Rangers Release Mike Kickham
The Rangers have released lefty Mike Kickham, per a club announcement (h/t to Anthony Andro of FOX Sports Southwest).
Texas claimed Kickham off waivers just over a month ago from the Mariners. The 26-year-old has struggled at Triple-A since, permitting 21 earned runs in just 27 innings of work. Even worse, he has struck out just 16 batters while issuing an alarming 35 free passes.
Kickham has only minimal big league experience, having thrown 30 1/3 innings over the last two seasons with the Giants. Those weren’t terribly successful either, though he has shown the ability to induce swings and misses from MLB hitters.
Erik Bedard To Retire
Dodgers lefty Erik Bedard has decided to retire, according to a tweet from the club’s High-A affiliate Rancho Cucamonga. He has seen action in parts of eleven big league seasons.
Bedard, 36, was only just returning to action after suffering a strained muscle in his back. He had thrown 14 1/3 innings at the High-A level on the season, striking out seven and walking one while allowing eight earned runs.
The southpaw is well removed from his heyday, but was once one of the more effective starters in the game. Pitching for the Orioles, he came in fifth in the Cy Young voting back in 2007, when he threw 182 innings of 3.16 ERA ball with a league-leading 10.9 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9.
That big campaign led the Mariners’ to deal for him, forking over a prospect package fronted by Adam Jones and Chris Tillman to add him. Though Bedard continued to put up good results, shoulder issues bit hard and limited him to 255 1/3 frames over his three years in Seattle (plus another 38 after he was dealt to the Red Sox in the middle of 2011).
Bedard has bounced around since, putting up solid strikeout numbers but failing to hold down the free passes. All told, Bedard has racked up just over 1,300 big league innings of 3.99 ERA pitching while averaging 8.6 K/9, 3.7 BB/9, and a 41.9% groundball rate.
Blue Jays Outright Andrew Albers
The Blue Jays have outrighted lefty Andrew Albers off of the 40-man roster, the club announced (via Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star, on Twitter).
Albers, 29, has thrown just 2 2/3 innings in a single appearance at the big league level this year, allowing a single earned run while picking up one strikeout and issuing two walks. His only prior experience in the majors came in 2013 with the Twins, when he made ten starts and put up a 4.05 ERA.
The southpaw spent last year pitching in Korea. He has worked mostly at Triple-A Buffalo since returning to North America, throwing 62 1/3 innings of 4.33 ERA ball with 5.3 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9.
Angels Designate Kirk Nieuwenhuis
The Angels announced that oufielder Kirk Nieuwenhuis has been designated for assignment. His roster spot will go to the newly-promoted Kyle Kubitza, a third base prospect who will see his first big league action.
Nieuwenhuis, 27, was not able to turn things around in brief action with the Angels after struggling earlier in the year with the Mets. All said, he’s slashed just .100/.156/.167 in 64 plate appearances. It’s still possible that the Angels will be able to stash him in the minors, though Nieuwenhuis could be headed for his third organization of the year.
Meanwhile, Kubitza will have a chance to fill in temporarily for David Freese, who is battling a seemingly minor injury. He came over to the Halos in exchange for lefty Ricardo Sanchez in an offseason deal with the Braves. The 24-year-old has put up a solid .287/.362/.452 line in 260 plate appearances in the PCL. Los Angeles will be watching closely to see whether he is ready to take over for the free-agent-to-be Freese heading into 2016.
Padres Option Jedd Gyorko
The Padres have optioned struggling infielder Jedd Gyorko to Triple-A, the club announced.
Gyorko, 26, has seen his playing time dwindle in San Diego. But it remains a surprise to see him headed back to Triple-A. After all, Gyorko is playing in just the second year on the six-year, $35MM extension he signed early last season. Most of that contract is due after this year, and it comes with a $13MM option for 2020 ($1MM buyout).
The Padres had hoped that Gyorko would take the reigns at second for the long run when they locked him up, but he’s struggled badly ever since. Since a strong rookie campaign in 2013, he owns just a .210/.280/.328 slash with 12 home runs in 574 plate appearances.
San Diego will hope that Gyorko can work out his issues in the upper minors and return to deliver value on his contract. In the meantime, the club will presumably rely on some combination of Cory Spangenberg and Yangervis Solarte at second.
The move serves to emphasize the Padres’ middle infield woes. Short and second have both checked in at (or just below) replacement level thus far, and the .500 club could be in need of a boost in both spots if it hopes to stay in the hunt.
AL Notes: Hanley, Zobrist, Tanaka
Here’s the latest from the American League:
- Red Sox outfielder Hanley Ramirez expressed little inclination to return to the infield, as WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford reports. He emphasized that he believes on the grass limits the wear and tear on his body, saying “I consider myself an outfielder.” Some have suggested that Ramirez could spend time at first, now or in the future, as the team looks to spark a lagging offense and find time for a large group of outfielders. But it sounds as if that is rather unlikely at this stage.
- Though he’s back from knee surgery, Athletics utilityman Ben Zobrist has yet to look himself, Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle writes. The 34-year-old still appears to be a step slow, per Slusser, and has not yet turned things around at the plate. Oakland is well back in the standings and could conceivably move quickly if it sees a sterling opportunity to sell — as ESPN.com’s Buster Olney discussed today in an Insider piece — but one wonders whether that strategy would work for Zobrist, who may need to show more to maximize his value.
- The Yankees‘ risky call to keep Masahiro Tanaka away from the surgeon’s knife has paid dividends so far, writes John Harper of the New York Daily News. Tanaka has been outstanding since returning from the DL, and is running out a mid-90s heater after exhibiting a velocity dip earlier in the season. It remains to be seen whether he can stave off Tommy John surgery permanently, but it’s hard to argue with the decision to wait when he owns a 2.48 ERA with 9.7 K/9 against just 1.7 BB/9 over his first six starts of the year.
Draft Notes: Matuella, Rodgers, Harris, Cameron
Scouts do much more than tally stats, of course, but they are not immune from the allure of racking up their own numbers. As MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick writes, Marty Lamb of the Dodgers received credit as the lead scout on three of the team’s top five choices, including first-rounder Walker Buehler, a fairly rare achievement. “Part of it is luck,” explains the veteran scout. “They’ve got to fall to the right places, and we’ve got to like them. … It’s fun, but I’m sure some of my buddies [fellow scouts] aren’t too happy with me right now, but it’s part of the game.”
Here’s more from out west:
- Rangers scouting director Kip Fagg, likewise, was pleased with how things turned out Monday, as Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News writes. “I can’t think of a better day that I’ve had in my 24 years of scouting with the Texas Rangers,” he said. “The first four guys we drafted, we had them all in our top 20 on our board. That’s never happened in my career. That made it special.” Texas took righty Dillon Tate with its top pick and also went on to secure the rights to Duke starter Michael Matuella, a high-upside talent who has injury and signability questions. Matuella says he is “very confident” in reaching a deal, with Fagg echoed that sentiment.
- High school shortstop Brendan Rodgers, the Rockies‘ top selection at third overall, said Monday that he agreed on bonus terms with the club before the draft, as Nick Groke of the Denver Post reported. Ink has not yet been put to paper, Chris Cotillo of SB Nation tweets, but it appears that Rodgers will formally reach a deal in fairly short order.
- Meanwhile, the Blue Jays are nearing agreement with first-rounder Jon Harris, according to Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca. The righty is expected to receive a bonus in line with the slot value of $1,944,800, sources tell Davidi. Toronto has expressed real excitement at having another chance at Harris, who the team failed to sign out of high school after the 2012 draft.
- Astros second-round choice Daz Cameron, a highly-regarded high school outfielder, is asking “less than” the $5MM he was rumored to be seeking, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle reports. The consensus is that Cameron fell to Houston because it has the overall spending capacity to sign him, but perhaps the team will not need to go quite as high as had been expected to get a deal done. Daz’s father — long-time big leaguer Mike Cameron — offers plenty of interesting thoughts on his son’s draft experience and the useful “business management” lesson he picked up along the way. It’s an interesting piece and well worth a read.
Free Agent Stock Watch: Mike Napoli
Outside of Chris Davis of the Orioles, Red Sox first baseman Mike Napoli will likely be the most highly sought-after player at the position on next year’s free agent market. But a slow start at the plate has him looking to regain value the rest of the way.
Napoli has hit just .213/.315/.404 in his first 216 plate appearances, well off the .818 OPS mark he carried through his first two seasons in Boston. On the positive side, he has contributed nine home runs and continues to put up typical K:BB numbers (24.5% strikeout rate versus 13.0% walk rate).
Looking behind the slash numbers, there is some cause for concern. Though Napoli carries a .246 BABIP that falls well below his lifetime .308 mark, Fangraphs also credits him with declining hard contact rates and a career-worst 21.5% rate of soft contact. And his line-drive percentage is down to 13.3%, a significant drop from his typical numbers.
While it may be too soon to put much stock in defensive metrics, Napoli has profiled more as a sturdy first baseman than the above-average performer he rated as over the last two seasons. UZR pegs the issue as a decline in his range.
Rob Bradford of WEEI.com examines Napoli’s situation and market standing in an interesting piece today. Napoli himself says he still hopes to stay in Boston, and believes he is in a good place in spite of his dip in productivity. “I swear, until you just said this to me, I hadn’t even thought about it for a while,” he said. “I just feel like everything is going to take care of itself. I feel like I have a lot of good years left. This is the best I’ve felt in a long time health-wise. My sleeping has gotten better. We’ll see. I feel like I could play a long time now.”
Bradford explores the impact of a widening strike zone on Napoli, both in terms of results and his market. Napoli paces the league in the number of pitches seen per plate appearance over the past three years — just shy of 4.5 per — but Bradford says that teams may no longer place quite the premium on that skill that they have in the past.
Napoli himself acknowledged the issue, saying: “if the strike zone is getting bigger that hurts my style of play.” He tells Bradford that he has noticed an impact. “It gets the point where it’s hard for me to think I can take a close pitch,” he said. “Instead I’m swinging at stuff.”
Indeed, the numbers do bear that out to some extent. As Sons of Sam Horn examines in detail, Napoli has seemingly been impacted by a larger zone. And that may be creating broader problems: while his chase rate is flat, and he has a career-high contact rate on pitches in the zone, Napoli’s contact rate on pitches outside the zone has fallen by about ten percentage points from his levels over the past several seasons.
Broader market trends do show some good news for the slugger, however. While he’ll be entering his age-34 season when he hits free agency this fall, only the younger (and, likely, much more costly) Davis presents much of a challenge in terms of first base talent. And there will be plenty of clubs that prefer Napoli’s veteran presence, presumably shorter commitment, and more stable offensive profile to that of Davis.
Napoli looks like a solid bet to remain a viable first baseman, meaning that he won’t be restricted to American League clubs. It’s far too early to play the match-up game, but teams like the Orioles, Rays, Marlins, Brewers, Cardinals, Twins, Padres, Angels, and Mariners all seem like plausible suitors. And a return to the Red Sox cannot be ruled out entirely, particularly given that Hanley Ramirez has rather emphatically rejected the concept of playing first base.
It goes without saying that Napoli’s performance the rest of the way will play an enormous role in determining his standing after the season. As things stand, he seems a borderline qualifying offer candidate, though of course the same up-tick in performance that would make a QO desirable would also increase his appeal. All said, in spite of his rough start, Napoli’s market value probably has not taken much of a hit at this point — particularly given his track record and the fact that Davis has yet to regain his 2013 form — though he has work ahead of him to show that he can still deliver well-above-average offensive production.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Angels Release Zach Stewart For KBO Opportunity
The Angels have released right-hander Zach Stewart so that he can pursue an opportunity in the Korean Baseball Organization, according to a team release. Stewart has agreed to join the KBO’s NC Dinos.
The 28-year-old joined the Halos last winter as a minor league free agent. He has seen good results thus far at Triple-A, throwing 39 1/3 innings of 3.43 ERA ball over eight starts and four relief appearances. It has been quite some time since Stewart has maintained a full-season earned run mark at that level.
Over 103 big league innings, all coming over 2011-12, Stewart owns a 6.82 ERA with 5.6 K/9 versus 1.9 BB/9. He saw action with the Blue Jays, White Sox, and Red Sox in that span.
A 2008 third-rounder out of Texas Tech, Stewart entered professional ball as a reliever but converted to starting and has mostly stayed in the rotation since. It remains to be seen what role he’ll have in Korea.
Minor Moves: Perry, Aardsma, Reimold
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Tigers have released righty Ryan Perry, according to the International League transactions page. Perry, 28, struggled badly this year at Triple-A amid injury issues, and the same could be said, more or less, of the prior two seasons as well. His career started with real promise — he rose quickly through the minors and tossed 124 1/3 frames of 3.69 ERA ball out of the Detroit pen back in 2009-10 — but has failed to remain on course since. The 2008 first-round pick returned to the Tigers as a minor league free agent this winter after a few seasons in the Nationals organization.
- Two veterans are headed back to the majors today, as the Braves selected the contract of just-signed reliever David Aardsma and the Orioles did the same with outfielder Nolan Reimold. Aardsma came to Atlanta after opting out of his deal with the Dodgers. He has thrown 19 2/3 solid innings at Triple-A, striking out 11.4 and walking 3.2 batters per nine en route to a 2.29 ERA. Reimold, who rejoined the Baltimore organization after departing last year, has slashed .286/.351/.389 over his 194 plate appearances at the highest level of the minors.