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Neftali Feliz Nearing Deal With Brewers

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Free agent righty Neftali Feliz is close to agreeing to a deal with the Brewers, Fan Rag’s Jon Heyman writes (Twitter links). BrewerFan.net’s Jim Goulart was first to tweet a connection between Feliz and the Brew Crew.

The 28-year-old Feliz is coming off a strong comeback season in the Pirates’ bullpen in which he posted a 3.52 ERA, 10.2 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 over 53 2/3 innings. (He missed the last month of the season due to arm discomfort, but his injury was not structural in nature, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel tweets. Feliz also began the year throwing his fastball in the mid-90s and added velocity as the season went on, a promising sign for a pitcher who had Tommy John surgery in 2012 and spent several seasons thereafter trying to get back on track.

The Brewers could represent a good match for Feliz. He has 99 saves’ worth of career closing experience, and in the wake of a variety of Brewers trades of established relievers (including Jeremy Jeffress and Tyler Thornburg), he could receive the opportunity to close in Milwaukee. If he does, he could potentially receive a very lucrative contract the next time he’s a free agent. The rebuilding Brewers, meanwhile, would get the chance to dangle Feliz as a trade piece at the deadline, assuming they do fall out of the playoff race. The Brewers have reportedly been looking for relief pitching lately — GM David Stearns has said he’s exploring the possibility of adding relief help not only through big-league additions, but through minor-league signings and trades. The Dodgers had also been connected to Feliz of late.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/14/17

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Here are today’s minor moves from around the league.

  • The Mariners have announced that they’ve outrighted righty Cody Martin to Triple-A Tacoma. They had designated him for assignment when they acquired Mallex Smith and Shae Simmons from the Braves last week. The 27-year-old Martin made nine appearances, including two starts, for the Mariners last year and posted a 3.86 ERA, but with a modest 5.3 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9. He fared well in 114 1/3 innings with Tacoma, with a 3.62 ERA, 9.0 K/9 and 2.6 BB/9, and has generally been successful at the Triple-A level in his career.
  • The Indians have announced that they’ve signed righties Steve Delabar and Travis Banwart to minor-league deals with Spring Training invites. As a hard-throwing member of the Blue Jays bullpen, the 33-year-old Delabar was once one of the game’s more dynamic setup men, but he’s fallen on hard times of late. He struggled in eight innings with the Reds last season and finished his season with the Hiroshima Carp in Japan. The 30-year-old Banwart also pitched in Asia last year, posting a 5.79 ERA, 6.0 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 130 2/3 innings with the KT Wiz in Korea. It was his third year in the KBO. Before that, he pitched parts of eight seasons in the Athletics and Indians farm systems, ascending as high as the Triple-A level. He could end up pitching with the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate in Columbus, for which he posted a 3.13 ERA, 7.9 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9 in 16 starts in 2014 before departing for Korea.

Cubs Notes: Arrieta, David Ross, Tyson Ross

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Jake Arrieta’s agreement on a one-year, $15.6375MM deal this week suggests his time with the Cubs could be reaching its end, Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago writes. Arrieta is eligible for free agency at the end of the season, and his agent, Scott Boras, had previously said he and the Cubs would talk about an extension when the two sides discussed Arrieta’s 2017 salary this month. “The timeline is kind of coming to an end as far as as leading up to free agency,” Arrieta said yesterday. “I am here for one more year and I am going to enjoy every moment of it.” Still, he didn’t rule out the possibility that the two sides could still reach a deal. “If it happens, it happens. I don’t know where we stand. I really don’t. We do have some time to maybe work something out. If it doesn’t, I will become a free agent,” he said. Here’s more from out of Chicago.

  • The Cubs have announced that they’ve hired David Ross as a special assistant to baseball operations. The 39-year-old Ross, of course, retired as a player after a strong 2016 season capped with a World Series Game 7 homer, and he’s beloved in Chicago. (He carried the World Series trophy at the beginning of this weekend’s Cubs Convention yesterday.) He’s looking forward to his new role, which seems open-ended — MLB.com’s Carrie Muskat writes that Ross will contribute in a variety of roles, including scouting, development and front-office work. “I don’t even know what I’m doing,” Ross says. “I feel like there’s a hall-of-fame front office and a relationship with guys who I have a bond with. They offered to help me grow in my baseball knowledge and try to learn different aspects of what goes on in the organization. I’m really going to be listening.”
  • The Cubs recently lost out on Tyson Ross to the Rangers, but president of baseball operations Theo Epstein says the team still hopes to add starting pitching, as MLB.com’s Phil Rogers tweets. The Cubs “made it a difficult decision” for Ross, extending him an offer similar to the $6MM plus incentives he got from Texas, tweets CSN Chicago’s Patrick Mooney. Ross, formerly a top starter with the Padres, could have provided a strong back-end option for the Cubs provided he’d made a solid comeback from the shoulder troubles that cost him most of his 2016 season and resulted in surgery in October to relieve thoracic outlet syndrome.

5 Key Stories: 1/7/17 – 1/13/17

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Here’s the key news from a busy week here at MLBTR:

Arbitration madness. This week’s arbitration filing deadline led to a number of interesting deals to avoid the arbitration process, including a two-year, $29.5MM contract for Nolan Arenado, $15.6375MM over one year for Jake Arrieta, $12.25MM for Eric Hosmer, $12MM for Todd Frazier, $11.5MM for Manny Machado, $11.4MM for Zach Britton, $13.625MM for Bryce Harper, $9.15MM for Dallas Keuchel. Here’s a roundup of various agreements from the National League, and here’s a roundup from the American League. You can follow all of this week’s arbitration-related moves with MLBTR’s Arbitration Tracker.

Wil MyersPadres’ big week. The Padres aren’t yet ready to announce a deal, but it appears they’re closing in on an extension with first baseman Wil Myers that’s worth north of $80MM and that will cover his three arbitration seasons plus his first three years of free agency eligibility. They also signed another infielder, Yangervis Solarte, to a two-year extension that includes two options, the latter covering a season in which Solarte would previously have been eligible for free agency. And as the week came to a close, the Padres were also reportedly nearing a deal with righty Trevor Cahill.

Mariners acquire Drew Smyly in pair of deals. The Mariners’ busy offseason continued this week with a pair of related trades. First, they shipped well-regarded prospect Luiz Gohara plus another young lefty, Thomas Burrows, to Atlanta for outfielder Mallex Smith and righty Shae Simmons. Then, they sent Smith, minor-league infielder Carlos Vargas and minor-league lefty Ryan Yarbrough to the Rays for lefty Drew Smyly, who will join their rotation. (Smith will join a Rays outfield mix that also now includes Colby Rasmus, with whom they agreed to a one-year deal this week.)

Athletics add Santiago Casilla, Trevor Plouffe. The A’s reached agreement with two players on big-league contracts this week, landing former Giants closer Santiago Casilla on a two-year, $11MM deal that will keep him in the Bay Area, and former Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe on a one-year deal that’s likely to be in the $5MM range.

Rangers land Tyson Ross. A variety of teams were connected to free agent righty Tyson Ross, who the Padres non-tendered last month after an injury-plagued 2016 season. Ross ultimately agreed to terms with the Rangers this week on a one-year deal for $6MM plus incentives, potentially allowing him to reestablish his value before heading out on the free agent market again next winter.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/7/17

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Baseball America’s Matt Eddy has released a long list of minor transactions from over the holidays. Here are a few of the bigger moves from that list not already noted elsewhere on MLBTR (we’ll also keep track of additional minor moves from Saturday as they happen):

  • The Brewers have signed first baseman Cody Decker to a minor league deal, tweets Tommy Stokke of FanRag. The pact doesn’t include an invitation to big league camp, per Adam McCalvy of MLB.com (Twitter link). Decker announced (via Twitter) that he’ll move to catcher, where he has seen action in 23 games during parts of eight minor league seasons. The 29-year-old has slashed an impressive .255/.333/.501 in 1,498 Triple-A plate appearances, though he has only logged eight PAs in the majors (with San Diego in 2015).
  • The Cubs have signed catcher Carlos Corporan and re-signed infielder Munenori Kawasaki to minor league contracts. Corporan spent several years as a backup in Houston and last appeared in the Majors in 2015 with Texas; he hit .197/.246/.333 at two Triple-A stops in 2016. The 35-year-old Kawasaki played briefly for the Cubs last season and spent most of the year playing shortstop with Triple-A Iowa, where he batted .255/.352/.312. The popular former Blue Jays infielder has now appeared in parts of five seasons in the big leagues, as well as 11 in Japan.
  • The Red Sox have signed outfielder Brian Bogusevic to a minor league deal. The 32-year-old had a tough season with Orix in Japan in 2016, batting just .187/.320/.322 over 193 plate appearances. He last appeared in the big leagues with the Phillies in 2015.
  • The White Sox have released hard-throwing righty Jorge Rondon so that he can sign with Chunichi in Japan. They had previously signed him to a minor league deal after he posted a 2.67 ERA, 5.8 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 pitching in the bullpen of the Pirates’ Triple-A Indianapolis bullpen in 2016.
  • The Angels have re-signed lefty reliever Cody Ege to a minor league deal. They had previously non-tendered him even though he had far less than three years of service time and was very effective in 8 2/3 innings for them last season, although he struggled in three innings with the Marlins and posted a modest 4.50 ERA, 7.2 K/9 and 5.5 BB/9 in 44 innings at Triple-A.
  • The Phillies have signed righty reliever Pedro Beato to a minor league deal. The 30-year-old Beato was very effective for Triple-A Norfolk in 2016, with a 2.65 ERA, 8.2 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 68 innings (although he allowed nine unearned runs). He’s pitched in the big leagues for three teams, but hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2014 and hasn’t logged significant time since he was a Met in 2011.
  • The Nationals have signed reliever lefty Josh Outman to a minor league deal. The 32-year-old last pitched in the big leagues in 2014, when he appeared with the Indians and Yankees. He posted a 4.95 ERA, albeit with 6.8 K/9 and 1.4 BB/9, in 20 innings with Indianapolis in 2016 before being released.
  • The Tigers have signed first baseman Efren Navarro to a minor league deal. The 30-year-old batted .275/.337/.368 at two Triple-A stops in 2016. He’s appeared in parts of four big-league seasons, all with Anaheim.

East Notes: Urena, Red Sox, Orioles

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The Marlins face a tricky decision with out-of-options righty Jose Urena, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro writes. Urena posted a 6.13 ERA last season (albeit with a somewhat more palatable 6.2 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9) and has yet to establish himself in the Majors. At the same time, he has terrific velocity and a good prospect pedigree, so the Marlins likely don’t want to lose him. The Marlins’ additions of Edinson Volquez and Jeff Locke to their rotation and Brad Ziegler, Junichi Tazawa and Dustin McGowan to their bullpen means there’s limited space, however. A trade is a possibility, although Frisaro thinks that’s unlikely. Alternately, the Marlins could consider keeping 13 pitchers on their staff rather than 12, although that would limit their flexibility with their bench. Here’s more from the East divisions.

  • The Orioles’ acquisition of Seth Smith this week should not impact their potential pursuit of Mark Trumbo, writes MASN’s Steve Melewski. The Orioles could still use Trumbo at DH, and their savings of about $4MM in the deal could possibly free up a bit of extra capital to sign him. As for Smith, he’s a platoon player, and neither he nor Hyun Soo Kim have much of a track record against lefties. That means the Orioles will likely continue to look for outfielders, presumably of the right-handed variety.
  • Money and the potential loss of amateur talent were key reasons the Red Sox didn’t seriously pursue Edwin Encarnacion, Alex Speier of the Boston Globe writes. Getting under the luxury tax threshold will save the Red Sox money both now and in future seasons, particularly given the possibility that they could reset their threshold this season, thus limiting their penalties in the future. Also, the new CBA calls for teams that exceed the threshold and sign a player who declined a qualifying offer to forfeit their second- and fifth-round draft picks and portions of their international bonus pools.

Dodgers Sign Steve Geltz To Minor League Deal

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The Dodgers have signed righty reliever Steve Geltz to a minor league deal, Matt Eddy of Baseball America writes. The Brewers had claimed Geltz from the Rays earlier in the offseason, but he became a free agent once they outrighted him last month.

The 29-year-old Geltz pitched 102 1/3 innings for the Rays over the last three seasons, posting a 4.22 ERA, 8.6 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9. He’s always been an extreme fly ball pitcher, though, and those fly ball tendencies became a significant problem for him last season, when he allowed a staggering 11 home runs in 26 2/3 innings and was repeatedly demoted to Triple-A Durham. His more successful showing in 2015 (when he had a 3.74 ERA over 67 1/3 frames) perhaps demonstrates his upside under better circumstances, though, so it’s possible he could reemerge at some point as a big-league middle reliever. If he does, he comes with up to five more seasons of control remaining, including two pre-arbitration years.

Royals Sign Chris Withrow, Al Alburquerque, Brandon League To Minor League Deals

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The Royals have signed veteran righties Chris Withrow, Al Alburquerque and Brandon League to minor league deals with Spring Training invites, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com writes (Twitter links). Flanagan also notes the minor league signings of pitchers Bobby Parnell and Jonathan Sanchez, which had been previously reported; those two will combine with Withrow, Albuquerque and League to form a long list of formerly effective veterans who could compete for spots on the Royals’ pitching staff.

The 27-year-old Withrow was formerly a first-round pick of the Dodgers. After heading to Atlanta in a six-player deal involving Juan Uribe and Alberto Callaspo, Withrow spent 2016 with the Braves, where he posted a 3.58 ERA and an average fastball velocity approaching the mid-90s, but with an underwhelming 6.7 K/9 and 4.1 BB/9 in 37 2/3 innings. He ended last season with over three years of service time after spending 2015 on the shelf recovering from Tommy John surgery, and the Braves non-tendered him last month.

Alburquerque spent the 2016 season in the Angels and Mariners organizations, appearing briefly in the big leagues with the Angels and posting a 3.74 ERA, 9.4 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 in 33 2/3 innings in the minors. The formerly hard-throwing Tigers reliever has seen his velocity dip to the low 90s in recent seasons. It’s possible some of that velocity drop might have some connection to his contraction of the Chikungunya virus in 2015, however, and the 30-year-old has proven to be an effective, if control-challenged, big-league reliever in the past.

League has not pitched since 2015, or in the big leagues since 2014, after struggling with shoulder trouble. The 33-year-old formerly served as a closer for the Mariners and Dodgers, but the Dodgers released him before the expiration of his three-year, $22.5MM contract with them. He has a 3.65 ERA, 6.3 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in parts of 11 seasons with the big leagues.

Padres Interested In Doug Fister

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The Padres have interest in starting pitchers Doug Fister, Jake Peavy and Jered Weaver, with Weaver the least likely of the three, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal tweets. The team’s interest in Peavy and Weaver had already been reported, but their reported interest in Fister is new.

Fister fits with the other two pitchers into the broad category of aging righty starters who have recently been down on their luck. He posted a 4.64 ERA, 5.7 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 180 1/3 innings after signing a one-year deal with Houston for 2016. He made 32 starts, and there’s much to be said for that kind of durability, perhaps particularly for a Padres team that lacks established starting pitching behind Jhoulys Chacin. The 32-year-old Fister looks like a candidate for another short-term deal, however — his velocity rebounded somewhat last season but remains low for a righty, with an average fastball of 88.4 MPH, and his peripheral numbers offer few indications that the Fister who posted a 3.11 ERA in 750 2/3 innings from 2011 through 2014 is likely to return.

There haven’t been many whispers about Fister this offseason. He has briefly been connected to the Marlins, Pirates, and Mariners, although all those teams have since made starting pitcher acquisitions.

5 Key Stories: 12/31/16 – 1/6/17

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Here are five key stories from this week at MLBTR.

"<strongMariners deal for Yovani Gallardo, Jarrod Dyson. Seattle acquired two veterans this week in a pair of related trades. First, they sent outfielder Seth Smith to Baltimore in exchange for starter Yovani Gallardo. Then, they shipped a starter, Nate Karns, to Kansas City for outfielder Jarrod Dyson. The deals give the Mariners a pair of short-term possibilities; Gallardo is signed through 2017 with an option for 2018 and Dyson can become a free agent at the end of the year, while Karns is controllable through 2020.

Rajai Davis returns to Athletics. After six years split between the Blue Jays, Tigers and Indians, speedy veteran Rajai Davis came back to Oakland this week, signing a one-year, $6MM deal to join an outfield group that will also include Khris Davis, Matt Joyce, Jake Smolinski and Brett Eibner. The Athletics could continue to add, too, as they’ve recently been connected to free-agent slugger Mark Trumbo.

Reds sign Drew Storen. The Reds made their first big-league signing of the year this week, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s for a former closer, as they inked former Nationals fireman Drew Storen to a one-year, $3MM deal that can include up to $1.5MM in incentives. In other Reds news, it also emerged this week that second baseman Brandon Phillips blocked a trade to the Braves this past November.

Twins expect resolution of Brian Dozier trade talks. Twins second baseman Brian Dozier has been a rumored trade candidate throughout much of the winter, but the Twins don’t expect that to continue, as they plan to soon resolve his status for 2017. The Dodgers have long been the team most strongly connected to Dozier, and that appears to continue to be the case, and they’re reportedly willing to include Jose De Leon and other prospects in exchange.

Royals, Cardinals begin Matt Adams trade talks. The Royals and Cardinals have reportedly begun trade talks on a deal that would send first baseman Matt Adams across the state of Missouri. With Kansas City, Adams would likely find playing time as a DH. The Royals also added another potential DH candidate this week when they acquired minor league slugger Peter O’Brien from the Diamondbacks for righty Sam Lewis.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

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