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Minor MLB Transactions: 7/6/19

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The latest in minor moves from around the game…

  • The Reds have released Zach Duke, per Mark Sheldon of mlb.com. Duke, now 36, has long been an effective reliever from the left side, but was viciously knocked around in 30 appearances for the club this season, posting identical 6.94 K and BB/9 marks in 23 IP. The lefty’s assortment of offspeed offerings has been death on same-side hitters for nearly a decade and a half now, but even southpaws crushed him this year, posting an eye-popping .250/.385/.500 slash through the season’s first half. He’s a decent bet to catch on elsewhere, given his track record, but the leash won’t be nearly as long this time around.
  • Former Mets infielder T.J. Rivera has signed with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, tweets Jon Heyman of MLB Network, who notes that the 30-year-old took much of the early season off to “fully recover” from his 2017 Tommy John Surgery. Rivera posted consecutive above-league-average offensive marks in limited time for the 2016 and ’17 Mets, though the club never seemed keen on giving him a full-time gig. A strong Indy showing should land him a spot in affiliated ball, though it may be too late this season for him to make a mark.

Orioles Claim Aaron Brooks, Designate Josh Lucas

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The Orioles have claimed righty Aaron Brooks off waivers from Oakland and designated right-hander Josh Lucas for assignment, the team reports.

Brooks, 29, appeared in 15 games for the A’s this season, starting six. He was mostly rocked over that span, pitching to a 5.01 ERA/5.67 FIP with a chilling 12 homers allowed in just 50 1/3 IP. The former Royal, Cub, and Brewer farmhand’s had major difficulty keeping the ball in the yard throughout his nine-year big-league career, so he wouldn’t figure to be a choice fit for Baltimore’s cozy Camden Yards dimensions.

Lucas, 28 and coincidentally a member of the A’s last season, was hit hard in nine appearances for Baltimore this season. The righty’s average fastball checked in at just 90.1 MPH for the club this year, well below the 93.5 MLB reliever average.

It’s the latest in a near-constant reshuffling of the Oriole pitching staff this season, yet again a sore spot for the club on its second consecutive #1 pick trajectory. Only John Means and Andrew Cashner have offered any solace in the rotation, with 23 bullpen members combining to post a league-high 1.89 HR/9.

Yankees Select Daniel Camarena

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The Yankees have selected the contract of lefty Daniel Camarena from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, the team reports. It’ll be the major league debut for the 26-year-old Camarena, who was re-signed by the club earlier this season after a short stint with the Twins organization.

Camarena was a late-round pick by the Yankees in 2012, and has since spent parts of each of his eight professional seasons in the Yankee farm (he also had a brief upper-minors stint with San Francisco last season). In 69 2/3 innings for Scranton this season (11 starts), the lefty’s pitched to an ugly 6.09 ERA, results only slightly inferior to his AAA output of a year prior. Camarena’s near 4/1 K/BB ratio is encouraging, especially in the juiced environs of the new-look International League, but he’s likely little more than a long man or fill-in at this point.

With the move, the club’s 40-man roster is now full. A staggering ten players still sit on the team’s 60-Day IL, so the club will almost certainly be faced with difficult roster decisions in the days ahead.

Brewers Designate Deolis Guerra For Assignment

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The Brewers have designated righty Deolis Guerra for assignment, per a team release. Right-hander Burch Smith has been recalled in his place.

Guerra, a 30-year-old who once upon a time was a headliner in the 2008 Johan Santana trade that sent the left-handed ace from Minnesota to New York, has never quite found his footing in a 14-year professional career thus far. A 2012 move to the bullpen was precipitated by severe bat-missing issues, a malaise that transmuted into homer and command problems in relief stints with both the Pirates and Angels from 2015-17.

He has been sharp this year, however, with 10.45 K/9 against 2.18 walks per nine in 41 1/3 treacherous innings in the homer-happy PCL. Numbers like those will allow him to linger in the upper minors for as long as he chooses, though the far-below average fastball (per MLB standards) may keep him knocking on the big-league door for some time.

Smith, 29, is a former well-regarded Padres and Rays prospect who ran into a heavy wall with Kansas City last season. Injuries kept him out of both the 2015 and ’16 seasons, and the low-slot Smith hasn’t since been able to regain his long-ago form. In 13 starts for San Antonio this season, Smith has paired a strong strikeout rate (10.24 K/9) with sloppy command. He’ll likely be deployed in relief with Milwaukee, though the team’s current pitching mix needs help wherever it can get it.

Minor MLB Transactions: 6/29/19

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The latest in minor moves from around the game…

  • Twins lefty Gabriel Moya has cleared waivers and been outrighted to AAA-Rochester, tweets Do-Hyoung Park of mlb.com. Moya, 24, had struggled with command at Rochester this season before his designation last week, the first time in eight professional seasons he’d exhibited such an issue. FanGraphs lauds the lefty’s 60-grade changeup, which won’t effectively be put to use if the wildness continues.
  • Angels infielder Wilfredo Tovar has cleared waivers and been outrighted to AAA-Salt Lake, per the team. Tovar had a 16-game stint with Los Angeles earlier this season, during which he slashed a meager .195/.283/.293 in 46 plate appearances. The 27-year-old’s been mostly punchless in 12 professional season thus far, though he continues to flash his sticky leather all around the infield.
  • The Pirates have signed former farmhand Gift Ngoepe, per the team’s Altoona Curve affiliate. Ngoepe, 29, will report to Altoona after a less-than-stellar showing with AAA Lehigh Valley in the Phillies system this year. Like Tovar, Ngoepe hasn’t hit much in the minors over his career, though his defense has his earned him call-ups with both Pittsburgh and Toronto over the last two seasons.

Cardinals To Place Marcell Ozuna On 10-Day IL With Finger Injury

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Cardinals outfielder Marcell Ozuna, who jammed multiple fingers on his right hand, including the middle, which club officials fear may be fractured, in a baserunning incident during last night’s game against San Diego, will be placed on the 10-Day IL shortly, per manager Mike Shildt (h/t to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Derrick Goold). The team is “leaning” toward promoting outfielder Tyler O’Neill to take his place.

Ozuna, 28, has been one of the lone bright spots for a struggling Cardinals offense, slashing .259/.331/.515 (118 wRC+) in regular left-field action for the club.

An aging Cardinal lineup, thought to be driven by the dynamic Matt Carpenter/Paul Goldschmidt duo, has often sputtered in the early going. The club ranks 11th in NL park-adjusted output, with the team’s hitters amassing the fourth-fewest homers in the Senior Circuit despite a hard-hit rate that ranks among the league’s best. Statcast’s xwOBA metric pinpoints both Goldschmidt and Jose Martinez as hard-luck hitters this season, with the latter ranking as one of the league’s unluckiest thus far in 2019.

O’Neill, who’s slumped a bit in both limited big-league action and extended Triple-A time this year (his .261/.312/.528 line is somehow below league-average in the PCL this season), would figure to get the bulk of the action in Ozuna’s absence.  The club could also turn full-time to Jose Martinez, though his corner-outfield defensive metrics again paint a rather bleak picture in semi-regular action thus far.

Giants Sign First-Rounder Hunter Bishop

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Per Jim Callis of MLB.com, the Giants have agreed to terms with first-rounder Hunter Bishop on a $4.1MM, below-slot deal. The deal is over $500K south of the approximately $4.74MM slot value for the 10th overall selection.

Bishop, the brother of Mariners outfielder Braden Bishop, is an outfielder who attended the same high school (Serra, in San Mateo, CA) and college (Arizona State) as Giants legend Barry Bonds.  The 6’5 lefty came late to baseball after devoting much of his pre-university energies to football, a sport he initially pledged to play at the University of Washington.

Bishop’s freshman and sophomore outputs were muted, but an offseason swing change unlocked a full range of theretofore unseen offensive talents, including top-scale bat speed and a plate discipline that endeared him to club executives across the league. Baseball America takes particular care to laud his “70-grade power” and “plus running ability” while noting that, though he’s possessing of the requisite tools to remain in center field, he may better suited for a corner. FanGraphs’ scouting report is notably bearish on Bishop’s current 30-grade arm, which the publication believes could be an issue in seasons to come.

Regardless, Bishop will hope to pair with other highly-touted offensive talents Joey Bart, Heliot Ramos, and the electric Marco Luciano to form the core of what the Giants hope will be the club’s next championship squad.

Bishop’s signing was just one in a slew of high-round inkings for the club today: as Callis notes, the Giants also agreed to terms with second-rounder Logan Wyatt (for $1MM; slot value: $1.47MM), fourth-rounder Tyler Fitzgerald (for full-slot $497.5K), and eighth-rounder Caleb Killian (for $400K, more than double the pick’s $176.3K slot value).

Danny Salazar To Begin Rehab Assignment

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Per Zack Meisel of The Athletic, Indians righty Danny Salazar will begin a rehab assignment with the club’s Arizona League affiliate tomorrow evening. It’s been a long road back for the 29-year-old Salazar, who’s been beset by shoulder injuries since his last appearance in a major league game on September 27, 2017.

Salazar’s shoulder surgery, which took place nearly a year ago to the day, was exploratory in nature and left the fireballing righty no timetable for a return. The team had initially expressed optimism that the 2016 All-Star could return early in 2019, but Salazar suffered multiple setbacks in his rehab process and had been unable to return to bullpen mounds until earlier this month.

When healthy, the five-year vet’s dynamite repertoire is among the nastiest in the game. Salazar’s yet to complete a season, partial or otherwise, where he didn’t set down at least a batter an inning, and in 19 starts for the club in 2017, the flamethrower averaged 95.1 MPH on his fastball and struck out nearly 13 men per nine. A fully healthy, back-to-form version of Salazar, who’d project to return around the same time as ace Corey Kluber, could give the Indians the AL’s most formidable rotation and supercharge the team’s push toward the AL Central crown.

Such a scenario may be pie in the proverbial sky, though, as the club will almost certainly let caution reign with the still-controllable righty, who’s set to hit arbitration for the final time in 2020. The club hasn’t been shy about deploying Salazar as a ’pen arm in the past, a role which may again be his if he’s to return to Cleveland without incident in ’19.

Leonys Martin Clears Waivers, Elects Free Agency

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Outfielder Leonys Martin, designated for assignment by the Indians last Saturday, has cleared waivers and elected free agency, per the club.

Martin, 31, sandwiched an excellent 2018 season (2.5 fWAR in just 83 games) between two very poor ones. In 264 plate appearances for the Tribe this season, the nine-year vet’s slashed just .199/.276/.343 on the way to below-replacement-level output. Strikeouts have a particular issue for the one-time defensive wiz – Martin’s been set down in nearly 30% of his PAs this season, easily a career worst and up nearly 8% from his injury-shortened campaign a season ago.

The good/bad alternation has been something of a career pattern for Martin, who boasts a career 81 wRC+ despite four seasons of 87 or better in the category. The Cuban’s been much more stable on the defensive side of the ball, though his league-pacing marks from his days in Texas have long since dissolved.

It’s likely, given his tendency to flash star-level play on occasion, that Martin will hook on with another club in the near future, perhaps one with an immediate defensive need at all three outfield spots. Even in down years, the lefty’s always been a capable threat when armed with the platoon advantage, so he’d figure to still fit well as a fifth-outfielder type on a contending team.

Orioles Select Matt Wotherspoon

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The Orioles have selected the contract of righty Matt Wotherspoon from Triple-A Norfolk, the club reported. It’ll be the second O’s stint this season for the 27-year-old, who was outrighted off the 40-man after clearing waivers in April.

The former Yankee farmhand has exhibited consistent bat-missing ability after converting full-time to the bullpen before the 2016 season. In 40 1/3 IP for Norfolk this season, the righty set down nearly ten and a half men per nine with a solid 2.90 BB/9. Wotherspoon’s grounder rates do hover at the low end of the spectrum, though, and it’ll be a challenge to keep ball in yard in Baltimore’s hitter-friendly home park.

The move is the latest in the desperate quest for anything approaching reliability in the Baltimore ’pen. Among regulars, only Paul Fry and Shawn Armstrong have accrued 0.2 fWAR or more on the season, with over a half-dozen names having cost the club an estimated two full wins in ’19.

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