Yankees To Sign Tyler Duffey
The Yankees have agreed to a deal with right-hander Tyler Duffey, reports Jon Heyman of the New York Post (Twitter link). A source tells MLBTR that it’s a minor league contract for Duffey, so he won’t go directly onto the 40-man roster. So long as it’s finalized/official prior to midnight, he’d be eligible for their postseason roster. Duffey, a client of the Ballengee Group, opted out of a minor league deal with the Rangers earlier this week.
It’s been a tough season for Duffey, who was released by the Twins — the only organization he’d known to that point in his career — earlier this summer. Once a standout setup man in Minnesota, where he pitched to a 2.31 ERA with a 34.2% strikeout rate against just a 6.1% walk rate in 81 2/3 innings from 2019-20, Duffey saw his results take a step back in 2021 before they completely cratered in 2022.
Duffey, 31, still notched a tidy 3.18 ERA in ’21 but did so with diminished velocity and strikeout/walk rates that aggressively trended in the wrong direction (24% and 11%, respectively). Things unraveled entirely this season, as Duffey was hammered for a 4.91 ERA and allowed an average of 1.64 homers per nine innings pitched, losing a high-leverage spot with the Twins and primarily being relegated to lower-leverage work prior to being cut loose. Duffey did toss five shutout frames with the Rangers’ Triple-A affiliate during his brief stop with Texas, albeit with an unsightly 5-to-4 K/BB ratio.
This year’s 92.3 mph average fastball velocity is Duffey’s lowest since he became a full-time reliever, and his 21.1% strikeout rate is his lowest mark since 2018. To Duffey’s credit, both his 11.1% swinging-strike rate and 32.4% opponents’ chase rate on pitches off the plate are both right in line with the 2022 league averages. He’s struggled, however, to get ahead in counts and has paid the price for it; at his peak, Duffey threw a first-pitch strike to just shy of 68% of his opponents. He’s done so at just a 60% clip in 2022 — the worst full-season mark of his career. Working behind in the count more than ever before while pitching with a fastball that’s down nearly two miles per hour from its 2019 peak hasn’t been a recipe for success.
That said, there’s little harm in taking a low-cost look at Duffey just before rosters expand. The former fifth-round pick isn’t far removed from being a very solid late-inning piece for the Twins, and he’ll only cost the Yankees the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the Major League roster. That amount would be subtracted from the $793K still owed to him by Minnesota, but the Twins will remain on the hook for the vast majority of what’s yet to be paid out on this season’s $3.8MM salary for Duffey, who’ll be a free agent at season’s end.
Duffey is the third right-hander to join the Yankees organization on a minor league pact in the past 24 hours. Both Chi Chi Gonzalez and Jacob Barnes agreed to minor league contracts with the Yanks just last night. Because they signed prior to Sept. 1, any of that trio would be postseason-eligible, although they’d technically need league approval to be added to the roster as an injury replacement if they’re not on the 40-man roster before midnight tonight.
The Guardians’ Other Star Infielder
At this point, it’s not much of a surprise to write that Jose Ramirez is having an MVP-quality season. He’s not a frontrunner in 2022 — not with the season Aaron Judge is having — but Ramirez is hitting .283/.353/.548 with 26 home runs, 14 steals, 38 doubles, four triples, 106 runs knocked in and anywhere from average to plus defense at the hot corner, depending of your metric of choice. He ranks 11th among Major League position players in wins above replacement, per Baseball Reference, and seventh, per FanGraphs. It’s a Jose Ramirez season that’s so typical we’ve almost become numb to it.
It’s also, arguably, only the second-best season being enjoyed by a Guardians infielder.
Andres Gimenez can’t go to-to-toe with Ramirez’s power or his run-production numbers — particularly since he’s had 107 fewer plate appearances. I will freely admit that, in my view, Ramirez is having the better season, but there are arguments to the counter. Gimenez leads Ramirez in batting average and on-base percentage, has hit with surprising power, has surpassed him in steals and baserunning value (despite the lower total of plate appearances) and has graded out as one of baseball’s best defensive players, regardless of position. Baseball-Reference credits Gimenez with 5.4 wins above replacement — tied for the fifth-highest mark in the Majors among position players. FanGraphs “only” has him tied for 14th, at 4.7.
Whether Gimenez can sustain this output in future seasons is a far more pertinent debate for the Guardians than whether Gimenez or Ramirez has had the better season. Gimenez is, after all, just a season removed from hitting only .218/.282/.351 through 210 big league plate appearances. Entering the 2022 campaign, Gimenez had slashed just .235/.302/.369 in 117 career games — not exactly a resounding declaration he could be an impact big leaguer.
Those struggles came in Gimenez’s age-21 and age-22 seasons, however. It’s hardly uncommon for players that young to struggle with the transition to the majors, even if they’re former top prospects, which was very much the case with Gimenez. Originally signed by the Mets as an amateur out of Venezuela, Gimenez thrice ranked among the game’s top 100 prospects at Baseball America and at Baseball Prospectus, also making multiple top-100 lists at MLB.com and FanGraphs. Gimenez’s defense and speed always garnered more praise than his bat, but he was projected as a potential everyday middle infielder. He was regarded highly enough to be one of the key pieces sent from New York to Cleveland in the trade that made Francisco Lindor a Met.
So, what’s changed for Gimenez in 2022? For starters, he’s simply making more contact. After punching out at a 24% clip in 2020-21, he’s down to 20.2% this season. His overall 73.3% contact rate from 2020-21 is up to 75% this season. Looking a bit deeper, he’s both slightly cut back on the rate at which he chases pitches off the plate and greatly increased his contact rate when he does chase. Gimenez struggled against lefties in 2021 but is hitting them at a .289/.352/.458 clip in 2022. It’s only 94 plate appearances, but it’s encouraging that Gimenez has actually fanned less often (17%) against lefties than against right-handers (21.2%).
The quality of contact made by Gimenez has markedly improved, too; he’s seen his line-drive rate rise nearly 10 percentage points, from 12.6% in 2021 to 22.3% in 2022. Gimenez also boasts a better than two mile-per-hour increase in his average exit velocity (88.4 mph, up from 86.3 mph in ’21) and a jump of nearly nine percentage points in his hard-hit rate (39.2%, up from 30.4%) this year. He’s more than doubled his rate of barreled balls, sitting at 7.4% after checking in at 3.6% a year ago.
Granted, those Statcast batted-ball ratings are still below the league average, and even Gimenez’s slightly improved 40.2% chase rate on pitches off the plate ranks among the highest levels in the league. There’s some clear work to be done for him to improve his overall approach, and his 2022 batting line wouldn’t look so rosy were it not for a .354 batting average on balls in play that he’s unlikely to sustain.
Even if his current production looks ripe for some regression, however, it’s hard not to be encouraged by all the positive strides in Gimenez’s game — both on a year-over-year basis and within the confines of the current season. Gimenez’s walk and strikeout rates were fairly dismal early in the season, for instance, sitting at 2% and 24.5%, respectively, through the end of April. Since Memorial Day weekend, he’s walked at a more passable 6.8% clip and logged an 18.6% strikeout rate. Ramirez’s hack-happy approach might always render him with a below-average walk rate, but if he can keep it around seven percent and also continue to put the ball in play at his current rate and with his current level of authority, he’ll be productive even as that aforementioned BABIP normalizes.
Barring the adoption of a more patient approach and/or further gains in terms of raw power, the 2022 campaign could very well represent something of a ceiling for Gimenez. Even if that’s the case, though, it’s quite the ceiling. He’s on pace to finish the year with six to seven wins above replacement, vastly above-average offense, plus baserunning marks and Gold Glove-caliber defense. Gimenez isn’t going to be considered a favorite or finalist in American League MVP voting, but he ought to get some down-ballot votes given just how strong his all-around performance has been.
It’s also possible that Gimenez will see his value to the team increase even further in future seasons, though not necessarily through his own doing. Scouting reports long touted him as a plus defender at either middle-infield spot, but he’s been limited to second base for most of his time in Cleveland thanks to the presence of Amed Rosario. While Rosario has improved his glovework at shortstop this year, he’s still received a mixed bag of defensive grades. Gimenez, meanwhile, has shined at shortstop, turning in marks of 7 Defensive Runs Saved, a 3.0 Ultimate Zone Rating and 8 Outs Above Average in just 634 career innings.
Rosario is due for his final arbitration raise this winter, and it’s feasible that the Guardians, with a bevy of middle-infield prospects and perennial payroll constraints, could look to trade Rosario rather than pay him a raise on this year’s $4.95MM salary. Doing so could open up shortstop for Gimenez, whose offense would be even more valuable at a position higher on the defensive spectrum, while subsequently opening second base for Tyler Freeman or another prospect.
Wherever his defensive home ultimately lies, Gimenez has used the 2022 season to cement himself as a viable big league contributor — not just a regular but an All-Star-caliber player who, at his best, could get some stray MVP votes. He’s controlled for another four seasons beyond the current year, won’t even reach arbitration eligibility until the 2023-24 offseason, and has yet to celebrate his 24th birthday. Ramirez is going to draw all the headlines in the Cleveland infield, but Gimenez has likely earned himself a long-term spot to draw some fanfare alongside his teammate.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Dodgers Expected To Activate Blake Treinen This Week
The Dodgers have been without right-hander Blake Treinen since late April due to a right shoulder injury, but Treinen is set to make one final minor league rehab appearance today and could rejoin the active roster as soon as Friday, tweets Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. The Dodgers will need to open a spot on the 40-man roster, as Treinen is on the 60-day injured list. Treinen is on track to be the second major return for Los Angeles this week, as Clayton Kershaw is also apparently set for reinstatement from the injured list.
Treinen’s return will be a boon to a pitching staff that is currently dealing with key injuries both in the rotation (Kershaw, Walker Buehler, Tony Gonsolin) and in the bullpen (Treinen, Daniel Hudson, Tommy Kahnle, Victor Gonzalez, Yency Almonte). He may not be immediately dropped back into high-leverage spots, but given his track record, Treinen could find his way into such situations before long.
The 34-year-old Treinen was an All-Star with the 2018 A’s when he posted a majestic 0.78 ERA and saved 38 games — good for a sixth-place finish in American League Cy Young voting. However, his results tanked in 2019 (4.91 ERA, career-worst 13.9% walk rate), which prompted the A’s to non-tender him rather than pay a projected $7.8MM salary in hopes of a rebound. The Dodgers had no such qualms, actually paying Treinen a $10MM salary that exceeded arbitration projections by a wide margin. The results were more good than great, but Treinen was brought back on a two-year deal in the 2020-21 offseason and, last season, regained his status as one of the game’s top bullpen arms.
In 2021, Treinen racked up 72 1/3 innings of relief work while pitching to a pristine 1.99 ERA. He fanned 29.7% of his opponents against an 8.7% walk rate and a very strong 52.6% ground-ball rate. He saved seven games and posted an MLB-best 32 holds, regularly working in some of the team’s highest-leverage spots. Treinen went on to hold opponents to just two runs on five hits and two walks with eight strikeouts through 8 2/3 postseason innings.
Treinen’s 2022 season got out to a brief but brilliant start, as he tossed three innings and yielded just one solo homer with no other hits, no walks and five strikeouts. He hasn’t taken the big league mound since that time, but he’s pitched five innings on a Triple-A rehab stint, allowing a pair of earned runs on six hits and a walk with six strikeouts and a 53.3% grounder rate.
Even without Treinen in the mix, the Dodgers still have MLB’s third-lowest bullpen ERA, sitting at just 3.08. Dodgers relievers also have the game’s sixth-best strikeout rate (26.3%), second-lowest walk rate (7.4%) and fifth-lowest HR/9 mark (0.85). Treinen’s return could eventually give Dave Roberts an alternative to inconsistent closer Craig Kimbrel. If Kimbrel holds the ninth inning, Treinen will join lefty Alex Vesia, flamethrowing righty Brusdar Graterol, breakout righty Evan Phillips and deadline pickup Chris Martin in a deep and talented mix of setup arms.
A return to health for Treinen is particularly encouraging for the Dodgers, given that they rolled the dice on an extension for the right-hander back in May, when his status was murkier. Los Angeles preemptively exercised an $8MM option on Treinen for the 2023 season and tacked on another club option for the 2024 campaign.
Outrights: Padlo, Beckham
A couple updates on some recent DFAs to kick off the morning…
- Infielder Kevin Padlo cleared outright waivers and was assigned to Triple-A Indianapolis, the Pirates announced Monday. He has neither a prior outright assignment nor three years of Major League service time, so he won’t have the option of rejecting the assignment. The 26-year-old corner infielder was hitless in 11 plate appearances with the Bucs this year and carries a dismal .109/.163/.152 slash in the Majors on the whole — although that’s come in a tiny sample of just 49 plate appearances. Padlo is a .251/.336/.484 hitter at the Triple-A level (836 plate appearances) and ranked among the top 25 prospects of the Rockies, Rays and Mariners over the past five offseasons, per Baseball America.
- Twins infielder Tim Beckham went unclaimed on waivers and was assigned outright to Triple-A, per the team’s transactions log at MLB.com. Beckham went just 2-for-25 in his limited time with Minnesota but has posted a comical .413/.483/.579 slash with five homers and six doubles in 143 trips to the plate with Triple-A St. Paul so far in 2022. Beckham, who carries a .247/.299/.426 slash in 1776 Major League plate appearances with four different teams, has played all four infield positions in the minors this season and also logged four games in left field with the big league club. He has more than five years of big league service, which would allow him to reject this assignment and look for another opportunity if he desires.
Diamondbacks Release Chris Devenski
Aug. 29: Devenski has been released, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com.
Aug. 26: The Diamondbacks have designated right-hander Chris Devenski for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the active roster will go to righty Reyes Moronta, whom the D-backs claimed off waivers earlier this week.
Devenski, 31, was once one of the American League’s best relievers, dominating with the Astros in 2016-17 and earning the nickname “The Dragon” as he ripped through opposing lineups with lofty strikeout totals and tidy walk rates. Injuries have taken their toll in the seasons since, however, and he’s managed just 21 2/3 Major League frames dating back to the 2020 season.
That includes 10 2/3 innings with the Snakes in 2022, during which time he’s been tagged for nine runs on 14 hits and a walk with nine punchouts. After seeing his average fastball velocity dip to a career-worst 91.5 mph in 2021, Devenski did restore some zip on that heater in 2022, averaging 93.9 mph. That’s roughly in line with the velocity from his peak, but the right-hander’s swinging-strike and opponents’ chase rates are nowhere near his heyday, and he’s allowed hard contact in droves during this year’s small sample. Opponents have posted a 91.8 mph average exit velocity against him, and 51.4% of the balls put into play against Devenski have been hit at 95 mph or harder.
The Diamondbacks will have a week to place Devenski on outright waivers or release him, now that this year’s trade deadline has passed.
Read The Transcript Of Today’s Fantasy Baseball Chat With Brad Johnson
Brad Johnson has been writing about fantasy baseball for more than a decade and has considerable experience in Roto, H2H, dynasty, DFS, and experimental formats. As an expert in the field, Brad participates in the Tout Wars Draft and Hold format and was crowned the league’s winner in 2020. Brad’s writing experience includes RotoGraphs, NBC SportsEDGE, and right here at MLB Trade Rumors. He’s also presented at the First Pitch Arizona fantasy baseball conference.
We’ll be hosting fantasy baseball-focused chats with Brad regularly, and feel free to drop him some questions on Twitter @BaseballATeam as well.
Click here to read a transcript of today’s fantasy baseball chat with Brad!
Rockies Sign Logan Allen To Minor League Deal
The Rockies agreed to a minor league contract with left-hander Logan Allen over the weekend. It was never formally announced by the club, but the signing appears on MLB.com’s transactions log, and Allen in fact made his debut with Colorado’s Triple-A affiliate last night, pitching three innings and allowing three runs.
Allen, 25, was an eighth-round pick by the Red Sox back in 2016 and at times ranked among the better pitching prospects in multiple organizations. Heading into the 2019 season, he ranked among the game’s top 100 prospects on the lists published by each of Baseball America, MLB.com and Baseball Prospectus.
Things haven’t panned out for Allen in the Majors, however. He’s appeared in 33 big league game — 15 of them starts — between San Diego, Cleveland and Baltimore but pitched to an unsightly 5.89 ERA in 96 1/3 frames. He’s punched out 15.5% of his opponents, walked 9.6% of them and kept 46.5% of batted balls against him on the ground. That’s a solid ground-ball rate, but both the walk rate and particularly the strikeout rate are well worse than the league average.
Allen posted sharp numbers all the way through the Double-A level but hasn’t found much in the way of continued success thereafter. The Rox are his third organization of the 2022 campaign, as he began the year with the Guardians before being designated for assignment and claimed by the Orioles in early May. Baltimore passed Allen through waivers after just three appearances on the big league roster, and he was released from the Orioles organization a week ago. He’s surrendered five runs in 7 2/3 Major League innings this year (5.87 ERA) and 23 runs in 24 1/3 frames at the Triple-A level (8.26).
Allen will give the Rockies some experienced depth in the upper minors and could eventually emerge as a big league option for an injury-depleted staff. Veteran righty Chad Kuhl recently returned from a hip injury, but the Rockies lost Antonio Senzatela to a torn ACL last week and also have Ryan Rolison and prospect Helcris Olivarez on the Major League 60-day injured list. Righty Peter Lambert, meanwhile, is on the minor league injured list and hasn’t pitched since June after experiencing renewed discomfort in his surgically repaired elbow.
MLBPA Taking First Steps Toward Unionizing Minor League Players
In what could mark a monumental change for minor league players and for Major League Baseball alike, the Major League Baseball Players Association sent authorization cards to all minor league players late Sunday evening, wherein the minor leaguers were asked to vote on designating the MLBPA as their collective bargaining representatives. ESPN’s Joon Lee first reported that the cards had been sent out, and MLBPA executive director Tony Clark later confirmed to ESPN that the initial steps had been taken by the MLBPA. Evan Drellich of The Athletic has also taken a lengthy look at the matter. The MLBPA has since formally announced, via press release, an effort to unionize minor league players.
In the event that 30% of minor leaguers sign their authorization cards, the cards will be presented to the National Labor Relations Board as a means of displaying the substantial interest in unionization. At that point, an election would be held among minor league players. If a requisite 50% of those who vote do so in favor of the MLBPA becoming the collective bargaining arm of minor league players, the NLRB would subsequently require Major League Baseball to recognize the union. That election would be subject to the NLRB’s administrative process and could take months to advance, however.
In an email to player agents, Clark cited “poverty wages, oppressive reserve rules, discipline without due process, ever expanding off-season obligations, appropriation of intellectual property, substandard attention to player health and safety, and a chronic lack of respect for minor leaguers as a whole” as key factors for minor league players to consider when deciding whether to provide their authorization.
Clark’s email also included various financial data on recent minor league revenues, including an $864MM gross revenue from the 2019 season (prior to the Covid-19 pandemic); the recent sale of a majority stake in the Sacramento River Cats (the Giants’ Triple-A club) and their stadium for more than $90MM; and the fact that the majority of minor leagues salaries, ranging from $4800 annually in Rookie ball to about $15,400 annually in Triple-A, check in shy of the poverty line, as defined by the federal government (Twitter link via Drellich). Those salary figures are in direct contrast to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred’s recent assertion that he “rejects” the notion “that minor league players are not paid a living wage.”
Unionizing the minor leagues would be a massive undertaking for the MLBPA, which until this point has only represented the roughly 1200 players who are on Major League 40-man rosters at a given time. Expanding the union’s ranks to include the minor leagues would add more than four times that many members to the existing group. While it may also seem to present potential conflicts of interest between established players and the fledgling newcomers, an MLBPA official tells MLBTR that the union’s executive board voted “overwhelmingly” in favor of inviting minor leaguers and received no opposition on the matter. Furthermore, the proposed unionization efforts would give minor leaguers their own separate bargaining unit under the MLBPA umbrella, and any minor league CBA would be negotiated independently of the Major League CBA that was completed earlier this year.
The steps toward unionization come on the heels of a class action settlement that saw Major League Baseball pay out $185MM to more than 20,000 players, stemming from a dispute as to whether those players should be compensated for Spring Training. Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption is also once again under a microscope, as bipartisan members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in late June called for a need to reexamine that now-century-old ruling.
Major League Baseball has taken steps in recent years to improve conditions for minor leaguers, most notably requiring teams to provide housing for their minor league players. Of course, many of those changes came only after MLB gutted the minor leagues, eliminating 42 minor league clubs in the 2020-21 offseason.
The MLBPA has been working in conjunction with Advocates For Minor Leaguers, an advocacy group whose mission statement cites a need to establish “fair pay and equitable treatment” for minor league players. “The game of baseball will be better for everyone when minor leaguers have a seat at the table,” Advocates executive director Harry Marino told ESPN.
As part of the joint initiative between the MLBPA and Advocates for Minor Leaguers, Clark and Marino announced this morning that “Each member of the Advocates for Minor Leaguers staff has resigned to take on a new role working for the MLBPA.”
“Minor Leaguers represent our game’s future and deserve wages and working conditions that befit elite athletes who entertain millions of baseball fans nationwide,” Clark said in Monday morning’s statement. “They’re an important part of our fraternity and we want to help them achieve their goals both on and off the field.”
Braves Outright Ryan Goins
TODAY: Goins cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A, the Braves announced.
AUGUST 22: The Braves announced Monday morning that infielder Ryan Goins has been designated for assignment. His removal from the roster clears a path for infielder/outfielder Ehire Adrianza, who has been activated from the 10-day injured list.
Goins, 34, had his contract selected to the Major League roster last week and was on the team for five days but did not appear in a game. The veteran infielder has spent the 2021-22 seasons with the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate in Gwinnett, hitting .233/.305/.330 there last season and .221/.250/.272 there so far in 2022 (250 plate appearances).
Rough as those numbers are, Goins is a versatile defender capable of playing solid defense all around the infield. He’s also a known commodity for Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, who was an assistant GM in Toronto when the Jays drafted Goins in 2009. Anthopoulos was elevated to GM just months after that ’09 draft and was in that position for the first several seasons of Goins’ big league career.
Overall, Goins has appeared in 556 Major League games and tallied 1690 plate appearances, hitting a combined .228/.278/.333 between the Jays, Royals and White Sox in the Majors. He’s also posted plus defensive grades at each of second base, shortstop and third base. Now that he’s been designated for assignment, the Braves will place Goins on outright waivers or release waivers in within the week.