Red Sox, Ryan Sherriff Agree To Minor League Deal
Left-hander Ryan Sherriff announced over the weekend that he’s signed with the Red Sox (Twitter link). Presumably, it’s a minor league deal for the southpaw that’ll give him a chance to compete for a job during spring training.
Sherriff, 32, has pitched in parts of four Major League seasons, most recently with the Rays in 2021. He sports a career 3.65 ERA with an 18.7% strikeout rate, 8.8% walk rate and 56% ground-ball rate in 44 1/3 innings at the MLB level. He originally reached the Majors with the 2017 Cardinals and pitched quite well during his debut (3.14 ERA, 15-to-4 K/BB ratio in 14 1/3 innings). However, Sherriff suffered an elbow injury in 2018 that required Tommy John surgery, which wiped out the remainder of his 2018 season.
The Cardinals released Sherriff after that surgery-shortened campaign, at which point he latched on with the Rays on a minor league contract. He made it back to a minor league mound for seven innings in 2019, remained with the organization into the shortened 2020 season, and was back in the big leagues that summer, when he tossed 9 2/3 shutout innings (albeit with only two strikeouts). Sherriff tossed two shutout innings for the Rays in that year’s World Series against the Dodgers.
Sherriff’s 2021 season, however, didn’t prove as fruitful. He pitched just 14 2/3 big league innings and was rocked for 11 runs (nine earned) on 14 hits and nine walks. He struck out 16 batters along the way but also plunked four hitters. He pitched well enough in Triple-A that the Phillies claimed him off waivers after the Rays designated him for assignment, but Sherriff spent the majority of his 2022 season with the Phillies on the injured list due to a shoulder strain.
Though injuries have slowed his career at various junctures, Sherriff boasts a 3.11 ERA in 170 2/3 Triple-A innings and a 3.65 mark in 44 1/3 MLB frames. He’s not a flamethrower (92.3 mph average sinker in 2021) and has below-average strikeout rates, but Sherriff has been a ground-ball machine who’s had success at every level when healthy enough to take the mound.
Joely Rodriguez and Josh Taylor are the Red Sox’ two primary lefty options in the bullpen. There’s not a great deal of depth beyond that pair, so Sherriff could be a viable option at some point if he’s back to full strength.
Twins, Marlins Swap Luis Arraez For Pablo Lopez In Four-Player Trade
Months of rumors about the Marlins’ rotation have finally resulted in some action, as the Marlins have traded right-hander Pablo Lopez, top infield prospect Jose Salas and outfield prospect Byron Chourio to the Twins in exchange for reigning AL batting champion Luis Arraez, per announcements from both clubs.
The core of the trade, for immediate purposes, will see the Twins swap out three years of Arraez for two seasons of Lopez, who’ll immediately be an upgrade to their rotation. The 26-year-old Lopez has come into his own as a quality big league starter over the past three seasons, pitching to a 3.52 ERA with a 25% strikeout rate, a 7% walk rate and a 47.4% ground-ball rate in 340 innings.
Lopez has dealt with some injury issues in his career, thrice landing on the injured list due to shoulder strains. The most recent of those three injuries came in the summer of 2021 and wiped out more than two months of Lopez’s season, but he was injury-free in 2022 when pitching to a career-high 180 innings over the life of 32 starts. Last year’s performance netted Lopez a still eminently affordable $5.45MM salary. He’ll be due one more raise in arbitration in the 2023-24 offseason before reaching free agency following the 2024 campaign — barring an extension, of course.
The newly acquired Lopez will step into a Twins rotation that also includes Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan and Tyler Mahle. Though it was easy to wonder whether Lopez could push Kenta Maeda into a bullpen role after he missed the entire 2022 season on the heels of internal brace surgery on his right elbow in Sept. 2021, The Athletic’s Dan Hayes tweets that Maeda will remain a starter.
The likeliest odd man out of conventional five-man rotation is 27-year-old Bailey Ober, but the towering righty has pitched to a sharp 3.82 ERA in 31 starts to begin his big league career — including a 3.21 mark in 56 innings last season. (Ober missed more than three months due to a severe groin strain.) Alternatively, the Twins could look to deploy a six-man rotation that would help them manage Maeda’s workload and hopefully lead to better health among a starting staff that was generally hampered by injury throughout the 2022 season.
Meanwhile, with Arraez now subtracted from the Twins’ lineup, they’ll lose their leadoff man, one of their best hitters and one of their primary options at first base and designated hitter. His departure likely opens the door for 25-year-old Alex Kirilloff to slot in as the primary first baseman. Kirilloff, a former first-round pick, ranked as one of the sport’s 10 to 15 best prospects prior to his big league debut, but he’s now undergone wrist surgery in each of the past two seasons, derailing the start to his career. There’s quite a bit of upside there, but quite a bit of risk as well. It’s always possible the Twins look to add another established hitter to help soften the blow of losing Arraez, but the first base and DH markets in free agency have been largely picked over, so if that’s the route they choose, it’ll likely have to come via another trade.
On the other side of the swap, the Marlins will get a left-handed bat to help balance out a heavily right-handed lineup. Arraez brings to Miami perhaps the most impeccable bat-to-ball skills in Major League Baseball, having fanned in just 8.3% of his plate appearances since debuting as a 22-year-old back in 2019. He doesn’t walk at an especially high clip, but Arraez’s mark of 8.7% is still higher than both his strikeout rate and this past season’s league-average 8.2% walk rate.
Arraez, 26 in April, hit .316/.375/.420 with a career-high eight home runs in 2022 and is a lifetime .314/.374/.410 hitter in the Major Leagues. His contact skills are second to none and will likely always allow him to hit for a high average, but the rest of his game is rather limited. Arraez is lacking in power, evidenced by a career .096 ISO (slugging minus batting average), and his average sprint speed is below average, per Statcast.
While he debuted as a second baseman, defensive struggles have left Arraez as something of a position-less nomad. He’s bounced between second base, first base, third base and left field, delivering lackluster defensive grades at each of those spots other than first base. He’ll primarily play second base in Miami, with general manager Kim Ng subsequently announcing that Jazz Chisholm Jr. is moving to center field.
Like Lopez, Arraez has some worrying injury issues on his resume. A torn ACL during his prospect days torched his 2017 season, and he’s been on the injured list three times since Opening Day 2020 due to knee troubles as well. Arraez also spent a week on the 7-day concussion IL in 2021 and missed nearly three weeks of that season due to a shoulder strain.
Arraez is arbitration-eligible for the second time this offseason and, as a Super Two player, still has two years of arbitration remaining beyond the current campaign. He and the Twins couldn’t come to terms on an agreement prior to last week’s deadline to exchange arbitration figures; the Twins filed at a $5MM mark, while Arraez’s camp countered with a $6.1MM submission. Now that he’s with a new team, it’s possible Arraez could agree to a one-year deal somewhere between those points, or perhaps even discuss a lengthier pact. If not, his subsequent arbitration raises will take his salary north of $10MM by his final year of club control, in 2025.
For the Marlins, dropping Lopez from the rotation positions them to deploy a starting five of Sandy Alcantara, Jesus Luzardo, Trevor Rogers, Edward Cabrera and Braxton Garrett, with several intriguing arms still waiting in the wings behind that quintet. Arraez will deepen and strengthen what’s been a lackluster Miami lineup, and the organization’s rotation depth is strong enough to withstand the loss of Lopez.
There’s little doubting, however, that the defense will suffer from both the acquisition of Arraez and last week’s trade of Miguel Rojas. The Marlins now look set to play Joey Wendle at shortstop, while Chisholm will have to learn a brand new center field position on the fly. Overall, the gambit of dropping Rojas and adding Arraez in the name of balancing and improving the lineup could have the unfortunate side effect of dropping Miami from a middle-of-the-pack defensive club to one of the worst in the National League.
The prospects in the deal are both long-term plays for the Twins, making them somewhat curious secondary pieces for a team that’s clearly bidding for immediate contention in the wake of their stunning deal to re-sign Carlos Correa. That said, recent trades for Mahle, Gray and others have thinned out the Twins’ system in considerable fashion, so backfilling with some youthful talent helps straddle the line of building for both the short- and long-term.
Salas is particularly well regarded, originally signing for a $2.8MM bonus and currently ranking fourth in Miami’s system at Baseball America. He’s a shortstop for the time being, though BA’s scouting report suggests a move to third base is possible, depending on the extent to which his still-lean frame grows. The switch-hitting Salas batted .250/.339/.384 against vastly older competition in 2022, splitting the year between Class-A and Class-A Advanced despite only turning 19 this past April.
Salas connected on nine homers and swiped 33 bases in 109 games. Scouting reports on Salas tout his work ethic, his feel for contact and the potential for at least average power. He’ll immediately become one of the Twins’ top overall prospects, but he won’t add any value to their 2023 club (aside from perhaps giving them more flexibility when it comes to negotiating additional trades).
Chourio is even younger, having just signed as an amateur out of Venezuela one year and five days ago. Despite playing the season at just 17 years old, the switch-hitting outfielder took the Dominican Summer League by storm, raking at a .344/.429/.410 clip with a homer, nine doubles, 19 steals and nearly as many walks (25) as strikeouts (27) in 217 plate appearances.
Chourio won’t even turn 18 until May, so even wildly optimistic projections would have him three years away from being a legitimate big league possibility, and it’s quite likely that he’s even further off than that. Still, there’s plenty to like about him despite the lack of proximity to the Majors. In addition to his eye-catching pro debut, Baseball America’s Ben Badler touted Chourio’s physical projection, strong throwing arm, center field instincts and balanced swing when reviewing the Marlins’ international signing class last year.
Today’s trade puts an end to months of speculation and rumors regarding Lopez, who finally knows where he’ll spend at least the next two seasons of his career. It remains possible, given Miami’s depth and the needs they have elsewhere on the roster, that they could further tap into that group in an effort to bolster the lineup and reshape an increasingly questionable defense. On the Twins’ end of things, Lopez isn’t clearly better than any of their in-house options, but they’ll add another mid-rotation arm to a starting staff deep in comparable talents, helping to safeguard against injury and adding some stability beyond the current season, when each of Gray, Mahle and Maeda can become free agents. They’ll also restock a farm system that’s been taxed by recent trades, but the swap feels more like a next step than the final piece of an offseason puzzle.
Ken Rosenthal and Dan Hayes of The Athletic first reported the two teams were progressing toward a deal involving Arraez and Lopez. ESPN’s Jeff Passan reported the deal was done. Craig Mish of SportsGrid and the Miami Herald reported the names of the two prospects going back to Minnesota (Twitter links).
Pirates Designate Miguel Andujar For Assignment
The Pirates have designated infielder/outfielder Miguel Andujar for assignment in order to make space on the roster for Andrew McCutchen, tweets Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Andujar, 27, came to the Pirates late in the 2022 season after being designated for assignment by the Yankees and turned in a .250/.279/.389 batting line in 40 plate appearances down the stretch. It wasn’t a particularly robust showing from the 2018 American League Rookie of the Year runner-up, but it was enough for Pittsburgh to tender a contract to the arbitration-eligible Andujar and eventually agree to a $1.525MM salary for the upcoming season.
As the offseason has progressed, however, the Bucs have continued to add players who’ll cut into Andujar’s would-be playing time. First came the acquisition of first baseman Ji-Man Choi in a trade with the Rays — a move that was quickly followed by the signing of Carlos Santana. That pair of pickups pushed Andujar out of the first base/designated hitter mix and, with Ke’Bryan Hayes locked in at third base, left Andujar as either an outfielder or a bench option. Both those roles were further muddied by this week’s reunion with McCutchen, however.
It’s been a long road for Andujar, who hit .297/.328/.527 and blasted 27 home runs when he finished second to Shohei Ohtani in that previously mentioned Rookie of the Year voting. Since that time, he’s undergone shoulder surgery, seen his role with the Yankees filled by free-agent and trade acquisitions, and bounced to the Pirates when the Yankees finally ran out of chances for him.
Andujar has managed only a .230/.257/.324 batting line in 416 big league plate appearances since that brilliant debut campaign, due in part to both injuries and infrequent playing time. He’s remained a productive hitter in Triple-A, however, evidenced by a career .303/.351/.507 batting line at that level — including a .285/.330/.487 output this past season in Scranton. He’s also become a more versatile player in an effort to get back to the big leagues, adding first base and left field to his defensive skill set.
That said, Andujar will soon turn 28, is out of minor league options, and now comes with that $1.525MM salary for any team that wishes to claim him. All of that gives the Pirates a decent chance of passing him through waivers. Andujar has enough service time to reject an outright assignment in favor of free agency if he does indeed clear, but doing so would mean forfeiting that $1.525MM guarantee, which seems unlikely. There’s a good chance the Buccos will be able to retain him in Triple-A Indianapolis and bring him back to the Majors whenever injuries necessitate such a move. For now, however, they’ll have several days to survey the trade market before deciding whether to place him on waivers. We’ll know a resolution to his DFA status within a week’s time.
Cardinals Sign Tres Barrera To Minor League Deal
The Cardinals and catcher Tres Barrera are in agreement on a minor league contract, reports FanSided’s Robert Murray (via Twitter). The Ballengee Group client will receive an invitation to big league camp in Spring Training, where he’ll vie for a backup job to offseason signee Willson Contreras. The Cards announced the signing not long after Murray’s initial report.
Formerly a sixth-round pick by the Nationals, Barrera is a 28-year-old right-handed hitter who’s spent his entire career to date with the same organization. He’s appeared in parts of three big league seasons with Washington, batting a combined .231/.317/.315 in 162 trips to the plate. He spent the bulk of the 2022 season in Triple-A Rochester, where he batted .254/.338/.424 in 206 plate appearances.
Barrera sports a solid 25% caught-stealing rate in his minor league career, though he’s somewhat surprisingly thrown out just nine percent of attempted thieves in the big leagues. That’s come in a small sample, of course, and Baseball Prospectus has generally rated Barrera as solid or better in terms of both pitch framing and blocking balls in the dirt throughout his time in the minors and the big leagues.
The starting gig behind the plate is obviously spoken for in St. Louis after Contreras inked a five-year contract, and as things stand, Andrew Knizner is the presumptive backup. Barrera can team with top catching prospect Ivan Herrera to form a Triple-A catching duo and give the Cards some experienced depth in the upper minors.
Pirates Sign Andrew McCutchen
Andrew McCutchen‘s career has come full circle. The Pirates on Friday formally announced that they’ve re-signed the franchise icon to a one-year contract for the 2023 season. McCutchen will reportedly earn a $5MM salary on the deal.
“We are thrilled to be able to reunite with Andrew,” Pirates owner Bob Nutting said in a statement within today’s press release. “His return just feels right. It is right for our team, for Andrew and his family, for our fans and for the game of baseball. Andrew is a special player and person. It is going to be exciting to again see him take the field wearing 22 in the black and gold.”
It’s a feel-good story for Bucs fans, who’ll surely give the five-time All-Star and 2013 National League MVP a hero’s welcome in his return to PNC Park. The Pirates selected McCutchen, now 36 years old, with the No. 11 overall pick in the 2005 draft. He immediately ranked among the sport’s top overall prospects after a strong post-draft showing in the minors in ’05, and by 2009 he’d reached the Majors and played his way into a fourth-place Rookie of the Year finish in the National League, hitting .286/.365/.471.
That served as a stepping stone into stardom for McCutchen, who’d spend the first nine seasons of his career in black and gold, hitting a combined .291/.379/.487 with 203 home runs, 292 doubles, 44 triples and 171 stolen bases. A true cornerstone player, McCutchen led the Pirates to their three most recent postseason appearances, in 2013, 2014 and 2015 — each a Wild Card berth. Pittsburgh only advanced in one of those three seasons, topping the Reds in a one-game Wild Card showdown in 2013 before falling to the Cardinals in that year’s NLDS.
McCutchen signed an early extension with Pittsburgh — a six-year, $51.5MM contract with a club option for a seventh season. That gave the Bucs some extra club control and cost certainty over a player who was then the face of the franchise, but as is so often the case with the Pirates and other low-payroll clubs, McCutchen surfaced as a trade candidate in the late stages of that contract. Nearly six years after that extension was signed, McCutchen was traded to the Giants in what was an unpopular move at the time but now looks like perhaps the best swap in former GM Neal Huntington’s tenure. In order to acquire the final year of McCutchen’s contract, the Giants parted with right-hander Kyle Crick and the man who eventually replaced McCutchen in the outfield: current center fielder Bryan Reynolds.
Since leaving the Pirates and entering his mid-30s, McCutchen’s production has begun to wane. He proved plenty productive in a 2018 season split between the Giants and Yankees — enough to land a three-year, $50MM contract with the Phillies. The first season of that deal saw continued production early on, but McCutchen suffered a torn ACL that June, missed the remainder of the season, and has since settled in closer to league-average in terms of offensive output. Over the past three seasons, he’s a .234/.325/.417 hitter — about three percent better than league average, by measure of wRC+.
McCutchen spent the 2022 campaign with Milwaukee and scuffled to a career-low .237/.316/.384 batting line in 580 trips to the plate. Even as McCutchen’s bat began to slow down in his post-Pirates days, he remained a potent threat against left-handed pitching, hitting southpaws at a .291/.407/.567 slash from 2019-21. However, that trend also dipped with the Brewers in 2022, as McCutchen turned in a tepid .221/.303/.434 line even when holding the platoon advantage. The Pirates will hope that was more of a BABIP-driven anomaly (.248) than the beginning of a true decline.
McCutchen served as the Brewers’ primary option at designated hitter last season (82 games) but also logged 50 games in the outfield. He hasn’t topped 93 innings of center field work since 2017, his last year with the Pirates, though, and at 36 years old it doesn’t seem likely that he’ll return to logging meaningful time at his former position.
There will naturally be some speculation about the signing of McCutchen and whether it serves as a portent for a subsequent trade of Reynolds, who requested one earlier this offseason due to a sizable gap in extension negotiations with the team. However, logic dictates that there’s no real connection here; McCutchen can’t play center field regularly at this point in his career, and even if Reynolds were traded, the Bucs would surely reallocate much of that playing time to younger outfield options they hope can be part of the team’s core moving forward.
Rather, McCutchen will likely get occasional looks at designated hitter, though with Pittsburgh already acquiring first basemen Ji-Man Choi and Carlos Santana this offseason, one of those two figures to be the main option at DH. McCutchen gives the Pirates’ outfield mix a complementary right-handed bat to pair with lefty-swinging corner options like Jack Suwinski, Cal Mitchell and Canaan Smith-Njigba, but his impact on the decision of whether to trade or retain Reynolds ranges between minimal to nonexistent.
Beyond the contributions he’ll make on the field and the mentorship he’ll provide to several up-and-coming young Pirates, McCutchen will give fans plenty to cheer for in 2023 as he chases down multiple career milestones. He’s just 52 hits shy of reaching 2000 in his career, and he’s only 13 home runs shy of 300. McCutchen slugged 17 home runs last year and hasn’t hit fewer than 13 in a full season’s worth of games in his career to this point, so he’s a good bet to reach both round numbers this year.
The Pirates don’t project as contenders this season, and McCutchen isn’t likely to push them over that edge, but the team has spent more this winter than in recent years. Pittsburgh has acquired Choi (projected $4.35MM salary) and signed free agents Santana ($6.725MM), Rich Hill ($8MM), Austin Hedges ($5MM), Vince Velasquez ($3.15MM) and Jarlin Garcia ($2.5MM). It’s still a modest slate of expenditures by MLB standards, but McCutchen will take them north of $30MM in added payroll this winter. Contrast that with last offseason’s $16.225MM in spending and the $2.5MM total they spent in free agency during the 2020-21 offseason, and the Bucs are at least on an upward trajectory as they look to buttress their young roster with some steady veterans who can raise the team’s floor.
Even with those additions, Pittsburgh’s payroll won’t reach $80MM, so they only deserve so much praise for taking more earnest strides to put a winning product on the field. That said, that low number still creates the possibility for further veteran additions, be it via the free-agent or trade markets.
Regardless, the Pirates should be an improved team in 2023 — due both to contributions from those new acquisitions and to larger, more productive roles from prospects acquired over the course of the rebuild. There’s surely hope that hopeful cornerstone infielders Ke’Bryan Hayes and Oneil Cruz will take steps forward, and the Pirates could plausibly welcome names like Endy Rodriguez, Liover Peguero, Quinn Priester and others to the big leagues for lengthy auditions. The allure of young talent alone gave Pittsburgh fans something to look forward to in 2023, but the return of a beloved franchise figure and one of the best players in recent Pirates adds an extra layer of sentimentality and, hopefully, another productive bat.
Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette first reported the agreement and the terms of the contract.
Twins Re-Sign Dereck Rodriguez To Minor League Deal
The Twins have re-signed righty Dereck Rodriguez to a minor league contract, as announced by agent Gavin Kahn of Enter Sports Management (Twitter link).
Rodriguez, 30, will head back for a third stint with the organization that originally selected him in the sixth round of the 2011 draft. After a three-year stretch with the Giants from 2018-20 and a one-year stop in the Rockies organization in 2021, Rodriguez signed back with the Twins for the 2022 campaign. He tossed 7 2/3 innings at the big league level and allowed three runs (3.52 ERA), also contributing another 94 2/3 frames of 4.75 ERA ball in Triple-A St. Paul.
The son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez, Dereck has appeared in parts of four Major League campaigns, working to a collective 4.24 ERA with a 16.9% strikeout rate, an 8% walk rate and a 41% ground-ball rate. He averaged 92 mph on his heater during last year’s brief look, primarily pairing it with a slider and curveball.
In parts of four Triple-A seasons, Rodriguez has a 5.01 ERA, though that’s skewed by his one catastrophic year with the Rockies, where he was rocked for a 6.72 ERA. He sports a combined 4.17 ERA in his other three Triple-A seasons and has generally posted respectable strikeout and walk rates there: 22.9% and 7.3%, respectively.
The Twins’ big league rotation figures to consist of Sonny Gray, Joe Ryan, Tyler Mahle, Kenta Maeda and Bailey Ober, although Maeda will be returning after a year-long absence owing to internal brace surgery to repair the UCL in his pitching elbow, so he shouldn’t be expected to necessarily work a full starter’s workload. The Twins are deep in alternative options on the 40-man roster, with Josh Winder, Simeon Woods Richardson and Louie Varland among the prospects who reached the Majors for the first time in 2022, and it’s feasible that recently extended righty Chris Paddack could return from Tommy John surgery in the season’s second half.
It’s a solid collection of arms but one that generally lacks a prototypical front-of-the-rotation presence. Rodriguez will join names like Jose De Leon, Randy Dobnak and Brock Stewart as non-roster depth options in the upper minors. Given the health troubles the Twins experienced in 2022, it’s only sensible to see them further stockpiling depth — particularly when it comes in the form of a pitcher they’ve known for quite some time.
Cubs Designate Anthony Kay For Assignment
The Cubs announced Friday that left-hander Anthony Kay has been designated for assignment in order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster for first baseman/outfielder Trey Mancini, whose previously reported two-year, $14MM deal is now official. The 27-year-old Kay’s stay in the organization could prove quite brief, as he was only claimed off waivers from the Blue Jays back on Dec. 23.
Kay, whom the Mets originally drafted with the No. 31 overall pick back in 2016, made his way from New York to Toronto by way of the Marcus Stroman trade and has spent parts of four seasons in the Majors with the Jays. He’s struggled in each, compiling a 5.48 ERA with a solid 23.6% strikeout rate but a bloated 11.6% walk rate in that time. Home runs have been a bit of an issue, as he’s yielded 1.27 long balls per nine frames, but he’s also been plagued by a bloated .340 average on balls in play that points to at least some degree of poor fortune. That appears especially true, given that Kay has yielded just an 87.5 mph average exit velocity and a 34.8% hard-hit rate in his career — both comfortably better than the league-average marks over the past few years.
Interestingly, it’s been fellow lefties who’ve tormented Kay to this point in his big league career. Same-handed opponents have crushed Kay to the tune of a .319/.398/638 batting line in 108 career plate appearances, while righties have hit him at a .251/.352/.390 clip. That line from right-handers is still concerning, particularly the OBP aspect, but if Kay were able to shut down lefties like so many other southpaws, he could yet develop into a serviceable bullpen option.
Kay has averaged better than 94 mph on his fastball over the past two seasons and has consistently generated above-average spin on the pitch — but opponents have still batted .301/.409/.526 against it in his career. He’s gotten far better results with his curveball (.186/.239/.326), which was perhaps part of his appeal to the Cubs in the first place.
Kay has one minor league option year remaining and was once a fairly well-regarded pitching prospect, so it’s possible another team will look to bring him into the fold via the waiver wire. The Cubs will have a week to trade him or pass him through outright waivers. If he goes unclaimed, he’ll remain with the organization and likely head to spring training as a non-roster invitee.
Giants, Ronald Guzman Agree To Minor League Deal
The Giants have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent first baseman Ronald Guzman, as first indicated on the transaction log at MiLB.com.
Guzman, 28, was considered one of the top prospects in the Rangers organization before making his Major League debut in 2018, but he’s yet to produce much in the Majors, slashing .225/.302/.411 with a 29.2% strikeout rate against an 8.8% walk rate in 832 trips to the plate. He spent the 2022 season with the Yankees organization, mostly playing with their Triple-A affiliate, where he slashed .255/.344/.478 (116 wRC+) in 105 games and 373 plate appearances. Guzman did receive a brief look late in the 2022 campaign as the Yanks dealt with injuries, but he logged just six trips to the plate in three games and went hitless along the way.
The depth chart in San Francisco has several players ahead of Guzman at first base, including LaMonte Wade Jr. and J.D. Davis, who could share time at the position in platoon fashion early in the 2023 season. Veteran utilityman Wilmer Flores is no stranger to the position either, having logged 1627 innings at first base, including 482 frames across the past two seasons. They’ll likely be the primary options at the position. Austin Slater could be more of an emergency option as well, given his 203 career innings at first, but he’s played exclusively in the outfield dating back to the 2020 campaign.
The Giants were lacking in first base depth in the upper minors, however, and Guzman will give them an experienced player with a track record of solid production in Triple-A. He’s spent parts of five seasons at the minor leagues’ top level, tallying 1150 total plate appearances and posting a solid .280/.360/.449 batting line with a 21.1% strikeout rate, an even 10% walk rate, 34 home runs, 61 doubles and four triples along the way.
Adam Warren Announces Retirement
Right-hander Adam Warren confirmed to Bryan Hoch of MLB.com yesterday that he’s retired as a player after spending parts of eight seasons in the Majors (Twitter link, with video, to Hoch’s interview with Warren). Warren, who was making an appearance at Yankees Fantasy Camp, told Hoch that he’s been enjoying time with his family but also misses being around the game and would be open to “maybe getting into some kind of coaching” role in the future.
“There’s no more attempt to come back or anything like that,” Warren replied upon being asked if he’s formally put an end to his playing career. “I’m happy with it. I had a great career — didn’t really leave anything out there, so no regrets. Totally happy with it.”
Originally signed by the Yankees as a fourth-round pick out of UNC back in 2009, Warren made his big league debut as a 23-year-old in 2012 — a spot start that proved to be his lone MLB appearance that season. He made the Opening Day roster the following year, however, and quickly established himself as a pivotal swingman providing quality, multi-inning relief out of then-manager Joe Girardi’s bullpen. Warren’s official rookie season resulted in 77 innings of 3.39 ERA ball; he made two starts, finished 11 games and picked up his first Major League win, save and hold along the way, foreshadowing the jack-of-all-trades approach to pitching that he’d embody throughout his career.
Warren worked as a setup man for the Yankees in 2014, tallying 23 holds and saving three games while pitching to a sharp 2.97 ERA in 78 2/3 innings. He stepped into the rotation for part of the 2015 season and did so almost seamlessly, starting 17 games (plus another 26 relief appearances) and working to a 3.29 ERA over the life of a career-high 131 2/3 frames. His early Yankees work caught the attention of the Cubs, who acquired him that offseason in a trade that sent Starlin Castro to the Bronx.
Warren’s time with the Cubs in 2016 went poorly and proved to be short-lived, as he was knocked around for a 5.91 ERA. As the trade deadline approached, the Cubs, then hoping to bolster the roster for a World Series push (an endeavor that ultimately proved successful) quickly traded Warren … back to the Yankees, as one of four players in a package that shipped Aroldis Chapman to Chicago. Warren almost immediately righted the ship in his return to the Bronx, and he went on to have strong performances with the Yankees in both 2017 and 2018 before being traded to the Mariners, where he had a nice finish to his 2018 campaign.
Upon reaching free agency, Warren signed with the Padres, but his time in San Diego was marred by injury. After just 25 appearances, the right-hander landed on the injured list with an arm issue that ultimately proved to be a ligament tear in his pitching elbow. He underwent Tommy John surgery that year, rehabbed in 2020 and eventually made his way back to the mound for a third stint with the Yankees organization — this time with their Triple-A affiliate in 2021.
Though Warren posted solid results in Scranton that season — 3.59 ERA in 57 2/3 innings — he didn’t receive a call to the big leagues. Warren told Hoch that “the velocity never came back like I wanted it to.” That season proved to be the final chapter in his playing career, as Warren didn’t suit up for the 2022 campaign and now, at 35 years old, doesn’t appear to be contemplating a comeback.
Warren’s career draws to an official close with a 3.53 ERA, a 20.9% strikeout rate, an 8.3% walk rate, a 30-24 record, 57 holds and six saves over the course of 492 1/3 innings. He pitched for four different big league clubs, but fans will surely remember him as a versatile, quietly excellent member of the Yankees’ pitching staff who found success in just about every role asked of him. Baseball-Reference pegs his career earnings at approximately $11.5MM, and if Warren indeed plans to pursue potential coaching opportunities, there’ll surely be chances for him to add to that tally in the next phase of his career.
Yankee fans will want to check out the entire clip of Hoch’s chat with Warren, as he talks briefly about his favorite moments in pinstripes and notes that with so many great teammates over the years, “it’s just nice to be remembered” by fans with whom he interacts. That humble mentality undersells the right-hander’s importance to the Yankees’ staff during his run with the club, and it seems quite safe to say that their fans in particular will have plenty of fond memories Warren’s time in the Bronx. Best wishes to Warren and his family in whatever’s next, and congratulations on a very fine career.
Marlins Designate Daniel Castano For Assignment
The Marlins have designated left-hander Daniel Castano for assignment, tweets Daniel Alvarez Montes of El Extra Base (Twitter link). Castano’s spot on the roster will go to right-hander Johnny Cueto, whose previously reported one-year, $8.5MM contract has now been made official. Cueto was formally introduced this morning at Miami’s loanDepot Park.
Castano, 28, was one of four players the Marlins acquired in the heist that sent Marcell Ozuna to St. Louis, coming to Miami alongside Sandy Alcantara, Zac Gallen (since traded for Jazz Chisholm Jr.) and Magneuris Sierra. The left-hander has appeared in each of the past three seasons with the Marlins, logging a combined 3.89 ERA in 85 2/3 innings of work.
That solid ERA, however, has been accompanied by a 12% strikeout rate that ranks as the lowest of any pitcher in baseball dating back to 2020 (min. 80 innings). Castano has partially offset that lack of missed bats with a better-than-average 7.5% walk rate, a solid 44.7% ground-ball rate and a repeated knack for avoiding hard contact; his career 87.6 mph exit velocity, 7% barrel rate, 35.9% hard-hit rate (all as measured by Statcast) are each better than those of the average MLB hurler. Still, fielding-independent metrics like FIP (4.86) and SIERA (5.28) are more bearish on the left-hander than his more rudimentary ERA.
Castano’s 12.8% strikeout rate in the big leagues this past season was right in line with his career mark, but that’s a bit odd to see, given that he also overhauled his pitch mix and experienced a sharp uptick in strikeouts in Triple-A. Castano moved away from his four-seamer and sinker in favor of a cutter that he tossed at a hefty 41% clip. In Triple-A, the shift in his repertoire perhaps contributed to a career-best 26.4% strikeout rate. That wasn’t necessarily in a tiny sample, either; Castano’s 34 Triple-A frames were almost an exact match for his 35 2/3 Major League innings. It stands to reason, then, that even if Castano won’t see his MLB strikeout rate climb to quite those same heights, there’s perhaps reason to believe there’s more bat-missing ability in the tank than he’s shown in the Majors just yet.
Unfortunately for Castano, injuries robbed him of the chance to display more of that new-look cutter down the stretch. Castano landed on the shelf with a concussion in late July after being struck in the head by a 104 mph liner, and while he was working his back from that frightening scene, the Marlins discovered a small tear in his shoulder. He didn’t require surgery but also did not pitch again in 2022.
The Marlins will now have a week to trade Castano or attempt to pass him through outright waivers. He’s out of minor league options, so any team that acquires him will need to carry him on the roster or else try to pass Castano through waivers themselves. That said, he’s a lefty with a starter’s pedigree and some success in the upper minors, solid command and weak contact rates in the big leagues, and a somewhat intriguing new pitch that he began to lean on this past season. He can also be controlled for five more seasons. It’s certainly feasible that a pitching-needy club could place a claim or work out a small trade to acquire Castano.