewhere, money they might need as a variety of other players become eligible for free agency.
The Royals could, of course, renegotiate the deal as a gesture of goodwill. “I had nothing,” says Perez. “Where I’m coming from, they’re talking about a million dollars. And I don’t got nobody in that moment to explain to me how it’s going to be or how high it could be.”
Perez did have an agent, Gustavo Vasquez, however. And it wouldn’t be fair to the Royals to characterize the contract as the result of an opportunistic club taking advantage of a poor and naive young man, as Vahe Gregorian points out in the Kansas City Star. At the time of the deal, the Royals were taking a risk on a highly unproven young player, and it was a clear possibility that the Royals would get very little for their $7MM investment.
“I don’t think there was another catcher in the history of our game … that had been signed (to such a long-term contract) with that little amount of service time,” Royals GM Dayton Moore tells Gregorian.
Just as no one would have expected Perez to return a portion of his $7MM guarantee if he hadn’t turned out the way the Royals had hoped, then, the Royals do not seem morally obligated to give Perez more money now that the deal has worked in their favor. And from a baseball perspective, there are few reasons for them to do so. The possibility of controlling additional years is the only tangible benefit the Royals would likely gain from renegotiating Perez’s contract. But they already control Perez through his age-29 season, and there should be little motivation for them to try to control him beyond 2019, since projecting how a catcher might perform in five years and as he enters his thirties seems tricky at best. That’s particularly true in Perez’s case, given his size and his often heavy workloads.
AL East Notes: Orioles, Encarnacion, Yankees
The Orioles have the No. 25 and No. 36 picks in the upcoming draft, and Baseball America’s John Manuel tells MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski he thinks high school pitching could be big for teams who pick in that range. Mike Nikorak (from Pennsylvania), Donny Everett (Tennessee) and Ashe Russell and Nolan Watson (both from Indiana) could all be possibilities at around that point in the draft. Injured pitchers Michael Matuella (Duke) and Nathan Kirby (University of Virginia) have connections to the Mid-Atlantic region and could also be possibilities. Here’s more from the AL East.
- Blue Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion will receive 10-and-5 rights this summer, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca tweets. The Athletics claimed Encarnacion following the 2010 season, but he became a free agent and re-signed with the Blue Jays a month later, so he will have had five years of uninterrupted service time with Toronto. 10-and-5 rights, of course, mean that a player has at least ten years of service overall and at least five with his current team. Players with such rights can block any trade.
- Stephen Drew and Didi Gregorius have been awful this season, but the Yankees will likely stick with them for now, Joel Sherman of the New York Post writes. Drew’s agent, Scott Boras, says he does not believe his client is likely to be released, and GM Brian Cashman has said he still likes Gregorius’ potential. Still, the pair has been disastrous so far — Drew is hitting .173/.238/.345 (although he hit two homers yesterday), and Gregorius has only been a bit better, at .229/.289/.299.
Red Sox Notes: Cherington, Offense, Porcello
Last night’s game between the Red Sox and Athletics was temporarily stopped in the second inning after a fan sitting near the visitors’ dugout was hit in the face by a piece of a broken bat. The woman is at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Hospital with injuries that apparently are serious, although there is currently no specific information on her condition, as the Boston Globe notes. “Our thoughts and concern and certainly our prayers go out to the woman who was struck with the bat, her, and her family,” says Red Sox manager John Farrell. “All you can think about is a family coming to a ballgame to hopefully get three hours of enjoyment and unfortunately with how close our stands are to the field of action . . . an accident like this tonight, it’s certainly disturbing.” We at MLBTR wish the fan and her family the very best in the wake of this very scary situation. Here’s more from Boston.
- GM Ben Cherington appreciates the vote of confidence he received from Sox owner John Henry this week, according to an interview on WEEI with Dennis & Callahan. “I’m not worried about job security, just worried about trying to win games, so I appreciate what he said publicly. I think it was important for John Farrell, the clubhouse, and as we talk about good clubhouses and good teams having each others’ backs,” says Cherington. The GM adds that the team has no plans to platoon David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez at DH, since he doesn’t want to reduce two proven hitters to defined part-time roles.
- The Red Sox’ season has been disappointing so far, but Cherington’s belief that the team can come back and win the AL East might not be off base, WEEI.com’s John Tomase writes. Dustin Pedroia and Xander Bogaerts have been productive lately, and so the key to the Boston offense will be the potential re-emergences of Ortiz, Ramirez and Pablo Sandoval. Meanwhile, Wade Miley has had a good run in his last several starts, and Clay Buchholz and newcomer Eduardo Rodriguez provide hope for the pitching staff.
- Another starter, Rick Porcello, has struggled so far, and his peripheral numbers have been unusual this season, as Tomase notes. He’s increased his K/9 from a 5.6 career rate to 7.1, but his ground ball percentage has dipped from 51.6 for his career to 43.1. He’s allowed 11 homers so far and has a 5.01 ERA, although his peripheral numbers suggest he’s been somewhat better than that, with an xFIP of 4.13 and a SIERA of 4.01. Porcello says the $82.5MM extension he signed in the spring hasn’t negatively affected his performance thus far.
Week In Review: 5/30/15 – 6/5/15
Here’s a look back at this week at MLBTR.
Key Move
- The Mariners acquired outfielder Mark Trumbo and pitcher Vidal Nuno from the Diamondbacks for catcher Welington Castillo, pitcher Dominic Leone and prospects Gabriel Guerrero and Jack Reinheimer.
Signed / Agreed To Terms
- Red Sox – re-signed IF Jeff Bianchi
Trades
- Red Sox – acquired OF Alejandro De Aza and cash from Orioles for P Joe Gunkel
- Nationals – acquired P P.J. Walters from Dodgers for cash considerations
Top Prospect Promotions
- Nationals – P Joe Ross (link)
- Rangers – IF Joey Gallo (link)
Claimed
- Brewers – IF Hernan Perez (from Tigers – link)
Designated For Assignment
- Reds – P Jason Marquis (link)
- Braves – OF Eric Young Jr. (link), P Donnie Veal (link)
- Orioles – IF Everth Cabrera (link)
- Marlins – C Jhonatan Solano (link)
- Mariners – OF Justin Ruggiano (link)
- Red Sox – OF Carlos Peguero (link)
- Yankees – P David Carpenter (link)
- Dodgers – P David Huff (link)
- Brewers – UT Elian Herrera (link)
- Rays – P Ernesto Frieri (link)
- Indians – OF Jerry Sands (link)
Outrighted
- Yankees – P Matt Tracy (link)
- Rangers – IF Tommy Field (link)
- Angels – OF Gary Brown (link), 1B/OF Marc Krauss (link)
- Pirates – P Radhames Liz (link)
- Dodgers – P Eric Stults (link)
- Blue Jays – P Todd Redmond (link)
- Giants – 1B/OF Travis Ishikawa (link)
Released
- Reds – OF Donald Lutz (link)
- Phillies – OF Grady Sizemore (link)
Elected Free Agency / Opted Out
- P David Aardsma (Dodgers – link)
- P Dana Eveland (Red Sox – link)
- P Juan Gutierrez (Giants – link)
- P Robert Coello (Giants – link)
- P Kevin Correia (Giants – link)
Key Minor League Signings
- Giants – IF Kevin Frandsen (link)
- Blue Jays – P Phil Coke (link)
- Braves – C Ryan Lavarnway (link)
Mets Notes: Trades, Wright
The Mets are currently third-to-last in the NL in runs scored, and they’re without David Wright, Travis d’Arnaud and Dilson Herrera, who are all on the DL. Even with a win today, they’ve lost five games out of their last seven, slipping behind the Nationals in the NL East. GM Sandy Alderson says the team is interested in acquiring more offensive help, ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin tweets. As with several GMs who’ve fielded questions about the trade market so far this season, Alderson says it’s probably too early in the year to strike significant deals. Here are more quick notes on the Mets.
- Wright, who was recently diagnosed with spinal stenosis, is going to California to see a doctor, Mike Puma of the New York Post tweets. The Mets should know more about his condition in the coming days. The extent of his issue is currently unclear, although the Mets do not seem overly concerned, as MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo notes. “The doctors aren’t that worried about it,” says assistant GM John Ricco. “It’s just something that seems to be taking longer than we initially thought. The way it was progressing, they thought it would be gone by now.”
- It’s unclear how the condition will affect Wright, but if it does become a long-term problem, Wright’s contract could become another costly headache for the Mets, Joel Sherman of the Post writes. If Wright’s $138MM deal goes south, the Mets could be less inclined to trade for Troy Tulowitzki‘s big contract, sign Ian Desmond on the free-agent market next winter, or ink Matt Harvey long-term. The Mets have already had expensive deals for Johan Santana and Jason Bay go terribly in recent years. Wright, meanwhile, is already 32 and coming off a 2014 season in which he hit just .269/.324/.374.
Pirates Designate Radhames Liz For Assignment
The Pirates have announced that they’ve designated reliever Radhames Liz for assignment. The move clears space on the team’s roster for Charlie Morton, who will start tonight. Morton’s return bumps the out-of-options Vance Worley to the Pirates’ bullpen, and Worley will presumably be used mostly in long relief, so the Bucs no longer had much need for Liz, who they had used in a similar role.
The Bucs signed Liz to a one-year, $1MM contract last offseason after he spent 2014 in the Toronto organization and the previous three years in Korea. He showed good stuff, with a fastball that reached at times into the mid-90s, but was mostly unimpressive in the Pirates’ bullpen — he struck out 18 batters in 17 1/3 innings, but walked ten, continuing to struggle with control issues that have dogged him throughout his career.