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Minor MLB Transactions: 1/9/20

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The latest minor league moves from around baseball….

  • The Reds signed southpaw Brooks Raley to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invitation, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports (via Twitter).  After posting a 7.04 ERA over 38 1/3 innings for the Cubs in 2012-13 and then spending 2014 back in the minors, Raley headed for the Lotte Giants of the KBO League.  Raley posted a 4.13 ERA, 2.79 K/BB rate, and 7.5 K/9 over 910 2/3 innings in Korea, starting all but one of his 152 outings.  If the 31-year-old Raley can carry over some measure of that form from the KBO League, he’ll provide the Reds with some veteran rotation depth at the Triple-A level, putting him in line for another crack at the majors in the event of an injury to Cincinnati’s starting five.
  • The Orioles have outrighted right-hander Marcos Diplan to Triple-A Norfolk, the team announced.  Diplan cleared waivers after being designated for assignment last week to create roster space for the newly-signed Kohl Stewart.  Diplan has a 3.88 ERA, 9.1 K/9, and 1.85 K/BB rate over 540 2/3 career minor league innings, working mostly as a reliever (starting seven of 38 total appearances) in 2019, pitching for the Double-A affiliates of the Twins and Brewers.  It has been a busy transactional stretch for Diplan, who was claimed off Minnesota’s waiver wire by the Tigers in September, and then claimed again by the Orioles in December.

Nationals To Sign Tyler Eppler To Minors Contract

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The Nationals have agreed to a minor league deal with right-hander Tyler Eppler, MLB Trade Rumors’ Steve Adams reports (Twitter link).  Eppler is returning to North American baseball after pitching for NPB’s Orix Buffaloes last season.

The trip to Japan saw Eppler pitch for both Orix’s minor league affiliate and with the Buffaloes themselves, including a 4.02 ERA, 7.2 K/9, and 2.78 K/BB rate over 31 1/3 relief innings with the big club.  Eppler worked almost exclusively as a starting pitcher over his previous 592 innings in the Pirates’ farm system from 2014-18, starting 100 of his 111 career games.

Originally a sixth-round pick for the Pirates in the 2014 draft, Eppler had some decent but unspectacular numbers in his minor league career.  He had a 3.82 ERA and 3.14 K/BB, though didn’t generate many grounders or miss many bats (6.4 K/9), which could be why Pittsburgh didn’t protect Eppler from the Rule 5 Draft in either 2017 or 2018.  Still, the bottom-line results are pretty solid, and there’s little risk for the Nationals in bringing the 27-year-old Eppler to Spring Training to see that he could contribute to the club’s shaky bullpen.

Marlins Designate Austin Dean For Assignment

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The Marlins have designated outfielder Austin Dean for assignment, as per FNTSY Sports Radio’s Craig Mish (Twitter link).  The move will create a 40-man roster spot for Francisco Cervelli, whose signing has now been officially announced by the team.

Dean has seen part-time action for Miami in each of the last two seasons, accumulating a .223/.268/.388 slash line and 10 homers over his 311 career Major League plate appearances.  A fourth-round pick for the Marlins in 2012, Dean has posted some big minor league numbers over the last two years, with a .944 OPS and 27 home runs over 640 Triple-A plate appearances (with the twin caveats of last season’s overall hitting explosion across the Triple-A level, and Dean playing in the particularly hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League).  Dean has spent much of his career as a left fielder, though he has also seen some time in right field and first base, both in the minors and with the Marlins.

Angels Sign Jason Castro

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The Angels will have yet another new Opening Day catcher, as they announced Tuesday the signing of veteran backstop Jason Castro to a one-year contract. Castro, an ISE Baseball client, will reportedly be guaranteed $6.85MM before reentering the market next winter.

Jason Castro | Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The signing helps Los Angeles upgrade its weakest position from the 2019 season, as Angels catchers (with Jonathan Lucroy, Kevan Smith, and Dustin Garneau had much of the playing time) combined for negative-0.7 bWAR.  While virtually anything would’ve been an improvement over that sub-replacement level total, Castro brings a solid track record of success, with 12 bWAR/14.5 fWAR over the course of his nine seasons in the majors.

Much of that value has come from outstanding pitch-framing, and generally good blocking statistics despite a down year in that category in 2018.  However, last season saw Castro enjoy his best year at the plate since 2013, as Castro hit .232/.332/.435 with 13 home runs over 275 plate appearances for Minnesota.  Though the veteran backstop lost playing time due to Mitch Garver’s big season, it was still a nice bounce-back year for Castro after knee surgery limited him to just 19 games in 2018.

MLBTR’s Top 50 Free Agents ranking correctly predicted a deal between Castro (34th on our list) and the Angels, and his one-year, $6.85MM pact topped our two-year/$10MM projection in terms of average annual value, if not in term length.  While it is perhaps understanding that teams were wary of committing multiple years to a 32-year-old catcher with a torn meniscus on his injury history, it is maybe still a bit of a surprise that Castro wasn’t able to get more than one year given the dearth of other catching options on the market.

The Rangers, Rays, Rockies, and Pirates are among the clubs with notable needs behind the plate, and now Robinson Chirinos (who could be close to a deal himself) stands out as the clear top choice remaining.  Should Texas miss out on Chirinos, the Angels will have done well to secure a solid veteran catcher ahead of their AL West rivals.

Castro is the latest notable addition for Angels GM Billy Eppler in a winter that has already seen Anthony Rendon, Julio Teheran, and Dylan Bundy head to Anaheim.  While the Halos are known to still be looking for more rotation help, the addition of an excellent pitch-framer like Castro should also help the staff prevent runs.

ESPN.com’s Jeff Passan first reported the agreement and the terms (Twitter link).

Angels Interested In Mike Clevinger

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The Angels and Indians have discussed a trade involving right-hander Mike Clevinger, MLB.com’s Jon Paul Morosi reports.  Talks between the two clubs have seemingly stalled, however, or at least “there has not been active dialogue in recent days,” as Morosi described the situation.  It’s possible to imagine that negotiations may have not have gotten far at all, given how Morosi reports that the Indians’ first ask was top Angels prospect Jo Adell as well as another player.

Adell is a consensus top-five prospect in baseball, ranked #2 in the sport by both Baseball Prospectus and Baseball America, #3 by Fangraphs, and #5 by MLB Pipeline.  This impressive set of ratings comes despite an abbreviated 2019 season for Adell, who was waylaid by ankle and hamstring injuries and limited to just 341 PA over 76 total games at three different minor league levels.  Only 27 of those games came with the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees, and since Adell had only a .676 OPS over 132 PA for the Bees, the Angels could opt to give him a bit more seasoning time at Triple-A before summoning him to the big leagues (and of course, the team would gain an extra year of control over Adell by keeping him in the minors for at least a few weeks).

Still, Adell is expected to make his MLB debut in 2020 and could be counted on as an everyday player by season’s end.  It has been widely speculated that the Halos will use 2019 breakout star Brian Goodwin in right field until Adell is ready for a promotion, and then Adell and Goodwin will, at worst, split duties for the remainder of the year.  Should Adell make an immediate impact (or even if Goodwin matches his strong production from last season), the Angels promise to boast one of the league’s stronger outfields, assuming Justin Upton returns to good health and Mike Trout continues his Cooperstown-level domination of the sport.

With so much expected of Adell so soon, it isn’t surprising that the Angels balked at moving him in any trade demand, even for a pitcher like Clevinger.  The 29-year-old righty has a 2.96 ERA, 3.13 K/BB rate, and 10.3 K/9 over 500 2/3 innings since the start of the 2017 season.  Clevinger is controlled through the 2022 season and is projected to earn $4.5MM in his first year of arbitration eligibility; his initial arb salary would surely have been much higher were it not for a teres major muscle injury that cost him around two months of action last year.

Between Clevinger’s cost-controlled price tag and strong results on the mound, Cleveland has seemingly no immediate reason to move him for anything less than a huge return.  The payroll-conscious Tribe has already moved Corey Kluber to the Rangers this offseason and might yet still trade Francisco Lindor, though those players are much more expensive and offer less years of control than Clevinger.  In fact, despite Kluber’s salary and injury-plagued 2019, it’s fair to wonder whether the Indians would have moved the former Cy Young Award winner had it not been for the team’s comfort level in Clevinger as the new ace of their staff, not to mention the development of young arms Shane Bieber, Zach Plesac, and Aaron Civale.

The Padres and Dodgers have also had interest in Clevinger this offseason, and it’s probably safe to guess that any club in need of pitching has at least checked in with the Tribe to see if a deal could be found for Clevinger or perhaps any member of the impressive Cleveland rotation.  The Angels have added Dylan Bundy and Julio Teheran to their starting five this offseason and will be getting Shohei Ohtani back from Tommy John surgery, though Anaheim still lags behind many contending teams in terms of both depth and frontline arms.  Clevinger was actually picked by the Angels in the fourth round of the 2011 draft, but was sent to Cleveland in an August 2014 trade for reliever Vinnie Pestano.

Stan Kasten Discusses Dodgers’ Offseason, Cole, Spending

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Though the Dodgers have been linked to several big names in both trade rumors and free agency, it’s been a pretty quiet offseason at Chavez Ravine, with the club’s one-year, $10MM deal with Blake Treinen standing out as the biggest move of note.  The lack of action to date hasn’t sat well with many fans and pundits, including Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times, though Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten strongly defended his club’s strategies in a recent phone conversation with Plaschke.

As one might expect, Kasten took issue with what he described as “the L.A. Times’ characterization that everyone hates us,” which he felt was incorrect given strong attendance numbers.  While “for sure there are some fans…and a lot of people in the Twitterverse” who are critical of the Dodgers’ decisions, “based on the fans that support us…including this coming year…incredibly strong support and ticket sales…you keep trying to convince yourself that everyone hates us.  I just think you’re wrong.”

Kasten denied that the Dodgers were in any way limited by payroll considerations, or lacked full commitment to winning their first World Series since 1988, saying “we really need” to capture that elusive title.

“There are metrics in business that are mostly private that we look at, and I’d say we feel successful there,” Kasten said.  “But there’s no question that all of us who are competitive, from every owner that has a piece of the team to the junior people in the front office, we’re laser-focused on winning the World Series….It’s obviously not about what you spend, it is about the moves you make, the decisions you make.  I think questioning those things, criticizing those things, that’s absolutely fair.  But just to say there’s a [payroll] number you need to hit and if you don’t hit it you’re not trying, that’s just silly.”

To that end, Kasten noted that the Dodgers were fourth in spending last season, and are likely to be beyond the $208MM Competitive Balance Tax threshold by season’s end.  Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez estimates that L.A. has a current luxury tax number of just under $189MM, though “the team we have now is not going to be the team we have to start the postseason,” Kasten said.  “I expect that team, this year, it looks like it’s going to be well over the CBT, or somewhat over.”

The types of larger-salaried players who would boost a CBT number could come sooner rather than later, as Kasten said “there are guys that we think could be difference makers and we have pursued them, we are continuing to pursue them, when there is an opportunity we will certainly jump at it.”  One of the players who was on the Dodgers’ radar earlier this winter was Gerrit Cole, though Kasten doesn’t believe Cole shared that interest in coming to L.A., no matter the dollars involved.  Cole joined the Yankees on the largest contract ever given to a pitcher — a nine-year, $324MM deal.

“It is clear now, I think it was clear to us in the middle of the process, he wanted to be a Yankee, he just did,” Kasten said.  “In retrospect, I think we were just the stalking horse to get a number he finally could get from a team he wanted to go to.  I don’t have any quibble with his approach…it was all very fair, but he wants to be somewhere, he got a lot of money to be where he wanted to be.”

Whether adding a particular star player is necessarily the right move to finally put Los Angeles over the top in a World Series, however, is far from a certainty.  Kasten points out that recent postseason heroes Daniel Hudson (with the Nationals in 2019) and Steve Pearce (with the Red Sox in 2019) were unheralded additions to their respective teams.

This strikes to the heart of the debate between Kasten and Plaschke, as the latter is concerned that the Dodgers’ focus on sustained success will keep the team from making a direct and concentrated push to end the championship drought in any one given year.  Kasten, by contrast, feels that the team’s approach allows it to be in the hunt every season.

“We won 106 games and came a couple of outs away from beating the team that won the World Series, that doesn’t suggest to me a system that needs to be completely torn apart,” Kasten said.  “What about the renewed pipeline, the old Dodger value of a player pipeline that I think we’ve had a reasonable amount of success at rebuilding?  How about the kids that are homegrown Dodgers?  We have a payroll of $200 million.  How can you call us cheap?  It blows my mind.“

Jae-Hwan Kim To Return To KBO For 2020 Season

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Korean outfielder Jae-Hwan Kim’s posting deadline has come and gone without a contract with a Major League club, according to Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News (Twitter link).  As such, Kim will return to the KBO League’s Doosan Bears for the 2020 season, and he isn’t eligible to be posted again until November.

After being officially posted on December 6, Kim had until 4pm CT today to work out a deal with an MLB team.  Kim’s agency tells Yoo that four Major League clubs had discussions about the outfielder’s services, though the Marlins were the only team publicly known to have interest in Kim, and even that interest may have waned after Corey Dickerson was signed.  It’s possible that clubs weren’t comfortable signing a player they knew relatively little about, as Yoo wrote in another piece earlier this week that “Kim came out of blue to enter the open market via posting, which left surprised major league scouts without detailed reports on the player that they could send to their clubs.”

It isn’t known if Kim will again attempt a jump to North American baseball after the 2020 season, when he’ll be 32 years old.  Regardless if Kim’s future focus is on the Bears or the big leagues, he’ll certainly look to improve on his 115 home runs and .283/.362/.434 slash line over 574 plate appearances last season.  While a respectable performance on paper, it represents a modest showing in the hitter-friendly KBO League, and a big step down from the 116 homers and 1.000+ OPS totals Kim posted from 2016-18.

Nationals Sign Will Harris

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JAN. 3: The Nationals have announced the deal.

JAN. 2: The Nationals have agreed to a deal with free agent right-hander Will Harris, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reports (Twitter link).  The contract is a three-year pact worth $24MM, as per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (via Twitter).  Harris is represented by agent Gavin Kahn.

Reports from earlier today suggested that Harris could be nearing a signing, as he had multi-year offers on the table from more than one team.  Though Harris has a long track record of success, a three-year commitment is significant considering that the righty turned 35 last August, and only two other relievers (Drew Pomeranz and Will Smith) received three or more guaranteed years in free agency this offseason.  MLBTR projected a two-year, $18MM deal for Harris, as we ranked him 22nd on our list of the winter’s top 50 free agents.

The three-year pact was a major factor for Harris, as he told Mark Berman of KRIV Fox 26 (Twitter links).  “The Nationals knew the importance of [the three-year deal] and they kept that on the table & made the decision that much easier,” Harris said.  “We agreed to terms last weekend.  From the beginning of the process the Nationals were pretty high on me.  The interest was mutual.”

While Harris’ age is a natural question mark, he has a pretty clean injury history, with only two IL stints (totaling around six weeks in 2017 due to shoulder inflammation) over his nine MLB seasons.  In that time, he has quietly posted some outstanding numbers, particularly as a member of Houston’s bullpen from 2015-19.  Harris has a 2.36 ERA, 4.38 K/BB rate, and 9.5 K/9 over 297 innings, averaging 59 frames per season.

As you might expect from an Astros pitcher, Harris had an outstanding spin rate (96th percentile) on his fastball in 2019.  His Statcast metrics also place him among the league’s best in curveball spin, hard-hit ball percentage, and xwOBA (.235, with only a .269 wOBA).  Harris has also been consistently good at keeping the ball on the ground during his career, with a 49.6% grounder rate.

Unfortunately for Harris, the most famous pitch of his career is one that he couldn’t keep out of the air — the low fastball that Howie Kendrick just got enough of, as Kendrick launched Harris’ offering off the right field foul pole for the homer that put the Nationals ahead in Game Seven of last year’s World Series.  In some unique baseball irony, Harris will now be joining the team that caused that bad memory, and he’ll even be sharing a clubhouse with Kendrick (who re-signed with the Nats on a one-year deal).

Clearly there aren’t any hard feelings on Harris’ part, and the Nationals are undoubtedly happy to add such a highly-touted reliever to their bullpen.  Washington’s relief corps was a well-publicized mess for much of last season, before Daniel Hudson’s late-season emergence helped stabilize the pen enough to take the Nats through the postseason.  Harris will lineup behind closer Sean Doolittle in 2020, and Harris’ presence now means that he’ll essentially replace Hudson in the District’s pen, Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post tweets.  The Nats were willing to give Hudson more than a one-year guarantee but not more than $6.5MM in average annual value, so they instead spent some extra money to land a more consistent reliever in Harris.

After re-signing Kendrick, Stephen Strasburg, and Yan Gomes, Harris represents the first major new face to join the Nationals this offseason.  The bullpen was unquestionably a major need for the Nats, who also have to figure out vacancies at third base in the wake of Anthony Rendon’s departure, second base, and first base, though Kendrick will be deployed around the infield in some manner and star prospect Carter Kieboom is expected to play a bigger role in 2020.

The $8MM average annual value of Harris’ deal brings Washington’s estimated luxury tax number to just under $184MM, as per Jason Martinez of Roster Resource.  The Nats are still reportedly in the hunt for Josh Donaldson, whose market is now rumored to be in the four-year, $100MM range.  Landing Donaldson, therefore, would put the Nats either right up against or slightly over the $208MM tax threshold, though since the club got under the threshold last season, they would be taxed at only a first-timer rate if they surpassed $208MM this season.  The Nationals slightly exceeded the Competitive Balance Tax line in both 2017 and 2018, though they stayed in the lowest penalty zone (less than $20MM in overage).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Poll: Grade The Twins’ Rotation Moves

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The Twins’ biggest offseason need was no secret — apart from Jose Berrios, every member of their 2019 starting rotation was scheduled to reach free agency.  With Jake Odorizzi, Michael Pineda, and Kyle Gibson all hitting the open market and Martin Perez also becoming a free agent after the Twins bought out their club option, the AL Central champs were faced with both a predicament and something of an opportunity.

While Minnesota starters collectively ranked in the top third or top half of the league in most major statistical categories in 2019, the rotation was seen as more of a solid complement to the team’s big-hitting lineup than as a strength unto itself.  There was certainly room for not just improvement, but significant improvement to the pitching corps, especially for a Twins club that entered the winter with very few future payroll commitments.  As chief baseball officer Derek Falvey told reporters after the season, the club was intent on adding “impact pitching” to its rotation and was open to spending to add those arms.

As the calendar has turned to the new year, Minnesota has indeed restocked its staff with starters both old and new, though on paper, some of that promised “impact” isn’t obviously present.  The first steps were equal parts promising and cost-effective for the Twins — Odorizzi accepted the team’s one-year, $17.8MM qualifying offer rather than test free agency, and then re-signing Pineda for two years and $20MM.

After those familiar faces returned to the fold, however, the Twins faced some long weeks of rumors and missed targets before eventually landing a pair of veterans.  Homer Bailey and Rich Hill each signed one-year contracts with Minnesota on the same day, with Bailey earning $7MM in guaranteed money and Hill pulling in $3MM guaranteed (with hefty incentives).  Bailey got his career on track with a solid 2019 season following multiple rough years with the Reds, while Hill isn’t going to be able to pitch until midseason due to his recovery from primary revision surgery.

The Twins pursued such names as Zack Wheeler, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Madison Bumgarner, Dallas Keuchel, Jordan Lyles, and Japanese hurler Shun Yamaguchi, yet all wound up signing elsewhere.  As for the team’s own remaining free agents, Gibson signed with the Rangers while Perez inked a deal with the Red Sox.  On the trade front, the Marlins’ Elieser Hernandez have been on the radar, though no deal has been completed.  This isn’t to say that Minnesota hasn’t been aggressive, as shown most clearly by their five-year, $100MM offer to Wheeler before the righty instead opted to sign with the Phillies.  But, the free agent pitching market moved much faster (and at higher costs) than expected, leaving the Twins missing out on many of their first-choice options.

Barring any further pickups via trades or free agency, the Twins’ Opening Day rotation now stands as Berrios, Odorizzi, and Bailey, with two of the young trio of Randy Dobnak, Devin Smeltzer, and Lewis Thorpe handling the final two slots.  Pineda is unavailable for the first 39 games of the season while he finishes out a 60-game PED suspension, and when he returns, one of Dobnak/Smeltzer/Thorpe will continue to start until Hill is healthy and ready.  Top prospect Brusdar Graterol also looms as an early-season callup after making his MLB debut in 2019.

It isn’t the slam-dunk collection of upgrades many Twin Cities fans were hoping for, yet it’s also wrong to say that this group doesn’t have any talent.  While Hill’s injury status has long been a question mark, he has pitched like an ace when he has been healthy over the last four years.  Berrios might well rise to true ace status himself, if he can avoid another late-season slump and consistently pitch like he did in the first half of the 2019 season.  Odorizzi and Pineda both pitched well for Minnesota last season, and as a fifth starter option, Bailey isn’t a bad veteran arm to have amidst the younger hurlers.

Also, in not spending big now, the Twins are keeping some financial powder dry so they can spend later, potentially on a midseason trade acquisition if necessary.  Then there’s the additional chance that Minnesota could indeed spread some cash around this offseason, though on another major hitter (such as Josh Donaldson) rather than another pitcher.

What’s your take on Minnesota’s rotation moves?  (Poll link for app users.)

What is your grade for how the Twins have addressed their rotation thus far?
C 45.89% (7,400 votes)
B 22.72% (3,664 votes)
D 21.38% (3,448 votes)
F 7.88% (1,271 votes)
A 2.13% (344 votes)
Total Votes: 16,127

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