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NL Central Notes: Brewers, Lucroy, Molina, Cards, McCutchen

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Brewers GM David Stearns laughed when told by Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel that he’s earned the nickname “Dealin’ Dave” on the heels of making nine trades to acquire 16 new players this offfseason. Haudricourt runs down all of the names acquired by Stearns, who shared a bit of insight into his general offseason approach with Haudricourt. “There’s a strength-in-numbers approach with pitching,” explained Stearns, who has acquired six pitchers via trade this winter. “Part of that is due to the increased injury risk associated with pitchers. We’re trying to stockpile good arms. I think most importantly we’re trying to stockpile guys who’ve proven they can throw strikes. We’ve been able to do that through some of these transactions.” Stearns went on to add that Jonathan Lucroy’s status hasn’t been impacted by the addition of a fairly highly touted catching prospect in Jacob Nottingham, acquired in the Khris Davis trade over the weekend. As Stearns notes, Nottingham spent last season at Class-A and can’t be expected to contribute in the Majors in the immediate future.

More notes from the NL Central…

  • The Cardinals are open to adding another catcher as a depth option on the eve of Spring Training, per Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but Yadier Molina and the team are both hopeful that he can be ready for the season opener. Molina, who underwent a second thumb surgery in December after his October operation did not fix the injury in his hand, tells Goold that he has no doubt that the second surgery healed the issue, citing improved performance in range-of-motion and strengthening exercises on the hand. Molina could still be two weeks away from catching, Goold notes, and that step will come before Molina progresses to hitting. If he’s not ready to open the season, offseason addition Brayan Pena will begin the year as the club’s starter. St. Louis has added veteran Eric Fryer on a minor league deal and could bring him north as the backup to Pena if Molina isn’t ready, and it stands to reason that any external addition to the catching mix would be cut from the same cloth.
  • Goold appeared on MLB Network’s Hot Stove show this morning and talked Cardinals (video link), discussing Molina, Adam Wainwright and the team’s mix of players at first base. If Wainwright is limited at all this season after missing much of last year due to an Achilles injury, the limitations will come in Spring Training as opposed to during the regular season, Goold said. He adds that the Cardinals “want to see if the Brandon Moss that they have is the Brandon Moss of a few years ago — the guy who over the last four years has averaged 24 home runs per year. “ Goold went on to add: “The guy who hits most is going to play most at first base. The guy who hits for the most power is going to play the most at first base.” Moss is joined by Matt Adams and Stephen Piscotty in the first base column on the depth chart.
  • Andrew McCutchen said again on Monday that his hope is to spend his entire career with the Pirates, tweets Rob Biertempfel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. McCutchen, who turned 29 in October, has been the face of the Bucs’ franchise for much of his career and is under contract for three more seasons at a total of $41.5MM (only $28MM of that is guaranteed; Pittsburgh has a $14.5MM club option with a $1MM buyout for McCutchen in 2018).

NL Central Notes: Cubs, Almora, Bard

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Here’s a look at the NL Central:

  • Carrie Muskat of MLB.com ran down six Cubs prospects to keep an eye on this spring.  Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, and Kyle Schwarber made their presence felt in 2015 and there are a handful of youngsters that could make an impact in 2016 for Chicago.  That list includes outfielder Albert Almora, the Cubs’ first round selection in 2012.  Almora has been held back by injuries, but the 21-year-old is now healthy and he’ll open the season at Triple-A Iowa.
  • Daniel Bard believes that he’ll get the fresh start that he needs with the Pirates, as Adam Berry of MLB.com writes.  “What I like about being here is I don’t know anybody. Basically, I’m going to get what I deserve here,” Bard said. “What I do on the field is going to dictate who I’m pitching for and where I’m going, and I’m fine with that.”  Bard, Boston’s first-round pick in the 2006 Draft, dominated from 2009 through 2011.  However, he hasn’t been the same pitcher since.  In that three year stretch, Bard posted a 2.88 ERA in a considerably more hitter-friendly era than today’s game even a few short years later. That 2.88 ERA, when adjusted for the league and Bard’s home of Fenway Park, resulted in a 154 ERA+, indicating that he was 54 percent better than a league-average pitcher. He averaged 9.7 K/9 and 3.5 BB/9 in that time to go along with a well-above-average ground-ball rate and a fastball that averaged better than 97 mph.  Bard and the Bucs agreed to a minor league deal back in January.
  • Over the weekend, the A’s acquired outfielder Khris Davis from the Brewers in exchange for prospects Jacob Nottingham and Bubba Derby.  Click here to check out some reactions to the deal and the impact it could have on Oakland and Milwaukee.

Pirates Sign Cory Luebke To Minor League Deal

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The Pirates announced that they’ve signed left-hander Cory Luebke to a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training. The former Padres lefty hasn’t pitched since 2012 after having three seasons wiped out by a pair of Tommy John surgeries, but he could conceivably factor into the club’s rotation or bullpen picture.

Now 30 years old (31 in March), Luebke had an impressive rookie season back in 2011, logging a 3.29 ERA with 9.9 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9 in 139 1/3 innings out of the San Diego rotation. That was enough for the former Padres front office regime to roll the dice on a potentially team-friendly contract of four years and $12MM plus a pair of club options. Had both options been exercised, the Padres would’ve controlled Luebke through the end of his first would-be free-agent year, and he’d have earned $27.75MM in total over the life of the deal. Unfortunately for both team and player, Luebke never got the chance to build on that strong rookie showing, as he pitched just 31 innings in 2012 before succumbing to injury. He’ll now look to follow the path of many other pitchers before him and breathe new life into his career as a member of the Pirates organization.

Pirates To Sign Eric O’Flaherty To Minors Deal

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The Pirates have agreed to a minor league deal with lefty reliever Eric O’Flaherty, Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports tweets. He’ll receive an invitation to MLB camp.

It has become cliche at this point, but the Bucs do have a record of helping to turn around once-productive pitchers. And O’Flaherty certainly fits the general mold of past refurbishment projects.

The 31-year-old was at one time rather dominant for the Braves, running up a 1.99 ERA over nearly 250 frames from 2009 through 2013. He averaged a pedestrian 7.2 K/9 in that span, but limited the free pass (2.5 BB/9), got a ton of easy outs (58.3% groundball rate), and was plenty useful even against right-handed hitters.

Things weren’t so rosy last year, his first full campaign back from Tommy John surgery. He ended with an abysmal 8.10 ERA, which only got worse after a mid-season trade from the Athletics to the Mets. And the peripherals weren’t great either, as O’Flaherty ended with 6.3 K/9 against 5.4 BB/9. He was able to generate grounders right at his career rate, and there are indications he suffered some bad luck (.388 BABIP, 57.6% strand rate), but clearly he has some work to do to get back on track in the coming spring.

NL Notes: Arrieta, Pirates, Phillies

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Now is the time for the Cubs to try to sign ace Jake Arrieta to a long-term deal, Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago writes. Arrieta and the Cubs recently agreed on a one-year, $10.7MM contract to avoid arbitration in Arrieta’s second year of eligibility. Arrieta can currently become a free agent after the 2017 season. Of course, Arrieta’s agent Scott Boras would surely agree that an extension for Arrieta shouldn’t be cheap after his Cy Young award-winning 2015 season, and since Arrieta turns 30 next month, he might only have one shot at a big free agent deal, meaning he might not be inclined to sign now unless the deal is quite long. Also, Arrieta’s incredible stretch run changed the landscape since we last closely considered his extension candidacy. Levine proposes a four-year deal at an average of $23MM per season, with two club options. While it’s true that Arrieta’s salaries for the next two seasons are essentially set via the arbitration process, a $92MM deal with options would, in my opinion, be unlikely to bring Boras and Arrieta to the table. Recent history suggests Arrieta has a shot at a deal in the $200MM range if he waits until after 2017. Here’s more from the National League.

  • The Pirates won 98 games last season and have a strong core in place, but many of their top competitors in the National League have improved, Travis Sawchik of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writes. The Cubs have had a busy and productive offseason, and while the Cardinals have lost talent (some of it to their rivals in Chicago), they should benefit somewhat from better luck with injuries. The rest of the league, too, has become increasingly polarized, with several very bad teams, but lots of potentially strong ones, including the Mets, Nationals, Dodgers, Giants and Diamondbacks. The Bucs, however, continue to believe in themselves. “There’s no question the Cubs did a fantastic job on balancing amateur player acquisition and timing it with those young players being ready to hit the major league level and then pouring a ton of money into free agency,” says Pirates GM Neal Huntington. “They are going to be good going forward. The Cardinals are going to be good going forward. Our belief is, with this core that we have, that we are going to continue to be good going forward.”
  • The Phillies don’t figure to be one of the NL contenders in 2016. They should, however, be fun, as FanGraphs’ Paul Swydan writes. They suddenly have only a handful of over-30 players, and the younger ones offer a mix of power (Maikel Franco), defensive ability (Odubel Herrera), speed (Cesar Hernandez) and, among the Phillies’ young pitchers, control (Aaron Nola). Then there’s top prospect J.P. Crawford, who could make his debut in 2016, along with a number of other very interesting minor leaguers, including Nick Williams, Andrew Knapp, Dylan Cozens, Jake Thompson, Vincent Velasquez and Mark Appel.

NL Central Notes: Pirates, Hoover, Piniella, Brewers

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Here’s some news from around the NL Central…

  • It’s still possible the Pirates could add another lefty reliever, MLB.com’s Adam Berry writes in a reader mailbag.  Tony Watson is one of the game’s best southpaw relievers, but Pittsburgh’s bullpen is otherwise pretty thin on left-handers with Major League experience.  Berry opines that the likes of Craig Breslow, Neal Cotts, Sean Marshall, Franklin Morales or Matt Thornton could be fits if the Bucs indeed chose to pursue another southpaw, though it’s also possible they stand pat since they generally don’t use specialists out of the pen.
  • Neither J.J. Hoover or Reds president of baseball operations Walt Jocketty had any hard feelings over the arbitration hearing between the two sides, MLB.com’s Mark Sheldon reports.  Hoover won the hearing, meaning he’ll earn $1.4MM in 2016 as opposed to Cincinnati’s $1.225MM figure.  “It’s just part of the environment.  I am thankful for the experience and seeing the inner workings of this process,” Hoover said, also noting that he “had no idea that so much research and preparation went into a case.”
  • The Reds announced the hiring of Lou Piniella to a consulting position as a senior adviser to the team’s baseball operations department.  The former manager will also spend time with the club during Spring Training, John Fay of the Cincinnati Enquirer tweets.  Piniella managed the Reds from 1990 to 1992, leading the team to its most recent World Series championship during the ’90 season.
  • Something as simple as communication can make all the difference in a young prospect’s development, as Brewers GM David Stearns and newly-hired farm director Tom Flanagan tell Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  Each player receives his own specific set or checklist of goals that need to be achieved to reach the majors, in order to make the player’s path as clear as possible.  “There’s enough distractions once a player gets to the big leagues,” Flanagan said.  “We’re trying to eliminate those that could come up along the way….We don’t want anyone to fall through the cracks.”
  • In other NL Central news from earlier today, the Cubs have checked in with the Rays about Tampa Bay’s pitching and outfield surplus.

Pirates Outright A.J. Schugel

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FRIDAY: Schugel cleared outright waivers and was assigned to Triple-A, per a team announcement.

WEDNESDAY: The Pirates have designated right-hander A.J. Schugel for assignment, the club announced. His roster spot will be occupied by just-acquired lefty Jesse Biddle.

Schugel himself was only recently claimed by Pittsburgh, and he’ll now be destined for his fourth team of the winter unless he clears waivers. The 26-year-old has only seen brief MLB action. He spent last season repeating Triple-A, ending the year with a 4.84 ERA and 6.2 K/9 vs. 2.5 BB/9 over 115 1/3 frames.

Pirates To Acquire Jesse Biddle

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12:46pm: Right-hander Yoervis Medina, himself just designated, will go to the Phils in the deal, the team announced. Since he was already outrighted from Pittsburgh’s 40-man, he won’t require an immediate roster spot with the Phillies.

10:31am: Biddle is headed to the Pirates, Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com tweets.

10:20am: The Phillies have reached a deal to trade southpaw Jesse Biddle to an unidentified club, Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports (Twitter link). The former top prospect had recently been designated for assignment.

Since he was in DFA limbo, Biddle was destined to land elsewhere unless he went unclaimed on waivers. Clearly, with a trade being reached, there was sufficient interest that a claim was inevitable anyway.

Once a consensus top-100 prospect league-wide, Biddle showed plenty of upside to go with some command issues while rising through the system. Still just 24, Biddle is set to miss the coming year after undergoing Tommy John surgery last fall.

But he had fallen off track even before the elbow issue cropped up. Since a promising 2013 at the Double-A level in which he posted a 3.64 ERA with 10.0 K/9 against 5.3 BB/9, Biddle’s strikeout numbers have fallen even while he’s continued to issue too many free passes. Clearly, though, there’s still enough talent to bet on that multiple other organizations were willing to commit a 40-man spot to the lefty — at least for the time being.

Minor MLB Transactions: 2-2-16

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Here are the day’s minor signings and outright assignments from around the league…

  • Right-hander Yoervis Medina has been outrighted to Triple-A Indianapolis, according to the Pirates’ transactions page on their web site. Medina delivered strong results for the 2013-14 Mariners, pitching to a combined 2.81 ERA with 9.4 K/9, 4.9 BB/9 and a 53.5 percent ground-ball rate before taking a significant step backwards in 2015. This past season, he logged a 4.71 ERA with an unsightly 16-to-11 K/BB ratio in 21 innings for the Mariners and Cubs. Notably, his fastball velocity, which had averaged 94.8 mph in 2014, sat a full two miles per hour lower at 92.8 in 2015, and his ground-ball rate dipped to 36.8 percent.
  • The Angels announced that they’ve signed outfielder Andrew Brown and right-hander Yunesky Maya to minor league contracts. Both players most recently appeared in the Korea Baseball Organization — Brown with the SK Wyverns and Maya with the Doosan Bears. Brown, 31, batted .261/.360/.496 with 28 homers in 539 plate appearances in a strong season with Doosan. He’d previously spent parts of the 2010-14 seasons in the Majors, batting a combined .220/.281/.390 between the Cardinals, Rockies and Mets. Maya, formerly a fairly high-profile international signee with the Nationals, struggled tremendously in the KBO, yielding 62 runs in 68 1/3 innings. He last appeared in the Majors in 2013, though he threw just a third of an inning that season. Prior to that, the Cuban righty posted a 5.52 ERA in 58 2/3 innings from 2010-11. Both players were invited to Major League Spring Training.
  • Sticking with players coming back over from the KBO, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports that the Yankees have signed right-hander Tyler Cloyd and third baseman Deibinson Romero, who spent the past season with the Samsung Lions and Doosan Bears, respectively. Cloyd, a former Phillies farmhand, logged 159 2/3 innings with the Lions but also posted a 5.19 ERA in the KBO’s extremely hitter-friendly environment. Prior to his KBO stint, Cloyd spent the 2014 season with the Indians’ Triple-A affiliate and posted a 3.90 ERA with 6.4 K/9 against 1.7 BB/9 in 166 1/3 innings. The 29-year-old Romero is a former Twins farmhand that batted .253/.328/.449 with a dozen homers in 305 trips to the plate.
  • The Tigers have signed Cuban shortstop Leonardo Laffita to a minor league deal with a $250K bonus, according to Eddy. The 24-year-old Laffita spent a bit of time in the Mexican League last season, where he batted .280/.345/.360 in 57 plate appearances. Within Eddy’s piece, BA’s Ben Badler weighs in on Laffita, noting that he’ll have to move to center field or second base. Laffita stood out for his speed, hand-eye coordination and bat speed, per Badler, but he’s a free swinger with questionable plate discipline.
  • Veteran catcher Miguel Olivo has a minor league deal with the Giants, per Eddy. A lifetime .240/.275/.417 hitters in 3993 plate appearances at the Major League level, Olivo hasn’t appeared in the bigs since 2014, although the 37-year-old did bat .281/.347/.470 across 378 plate appearances in Mexico over the past year.

Central Notes: Alvarez, Uribe, Brewers

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Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News takes an interesting look back at what was perhaps the first modern deployment of the opt-out clause. Then-Twins GM Andy MacPhail utilized a player option to lure top starter Jack Morris to the organization. “I thought, what’s the worst thing that can happen?” says the current Phillies president. “I was already committed to giving him $9 million over three years. He could pitch great and leave or he could like it and stay the whole time. Either scenario, I would’ve taken. Nor did I get any criticism at the time.” Things couldn’t have worked out much better, as it turns out, as Morris helped lead Minnesota to a World Series before departing. If you’re interested in some more reading on the history and development of the now-pervasive opt-out, check out this piece from MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes.

Here are some notes from the game’s central divisions:

  • Former Pirates corner infielder Pedro Alvarez is more than just a DH, his agent Scott Boras tells MLB Network Radio on Sirius XM (audio link). Alvarez still has the skills and athleticism that got him to the hot corner in Pittsburgh in the first place, says Boras, who rejects the idea that he’s a bat-only player “based upon a short sample size or a moment in his career where he’s had an irregularity in throwing.”
  • The Indians are still pursuing free agent third baseman Juan Uribe, Buster Olney of ESPN.com reports on Twitter. We’ve heard consistent chatter on that connection for quite some time, but it still isn’t clear whether Cleveland will (or will need to) push up its offer to get something done. There have also been suggestions that the club may be prepared to wait to see who’s left without a seat when the music stops this winter.
  • The Brewers have paid a lot of attention to center field this winter, Tom Haudricourt writes for Baseball America. In the immediate term, the organization will hold “an open competition,” per GM David Stearns, with veterans Kirk Nieuwenhuis and Eric Young Jr. looking to hold off youngsters Domingo Santana and Keon Broxton. Of course, Santana is seen more as a corner outfielder in the long run, but the club will presumably dedicate most of its playing time there to Ryan Braun and Khris Davis. As for Broxton, Stearns had praise for him as a near-term and future option. “He gives us increased depth in the outfield and has a chance to play center field,” he said. “We think Keon has a chance to be a real asset to our team, beginning this year.”
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