Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

NL Notes: Reds, Anibal, Nats, Tulo, Darvish

By | at

The Reds were keen on retaining Matt Harvey entering the offseason and held talks with him right up until he agreed to join the Angels on a one-year deal yesterday, Cincinnati GM Nick Krall tells Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer (Twitter links). However, the Reds simply weren’t comfortable matching the $11MM guarantee promised by the Halos. That said, Krall made clear that the Reds still hope to add another starting pitcher, be it via free agency or trade, and the GM also added that his club is pursuing another outfielder and some bullpen help. “We need to improve this club, and we know that,” said Krall, whose largest offseason move to date has been acquiring Tanner Roark. While the durable Roark certainly helps to shore up the back of the Reds’ rotation, there’s still plenty of question marks in the mix of in-house rotation options.

A few notes from around the National League on a quiet Wednesday evening…

  • The Nationals have had “ongoing conversations” with Anibal Sanchez’s agent, Gene Mato, since the Winter Meetings, tweets Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post. That said, there are still multiple teams interested in Sanchez, who enjoyed a career renaissance with the Braves in 2018, as he pitched to a 2.83 ERA with 8.9 K/9, 2.8 BB/9 and a 45 percent ground-ball rate. There’s no shortage of skeptics with regard to Sanchez’s resurgence, though the substantial increase in his usage of a cut-fastball and the fact that he allowed less hard contact than any qualified pitcher in baseball last season (per Statcast) should pique the interest of some clubs. Mato told MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes last week that teams interested in Sanchez “realize it wasn’t luck” that fueled his 2018 rebound.
  • Robert Murray of The Athletic writes that the Brewers sent three representatives to watch Troy Tulowitzki’s audition for MLB clubs yesterday (subscription required). Murray spoke to multiple scouts in attendance who had positive things to say about how Tulo looked on that given day, though obviously the primary question isn’t whether the 34-year-old is healthy right now, but whether he’ll be able to hold up over the course of a full season. The Brewers could utilize Tulowitzki at either third base or second base, with Travis Shaw manning the other spot. Given Shaw’s experience (and proficiency) at the hot corner, second base would be Tulowitzki’s likeliest position in Milwaukee. There were at least 11 other clubs on hand at yesterday’s showcase, however, so Milwaukee is but one of many possible landing spots for the former Rockies star. Any team that signs Tulowitzki would only owe him the league minimum of $555K in 2019.
  • Cubs right-hander Yu Darvish went through his second day of a throwing program as he works his way back from an arthroscopic debridement procedure in his right elbow (Instagram link). The Chicago organization said at the time Darvish’s surgery was announced that the right-hander is expected to be ready for Spring Training 2019, and the fact that he’s throwing in mid-December is an encouraging sign in that regard. Injuries limited Darvish to just 40 innings with the Cubs in a disappointing first season with the team. The six-year, $126MM contract for Darvish looks all the more problematic for the Cubs in light of reports that the team has extremely limited financial resources at its disposal this offseason. The fact that the Cubs spent a combined $186MM on Darvish, Tyler Chatwood and Brandon Morrow last winter, then acquired the second season of Brandon Kintlzer’s contract at the deadline this summer, only to now be handcuffed by payroll issues is undoubtedly a bitter pill for Cubs fans to swallow.

Tigers Sign Eduardo Paredes, Chris Smith To Minor League Deals

By | at

The Tigers announced Wednesday that they’ve signed right-handers Eduardo Paredes and Chris Smith to minor league pacts with invitations to Major League Spring Training. Lefty Nick Ramirez, too, has been added on a minors pact, though he won’t be in big league camp, it seems.

Despite seeing big league action with the Angels in both 2017 and 2018, Paredes is still just 23 years of age and won’t turn 24 until March. The righty showed a bit of promise in 22 1/3 innings with the Halos in 2017 but was bludgeoned to the tune of a 6.87 ERA in 18 1/3 innings in the 2018 campaign. In all, Paredes has a 5.53 ERA with 7.1 K/9, 2.9 BB/9, 1.55 HR/9 and a 44.1 percent ground-ball rate in 40 2/3 frames as a big leaguer. His average fastball has sat at a solid but unspectacular 93.3 mph over his two MLB campaigns, and he’s posted below-average marks in terms of swinging-strike rate and opponents’ chase rate.

Paredes has had a fair bit of success in the upper minors, however, and he moved quickly through the lower minor league ranks while posting gaudy strikeout totals along the way. Given his relative youth, there’s perhaps still some hope that he could yet develop into a usable reliever at the MLB level. A rebuilding club like the Tigers should be able to provide him ample opportunity, should he earn a roster spot in camp or force his way onto the MLB roster with a strong Triple-A showing.

The 30-year-old Smith has just five big league innings under his belt, all of which came with the Blue Jays back in 2017. He spent the 2018 campaign with the Nationals’ Triple-A affiliate and pitched fairly well, notching a 3.93 ERA with 10.6 K/9, 3.4 BB/9, 1.15 HR/9 and a 32.2 percent grounder rate. All but one of Smith’s 189 appearances in the minors has been a relief outing, and he’s generally shown an ability to register more than a strikeout per inning with solid control. Like Paredes, his fastball sits 93-94 mph, and a slider is his go-to secondary offering.

As for Ramirez, the 29-year-old is a first baseman turned pitcher who has had success on the mound at the Double-A level but struggled in Triple-A. The former Brewers farmhand has a pristine 1.48 ERA with 7.3 K/9 against 3.0 BB/9 in 109 innings of Double-A work, but Triple-A batters have handled him with ease. In 38 innings at the minors’ top level, Ramirez has a 5.66 ERA with more walks allowed (21) than strikeouts recorded (18). Of course, he’s still rather new to pitching at the professional level, and much of those 38 innings came in the hitters’ paradise that is the Pacific Coast League — specifically in hitter-friendly Colorado Springs.

Indians, Cody Anderson Avoid Arbitration

By | at

The Indians announced today that they’ve avoided arbitration with right-hander Cody Anderson. He’ll take home a salary of $641,500 for the 2019 season, per Fancred’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). The mark checks in shy of his $900K projection from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, in part due to the fact that Anderson was something of a unique case, having missed the prior two seasons due to injury.

Now 28 years of age, Anderson debuted with Cleveland back in 2015 and gave the Indians 91 1/3 innings of 3.05 ERA ball over the life of 15 starts. A deeper look indicated that that level of run prevention wouldn’t be sustainable for Anderson barring an improvement in his perilously low 4.3 K/9 mark. Much of the success he enjoyed appeared attributable to a well below-average .237 BABIP and a fairly lofty 78.3 percent strand rate.

The 2016 season saw Anderson ramp up the usage of both his changeup and cutter, resulting in a dramatic uptick in strikeouts (8.0 K/9). However, the pendulum swung in the complete opposite direction with regard to his average on balls in play (.381 BABIP) and strand rate (66.8 percent), leaving Anderson with an ugly 6.68 ERA through 60 2/3 innings before an injury sent him to the operating table.

Anderson’s return from Tommy John surgery back in March 2017 has been a bit slower than that of most Tommy John patients, but the good news for him and the Indians is that he’ll be a full two years removed from the procedure come Spring Training. Anderson made a trio of scoreless rehab appearances in the minors late in the season, pitching three innings with four strikeouts against two walks. Given the depth the Indians possess in the rotation and the uncertainty that permeates their relief corps, it’s possible that Anderson will be brought back into the fold as a bullpen piece. He did move from the rotation to the bullpen late in the 2016 and saw his average fastball jump from about 92.2 mph to 94.1 mph in the process.

Red Sox, Erasmo Ramirez Nearing Minor League Deal

By | at

The Red Sox are nearing a minor league agreement with right-hander Erasmo Ramirez, per Jesse Sanchez of MLB.com (Twitter link). If the deal is completed, the ISE Baseball client would head to Major League Spring Training and compete for a spot on Boston’s 2019 staff.

Ramirez, 28, should be a familiar name for Red Sox fans after spending parts of three seasons with the Rays and pitching to a combined 3.98 ERA in 323 1/3 innings with the Tampa Bay organization. Unfortunately for the right-hander, the 2018 campaign was effectively a nightmare. Shoulder troubles limited Ramirez to just 45 2/3 innings of work, and he was woefully ineffective in that time.

Ramirez, pitching in his second stint with the Mariners organization this past season, posted a 6.50 ERA with 6.5 K/9, 2.4 BB/9, a staggering 2.76 HR/9 and a 39.6 percent ground-ball rate. The effects of the injury on Ramirez were evident when looking at his velocity; after sitting at 91.6 mph with his heater a year prior, his average fastball in 2018 checked in at just 89.8 mph. Those red flags prompted the Mariners to outright Ramirez rather than retain him through arbitration. He’d been projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn a $4.4MM salary in his final trip through that process.

Certainly, the Red Sox will hope for a healthier version of Ramirez — the version who proved adept as both a starter and a multi-inning reliever prior to the 2018 season during a separate stint with the Mariners and a two-and-a-half year run in Tampa. From 2015-17, Ramirez logged a solid 3.97 ERA with 7.0 K/9, 2.3 BB/9, 1.21 HR/9 and a 47.3 percent grounder rate. Both his 10.3 percent swinging-strike rate and 32.9 percent opponents’ chase rate were solid marks that underscore his ability to keep hitters off balance when he’s at his best.

While the Sox won’t be counting on Ramirez for anything unless he proves capable of a show of faith in Spring Training, he can serve as a long option in the ’pen or a depth piece in the rotation beyond Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez. Ramirez is just shy of six years of MLB service, so if he makes the roster, he’ll be a one-year option before reentering free agency next offseason.

Troy Tulowitzki Hosts Workout For MLB Clubs

By | at

At least 11 teams were on hand to watch Troy Tulowitzki work out earlier today, reports Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports. The Giants, Angels, Red Sox, Cubs, Padres, White Sox, Orioles, Yankees, Phillies, Tigers and Pirates were all represented at the showcase, Brown reports (as were other, unnamed teams), with some clubs even sending their top executives to get a first-hand look at the former Rockies star. Angels GM Billy Eppler was in attendance, per Brown, as were new Giants president of baseball ops Farhan Zaidi and manager Bruce Bochy.

Since being released by the Blue Jays last week — with two years and $38MM remaining on his contract — Tulowitzki has been separately connected to a handful of teams including the Pirates, the Yankees, the Cubs and the Giants. His agent, Paul Cohen, recently told Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle that Tulowitzki is open to playing second base or third base with a new team. Brown, notably, writes that the biggest appeal for Tulowitzki will be the promise of regular at-bats at one positions (as opposed to moving between those three spots in a utility role).

It doesn’t seem as though there’s any early favorite to add Tulowitzki, who’ll cost his new team only the Major League minimum of $555K next season. (Toronto is on the hook for the remainder of his salary.) At that price, it’s justifiable for virtually any team to take a look at Tulowitzki and see if he can rediscover some of the form that once made him one of the game’s premier players. While few would expect him to return to his 2013-14 levels of output, that type of performance is hardly necessary from someone whose new team will pay him the league minimum. Tulowitzki’s bat was at least league-average in both 2015 and 2016, so if he’s healthy there’s plenty of reason to believe he can at least be fairly productive at the dish. How he adjusts defensively after undergoing surgery on both heels last year could be a more pressing question — particularly if he’s also adjusting to a new position after spending his entire pro career at shortstop.

Mets Notes: Moustakas, d’Arnaud, Plawecki, Pollock

By | at

Never afraid to be candid in his brief time as a Major League general manager, Brodie Van Wagenen spoke with SNY’s Steve Gelbs today and stated, “…[I]nternally, we would argue that we’re the favorites in the division right now” (Twitter link, with video). Van Wagenen expressed pleasure in being able to add a pair of back-end relievers (Edwin Diaz, Jeurys Familia) as well as a pair of middle-of-the-order bats (Robinson Cano, Wilson Ramos). That said, the rookie GM also made clear that the Mets aren’t done adding this offseason and indicated that they “still have some real money to spend.” Unsurprisingly, Van Wagenen didn’t dive into specifics about who else might be a target, but it seems that there’s still work to be done as the Mets look to reemerge as contenders in an increasingly competitive division.

A few notes on what could yet be in store in Queens…

  • The Mets at least discussed the possibility of making a run at Mike Moustakas last week, tweets Mike Puma of the New York Post. However, as Puma notes, it’s not clear whether the addition of Ramos has lessened their desire to add another free-agent bat. The 30-year-old Moustakas hit .251/.315/.459 with 28 homers between the Royals and Brewers in 2018 — his fourth consecutive season of above-average production at the plate (by measure of park-adjusted metrics OPS+ and wRC+). The Mets already have Todd Frazier, a former client of Van Wagenen from his days as an agent with CAA, lined up to play third base next season. Frazier, 33 in February, struggled to a .213/.303/.390 slash line in 472 PAs with the Mets last season, though he still turned in above-average defense in 954 innings at the hot corner.
  • Van Wagenen also told reporters today that teams have been calling about catchers Travis d’Arnaud and Kevin Plawecki for the past month (Twitter links via Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). Interest in both catchers has increased, per the GM, since the club agreed to terms with Ramos. Either d’Arnaud or Plawecki could be a logical trade candidate, especially given that both are out of minor league options. DiComo, though, notes that Van Wagenen has repeatedly talked up d’Arnaud’s versatility and indicated that d’Arnaud could be utilized in either left field or at first base in addition to his work at catcher. While the GM has suggested that the Mets could carry three catchers, it’d be a less clumsy roster structure if the Mets were to find a trade partner for either Plawecki or d’Arnaud and dedicate that would-be third catcher spot to a more traditional utility option.
  • Also via DiComo (Twitter link), Van Wagenen implied that the A.J. Pollock may no longer fit into the Mets’ plans, suggesting instead that Ramos gives the Mets the right-handed, middle-of-the-order bat the team sought. Whether there’s some degree of posturing there remains to be seen, but Pollock was always at least somewhat of a stretch as a fit on a roster that already includes Brandon Nimmo, Michael Conforto, Yoenis Cespedes and Juan Lagares. While Cespedes will miss significant time in 2019 as he recovers from surgery on both heels, a long-term deal for Pollock would’ve eventually presented some degree of a logjam. On the other hand, that’d only be the case if all those options were healthy, and the majority of them have had some notable injury issues in recent seasons.

Phillies Agree To Minor League Deal With Phil Gosselin

By | at

The Phillies have agreed to a minor league contract with infielder Phil Gosselin, tweets Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. Presumably, he’ll head to Spring Training on a non-roster invitation and compete for a bench spot with his new organization.

Gosselin, 30, made 28 plate appearances with the Reds in 2018 and another 50 between the Pirates and Rangers the year prior. His most significant big league action came with the Braves and D-backs from 2014-16, taking a combined 494 plate appearances in that time. In all, he’s a career .263/.314/.361 hitter with seven home runs 27 doubles and and a pair of triples in 579 Major League plate appearances.

The bulk of Gosselin’s time in the Majors has come as a second baseman (550 innings), though he also has experience at third base (189 innings), shortstop (55 innings), first base 46 innings and in the corner outfield (41 innings). The Phillies already have a crowded infield with Rhys Hoskins, Cesar Hernandez, Jean Segura, Maikel Franco and Scott Kingery all currently penciled onto the 25-man roster. Of course, there’s been no shortage of trade rumblings surrounding Franco, and Hernandez, too, has been mentioned as a possible candidate to move at times. At the very least, it seems safe to expect that the infield mix will change between now and March, when Gosselin will be vying for a job.

Angels To Sign Matt Harvey

By | at

7:16pm: It’s a one-year deal for Harvey, Feinsand tweets. Fancred’s Jon Heyman tweets that the deal will guarantee Harvey $11MM, and Yahoo’s Jeff Passan tweets that Harvey can earn an additional $3MM worth of incentives. Per Heyman (Twitter link), those incentives are based on games started and kick in at 15 starts before maxing out at 26 starts. Harvey’s deal is still pending a physical.

7:07pm: The Angels have agreed to a deal with free-agent right-hander Matt Harvey, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com (via Twitter). Harvey is represented by agent Scott Boras.

Matt Harvey | Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

Harvey, 29, will be the first rotation addition for an Angels club that entered the winter in significant need of innings. The 2018 Angels were decimated by injuries, as Garrett Richards, Shohei Ohtani and J.C. Ramirez each underwent Tommy John surgery, while others such as Matt Shoemaker and Nick Tropeano missed substantial time on the disabled list.

Harvey will join lefties Andrew Heaney and Tyler Skaggs as locks to start games for the Halos, but the rest of the rotation is still somewhat unsettled. Tropeano, Jaime Barria, Felix Pena and Dillon Peters are among the other candidates to start for newly hired manager Brad Ausmus, though the names to which the Angels were connected prior to the Harvey agreement perhaps underscore the remaining work that GM Billy Eppler and his staff have ahead.

Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register recently reported that the Angels made a two-year, $28MM offer to J.A. Happ before he returned to the Yankees, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Halos also made a “strong” offer to Patrick Corbin before he signed a whopping $140MM contract with the Nationals. Given those targets and the still-palpable uncertainty in the Angels’ mix of starters, it’s reasonable to expect that they’ll continue pursuing upgrades to the top portion of their starting staff.

The $11MM guarantee for Harvey suggests that the Angels are not only buying Harvey’s turnaround with the Reds in 2018 but anticipating that he can take another step forward. Harvey’s Mets career was torpedoed by Tommy John surgery and the even more ominous thoracic outlet surgery — the lingering effects of which caused the Mets to ultimately cut the cord and flip the right-hander to Cincinnati in exchange for catcher Devin Mesoraco. Harvey gave the Reds 128 innings of 4.50 ERA ball with more encouraging secondary metrics: 7.8 K/9, 2.0 BB/9 and a 42.6 percent ground-ball rate. ERA alternatives like FIP, xFIP and SIERA all pegged Harvey in the low 4.00s.

With the Reds, Harvey saw his average fastball velocity trend up from 92.6 mph in New York to 94.4 mph, and his swinging-strike rate improved from 8.2 percent to 9.9 percent. Neither of those marks are close to Harvey’s peak levels from his “Dark Knight” days, but the positive trends were encouraging enough for the Angels to bet a fairly notable sum that the beleaguered right-hander can hold up over the course of a full season. If that proves to be the case, Harvey could eventually emerge as a candidate to receive a qualifying offer, creating a bit of additional upside for the Halos.

By adding Harvey on an $11MM salary, the Angels push their projected Opening Day payroll up to about $156.2MM — a sum that falls roughly $10MM shy of the $165.8MM Opening Day payroll the team has averaged over the past three seasons. MLBTR contributor Rob Huff recently took a deep dive into the Halos’ payroll, estimating that the team could have as much as $36MM to spend this winter, assuming ownership approval of a slight uptick in payroll. With only Harvey and Justin Bour (one year, $2.5MM) as new additions to the books thus far, there’s certainly room for at least one more notable rotation addition — be it via the free-agent market or via trade.

The pairing of Harvey and the Angels, in some respects, has been more than a decade in the making. The Halos selected Harvey in the third round of the 2007 draft but were unable to sign him despite offering a bonus widely reported to be greater than $1MM in total. That decision, of course, proved to be a good one for Harvey, who was selected seventh overall out of UNC in 2010 and received a considerably heftier $2.5MM bonus from the Mets. Much has changed in the decade-plus since that offer was made, but Harvey is in many ways an upside play, just as he was as a draft prospect in 2007 — albeit a far more expensive one this time around.

For Harvey, the one-year term gives him a further opportunity to distance himself from his disastrous 2016-17 results and re-enter the open market after spending a year in a relatively pitcher-friendly environment. Though he’s moving from the National League to the American League, he’ll also move from one of the game’s most homer-friendly parks to the much more spacious Angel Stadium, which could help him pare back the 1.48 HR/9 he averaged following his trade to Cincinnati. Harvey’s ultimate contract aligns with the annual value we at MLBTR predicted in our Top 50 free agents list, though our rankings projected a two-year term for the former Mets ace. Meanwhile, Harvey’s landing with the Angels won’t do favors to many who participated in MLBTR’s free-agent prediction contest; only 2.9 percent of respondents correctly pegged Harvey to the Halos.

Red Sox, Zach Putnam Agree To Minor League Deal

By | at

The Red Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with reliever Zach Putnam, tweets MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo. The right-hander missed the 2018 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery.

Putnam, 31, was a regular in the White Sox’ bullpen from 2014-17 before going down with an arm injury that ultimately led to Tommy John surgery. Prior to that procedure, though, Putnam turned in 139 1/3 innings with a 2.71 ERA, 9.6 K/9, 3.6 BB/9 and a 47.6 percent ground-ball rate. Putnam never lit up the radar gun, sitting at 90.4 mph with his fastball over that four-year stretch on the South Side, but he nonetheless posted a gaudy 16.1 percent swinging-strike rate in that time as well. Beyond that, Putnam excelled in terms of limiting hard contact, as evidenced by a 27.2 percent opponents’ hard-hit rate that ranked well below the league average.

Putnam joins the Red Sox organization with four-plus years of service time and will surpass the five-year mark if he logs any meaningful big league time in 2019. That means that if he’s able to return to the Majors and find success, the Red Sox will be able to control him through the 2020 season via the arbitration process.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/18/18

By | at

Here are Tuesday’s minor moves from around the game…

  • The Mets have signed right-hander Zach Lee to a minor league contract, as first reported by MetsMerized’s Michael Mayer (on Twitter). The once-vaunted pitching prospect was involved in one of the more lopsided swaps in recent memory, going from Los Angeles to Seattle in a straight-up deal for Chris Taylor. Lee, now 26, spent the 2018 season in the Rays’ system, where he split the year between Double-A and Triple-A and posted a 3.65 ERA with 6.6 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9 in 145 2/3 innings. However, as has been the case throughout his career, he was terrific in Double-A (career 3.22 ERA in 282 1/3 innings) but clobbered in Triple-A (5.20 ERA in 550 2/3 innings).
  • Corner infielder D.J. Peterson has been granted his release by the Reds to pursue other opportunities, tweets C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic. Peterson, the 12th overall pick in the 2013 draft (by the Mariners), was once considered to be among the game’s elite prospects. Multiple outlets considered him to be among the game’s top 100 prospects in 2014-15, but his bat stalled in the upper minors. Peterson hit .249/.318/.418 in parts of three Triple-A seasons and posted a similarly pedestrian .262/.315/.431 slash in parts of four seasons in Triple-A. It’s not clear what’s lined up next for him, though as a corner bat with some pop, he could draw interest overseas.
  • The Pirates have agreed to a minor league contract with catcher Steven Baron, per John Dreker of PiratesProspects.com. Baron, who just turned 28, has gone 1-for-16 in a minuscule sample of six big league games. He’s a career .252/.309/.331 hitter in parts of four Triple-A seasons, though, and has thrown out 43 percent of would-be base thieves in his minor league career. He’s also drawn consistently excellent marks for his pitch-framing abilities and above-average marks in terms of pitch blocking, per Baseball Prospectus.
  • The Brewers announced that they’ve signed right-hander Chris Dula to a minor league contract. The 26-year-old hasn’t pitched in affiliated ball since 2016, when he was with the Rangers, but has spent the past couple of seasons on the indy circuit and gained some notoriety for a fastball that reaches 102 mph. As one might expect, control issues are a significant factor with Dula, but the Brewers will take him on as a project, presumably in the lower to middle levels of their minor league system, in hopes of harnessing his premium velocity.

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top