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Phillies Acquire Cristopher Sanchez From Rays

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The Phillies announced that they’ve acquired lefty Cristopher Sanchez from the Rays in exchange for minor league infielder Curtis Mead. Sanchez has been selected to the 40-man roster, per the team, as have three other players: right-hander Mauricio Llovera and left-handers Garrett Cleavinger and JoJo Romero.

The 22-year-old Sanchez had been with the Rays since they signed him out of the Dominican Republic in 2013. He has pitched almost exclusively in the low minors since then, and is now coming off a season in which he threw 34 innings of 1.85 ERA ball with 9.53 K/9, 3.44 BB/9 and a 54.1 percent ground-ball rate at the Single-A level.

The Australian-born Mead, 19, signed with the Phillies since May 2018. He impressed over 175 plate appearances in 2019 at the rookie level, where he batted .285/.351/.462 and hit four home runs.

Rays Designate Matt Duffy For Assignment

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The Rays have designated third baseman Matt Duffy for assignment and selected the contracts of infielders Vidal Brujan, Jake Cronenworth, Kevin Padlo and Lucius Fox as well as catcher Ronaldo Hernandez. Tampa Bay also traded right-hander Jose De Leon to the Reds in exchange for cash or a player to be named later earlier tonight.

Acquired in the 2016 trade that sent Matt Moore to the Giants, Duffy was expected to be a focal point of the Tampa Bay infield for several years. He’d batted .295/.334/.428 over the life of 149 games during the 2015 season, was considered a premium defender and came to the Rays with another four-plus seasons of team control.

But a series of lower-half injuries — Achilles, foot and hamstring — all limited Duffy considerably over the next three seasons, with the Achilles injury proving to require surgery. Duffy only played 199 games and totaled 809 plate appearances across parts of four seasons in the Rays organization. He’d been projected to receive a $2.9MM salary in arbitration (per MLB contributor Matt Swartz), and the Rays weren’t comfortable with that number, it seems.

Brujan is the most highly regarded prospect of those protected today, ranking as a consensus top 100 prospect and posting a combined .277/.346/.389 batting line between Class-A Advanced and Double-A as a 21-year-old. Each of Hernandez (No. 7), Cronenworth (No. 17) and Fox (No. 19) ranked inside the Rays’ top 30 at MLB.com. Fox, notably, came to the Rays in the same 2016 trade as Duffy. The 23-year-old Padlo was acquired along with Corey Dickerson in the trade that sent German Marquez to the Rockies, and he posted a robust .265/.389/.538 line between Double-A and Triple-A in 2019.

Marlins Designate Wei-Yin Chen, Add Six To 40-Man Roster

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The Marlins announced Wednesday that they’ve designated left-hander Wei-Yin Chen for assignment and added six players to their MLB roster: shortstop Jazz Chisholm, first baseman Lewin Diaz and right-handers Sixto Sanchez, Nick Neidert, Humberto Mejia and Edward Cabrera. Miami owes Chen $22MM in 2020 — the final season of a five-year, $80MM free-agent contract.

Chen, now 34, was a steady source of quality innings from 2012-15 in Baltimore, pitching to a 3.72 ERA in the hitter-friendly AL East while averaging 29.25 starts and 176 innings per year. That durability and reliability led the Marlins to invest a whopping five-year, $80MM contract in the lefty when he hit the free-agent market, but the deal went south almost immediately. Chen barely kept his ERA under 5.00 and tossed just 123 1/3 innings in his first year with the Marlins. A UCL injury wiped out nearly all of his 2017 season and much of the 2018 campaign, and he pitched just 68 1/3 innings of ineffective relief work in 2019. Overall, he recorded a dismal 5.10 ERA in 358 innings with Miami.

Of the prospects protected tonight were acquired via the trade market, Chisholm (Zac Gallen), Diaz (Sergio Romo), Sanchez (J.T. Realmuto) and Neidert (Dee Gordon) were all acquired on the trade market under the team’s current ongoing rebuild. Sanchez is considered to be among the game’s premier pitching prospects, while Chisholm has drawn top 100 billing as well despite a rough showing at Double-A in 2019. Diaz was acquired from the Twins amid a huge rebound campaign. Neidert had an injury shortened ’19 season but profiles as a back-end starter. Cabrera reached Double-A as a 21-year-old this past season, while the 22-year-old Mejia turned in similarly impressive numbers and topped out in Class-A Advanced.

Indians Designate Nick Goody For Assignment, Add Three To 40-Man Roster

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The Indians announced Wednesday that they’ve designated right-hander Nick Goody for assignment and selected the contracts of outfielder Daniel Johnson, right-hander Triston McKenzie and left-hander Scott Moss.

The 28-year-old Goody had a terrific 2017 season in Cleveland, pitching to a 2.80 ERA with 11.9 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and 1.2 HR/9 in 54 innings of relief. He was a Statcast darling that season, ranking among the game’s best in terms of expected weighted on-base average (xwOBA), but he missed much of the 2018 season due to an elbow strain. Goody was seemingly back in solid form in 2019 when notched a 3.54 ERA with a 50-to-22 K/BB ratio in 40 2/3 innings (plus another strong .253 xwOBA), but Cleveland apparently didn’t have interest in paying him a projected $1.1MM arbitration salary.

Moss was acquired in the three-team deal that sent Trevor Bauer to Cincinnati this past summer and only allowed four runs in 28 2/3 minor league innings with the Indians. McKenzie, long one of the Indians’ best prospects, didn’t pitch in 2019 due to a back injury but enjoyed an excellent 2018 season in Double-A despite pitching most of the year at the age of 20. The Indians understandably weren’t willing to risk losing the former No. 42 pick, who has been a top-100 prospect three years running. Johnson, meanwhile, reached Triple-A for the first time in 2019 and posted a combined .290/.361/.507 batting line across the Indians’ top two affiliates.

Pirates Designate Four Players For Assignment, Set 40-Man Roster

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The Pirates set their roster in advance of the 2019 Rule 5 Draft tonight, selecting the contracts of right-handers Blake Cederlind and Cody Ponce as well as infielders Ke’Bryan Hayes, Will Craig and Oneil Cruz. In a corresponding series of moves, the Pirates have designated lefty Williams Jerez and right-handers Dario Agrazal, Montana DuRapau and Luis Escobar for assignment.

Of the four players designated for assignment, Agrazal had the largest workload with the Pirates in 2019, pitching 73 1/3 innings but struggling to a 4.91 ERA, 5.0 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 39.9 percent grounder rate. Each of the other three posted an ERA north of 7.00, though Escobar and Jerez each threw fewer than six innings. The 27-year-old DuRapau, meanwhile, enjoyed an outstanding season in Triple-A but allowed 18 runs in 17 1/3 innings at the MLB level.

Hayes, 23 in January, is fresh off a .265/.336/.415 season and against much older competition in Triple-A. Regarded as one of baseball’s premier defensive prospects, Hayes is considered to be among the top farmhands not just in the Pirates’ system but in the entire game.

Cruz, too, has generated some top 100 fanfare and just put the finishing touches on a huge but shortened season, hitting a combined .298/.356/.475 in 73 games. The towering 6’7″ Cruz, acquired in the 2017 trade that sent Tony Watson to the Dodgers, received 80 grades in arm strength and raw power from Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDaniel of FanGraphs on their midseason rankings, where he checked in at No. 34 in MLB.

Ponce, acquired from the Brewers in this summer’s Jordan Lyles swap, averaged nearly 10 strikeouts per inning out of the bullpen. Cederlind, also 23, had a solid year out of the ’pen and reached the Triple-A level for the first time. Craig had a down season in Triple-A but has long been considered to be among the top 15 prospects in the Pittsburgh farm and will give them some near-term corner infield depth.

Brewers Acquire Mark Mathias From Indians

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The Brewers and Indians announced a minor trade Wednesday, with Cleveland sending minor league infielder Mark Mathias to Milwaukee in exchange for minor league catcher Andres Melendez. Milwaukee has selected the contract of Mathias.

Mathias, 25, needed to be added to the 40-man roster in order to be protected from the Rule 5 Draft. The Indians apparently preferred not to commit that 40-man spot to Mathias, prompting today’s swap with the Brewers, who’ll now pick up some new infield depth. The 2015 third-rounder hit .269/.355/.442 with a dozen home runs, 31 doubles, two triples and 13 stolen bases at Triple-A this past season. Mathias is primarily a second baseman and third baseman, but he’s also logged 203 innings at shortstop since being drafted.

Milwaukee signed the now-18-year-old Melendez out of Venezuela back in 2017. He played 36 games with the Brewers’ Rookie-level Arizona affiliate in 2019, hitting .250/.340/.352 with a 30 percent caught-stealing rate behind the plate. Despite being years from the Majors, Melendez was ranked 16th among Brewers farmhands by Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen on their midsesason update of the team’s prospect rankings.

Cardinals Designate Dominic Leone For Assignment

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The Cardinals announced Wednesday that they’ve designated right-hander Dominic Leone for assignment. St. Louis also selected the contracts of righty Jake Woodford, infielder Elehuris Montero and right-hander Alvaro Seijas.

Leone’s two seasons with the Cardinals didn’t pan out as the organization hoped when acquiring him from Toronto; in 64 2/3 innings as a Cardinal, he pitched to an ugly 5.15 ERA. Leone did manage to punch out 10 hitters per nine innings pitched, but he struggled with walks (4.2 BB/9), home runs (1.7 HR/9) and, in 2019, stranding baserunners (68.2 percent).

The 28-year-old Leone had been eligible for arbitration and was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to be in line for a $1.6MM salary in 2020. Already a non-tender candidate, he was instead cut loose a couple weeks ahead of the early-December tender deadline. The Cardinals will have a week to trade him, release him or pass him through outright waivers. Anecdotally, both players the Cardinals acquired from the Blue Jays prior to the 2018 season in exchange for Randal Grichuk have been designated for assignment in the past hour, as the Royals just designated Conner Greene minutes ago. (Kansas City claimed him from St. Louis last November.)

Both Montero (No. 4) and Woodford (No. 13) rank inside the Cardinals’ top 30 prospects in the most recent rankings at MLB.com. Montero, 21, struggled through a miserable season in Double-A but is regarded as a strong-armed third baseman with plus raw power. Given the pitcher-friendly nature of Double-A in 2019 and Montero’s young age relative to the competition he faced in that setting, the Cards were undeterred by his struggles.

Woodford, meanwhile, posted passable numbers in a deadly Triple-A setting for pitchers, working to a 4.14 ERA with 7.8 K/9, 4.4 BB/9 and a 36.2 percent grounder rate in 26 starts (151 2/3 innings). He’ll give the Cards some rotation depth for the upcoming season.

The 21-year-old Seijas hasn’t pitched above Class-A Advanced, although as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch points out (via Twitter), the team’s unexpected loss of righty Luis Perdomo a few seasons ago may have contributed to aggressively protecting Seijas despite the fact that he’s a ways from MLB readiness.

Royals Designate Jorge Bonifacio, Three Others For Assignment

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The Royals announced that they’ve designated outfielder Jorge Bonifacio, catcher Nick Dini and right-handers Conner Greene and Arnaldo Hernandez for assignment in advance of tonight’s deadline to set 40-man rosters prior to December’s Rule 5 Draft. Those four roster spots will go to left-hander Foster Griffin, right-hander Carlos Hernandez, shortstop Jeison Guzman and outfielder Nick Heath, each of whom has had his contract formally selected, per the team. Kansas City’s 40-man roster is full.

Bonifacio, 26, was the team’s primary right fielder in 2017 and gave fans some cause for optimism, hitting .255/.320/.432 with 17 homers, 15 doubles and a triple in that rookie campaign. He’s since been tagged with an 80-game PED suspension, however, and has generally struggled to produce at the plate. Over his past 291 plate appearances in the Majors, Bonifacio hit .234/.317/.371. For a defensively limited corner outfielder who is out of minor league options, that lack of output was no longer sufficient enough to keep his place on the roster.

Greene, also 26, was claimed off waivers from the Cardinals late last November — nearly a year ago to the day. The once-well-regarded prospect struggled to a 5.13 ERA in 112 1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, though, averaging 4.3 walks per nine innings pitched along the way. His control issues expanded beyond walks, as he plunked nine batters and threw a whopping 21 wild pitches.

Dini made his MLB debut at the age of 26 this past season but hit just .196/.270/.357 in 64 plate appearances with Kansas City. He’s a lifetime .288/.347/.437 in five minor league seasons who hit .296/.370/.565 in last year’s supercharged Triple-A environment.

Arnaldo Hernandez, 23, tossed 23 sharp innings in Double-A but was hammered for a 6.39 ERA with a dismal 65-41 K/BB ratio and 24 homers allowed in just 105 1/3 Triple-A innings.

Griffin, 24, was a first-round pick in 2014 and has gone unselected in prior Rule 5 Drafts. He didn’t post particularly appealing Triple-A numbers in ’19 (5.23 ERA, 7.6 K/9, 4.4 BB/9) but notch a 49.2 percent grounder rate. He’s also impressed in the Dominican Winter League this offseason, tossing 23 1/3 innings of 2.31 ERA ball with a hearty 31-to-6 K/BB ratio.

Hernandez, 22, posted a 3.50 ERA with a 43-to-9 K/BB ratio in 35 innings with the Royals’ Class-A affiliate. Guzman didn’t hit much in A-ball and isn’t considered among the organization’s top prospects, but the Royals are bullish enough to protect him from being selected. Heath didn’t have much power, but he’s a prototypical Royals player, as evidenced by his 60 steals between Double-A and Triple-A in 2019.

Athletics Designate Jharel Cotton For Assignment

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The Athletics announced Wednesday that they’ve designated right-hander Jharel Cotton for assignment and selected the contract of right-hander Daulton Jefferies from Double-A Midland. Oakland’s 40-man roster remains full.

Cotton, 27, joined the A’s alongside righties Frankie Montas and Grant Holmes in the 2016 trade that sent Josh Reddick and Rich Hill to the Dodgers. At the time, he was considered a fairly well-regarded pitching prospect and a potential long-term rotation piece, but things haven’t panned out that way. While Cotton impressed with a 2.15 ERA in 29 1/3 innings with the A’s in 2016 following that trade, he was unable to replicate that over a larger sample in 2017.

That 2017 season saw Cotton limp to a 5.58 ERA in 129 innings, due largely to an alarming 2.0 HR/9 mark. He missed the entire 2018 season due to Tommy John surgery, and his 2019 comeback season was shortened by a hamstring issue that eventually required surgical repair. At this point, it’s been more than two years since Cotton has thrown an inning in a Major League game.

Jefferies, 24, was a Competitive Balance selection (No. 37 overall) by the A’s back in 2016. He split the 2019 season between Class-A Advanced and Double-A, where he worked to a combined 3.42 ERA with an otherworldly 93-to-9 K/BB ratio in 79 innings (10.6 K/9, 1.0 BB/9). Jefferies barely pitched from 2016-18 thanks to a shoulder injury during his junior year at Cal Berkeley and Tommy John surgery in 2017. But the 2019 campaign was a resounding comeback year that has moved him firmly into the ranks of the Athletics’ most promising young arms.

Mets Designate Drew Gagnon, Add Four To 40-Man Roster

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The Mets announced that they’ve designated righty Drew Gagnon for assignment. His DFA opened a spot on the 40-man roster, allowing the Mets to select the contracts of shortstop Andres Gimenez, right-hander Jordan Humphreys, catcher Ali Sanchez and left-hander Thomas Szapucki. All four players are now protected from next month’s Rule 5 Draft.

Of the players added to the 40-man, Gimenez has generated the most prospect fanfare. Entering the 2019 season, he was ranked among the game’s top 50 prospects, but a poor showing in Double-A Binghamton has caused his stock to slip a bit. In 479 plate appearances, Gimenez hit just .250/.309/.387 with nine home runs. And while he stole 28 bases, he was also caught 16 times, underscoring a need to improve his efficiency. MLB.com still ranks him at the back end of the game’s top 100 prospects, but he’ll be in the hunt for a rebound season in 2020.

Gagnon was bombed in brief MLB action last year, falling victim to the leaguewide home run surge even more than most of his fellow pitchers (11 long balls in 23 2/3 innings). But he did show an 11.8% swinging-strike rate in the bigs, and over 88 2/3 innings in 15 starts in the hitter-friendly Triple-A International League, he worked to a 2.33 ERA with 7.3 K/9 and 1.7 BB/9.

Reports out of South Korea this week suggested that Gagnon was working toward a deal with a KBO club. However, a source tells MLBTR that not only was Gagnon not moving toward a deal in Korea — he hasn’t even engaged in any conversations with Korean clubs about a potential deal. The Mets will have a week to trade Gagnon, attempt to pass him through outright waivers or place him on release waivers.

 

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