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Diamondbacks Recall Andrew Young, Release Bryan Holaday

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The Diamondbacks have recalled infielder Andrew Young, per a team announcement. To make room on the roster, catcher Bryan Holaday has been released.

It’s been an up-and-down season for Young, in many ways. He’s been optioned to the minors and recalled six times already this season and has seen mixed results as well. In a small sample size of 67 plate appearances at the big league level, Young has shown some power but also a lot of strikeouts. His overall line is .228/.328/.596 for a wRC+ of 140, despite striking out a whopping 49.3% of the time. (MLB average is 23.4%) His Triple-A output on the year is similar, a line of .282/.380/.564, wRC+ of 128 and a strikeout rate of 35.4%.

Young can play multiple positions but has been primarily slotted into second base this year. Josh Rojas has gotten the bulk of playing time at the keystone in Arizona this season, but the club recently lost Asdrubal Cabrera on waivers, who had been the regular third baseman. With him out of the picture, that could potentially open up some infield playing time by having Young or Rojas at the hot corner.

As for Holaday, the veteran catcher has become extraneous given the presence of Carson Kelly and the emergence of Daulton Varsho. He hasn’t started a game since August 19th, only getting three pinch-hit plate appearances since then. Overall, he’s gotten 34 plate appearances on the year, slashing .194/.265/.258. He’ll now head to the open market and look for a new home.

Diamondbacks Place Zac Gallen On Injured List

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The Diamondbacks announced they’ve placed right-hander Zac Gallen on the 10-day injured list due to a right hamstring strain. Catcher Bryan Holaday has been selected to replace him on the active roster. The D-Backs had a vacancy on the 40-man roster after this week’s trade of outfielder Tim Locastro to the Yankees.

It’ll be the second IL stint of the year for Gallen, who earlier missed a month with a minor sprain of the UCL in his throwing elbow. It doesn’t seem there’s a ton of cause for concern this time around. The righty told reporters (including Zach Buchanan of the Athletic) he’d been diagnosed with a “very mild” strain that was of the Grade 1 (least severe) variety. Indeed, Gallen said he’s not even in pain currently.

Nevertheless, there’s little reason for the 23-61 Diamondbacks to take any chances with a core player. Gallen qualifies, having pitched to a 3.16 ERA/3.78 FIP across 156 2/3 innings since the D-Backs acquired him from the Marlins at the 2019 trade deadline. Gallen hasn’t been that effective this year, but there’s little doubt the organization remains bullish on his long-term upside.

Holaday is now set to appear in the majors for a tenth consecutive season. The right-handed hitter’s most extensive run came early in his career with the Tigers, and he’s also seen action with the Rangers, Red Sox, Marlins and Orioles over the past couple seasons. All told, the 33-year-old owns a .238/.283/.333 line across 768 MLB plate appearances. Signed to a minor league deal over the winter, he’s hit .263/.315/.579 in 108 trips to the dish with Triple-A Reno. That’s solid but unspectacular output in the hitter’s paradise that is Triple-A West.

Minor MLB Transactions: 3/27/21

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The latest minor moves around the league:

Most Recent

  • The Diamondbacks have re-signed catcher Bryan Holaday to a new minor league contract, the team announced.  The 33-year-old catcher was in camp as a non-roster invitee and was released last night. Holaday has played for the Tigers, Marlins and Orioles over a big league career that has spanned parts of nine years. He got a little bit of MLB action in Baltimore last year, picking up 33 plate appearances.

Earlier Today

  • The Phillies announced they’ve released reliever Michael Ynoa. The 29-year-old pitched in six games this spring as a non-roster invitee. Ynoa hasn’t pitched in the majors since a 2016-17 stint with the White Sox. Once a top prospect, the right-hander has signed with each of the Royals, A’s and Phillies since being cut loose by Chicago but hasn’t made it back to the highest level. Ynoa has a 4.42 ERA/5.12 SIERA over 59 MLB innings.
  • The Rangers have released right-hander Nick Vincent, per a team announcement. Texas has interest in bringing Vincent back to the organization on another minor-league deal, per Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning-News (Twitter link). The Rangers also re-signed catcher Drew Butera to a second minor-league deal in a procedural move. Both Vincent and Butera were Article XX(B) free agents- players with six years of service time who were in camp on minor league deals after finishing the 2020 season on big league rosters. As such, they’d have been entitled to respective $100K retention bonuses had Texas kept them on their original contracts without adding them to the major league roster.

Diamondbacks Sign Seven To Minor League Deals

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The Diamondbacks announced the signing of seven players to minor league deals: Bryan Holaday, Seth Frankoff (previously reported), Bradley Roney, Sam Moll, Drew Weeks, Christian Lopes, and Jamie Ritchie, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (via Twitter).

Out of this group, only Holaday, Frankoff and Moll have appeared in the majors. Holaday carries the most experience, having amassed 768 plate appearances with multiple teams (including 33 with the Orioles last season). The 33-year-old owns a .238/.283/.333 line with 10 home runs in the bigs. Moll, 29, has only appeared in MLB in one season – 2017, when he totaled 6 2/3 innings as a member of the Athletics. He has pitched to a much larger sample size of 131 innings in Triple-A and logged a 4.19 ERA.

Among the players here who haven’t reached the majors, Lopes earned the highest marks as a prospect, as Baseball America ranked the former seventh-round pick 23rd in the Blue Jays’ farm system in 2013. Lopes is now 28, though, and didn’t move beyond Triple-A ball with the Jays or the Rangers. He hit .272/.364/.426 with five HRs over 228 PA with the Rangers’ Triple-A team in 2019.

 

Orioles, Bryan Holaday Agree To Minor League Deal

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9:20am: The Orioles have announced the signing.

9:12am: The Orioles have agreed to a minor league pact with veteran catcher Bryan Holaday, Craig Mish of FNTSY Radio reports (via Twitter). The Lagardere Sports client will presumably head to Major League Spring Training as a non-roster invitee in hopes of landing a backup job in Baltimore.

Holaday, 32, spent the past two seasons in the Marlins organization and saw action at the MLB level in each campaign, hitting a combined .237/.297/.335 with five homers and 11 doubles in 295 trips to the plate. He threw out 34.9 percent of attempted thieves on the bases in his two years with Miami (22-for-63) and rated solidly in terms of pitch blocking, per Baseball Prospectus. After turning a corner in the framing department in 2018, his numbers backed up toward their (below-average) career norms in 2019.

At present, it seems likely that the Orioles will rely on Chance Sisco and Pedro Severino as their primary options behind the dish, but it’s possible that the club could want Sisco to log everyday at-bats in Triple-A Norfolk if he doesn’t show well in Spring Training.

Sisco, a second-round pick in 2013, has long rated as one of the Orioles’ best prospects (and one of baseball’s best catching prospects), but he’s yet to find much success in the Majors. Injuries limited him to a combined 394 plate appearances between Triple-A and the big leagues in 2019, which surely didn’t help his cause. He has one minor league option year remaining, so the O’s could still send the 24-year-old to Triple-A for refinement if they wish. Severino, on the other hand, is out of minor league options.

Elsewhere on the 40-man roster is 29-year-old Austin Wynns. He’s regarded as a solid defender but hasn’t hit much in the upper minors or in the Majors. Like Sisco, he has a minor league option remaining. Holaday will have to beat out both Sisco and Wynns to get a look out of camp. If not, he could head to Triple-A and give the organization an eight-year MLB veteran to provide depth in Norfolk.

Bryan Holaday Elects Free Agency

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The Marlins announced Friday that veteran catcher Bryan Holaday cleared waivers and has elected free agency in lieu of accepting an outright assignment to Triple-A New Orleans. He’ll be free to sign with any club this winter.

Holaday, 32 next month, has spent the past two seasons in the Marlins organization. The veteran backup took a backseat to young Jorge Alfaro in Miami this season but was productive when he got the call, hitting .278/.344/.435 in 129 plate appearances. That production is demonstrably better than Holaday’s typical output, however, as evidenced by his lifetime .241/.287/.340 line through 735 MLB plate appearances between Detroit, Texas, Boston and Miami.

Defensively, Holaday has been average or better in terms of controlling the running game throughout his MLB career, as his 30 percent caught-stealing rate checks in a bit north of the 28 percent league average over his Major League tenure. He typically draws above-average marks for his pitch-blocking skills but has long been regarded as a slightly below-average framer (positive marks in 357 innings with the Marlins in 2018 notwithstanding). Catching depth is seemingly always in demand throughout the league, so Holaday will have his share of interested teams, though he’ll likely have to settle for a minor league pact and an invite to MLB camp — be it with the Marlins or a new organization.

Marlins To Select Bryan Holaday

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2:08pm: Mish tweets that Wallach has been diagnosed with a concussion, which prompted Holaday’s return to the club. A 40-man roster move will still need to be made.

2:01pm: The Marlins will select the contract of veteran catcher Bryan Holaday prior to this weekend’s series against the Nationals, Craig Mish of SiriusXM reports (via Twitter). Miami has a full 40-man roster and will thus need to make a corresponding move.

There’s no known injury issue with either Jorge Alfaro or Chad Wallach at the moment, and Alfaro has already been listed in today’s lineup for the Marlins. Wallach has been reasonably productive in a limited sample, so it seems unlikely that he’d be optioned out in favor of a veteran like Holaday. In all likelihood, an injury or perhaps a trip to the bereavement list could be the reasoning behind the move, but the Miami organization has yet to make a formal announcement.

Holaday, 31, is no stranger to the Marlins organization, having appeared in 61 games for the Fish last season. He hit just .205/.261/.258 through 166 plate appearances in his time as a Marlin but has had a better showing so far in Triple-A: .247/.385/.387 with more walks (17) than strikeouts (12) in 118 plate appearances. Holaday has never been much of a threat at the plate, evidenced by a lifetime .234/.274/.320 slash in the Majors, but he’s a veteran of seven MLB campaigns who has a career 32 percent caught-stealing rate.

Bryan Holaday, Pedro Alvarez Opt Out Of Marlins Deals

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8:50pm: First baseman Pedro Alvarez has also opted out of his deal, per MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro, who adds that outfielder Harold Ramirez will not exercise his out clause. Both Holaday and Alvarez have 48 hours to decide whether to go to Triple-A New Orleans, Frisaro notes. Alvarez has raked this spring with a .324/.400/.647 line in 34 at-bats, but the former star prospect hasn’t been much better than a league-average hitter across 3,321 major league PAs with the Pirates and Orioles. The 32-year-old struggled mightily across 127 PAs in Baltimore last season, when he hit a meager .180/.283/.414.

5:17pm: The Marlins are releasing catcher Bryan Holaday, who exercised the opt-out in his minor league contract, per Craig Mish of SiriusXM.

Holaday spent the 2018 campaign in Miami serving as the primary backup to star J.T. Realmuto, whom the team traded to the Phillies in the offseason. With Realmuto out of the picture, Holaday has been competing with Chad Wallach to work as a reserve behind Jorge Alfaro this season. But it appears Wallach has won the battle over Holaday, who hit .276/.364/.310 in 29 at-bats during spring training. That was an improvement over the .205/.261/.258 line Holaday authored over 166 PAs last year with the Marlins.

Offensive issues have been the norm for the 31-year-old Holaday, a .234/.274/.320 hitter in 606 PAs, though he has held his own at times behind the plate. Just last year, Holaday threw out a league-leading 45 percent of would-be base stealers (17 of 38) and, per Baseball Prospectus, offered above-average marks as a pitch framer and blocker.

Marlins Re-Sign Bryan Holaday To Minor League Deal

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The Marlins have agreed to re-sign veteran catcher Bryan Holaday to a minor league contract, tweets Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald. He’ll be invited to Major League Spring Training and again compete for a roster spot.

Holaday, 31, spent the 2018 season as the primary backup to star catcher (and trade candidate) J.T. Realmuto. The well-traveled veteran appeared in 61 games for Miami and tallied 166 plate appearances, though he struggled considerably, hitting just .205/.261/.258 in that time.

Holaday has long struggled to get on base, but his defensive contributions in 2018 were readily apparent. He threw out a league-leading 45 percent of would-be base thieves (17-for-38) and, per Baseball Prospectus, delivered above-average marks in terms of both pitch framing and blocking.

Chad Wallach is the only catcher other than Realmuto who is presently on the Marlins’ roster, so they’ll need some additional depth whether Realmuto is traded or retained. In the event of a trade, it’s unlikely that Holaday would be in line for regular work in Miami — he’s never topped 171 PAs in a big league season — but he’ll likely be in the race for a roster spot regardless of how Miami’s offseason shakes out.

Marlins Outright Bryan Holaday, Drew Rucinski, Miguel Del Pozo

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Marlins’ backup catcher Bryan Holaday and reliever Drew Rucinski have been outrighted to Triple-A New Orleans, per the Sun Sentinel’s Wells Dusenbury. Rucinski has elected free agency.

The 30-year-old Holaday has appeared in the big leagues with the Tigers, Rangers, Red Sox, and Marlins since 2012. The veteran backstop has mostly been an emergency catching option, highlighted by an ALDS appearance for the 2014 Tigers, catching four innings to close out a Game 3 loss to Baltimore. That season was also his most prolific in the majors, appearing in 62 games for Detroit. This season, however, was a close second: 166 PA across 61 games, slashing .205/.261/.258 for the fish.

The 29-year-old Rucinski was serviceable in 32 appearances out of the Marlins’ bullpen in 2018 (0.1 fWAR, -0.6 rWAR), but there’s little to indicate he’ll be much more than an extra arm moving forward. Relying on a 6-pitch mix, Rucinski leans heavily on his cutter, which averaged 90.1 mph, per statcast. The right-hander finished 4-2 in 35.1 innings with a 4.33 ERA (4.76 xFIP).

Left-handed pitcher Miguel Del Pozo was also outrighted today, the team announced (via Twitter). Del Pozo spent 2018 in Double-A, but the Marlins have given themselves some extra breathing room, creating nine open spots on their 40-man roster with the removal of Holaday, Rucinski, and Del Pozo.

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