MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Ryan Weber Elects Free Agency
Right-hander Ryan Weber has once again rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency after clearing waivers, the Yankees announced Tuesday. New York designated Weber for assignment for the third time this season back on July 21.
Weber has gone unclaimed on waivers, rejected a minor league assignment and quickly returned to the Yankees on a new minor league deal following each of his prior DFAs, and it wouldn’t at all be surprising to see that same sequence pan out here. Declining the outright assignment is often a formality, allowing veterans of this ilk to quickly scan the league for potential immediate MLB opportunities and perhaps to negotiate a new opt-out date if they ultimately return to the same organization. It’s clear based on how the season has panned out that Weber is comfortable with the Yankees organization and that they find value in hanging onto him as an experienced depth option.
The 31-year-old Weber has now appeared in three games with the Yanks this season — one per stint — and pitched 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball. He’s punched out just two hitters in that time but also allowed only one walk and induced a massive 60.9% ground-ball rate. His most recent appearance saw him pitch three innings of shutout relief against the Red Sox.
Down in Triple-A this year, Weber has pitched to a 2.55 ERA in 24 2/3 innings while logging a terrific 19-to-1 K/BB ratio. Through parts of eight big league seasons, he has a 5.10 ERA 14.7% strikeout rate, 5.2% walk rate and 53.1% grounder rate in a total of 174 2/3 innings.
Brewers Among Teams Interested In Josh Bell
The Brewers are among the growing list of teams with interest in Nationals first baseman Josh Bell, reports SNY’s Andy Martino. Both Martino and Jeff Passan of ESPN suggest that Bell could be among the first notable names to change hands, perhaps sooner than later. Getting a Bell deal completed in the near future would give Washington general manager Mike Rizzo additional time to focus on the deluge of trade interest he’s receiving in star outfielder Juan Soto.
Milwaukee joins the Mets and Astros as teams known to have interest in Bell, a 29-year-old switch-hitter who’s enjoying a .302/.388/.492 batting line in his final season before reaching free agency. Martino reported yesterday that there has not been substantial momentum in talks between the Mets and the Nationals regarding Bell. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, meanwhile, reports that Bell remains a “priority” for the Astros as they look to upgrade amid Yuli Gurriel‘s struggles.
For the Brewers, Bell would serve as both an offensive and defensive upgrade at first base over Rowdy Tellez. Bell has significantly improved as a defensive option at first base in recent years, going from a bottom-five ranked defender to a player who now has slightly above-average ratings at the position. It’s possible that the Brewers’ internal evaluation still favors Tellez, but both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average peg Bell as the better option.
That’s not to say that a Bell acquisition would push Tellez out of a job, but Bell could very well result in Tellez spending more time at designated hitter. A Bell-to-Brewers scenario could prove more worrisome for veteran Andrew McCutchen, who hasn’t performed up to expectations since signing a one-year deal and has uncharacteristically been far worse against left-handed opponents than against righties. Were McCutchen handling lefties as he typically does, a Tellez/McCutchen platoon at DH would appear formidable. That’s not the case, though, as McCutchen’s .230/.281/.402 slash against lefties leaves plenty to be desired.
Bell would give Milwaukee (or any other club) a legitimate middle-of-the-order presence against both lefties and righties. While he’s been better as a left-handed batter (.311/.402/.493), the longtime Pirates slugger has still crushed lefties at a .287/.362/.488 clip this season. Bell had a rough first month of the 2021 season but has generally been outstanding since, hitting at a combined .289/.375/.497 with just a 15.1% strikeout rate and an 11.6% walk rate in his past 920 trips to the plate. Bell hits the ball on the ground more than he should (50.9% in that stretch of 920 PAs), but he’s also seen one in five fly-balls he’s hit during that time leave the yard.
The Nats also figure to have several relievers available, with each of Steve Cishek, Carl Edwards Jr. and Kyle Finnegan a candidate to change hands prior to next Tuesday’s deadline. It’s conceivable that the Brewers or any other team with interest in Bell might also try to pry a bullpen arm loose, though Bell should have sufficient value to net a notable prospect or two on his own.
Yesterday’s MLB/MLBPA failure to reach an agreement on an international draft means that the qualifying offer system will remain in place, meaning the Nats will need to be convinced that whichever prospect(s) they receive in exchange for Bell would outweigh the value of a value of a compensatory pick in the 2023 amateur draft. Bell has been a bargain on a $10MM salary this season, so it stands to reason that the Nats would have little hesitation in making a qualifying offer in the $19MM range in order to ensure that they receive draft compensation when he departs as a free agent. That’s an unlikely scenario, given trade interest in Bell, but it’s worth noting that yesterday’s outcome played into the favor of the Nats and a few other non-contenders who are peddling rental players that look like obvious QO candidates this offseason.
Cubs’ Ian Happ Drawing Significant Trade Interest
Willson Contreras generates the most public speculation among Cubs trade candidates with the deadline a week away, but teammate outfielder Ian Happ has emerged as one of the more in-demand names on the summer market, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports. That’s particularly notable when paired with Happ’s recent acknowledgment that the team has not approached him about a contract extension (link via Patrick Mooney of The Athletic).
Happ is “likely” to be traded within the next week, Passan writes, adding that some interested parties have approached the Cubs about package deals that would see one of Contreras or Happ traded alongside a reliever such as David Robertson or Mychal Givens. (Passan doesn’t specifically mention righty Chris Martin, though as a pending free agent, he’s surely available as well.) More interestingly, Dennis Lin of The Athletic wrote over the weekend that the Padres have expressed interest in adding both Contreras and Happ in the same trade, though the ask on that would surely be immense.
MLBTR’s Anthony Franco explored Happ’s career-best production earlier this month, observing that notable gains in Happ’s plate discipline profile have generated the strongest and most sustainable results of his six big league seasons. Happ has always drawn walks at a high clip, but his penchant for strikeouts has often suppressed his overall value at the plate.
Most notably, as Anthony wrote at the time, Happ has wildly improved upon his contact rates in 2022. His 62.6% contact rate on pitches off the plate is up ten full percentage points from 2021, and his 83.7% contact rate in pitches in the zone is up from 79.9% a year ago. Happ’s 75.9% overall contact rate is less than one percentage point below the league average. That may not sound all that impressive, but pair roughly average contact skills with Happ’s high-end walk rate (10.9%), above-average power and above-average speed, and Happ looks like an increasingly well-rounded player. The switch-hitting Happ has also posted substantially better numbers as a right-handed hitter this season than in years past, and while part of that is due to a sky-high .463 BABIP as a righty, he’s also cut his strikeout rate against left-handers by about six percentage points this year (down to 25.1%).
Defensively, opinions on Happ are going to be a bit more mixed. After bouncing around the diamond more earlier in his career, he’s settled in as Chicago’s left fielder this season, which is his best position. He’s logged 706 of his 718 defensive frames in left this season, with the other 12 coming via a few brief cameos in center. He’s been a scratch defender in 2022, per Statcast’s Outs Above Average, although both Defensive Runs Saved (+5) and Ultimate Zone Rating (+3.9) feel he’s been above-average.
It’s easy enough to see why Happ’s overall skill set would make him an appealing trade chip. He’s at least a solid defender in left — and a balanced switch-hitter with aa .282/.367/.445 batting line in 387 trips to the plate so far this season. His home run power hasn’t been up to previous levels — his nine long balls put him shy of pace to match last year’s career-high 25 — but Happ has already connected on a career-best 24 doubles and tacked on a couple of triples for good measure. Of even greater appeal, however, is the fact that Happ is controlled for an additional season beyond the current campaign.
Assuming Happ is indeed traded, whichever club acquires him can pencil him into left field both for the current postseason push and the entirety of the 2023 season. He’s earning $6.9MM this season and shouldn’t command much more than $10MM in 2023, which makes him affordable for the majority of clubs around the league. Happ also won’t even turn 28 until next month, meaning the former No. 9 overall draft pick is squarely in the typical prime of a hitter’s career.
Whether the Cubs will ultimately pursue the package offers reported by Passan or instead attempt to engineer standalone trades for all of their chips, of course, is entirely dependent on the strength of offers they receive. However, virtually every contender is looking to deepen its bullpen, so it’s only natural to think that a team with interest in Happ would take a two-birds-with-one-stone approach. Each of Robertson, Givens and Martin will be a free agent at season’s end, and each is in the midst of a fine season.
Robertson has drawn the most attention among Cubs relievers in early speculation — as is often the case for those in the vaunted closer role — thanks in large part to a pristine 1.83 ERA and 14 saves on the season. He’s earning a $3.5MM base salary, though he’s on pace to reach all of his incentives (including a $100K trade bonus), which would bring his total salary up to $5.1MM. Still, for a pitcher with his track record and a 31.4% strikeout rate, that’s a reasonable price to pay — even if this year’s 11.9% walk rate is a bit concerning.
The 32-year-old Givens is also earning $3.5MM, but his contract contains $1.25MM of incentives and a $1.5MM buyout on next year’s mutual option, so his ultimate price tag will fall more in the $5.5MM to $6MM range. He’s pitched a 2.79 ERA with a 29.1% strikeout rate and a similarly elevated 11.5% walk rate. Like Robertson, Givens has a long track record as a solid late-inning reliever with roots in the AL East (Orioles).
As for the 36-year-old Martin, his ERA has swelled to 4.50 after yielding five runs through his past 3 2/3 innings, but even looking past that recent slump, he’s touting a brilliant 37-to-4 K/BB ratio in 30 innings so far in 2022. He’s on a $2.5MM salary and probably won’t get the 60 appearances he needs to max out his incentives, but he’s likely to unlock either $400K or $500K of the available bonuses on his incentive-laden contract before becoming a free agent at season’s end.
Athletics’ Sean Murphy Drawing Trade Interest
The rebuilding A’s are getting plenty of interest in catcher Sean Murphy, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic writes in his latest notes column. A deal isn’t necessarily likely, given the 27-year-old’s three remaining seasons of club control beyond the current campaign, but Oakland does have a pair of highly touted catchers progressing through the minors in Shea Langeliers and Tyler Soderstrom. Langeliers, acquired from the Braves in the offseason Matt Olson trade, is particularly close to the big leagues, having slashed .267/.356/.503 with 17 homers, 14 doubles, a pair of triples and five steals (in five tries) through 77 Triple-A games this season.
Because of that remaining club control, Murphy would make sense for contenders and non-contenders alike (as recently explored by MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald). Postseason hopefuls like the Mets, Rays and Guardians (among others) have received poor production from their backstops this season and, speculatively speaking, would be candidates to improve behind the plate. At the same time, current non-contenders with holes or underwhelming production behind the plate could look to Murphy as a potential key contributor for 2023 and beyond. For instance, the Marlins’ efforts to land their catcher of the future have yet to bear fruit, as Jacob Stallings has struggled mightily in his first season with the Fish. Over in Colorado, the three-year extension given to Elias Diaz looks like a misstep, given his .237/.294/.378 batting line and deteriorated defensive ratings.
Murphy is only arbitration-eligible for the first time this winter, so his payroll shouldn’t be much of a consideration for any team looking to acquire him. His exact salary won’t be known until the offseason, but Murphy’s pre-arbitration resume won’t be as decorated as that of fellow trade candidate Willson Contreras, who earned $4.5MM in his first trip through the process. In terms of counting stats, Murphy currently compares favorably to Mitch Garver‘s pre-arb platform — Garver earned $1.875MM — but he still has the remainder of the season to add to those totals. Murphy’s 2021 Gold Glove Award will deservedly work in his favor, likely pushing him a ways past that Garver point, but generally speaking, he’s not going to break the bank in terms of salary just yet.
While few teams are going to dramatically alter their valuation based on a couple weeks of playing time, a well-timed hot streak like the one Murphy is currently enjoying can’t hurt the A’s and could give them a slight bit more leverage when negotiating secondary pieces in a potential trade. Murphy has been on fire in July, hitting .333/.395/.515 with a pair of homers and six doubles in 72 trips to the plate. Dating back to June 1, he’s at .291/.354/.454. It’s an arbitrary cutoff, but Murphy’s strong summer reminds that he’s one of the more well-rounded catchers in the game.
Defensively, Murphy is a 2021 Gold Glover who currently boasts a 34% caught-stealing rate and a pair of pickoffs this season. He’s tallied 12 Defensive Runs Saved over the past three seasons, posting perennially strong framing marks along the way. He’s yielded only two passed balls since Opening Day 2021 despite ranking fifth among all Major Leaguers with 1553 innings caught in that time.
It bears repeating that there’s little urgency for Oakland to move Murphy, who’ll be affordable again next season and should command a significant return whether he’s moved in the next week, this offseason, next summer or even in the 2023-24 offseason. At the same time, if a team is prepared to make a substantial offer, there’s little reason for this iteration of the A’s not to consider that offer. The Athletics are extremely unlikely to compete in 2023 after their recent slate of trades (and after the expected trade of Frankie Montas over the next week), and they’re the rare big league team for which catching is a position of organizational strength.
Outrights: Tully, Swarmer, Ogando
A couple updates on some recently DFAed players who’ll remain with their organizations…
- The Rays announced that righty Cristofer Ogando was outrighted to Triple-A Durham (h/t to Neil Solondz). He was designated for assignment when the team signed Roman Quinn last week. The 28-year-old only made one appearance, tossing two innings of one-run ball during his major league debut on July 3. He’s otherwise spent the season with the Bulls, logging 36 2/3 frames with a 3.68 ERA and roughly average strikeout and walk rates (24.2% and 8.2%, respectively). Ogando has never previously been outrighted, so he’ll remain in the organization and try to pitch his way back onto the 40-man roster before the end of the year.
Earlier
- The Guardians assigned left-hander Tanner Tully to Triple-A Columbus after he went unclaimed on outright waivers, per the transactions log at MLB.com. The 24-year-old Tully has pitched six big league innings this season and yielded four runs on eight hits and a hefty six walks with just two punchouts. Tully, a former 26th-round pick, has pitched better in Columbus but still doesn’t have dominant numbers: a 4.93 ERA, 17.1% strikeout rate, 3.4% walk rate and 50% grounder rate through 80 1/3 innings. That outstanding walk rate and strong ground-ball ability are undeniably impressive, but Tully has never been regarded among the organization’s best prospects and has a career 4.91 ERA in parts of four Triple-A seasons. He’ll continue to serve as rotation depth for the time being.
- Cubs righty Matt Swarmer was assigned outright to Triple-A Iowa after clearing waivers, per the team. Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register tweeted this morning that Swarmer rejoined the club today. The 28-year-old allowed just two earned runs through his first dozen innings during this year’s MLB debut, but the success proved fleeting. Swarmer was tagged for 14 runs over his next three starts (12 2/3 innings) before being moved to the bullpen and continuing to struggle there (2.89 ERA but 10 walks in 9 1/3 innings). On the whole, Swarmer has a 5.03 ERA with a 36-to-20 K/BB ratio in 34 innings. He does have a 2.08 ERA in 39 Triple-A frames this season, and he’ll look to build on that in hopes of earning another big league look in the season’s final few months.
Mets Rumors: Bell, Mancini, Szapucki
There’s not much traction at present between the Nationals and Mets on a potential Josh Bell swap, reports SNY’s Andy Martino. Bell is one of several designated hitter candidates in whom the Mets are known to have interest, but it seems as though talks between the two parties haven’t proved fruitful. Pat Ragazzo and Michael Marino of Sports Illustrated/Fan Nation report that the Mets put forth an offer for Bell and a Nationals reliever that included an upper-level minor league starter and outfielder.
The Mets moved last week to begin augmenting their DH rotation, flipping reliever Colin Holderman to the Pirates in a trade that brought Daniel Vogelbach back to Queens. Vogelbach, however, figures to be a pure platoon option, whereas the switch-hitting Bell would be an everyday option who’d push Vogelbach into a bench role. The Mets have continued to look for potential DH upgrades even in the wake of the Voeglbach deal, Martino writes, with Trey Mancini, C.J. Cron and Willson Contreras among those who might still be under consideration.
They won’t have the opportunity to evaluate Mancini today, as he’ll take a seat on the heels of an 0-for-22 swoon at the plate. That offensive freefall has dropped Mancini’s batting line from a robust .285/.359/.429 (124 wRC+) to .268/.345/.404 (113 wRC+). Mancini has still been better than a league-average hitter on the whole, but it’s a poor time for him to struggle through his toughest patch of the season, particularly from a team vantage point.
The Orioles won 10 games in a row to thrust themselves onto the fringes of the American Wild Card chase prior to the deadline, but they’ve since gone 2-4 against the Rays and Yankees in a pair of road series. Mancini’s slump obviously isn’t the sole cause of the team’s momentum slowing down, but it was a contributing factor as Baltimore dropped a few close games. It’s also suboptimal for a club that could still move Mancini prior to next Tuesday’s trade deadline; an 0-for-22 doesn’t wipe out all of Mancini’s trade value, of course, but it’s tougher for a rival front office to give up a prospect of note for a hitter in such a pronounced slump.
Cron has a robust .292/.347/.546 line on the year, but it’s questionable whether the Rockies would consider moving him when he’s cheaply signed for 2023, particularly since Colorado GM Bill Schmidt has already pushed back against a major sell-off. Contreras seems a virtual lock to move in the next eight days, but the Mets reluctance to deal from the top of the farm system would make landing perhaps the top rental bat available a challenge.
Bell, Mancini and Vogelbach were just a handful of the Mets’ reported targets as they look to bolster the lineup, and Martino reported last week that GM Billy Eppler and his team were exploring trade scenarios involving both Dominic Smith and J.D. Davis. Clearly, there’s some turnover to be expected. Martino even floats the possibility of the Mets dealing Vogelbach if they land an impact bat, although there’s no indication that’s especially likely.
The exact return the Mets might surrender in order to bolster the lineup is, of course, wholly dependent on the caliber of player on which they settle — but Mike Puma of the New York Post reports (Twitter link) that minor league lefty Thomas Szapucki has drawn some interest from other teams as New York has poked around the trade market. The 26-year-old lefty has yielded a staggering 15 runs in just five Major League innings across the past two seasons, but Szapucki has had a nice year in Triple-A Syracuse, pitching to a 3.48 ERA with a huge 31.9% strikeout rate against an 11% walk rate in 62 innings.
Those 62 frames have been scattered over 16 starts, which comes out to an average of under four innings per outing. That’s a bit of a strange phenomenon, even in today’s game, but the Mets have been cautious with Szapucki’s workload after he underwent Tommy John surgery in 2018 and season-ending surgery on his ulnar nerve last summer. He began the year throwing just two to three innings per start but has continued to build up his pitch count over the course of the year, peaking with a season-high 93 pitches back on July 6.
The Mets and other clubs may want to be cautious with his overall innings total and his pitch count on a game-to-game basis, but he’s a reasonably youthful lefty who can be controlled at least six years beyond the current campaign. Even if there’s some injury risk, he has three average or better pitches and could certainly operate as a multi-inning reliever down the road if his arm doesn’t prove capable of a starter’s workload. Speculatively, Szapucki would fit the billing of the “upper-level starting pitcher” the Mets are said to have offered to Washington in Bell talks, though there’s no specific indication that Szapucki was part of that offer.
MLBPA Rejects MLB’s “Final” Proposal On International Draft
The Major League Baseball Players Association announced Monday that it has rejected Major League Baseball’s latest (and purportedly “final”) proposal regarding the implementation of an international draft. The MLBPA’s statement reads as follows:
“The Players Association today rejected what MLB characterized as its “final” proposal to establish a draft and hard slotting system for international entrants.
Players made clear from the outset that any International Draft must meaningfully improve the status quo for those players and not unfairly discriminate between those players and domestic entrants. To this end, the Players Association made a series of proposals aimed at protecting and advancing the rights of international amateurs.
Our draft proposals — unprecedented in MLBPA history — sought to establish minimum guarantees in player signings, roster spots, infrastructure investments, playing opportunities, scouting opportunities as well as enforcement measures to combat corruption. We also made proposals to compensate international signees more fairly and in line with other amateurs, and to ensure that all prospects have access to an educational and player development safety net.
At their core, each of our proposals was focused on protecting against the scenario that all Players fear the most — the erosion of our game on the world stage, with international players becoming the latest victim in baseball’s prioritization of efficiency over fundamental fairness. The League’s responses fell well short of anything Players could consider a fair deal.”
An MLB spokesperson released a statement of their own (relayed by James Wagner of the New York Times):
“MLB has worked to reach agreement with the MLBPA to reform the international amateur system in ways that would address longstanding challenges and benefit future players. We are disappointed the MLBPA chose the status quo over transitioning to an international draft that would have guaranteed future international players larger signing bonuses and better educational opportunities, while enhancing transparency to best address the root causes of corruption in the current system.”
The system for acquiring international amateur players has remained a topic of negotiation between the league and union going back years. It was a particularly prevalent point of discussion in the most recent collective bargaining talks, with the league’s desire for and the MLBPA’s opposition to an international draft emerging as a late sticking point in the parties’ efforts to finalize a new CBA last spring. Eventually, the parties agreed to temporarily table international draft discussions while ratifying the remainder of the CBA and ending the lockout. The sides gave themselves until July 25 to agree upon a draft, with the condition that the qualifying offer system for free agents would be eliminated if a draft were implemented.
It would appear that no draft will be put in place, although the July 25 deadline was a mutually agreed upon date between the league and union the parties could revise if they wanted to do so. The “final” terminology of the league’s proposal indicates no additional discussions are on the horizon, but it’s at least worth remembering that in March, the union rejected multiple CBA offers MLB had presented as its last proposal before the sides eventually agreed to circle back and reconvene in time to avoid the final cancelation of regular season games.
That certainly doesn’t mean the same process will play out in this case, however, particularly since it seems the parties weren’t anywhere close to agreeable terms. Jon Heyman of the New York Post reports (on Twitter) the MLBPA leadership was so dissatisfied with the league’s offer they never brought it to the players for an official vote, as the union leadership has authority to do. Union leaders did inform player reps they planned to reject the offer before officially doing so, according to Heyman, to which there were no objections.
There indeed seemed to be a large gap between the sides to bridge, primarily on the amount of money that would be allotted for signing bonuses. The league’s “final” offer involved the creation of a $191MM bonus pool to be distributed among the players taken in the 20-round draft; the MLBPA had been seeking $260MM. The league wanted fixed, hard slots associated with each selection that could neither be exceeded nor undershot; the union wanted slot values to serve as a floor but afford the flexibility for teams to go overslot. Additionally, there was a reported gap in the proposed maximum bonuses for undrafted free agents — with the league offering $20K and the MLBPA proposing $40K.
MLB has maintained that even a $191MM bonus pool would be a boon for players relative to the status quo, claiming it’d result in more than $20MM extra going to international amateurs than had been the case under the existing system. The union has countered the bonuses for the top international players would still fall short in comparison to those of domestic draftees and that any overall financial boost would be more than counteracted by international players’ forfeiture of their ability to choose their first team.
The league has also expressed concern about the current system’s incentivizing teams and players to verbally agree to deals well in advance of players reaching their 16th birthday. A hard-capped draft would all but eliminate that occurrence, but the union has expressed its belief that tighter enforcement against verbal agreements would achieve the same purpose without necessitating a draft.
If this truly marks the end of negotiations, the status quo for both the international amateur setup and the qualifying offer will remain. That’s a notable development for upcoming free agent markets, as teams will still have to forfeit draft picks and/or international signing bonus space to sign players who received and rejected the QO. The MLBPA has sought to remove that non-monetary cost associated with adding any free agents, but that hasn’t proven a sufficient enough inducement for the union to agree to the league’s vision for an international draft. Even if this closes the book on the issue for a while, it stands to reason the league’s desire for a draft will come up again during future CBA negotiations.
Tigers To Sign First-Rounder Jace Jung
The Tigers are in agreement with No. 12 overall draft pick Jace Jung, tweets Jim Callis of MLB.com. The now-former Texas Tech standout will receive his full slot value of $4,590,300. The team has yet to formally announce the deal, though that’s presumably coming in the near future.
Jung, the younger brother of top Rangers third base prospect Josh Jung, looked like a slam-dunk first-rounder throughout a strong season at the plate. The left-handed-hitting 21-year-old turned in an outstanding .335/.481/.612 batting line with 14 home runs, 18 doubles, a triple, five steals (in five tries) and more walks (59) than strikeouts (42) through 295 plate appearances during his junior season with the Red Raiders.
The younger Jung brother spent the vast majority of his college career at second base, and that’s where he’s expected to play as a professional. There’s little doubt among scouts that Jung has the tools to be a well above-average hitter at the position, as scouting reports agree that he has above-average to plus raw power with above-average pitch selection and a potentially plus hit tool — all of which are complemented by his all-fields approach. There’s less optimism about Jung’s defensive future, given questions about his range and arm strength. Jung profiles as a bat-first second baseman whose advanced offensive profile could allow him to move quickly through the minor leagues.
Heading into the draft, Jung ranked as No. 8 prospect on the board, per The Athletic’s Keith Law, also landing ninth at MLB.com, ninth at Baseball America, 13th at ESPN and 20th over at FanGraphs.
Twins Sign Michael Feliz To Minor League Deal
The Twins have signed right-hander Michael Feliz to a minor league contract and assigned him to their Triple-A affiliate, the St. Paul Saints (as announced by the Saints themselves). Feliz, a client of Octagon, was designated for assignment by the Red Sox earlier this month and rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency.
Feliz, 29, has seen action in parts of eight big league seasons, mostly coming with the Astros and Pirates, The right-hander was one of four players (alongside Joe Musgrove, Colin Moran and Jason Martin) traded from Houston to Pittsburgh in the trade that brought Gerrit Cole to the Astros. He spent parts of four seasons in the Pittsburgh bullpen, at times looking like a viable late-inning reliever but also lacking the consistency to remain in a leverage role.
Feliz’s best season in the Majors came with the Pirates in 2019, when he pitched 56 1/3 innings of 3.99 ERA ball and punched out 30.5% of his opponents. Feliz’s 11.3% walk rate and 1.76 HR/9 mark that season were obvious areas that could be improved upon, but it was a generally encouraging season for a then-26-year-old hurler who had ranked among the best pitching prospects in the Astros’ system prior to his inclusion in the Cole trade.
Since that season, however, Feliz has been beset by shoulder, forearm and elbow injuries. Between those injuries and subpar performance on the mound (which, of course, could well have been impacted by those health troubles), he’s pitched just 25 Major League innings with an ugly 8.28 ERA dating back to Opening Day 2020.
Feliz’s average fastball, however, which sat at 96.3 mph back in 2017, is down to just 93.8 mph through this year’s small sample. That said, he’s found success this season for the most part in spite of that diminished heater. In 3 1/3 big league frames, he’s allowed one earned run on a hit and two walks with four strikeouts. And, with the Red Sox’ Triple-A affiliate in Worcester, Feliz carried a 3.28 ERA with a 27.7% strikeout rate against an 8.9% walk rate through 24 2/3 innings.
Bullpen help is a glaring need for the Twins. Breakout rookie Jhoan Duran and starter-turned-reliever Griffin Jax have served as the only consistent arms in an otherwise woeful relief corps, which figures to be an area the front office will address over the next week-plus. Bringing Feliz into the fold gives them another depth option for the final few months of the season, but it’d be a surprise if Minnesota didn’t acquire at least one veteran arm (if not two or more) prior to Aug. 2.