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Pirates Acquire Phil Gosselin, Designate Nefi Ogando For Assignment

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The Diamondbacks announced that they’ve traded recently designated infielder Phil Gosselin to the Pirates in exchange for minor league righty Frank Duncan. Right-hander Nefi Ogando has been designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster, the Pirates announced. (Gosselin was designated for assignment earlier in the week when the D-backs signed Daniel Descalso to a one-year deal with a club option for 2018.)

The 28-year-old Gosselin originally came up with the Braves back in 2013, but he’s spent the majority of the past two seasons with the Diamondbacks. Primarily a second baseman, Gosselin batted .283/.338/.409 in 316 plate appearances with the D-backs over the past two seasons and is a .283/.331/.385 hitter in 501 Major League plate appearances.

Gosselin grades out as a fairly solid second baseman from a defensive standpoint, though despite the fact that it’s been his most frequent position in the Majors, he’s still logged only 487 innings there. He’s also spent some time at shortstop, third base, first base and in the outfield corners as a Major Leaguer.

Gosselin should get a chance to make the Pirates’ roster out of Spring Training, though he could vying for the same utility infield job as the out-of-options Alen Hanson. Hanson’s status could complicate matters for Gosselin, as he still has two minor league options remaining and wouldn’t need to be exposed to waivers in order to be sent down. Even if Gosselin isn’t a fixture on the roster in 2017, the Bucs have the ability to control him through at least the 2020 season, as he has just two years, 85 days of Major League service time to this point in his career.

Duncan, 25, reached Triple-A for the first time in 2016 and posted a combined 2.34 ERA with 7.5 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a 55.7 percent ground-ball rate between Double-A and Triple-A. Despite those gaudy numbers, Duncan drew a somewhat lukewarm review from Fangraphs’ Eric Longenhagen in his review of the Pirates’ farm system. Longenhagen noted that Duncan “fills the zone and eats innings, but his stuff (sinker in the upper-80s, fringe-average breaking ball, below-average changeup) is that of an up-and-down arm more than a big-league mainstay.”

Losing his spot on the roster as a result of this move is the 27-year-old Ogando, whom Pittsburgh claimed off waivers from the Marlins back on Dec. 23. There’s plenty to like about Ogando, who has averaged better than 95 mph on his fastball and induced grounders on 57.6 percent of the balls put into play against him in his brief MLB sample of work (19 2/3 innings, 3.66 ERA). However, despite Ogando’s ability to overpower hitters with his fastball, he’s fanned just 10 hitters in the Majors to go along with 10 walks.

A look at Ogando’s minor league production reveals a similar tale; though he throws in the mid- to upper-90s, he’s averaged 7.4 K/9 in his minor league career and just 7.0 per nine in Triple-A. Walks have been a persistent issue for him in the minors as well, as he’s consistently averaged between four and five walks per nine innings pitched. Ogando has changed hands on waivers three times in the past 14 months, going from Philadelphia to Miami to Pittsburgh, so it’s possible that another club will want to try its hand at harnessing his intriguing velocity.

NL Central Notes: Arb Cases, Kang, Bailey, Hammel, Cubs

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Though the Brewers and righty Chase Anderson participated in an arbitration hearing on Monday, they’ll have to wait a while longer to learn the results. As the Associated Press reports (via USA Today), MLB and the player’s union agreed to request that all first-year arb-eligible starters have their cases heard (or otherwise reach agreement) before any decisions are issued. Other effected players and teams include Michael Wacha of the Cardinals, Collin McHugh of the Astros, Jake Odorizzi of the Rays, Marcus Stroman of the Blue Jays, and Taijuan Walker of the Diamondbacks. The filing gaps in these cases are relatively narrow — McHugh’s case has the most at stake ($3.85MM versus $3.35MM) — but the decision will ensure that one case isn’t able to influence the others. In Anderson’s case, the panel is deciding between his $2.85MM submission and Milwaukee’s $2.45MM counter. You can find all of the filing figures and settlement amounts for this year’s arb class right here.

Here’s the latest out of the NL Central…

  • Pirates infielder Jung Ho Kang will stand trial on DUI charges on February 22nd, Jee-ho Yoo of Yonhap reports. That’s after the start of Pittsburgh’s spring camp, though it seems the trial itself won’t pose any major limitations on his availability. There are much broader concerns here, of course. Kang is obviously in need of a reevaluation of his decisionmaking — it’s his third such arrest — and it remains to be seen what kind of disciplinary and/or remedial action he might face from the court (if not also the commissioner’s office).
  • The latest surgery for Reds righty Homer Bailey represents yet another setback, but won’t necessarily force the club to make a 40-man roster move, as Zach Buchanan of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Referencing the team’s group of young rotation candidates, president of baseball operations Dick Williams said that “there will be an opportunity for the guys who are coming to assert themselves.” At the same time, the Reds will likely “at least look around to see if there are some options” available to bolster their depth.
  • The Cubs thought they were doing Jason Hammel a favor when they declined his $12MM option in November, thereby enabling him to reach free agency, but it ended up hurting the right-hander’s value, writes ESPN’s Buster Olney (subscription required). Hammel agreed to a two-year, $16MM deal with the Royals on Sunday, though it took nearly three months for him to find a job despite being one of the most accomplished starters available in a weak class of free agents. Rival teams inferred from the Cubs’ decision that the Theo Epstein-led franchise didn’t think Hammel was good enough to crack their rotation going forward, Olney suggests, and late-season elbow tightness didn’t help matters. The 34-year-old Hammel didn’t pitch past Sept. 24 — when he allowed six earned runs in a 2 1/3-inning start — meaning he missed the Cubs’ run to the World Series.
  • Meanwhile, Cubs senior VP of player development and amateur scouting Jason McLeod spoke recently about the state of the arms on the Chicago farm, as Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago reports. While the club lacks “impact starters at the upper levels,” he notes, there’s optimism more broadly. “We now feel really good, not just with the depth of the organization but having some major league starting impact guys who are at the the A-ball level and progressing toward Double-A now,” said McLeod, who also discussed the team’s hopes for just-acquired righty Eddie Butler.

Pirates Acquire Pat Light, Designate Lisalverto Bonilla For Assignment

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The Pirates announced that they’ve acquired hard-throwing right-hander Pat Light from the Twins in exchange for a player to be named later or cash. To make room on the 40-man roster, the Pirates designated fellow right-hander Lisalverto Bonilla for assignment. Minnesota had designated Light for assignment last weekend when they claimed infielder Ehire Adrianza off waivers. It seems as if the Twins will be receiving cash, as opposed to a player, as Minnesota’s announcement made no mention of a possible PTBNL.

Light, 26 next month, long rated as one of the more promising farmhands in the Red Sox organization, but Boston parted ways with him to acquire southpaw Fernando Abad prior to last year’s non-waiver trade deadline. Light made his big league debut last season but allowed 22 runs in 16 1/3 innings with 16 strikeouts against 16 walks.

Control has been an issue for Light in the past two minor league seasons, as he has walked 56 batters in 100 2/3 innings in that time. He did, however, average nearly 95 mph on his fastball during his brief 2016 call-ups, and he also logged a 54.4 percent ground-ball rate. Both factors likely piqued the interest of the Pirates, who place a heavy emphasis on ground-ball tendencies.

Bonilla, 26, hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2014. The former Phillies/Rangers prospect underwent Tommy John surgery in 2015 but worked his way back to health with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate in 2016. In 111 innings split between the Double-A and Triple-A affiliates of the Dodgers, Bonilla logged a 3.97 earned run average with a 118-to-40 K/BB ratio. His short stint in the Majors back in 2014 resulted in a 3.05 ERA and a 17-to-12 K/BB ratio in 20 2/3 innings. The Bucs had signed Bonilla to a Major League deal earlier this offseason.

Pirates Changing Outfield Alignment

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SUNDAY: The Pirates will indeed change their outfield alignment, manager Clint Hurdle announced Sunday. After primarily playing right field during his first three seasons, Polanco will head to left. McCutchen will cede center to Marte and take over in right.

“We believe this alignment will maximize our outfield production,” said Hurdle. “Our men were very professional and respectful of the team and each other throughout the process, and are selfless in helping us strengthen our team defensively.”

SATURDAY: It appears there will be a changing of the guard in the Pirates’ outfield this year. After spending most of his first four-plus seasons in left field, Starling Marte will shift to center in 2017, he told MLB Dominicana (Twitter link; h/t Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). If that happens, the longtime face of the franchise, five-time All-Star center fielder Andrew McCutchen, will join Gregory Polanco as the team’s starting corner outfielders.

Given the vastly different defensive results Marte and McCutchen have produced in recent seasons, it’s no surprise that the Pirates look poised to shake up their outfield alignment. Since debuting in 2012, Marte has accounted for the majors’ sixth-most Defensive Runs Saved (73) and recorded an impressive Ultimate Zone Rating of 31.4. McCutchen, on the other hand, has fallen off drastically in the grass and is coming off a year in which he finished last in the majors in DRS (minus-28) and second last in UZR (minus-18.7).

In addition to his defensive troubles, McCutchen posted the worst offensive output of his brilliant career in 2016 (a still-respectable .256/.336/.430 line with 24 home runs in 675 plate appearances) and has been the subject of trade rumors this offseason. While it looked as if the Pirates would move McCutchen at the Winter Meetings, no deal materialized and general manager Neal Huntington declared afterward that the team would go forward with the 2013 NL MVP on its roster. Of course, Huntington could still trade McCutchen sometime in the near future – the 30-year-old has two seasons, including a 2018 club option, and up to $28.5MM remaining on his contract. In the meantime, he could become a corner outfielder after lining up exclusively in center during his first eight seasons.

The 28-year-old Marte – unlike McCutchen, perhaps – is in line to serve as a Bucs cornerstone for the foreseeable future. Marte, who’s fresh off his fourth straight full season of easily above-average production, is controllable through the 2021 campaign at an affordable $46.5MM. Now, as part of an effort to ameliorate a Pittsburgh defense that was among the majors’ poorest during a 78-win 2016, Marte seems likely to go forward at the outfield’s most important position.

Quick Hits: Rays, Pirates, Pace Of Play, Prospects

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Since Stuart Sternberg purchased the Rays in 2005, the franchise has “lost money from every point in time you can pick,” he told Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. In spite of that, Sternberg has no interest in selling the team and is optimistic about keeping it in Tampa Bay with a new stadium to replace Tropicana Field. “If we are going to propose it, it will be because we believe it works for generations,” said Sternberg, who is encouraged that local politicians – including the mayors of both Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg – have been cooperative in the process. Sternberg & Co. are working on cutting down a half-dozen potential stadium sites to a “pin-perfect” choice. He’s also looking to land a new TV deal sometime in the near future, but he admitted it could be years before that comes to fruition.

More from around baseball:

  • As a result of his December DUI arrest in South Korea, Pirates third baseman Jung Ho Kang has agreed to enter a voluntary treatment program, reports Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. By doing so, the 29-year-old Kang could lessen any potential punishment from Major League Baseball. A joint panel agreed upon by the league and the players association recommended treatment for Kang, who has three DUI arrests to his name. The league’s prior collective bargaining agreement stated that “participation in any Treatment Program shall be considered as a mitigating factor in any discipline imposed by either the Club or the Office of the Commissioner.” That likely remains the case in the newly minted CBA, per Brink.
  • MLB and the MLBPA are amid talks centering on pace-of-play issues, commissioner Rob Manfred told Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. Introducing a pitch clock to speed up games doesn’t seem to be on the table, relays Davidoff, though cutting back on mound visits – at least from teammates – is under consideration. However, there’s “still a ways to go” before that becomes a reality, a source informed Davidoff.
  • ESPN’s Keith Law (subscription required and recommended) has released his annual list of all 30 teams’ best sleeper prospects, noting that six to eight of these players typically crack his top 100 the next year. Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts, Cardinals right fielder Stephen Piscotty and Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto are among those who have recently become quality major leaguers after Law rated them as sleepers.

Central Notes: Cardinals, Royals, Pirates, Indians

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Carlos Martinez’s extension with the Cardinals was largely spurred by the right-hander and agent Brian Mejia, the latter of whom first approached the Redbirds about a new deal nearly a year ago, reports Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. While Martinez secured a guaranteed $51MM and could earn up to $86MM if the Cardinals exercise club options for both 2022 and ’23, Craig Edwards of FanGraphs opines that it’s not a great deal for the player, arguing that the 25-year-old may have left roughly $100MM on the table by eschewing the chance to hit free agency after the 2019 season. As Edwards points out, though, it’s difficult to fault Martinez for choosing security for him and his family – especially given the recent deaths of two fellow Dominicans, ex-Cardinals outfielder Oscar Taveras and former Kansas City righty Yordano Ventura. Plus, Martinez will still have an opportunity to hit free agency as a 31-year-old if he sees this contract through. “He could have just pointed to (age) 28 as a free agent,” general manager John Mozeliak said Thursday. “He chose not to.”

More from the majors’ Central divisions:

  • While the newly signed Brandon Moss looks like a strong candidate to become the Royals’ everyday designated hitter, the team doesn’t aim to use him that way. “We didn’t sign Brandon to be our DH,” GM Dayton Moore revealed Wednesday (via Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star). “We plan on rotating that slot. We have an aging lineup, as we know. I think it’s going to be very beneficial to give a lot of our position players an opportunity to DH from time to time.” Moore added that Moss’ ability to play both corner outfield and first base “was important for us.” Moss has spent the majority of his career in the American League, but he has seen far more time in the outfield and at first (a combined 833 games) than DH (27 games).
  • The Pirates turned down trade offers – “some big, some small” – involving right-hander Chad Kuhl last summer, GM Neal Huntington informed Adam Berry of MLB.com. Now Kuhl, 24, figures to begin 2017 in the Pirates’ rotation after logging a 4.20 ERA, 6.7 K/9 against 2.55 BB/9 and a 44.3 percent ground-ball rate in 14 starts (70 2/3 innings) as a rookie last year. “He really didn’t surprise us internally,” Huntington said of Kuhl’s promising debut. “We’ve liked him for a long time.”
  • Pirates third baseman Jung Ho Kang earned his third DUI arrest in South Korea in December, but the team is proceeding as if it won’t affect his standing for spring training. “The expectation is that [Kang] will arrive and be ready to go,” Huntington told Stephen J. Nesbitt of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “But until that happens, there’s always a chance that we could hit a snag.” Kang could still face punishment from Major League Baseball, but it’s unclear whether he has gone before a panel yet for an assessment, according to Nesbitt. Per the collective bargaining agreement, players in Kang’s situation “must appear before a joint panel agreed upon by the league and the player’s union,” writes Nesbitt, who notes that Kang is still under investigation for an alleged sexual assault that took place in Chicago last summer.
  • The Indians’ decision to sign outfielder Wily Mo Pena to a minor league pact Tuesday came as a favor to their highest-profile offseason acquisition, first baseman/DH Edwin Encarnacion, writes Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com. Encarnacion, who’s friends with Pena, asked the Tribe to venture to the Dominican Republic to observe Pena and other unnamed players work out. The Indians came away impressed enough to take a flyer on the 35-year-old Pena, who landed an invitation to spring training.

Josh Bell Undergoes Knee Surgery

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The Pirates have announced that exciting young hitter Josh Bell has undergone knee surgery to remove a loose body from his left knee. He is expected to require a two-to-four-week down period before resuming baseball activities, which could put his Opening Day status in doubt.

It seems that the procedure is a fairly minor one; certainly, there’s little reason to think it seriously clouds Bell’s outlook for 2017 and beyond. It’s true, as Bill Brink of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette notes on Twitter, that this is now the third recent injury to that joint, but all have been relatively minor. While it’s disappointing that the surgery did not occur until this late stage, Pittsburgh explains that Bell felt discomfort during offseason workouts and was examined upon reporting the issue to the club.

Bell, 24, cracked the majors for the first time in 2016. While the switch hitter didn’t show much power, Bell exhibited a rare mastery of the strike zone, recording 21 walks against just 19 strikeouts over 152 plate appearances. He ended with a strong .273/.368/.406 batting line, setting the stage for a much more prominent role in the season to come.

The Bucs are well positioned to deal with any absence, though the injury adds to the creeping uncertainty in the corner infield. Presumptive third baseman Jung Ho Kang is a question mark after a regrettable DUI incident — though he’s expected for camp. David Freese and John Jaso remain on hand to pick up any slack, and there’s depth beyond that. The 40-man roster includes versatile fielders such as Alen Hanson, Adam Frazier, and Gift Ngoepe, while Jason Rogers and Joey Terdoslavich are among the non-roster possibilities to fill some time at first base.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/18/17

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Here are the day’s minor moves from around the league…

  • The Pirates have announced the signing of first baseman/outfielder Joey Terdoslavich to a minor-league deal that includes an invitation to MLB camp. The longtime Braves farmhand, now 28, spent parts of three seasons in the Majors with Atlanta from 2013-15 but batted just .221/.296/.324 across 162 plate appearances. Terdoslavich does have a better track record in Triple-A, where he’s authored a career .258/.331/.410 in parts of five seasons.
  • Joining the Indians on a minors pact is lefty Kelvin De La Cruz, per a club announcement. He will not receive a big-league camp invite. De La Cruz hasn’t performed well in the upper minors as of late and spent last season in the independent Atlantic League, tossing 116 innings with a 4.19 ERA and 6.8 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9. His 2013 season split between the Dodgers’ Double-A and Triple-A affiliates was strong enough for the Orioles to give him a Major League deal in the offseason despite the fact that he’d never pitched in the Majors, but his results from that time haven’t been encouraging.
  • Red Sox signed righty Erik Cordier and lefty Cesar Cabral, per Matt Eddy of Baseball America. The hard-throwing Cordier, 30, will return stateside after a brief and unsuccessful stint with the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball in 2016 (10 runs in 12 1/3 innings). Cordier has long battled control issues but has shown a consistent ability to hit triple digits with his fastball in the past. His last Major League stint came in 2015. As for Cabral, the 27-year-old former Rule 5 pick has averaged about a strikeout per inning throughout his minor league career but has yet to find success at the Triple-A level. He pitched just 8 1/3 innings last season, all with the Orioles’ Triple-A affiliate, and allowed nine earned runs on 13 hits and four walks. He’s logged 5 2/3 innings in the Majors in his career but has never been able to stick on a 25-man roster.
  • The Marlins have added former Braves right-hander Brandon Cunniff on a minor league deal, also according to Eddy. The 28-year-old has totaled 52 innings for Atlanta over the past two seasons, posting a 4.50 ERA with 53 strikeouts but an unsightly 31 walks in that time as well. Cunniff’s fastball sits around 93 mph, and he has a history of missing bats in the minors, although his overall results began to tumble when he reached the Triple-A level. He’ll give Miami an experienced option to compete for a bullpen gig at some point in 2017, though the team’s offseason additions of Junichi Tazawa and Brad Ziegler make for a somewhat crowded right-handed relief picture behind A.J. Ramos, David Phelps and Kyle Barraclough.

NL Central Notes: Molina, Wainwright, Thames, Cervelli

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The Cardinals are readying to face some potentially tricky decisions with regard to franchise stalwarts Yadier Molina and Adam Wainwright, as Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch writes. While the organization is hoping for both to finish out their careers in St. Louis, a sentiment the players share, such arrangements are sometimes easier said than done. Extension talks are planned at some point this year with Molina, who remains a highly valuable workhorse behind the dish. The guaranteed portion of his contract ends after the season, with a mutual option looming. As Goold explains, it’s hardly a straightforward matter to reach a new deal; the question of how great a commitment the team wants to make will have to account for not only the valuation of an aging catcher, but also the rise of prospect Carson Kelly. As for Wainwright, who tells Goold he’ll only be interested in single-season contracts when his deal is up (after the 2018 season), there’s more time to see how things progress and less pressure given his position.

Here are a few more notes from the NL Central…

  • Eric Thames will be the latest data point as teams try to project how star-level performance in the Korea Baseball Organization carries over to Major League Baseball, and Fangraphs’ David Laurila spoke to Brewers GM David Stearns about the factors that went into signing Thames. Stearns explained that improved plate discipline despite a vast increase in the number of breaking balls Thames saw in Korea played into the decision, as did a number of analytics processes and statistical projections. “As more players play in the KBO, or any other foreign league, and then come back to the States, projection systems are going to continue to improve,” said the Milwaukee GM. “Clearly, the translation of KBO stats to (MLB) stats isn’t as straightforward as translating a Triple-A environment to a Major League environment, but it still played a role in our evaluation.”
  • MLB.com’s Adam Berry breaks down the value that Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli brings to the team with his ability to frame pitches. While Cervelli’s lack of pop might make his three-year, $31MM deal look questionable to some, Berry points out that per MLB’s Statcast data, Cervelli rated third in the Majors in total strikes “stolen” for his pitchers in 2015 and, in an injury-shortened 2016 campaign, ranked third once again on a per-pitch basis in that same category. The skill is hardly lost on the Pirates’ young pitchers, several of whom lauded Cervelli’s receiving abilities when speaking to Berry. “He makes every pitch look really good, even your bad pitches,” said Jameson Taillon. “”That’s a big confidence-builder.” 

Players Avoiding Arbitration: National League

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Quite frankly, there were too many arbitration agreements today to reasonably stuff into one post. So here’s a rundown of the National League players that have avoided arbitration on smaller deals (American League deals here). You can see all of the arbitration “action” thus far in a sortable, filterable format by checking out MLBTR’s 2017 Arbitration Tracker. All projections referenced in this post are courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz:

  • Wily Peralta and Carlos Torres have agreed to one-year deals, according to the team’s Twitter account. Peralta will earn $4.275MM (compared to $4.4MM projection), per Heyman. Torres was projected to make $2MM, but will get slightly more at $2.175MM, per Chris Cotillo of SB Nation (via Twitter).
  • Reliever George Kontos gets $1.75MM from the Giants, Heyman tweets. He had projected at $1.7MM.
  • The Diamondbacks also reached agreement with lefty Patrick Corbin, righty Randall Delgado, and catcher Chris Herrmann, per Jack Magruder of Fan Rag (links to Twitter). Delgado gets $1.775MM and Herrmann receives $937,500. As for Corbin, he’ll take home $3.95MM, per Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (via Twitter), which falls a bit shy of his $4.2MM projection.
  • Infielder Eduardo Nunez will receive $4.2MM from the Giants, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). San Francisco has also reached agreement with lefty Will Smith, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter). He’ll receive $2.5MM, just over his $2.3MM projection, Heyman tweets.
  • The Phillies settled at $4.2MM with righty Jeanmar Gomez, per Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter). He falls just a big shy of his $4.6MM projection.
  • The Cardinals have announced arb deals with Trevor Rosenthal and Kevin Siegrist. Rosenthal receives $6.4MM, per Heyman (via Twitter), which is just $100K over his projection. Siegrist projected at $1.9MM, but his salary has yet to be reported.
  • Matt Harvey and Jacob deGrom have each avoided arbitration with the Mets. Harvey gets $5.125MM in his second arb year, per James Wagner of the New York Times (via Twitter). Meanwhile, deGrom will receive $4.05MM in his first trip through the arb process, per ESPNNewYork.com’s Adam Rubin (via Twitter). New York has also agreed with lefty Josh Edgin, Rubin tweets, though terms remain unreported.

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