Giants To Sign Top Picks Chris Shaw, Jalen Miller
The Giants have agreed to significant bonuses with a pair of their top picks, reports MLB.com’s Jim Callis (Twitter links). First-round pick Chris Shaw will sign for a $1.4MM bonus that is $485K shy of his No. 31 slot’s $1.885MM value. Nearly all of that savings will be used on third-round pick Jalen Miller, who receives a $1.1MM bonus despite the assigned slot value of $598K for the No. 95 pick.
Miller, a prep shortstop out of Georgia, was actually consistently ranked higher than Shaw heading into the draft. Miller was listed as the No. 35 prospect in the draft according to Baseball America. Callis an Jonathan Mayo ranked him 41st at MLB.com, while Fangraphs’ Kiley McDaniel had him 43rd, and ESPN’s Keith Law ranked Miller 60th. Shaw, a first baseman/corner outfielder out of Boston College, ranked 45th, 46th, 55th and 62nd, respectively, on those same lists.
Scouts are split on whether or not Miller will remain at shortstop or slide to the other side of the bag and play second base as a pro. BA notes that scouts like his plus speed and soft hands, but his arm strength and infield actions could ultimately land him at second. He’s said by BA to have a knack for making contact but only average power potential. McDaniel feels there’s double-digit homer potential in there, and MLB.com favorably comps him to Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips due to his frame and 15-homer upside in the middle infield. ESPN feels he has a chance to stick at short and should be given the opportunity to prove that he can handle the position in pro ball.
Shaw’s power is his calling card, but the 6’3″, 245-pound left-handed hitter broke his hamate bone in April this year and didn’t show the same power upon his return. That creates some uncertainty surrounding his draft stock, but it also is likely the reason that the Giants were able to get an under-slot deal for him at 31. BA notes that last summer in the Cape Cod League, Shaw’s homers became legendary, including some 450-foot tape-measure shots to center field. McDaniel placed a 60 grade on his raw power, and MLB.com gave his power an even more enthusiastic 65 grade on the 20-80 scale.
Giants Scouting Reds’ Mike Leake
Over the weekend, we learned that Giants executives Brian Sabean and Lee Elder were on hand at Wrigley to watch the Reds take on the Cubs, ostensibly to take a closer look at Reds starter Johnny Cueto. It turns out that they stayed in Chicago on Saturday night too in order to scout fellow Reds starter Mike Leake, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links).
The Giants saw Leake give up five hits and three earned runs with one strikeout over the course of five innings. It wasn’t Leake’s best start of the season, but the right-hander has been pretty decent on the whole, pitching to a 4.35 ERA with 5.2 K/9 and 2.5 BB/9 in 13 starts this season. The 27-year-old had even stronger numbers prior to this year. From 2010 to 2014, Leake posted a 3.92 ERA with 6.2 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9.
The Reds are staring at a sizable 12.5 game gap between them and the first place Cardinals, leading many to speculate that they will be sellers in July. Cueto and even Aroldis Chapman have been mentioned in trade rumors, but Leake could also make sense for a contending team such as the Giants.
One AL scout recently told Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe that Leake should be able to “pitch in either league with no problem.” That same scout speculated that there could be more bites on Leake than any other hurler at the deadline, but that remains to be seen. Leake is earning $9.775MM this year and will be eligible for free agency after the season, making him a possibility for a short-term rental or more. The Reds did not try to sign Leake to an extension this offseason and that reportedly did not sit well with the pitcher.
California Notes: Dipoto, Ethier, Giants
Months ago, the Angels exercised their 2016 option on GM Jerry Dipoto’s contract, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets. That news had not been reported until now. The option is the last one on Dipoto’s original contract, a three-year deal that included two options. That the organization has not extended Dipoto to this point might or might not be notable. The Angels have not always quite lived up to lofty expectations in the last few seasons, and Dipoto’s tenure has been shaped in part by an unfortunate contract and ugly dispute with Josh Hamilton (which, to be fair, were both at least partially the fault of owner Arte Moreno), but the team is coming off a 98-win 2014 campaign. Here are more notes from the West Coast.
- Outfielder Andre Ethier has reestablished himself this year after a winter in which the Dodgers couldn’t trade him, Bill Plunkett of the Orange County Register writes. “I don’t think anybody wanted me either,” says Ethier. “It takes two to tango like in a lot of things. … At the same time, maybe they knew what they were doing. Maybe the reason it didn’t happen was because they were asking more than other teams were willing to give.” Now, Ethier is in the midst of a resurgent .287/.369/.506 season, and Plunkett points out that, as the dollars remaining on Ethier’s contract continue to shrink (he’s currently owed about $49MM more through 2017, including a buyout for 2018), it might become a lot easier for the Dodgers to trade him than it was last winter.
- Giants executives Brian Sabean and Lee Elder were on hand to watch today’s Reds/Cubs game in Chicago, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal writes (all Twitter links). As Rosenthal points out, the natural conclusion is that Sabean and Elder were in town to watch Reds starter Johnny Cueto — Cueto will be a sought-after trade target this summer, and the Giants need rotation help. It could be, though, that the pair were at Wrigley for other reasons.
- Giants outfielder Hunter Pence is headed to the disabled list with wrist tendinitis, as Rosenthal tweets. Pence has not played since June 2, so he should be able to return within a week if he’s ready. To take Pence’s place on the active roster, the Giants selected the contract of righty Mike Broadway today after promoting an outfielder, Jarrett Parker, earlier this week.
Minor Moves: John Bowker
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- The Giants dealt first baseman/outfielder John Bowker to the Pirates earlier in the week, Alex Pavlovic of CSN Bay Area tweets. Bowker came to the San Francisco organization over the offseason after a run in Japan. The 31-year-old former big leaguer has hit .263/.304/.372 in his 148 plate appearances at Triple-A. Pittsburgh sent cash or a PTBNL in the deal, per Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (via Twitter).
Amateur Notes: Gourriel Brothers, Martinez, Draft
We’ve had a lot of news of players leaving Cuba of late, but two of the country’s most prominent names — brothers Yulieski and Lourdes Gourriel, rated first and fourth among the island’s players as big league prospects — have thus far not made any public moves towards the big leagues. As Ben Badler of Baseball America explains, however, both players are now set to miss the Cuban national team’s upcoming appearance in the Pan American Games. The younger of the two, Lourdes, was surprisingly left off the original roster, while Yulieski (the country’s biggest star) is said to have taken himself out of the tournament — after both recently seemed to have passed on chances to earn significant money playing in Japan. For now, it’s entirely unclear whether there is any movement afoot for the brothers to come stateside, but Badler notes that MLB clubs are watching with keen interest.
Here are some more amateur notes as we enter the final weekend before the draft:
- As he prepares to join the professional ranks after being declared a free agent, Cuban outfielder Eddy Julio Martinez has moved into the top spot on MLB.com’s international prospect list, as MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez writes. It’s unclear as yet whether Martinez will sign in this period or the new one beginning July 2, but he’ll have to put pen to paper in short order if he’s to head to the Yankees or Angels. Those two clubs will be unable to spend more than $300K after this July 2 class closes, and they are among the teams who Sanchez lists with interest. The Cubs, Blue Jays, Nationals, Rockies, Tigers, Dodgers, and Giants have also reached out to Martinez’s camp, per the report. “I’m working hard to get to my goal to play in the Major Leagues, ” says the 20-year-old. “That’s what I have always wanted to do.”
- The makeup of the amateur draft has changed over time, as Ben Lindbergh of Grantland explains. Mocking the draft is a more-or-less hopeless endeavor, says Lindbergh, but some trends have emerged. For one thing, the number of pitchers has continued to rise rather significantly. While this year’s class lacks premium talent, Christopher Crawford of Baseball Prospectus tells Lindbergh, some teams — the Rangers (who have the fourth overall pick) chief among them, based on their recent history — could well continue to stockpile arms. The Diamondbacks, who of course sit at first overall, have leaned toward position players recently, although they have an entirely new front office installed this time around. Meanwhile, the percentage of high school players taken has plummeted in the long run, but has jumped more recently. In particular, says Lindbergh, the Red Sox and Blue Jays have moved toward heavy drafting of prep players, who of course represent generally riskier but (in some cases) higher-upside investments. The Nationals have skewed most heavily toward college players — the spread is rather amazingly wide — though that could be due in part to draft circumstances. There are plenty more details in the piece, and I highly recommend a read to prepare for the coming draft.
- Bonus allocations (which come with the penalty of stark limitations in future drafts) have had a marked impact on clubs’ total outlay on draft-eligible talent, argues Ronald Blum of the Associated Press (via the Denver Post). Draft spending has remained flat over the last three years, with Blum calculating that an analogous increase of total cash commitments to that observed in free agency — which was often the case prior to the new rules — might have delivered an additional $100MM to amateur players over that span. This area is obviously full of complicated questions, including considerations of an international draft, and it’s extremely difficult to identify clear-cut solutions. The piece is full of interesting quotes from notable figures around the game, and is well worth a full read.
Minor Moves: McGehee, McGowan, Schebler, Venditte, Marrero, Mooneyham, Demeritte
Here are the day’s minor moves:
- Several notable players are en route to the big leagues. The Giants have brought back third baseman Casey McGehee after he hit well in a brief Triple-A stint (having accepted an optional assignment). Fellow veteran Dustin McGowan, a right-hander, has been recalled by the Phillies; he had been outrighted off the 40-man earlier in the year. And the Dodgers have called up outfielder Scott Schebler, the organization’s minor league player of the year in 2013, who will see his first MLB action. He was placed on the club’s 40-man roster last year, though his numbers have fallen off somewhat early this season after two consecutive .900+ OPS campaigns in the high minors.
- Most exciting of all, perhaps, is the news that the Athletics have announced that switch-pitcher Pat Venditte has been added to the big league roster. A nearly-unprecedented hurler, Venditte reverses the very idea of platoons by moving seamlessly between pitching with his right and left arms. He’s been outstanding this year at Triple-A, tossing 33 frames of 1.36 ERA ball with 9.0 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9. The 29-year-old has been particularly stingy when facing lefties, holding them to a remarkable .095/.136/.095 slash.
- First baseman Chris Marrero has reached a minor league deal with the White Sox, Mike Ashmore of MyCentralJersey.com writes. The former Nationals prospect, now 26, had been playing with the indy league Somerset Patriots. He’ll report to Double-A for the Chicago organization.
- The Nationals have released lefty Brett Mooneyham, who was their third-round pick in the 2012 draft, Matt Eddy of Baseball America tweets. Mooneyham, a 25-year-old Stanford product, has struggled badly with control and shifted exclusively to the pen at the A-ball level this year. He owned just a 6.41 ERA over 19 2/3 frames with 16 strikeouts against 13 walks.
- Rangers prospect Travis Demeritte, a first-round pick in 2013, has been hit with an 80-game suspension for using banned substances, Anthony Andro of FOX Sports Southwest reports on Twitter. The infielder was repeating the Sally League at age 20. Over 664 plate appearances at the level, he owns a .220/.320/.438 slash with 30 long balls and 16 stolen bases but a whopping 240 strikeouts.
NL West Notes: Jansen, Kendrick, Lee, McGehee, Lyles
The sudden nature of Kenley Jansen‘s unavailability on Wednesday evening led to a good deal of speculation following the contest, especially when the Dodgers saw a two-run ninth-inning lead turn into a loss after Jansen’s bullpen mates couldn’t hold off the Rockies. After the game, manager Don Mattingly told reporters that Jansen wasn’t available and that he learned as much during the game, but he provided no further details. Bill Plunkett of the O.C. Register was among those to report yesterday, however, that Mattingly was merely respecting his closer’s wishes. Jansen woke up Wednesday morning feeling sick and dehydrated, and he told the team in the fifth inning of the game. Given his symptoms and history of heart problems, the Dodgers game him an IV and performed an electrocardiogram, after which the doctor recommended that he not play. Jansen said frustration and feeling as though he let the team down were the reasons that he did not wish to address the media Wednesday evening. The 27-year-old righty has been perfect since returning from the DL this season, firing six scoreless innings with an 11-to-0 K/BB ratio.
Here’s more from the NL West…
- In other Dodgers injury news, MLB.com’s Ken Gurnick reports (Twitter links) that Howie Kendrick, who was injured while sliding into third base on Wednesday, underwent an MRI that revealed no structural damage. Kendrick, however said he “[doesn’t] know what will happen” if the knee is not feeling any better today, suggesting that he could miss a bit of time with the injury. Gurnick also says that right-handed pitching prospect Zach Lee has been experiencing a tingling sensation in his fingers and is being examined by doctors in Los Angeles. That’s a troublesome ailment for a team that is working with a thin rotation. Lee, long regarded as one of L.A.’s more promising arms, has a 2.38 ERA with 7.0 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9 in 56 1/3 innings at Triple-A this season.
- Giants GM Bobby Evans addressed the team’s third base situation in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM yesterday and indicated that recently optioned Casey McGehee could return in the near future (Twitter links). Said Evans: “We’ve given Matt Duffy a long look there and we’ll continue to, there’s a chance McGehee could be back up here soon as well. We’ll continue to monitor that, but we have fallback options in that area.” The Giants will certainly hope that McGehee can solidify the position, and he does indeed seem to have corrected his swing at Triple-A. In 46 plate appearances with Sacramento, McGehee is hitting a hefty .357/.391/.571 with a pair of homers and three doubles. Giants third basemen are hitting .255/.294/.380, though McGehee’s own struggles at the plate have contributed to that rather unimpressive collective effort.
- Rockies right-hander Jordan Lyles, who is out for the season due to a foot injury that he describes as “Tommy John for my toe” (Lyles has a torn ligament in his big toe), knew that he needed surgery when he took the hill for his last outing, writes the Denver Post’s Nick Groke. “I was trying to hold off the inevitable,” said Lyles. “They didn’t think I’d be able to handle the pain. But being a hard-head, I said, ‘Well, let’s see about that.'” Lyles said that making the final start, which he left in the second inning, didn’t worsen his injury anymore, as the damage had already been done. Rather, he took the mound simply because he “was trying to be a good teammate.” Lyles adds that during his last injury absence, he developed a split-fingered changeup to add to his pitch arsenal. “Now I’ve got a few more months to find something else,” he told Groke.
Juan Gutierrez Opts Out Of Contract With Giants
Righty Juan Gutierrez has opted out of his minor league contract with the Giants, MLBTR’s Steve Adams reports (Twitter links). The 31-year-old had agreed to that pact over the winter after declining an outright assignment from the club.
Gutierrez played a big role in the San Francisco pen last year, throwing 63 2/3 frames of 3.96 ERA ball. He posted 6.2 K/9 against 2.3 BB/9 in his most productive full season as a big leaguer. All said, Gutierrez has tossed just under 300 innings at the major league level, compiling a 4.49 career ERA.
The results have not quite been there for Gutierrez at Triple-A this year, as he has allowed 13 earned runs in his 23 2/3 innings of work. He has struck out 21 batters against eight walks, however, falling largely in line with his career marks. As Adams notes, Gutierrez still brings a mid-90s heater and has enough big league experience that he ought to draw interest from other teams.
Robert Coello Opts Out Of Contract With Giants
Right-hander Robert Coello has opted out of his minor league contract with the Giants, MLBTR has learned. Coello’s deal had a June 1 out clause, and he’ll now be able to sign with a new organization as a free agent.
The 30-year-old Coello has spent most of his career as a reliever, but the Giants used him in the rotation at Triple-A Sacramento this season with good success. In 11 starts that spanned 64 1/3 innings, Coello has worked to a 3.50 ERA with 6.9 K/9 and 3.9 BB/9.
Coello, a client of Octagon/Jay Alou, last appeared in the Majors with the 2013 Angels, pitching to a 3.71 ERA with 23 strikeouts against eight walks in 17 innings. He has a history of missing bats in both the Majors and the minors, as evidenced by a 12.1 K/9 rate in the bigs and a mark of 9.8 in the minors. His strikeout rate is notably higher when working out of the bullpen, which isn’t surprising — pitchers will typically work at a greater velocity in the bullpen. Coello does have occasional trouble throwing strikes, as he’s walked just over four hitters per nine in his minor league career and has walked 17 hitters in 29 big league innings.
Coello is the second pitcher to exercise an opt-out clause from San Francisco’s Triple-A affiliate in as many days, as Kevin Correia also elected free agency yesterday. It’s possible that we’ll see a third pitcher test the open market, too; right-hander Juan Gutierrez also has a June 1 opt-out, as MLBTR previously reported.
NL Notes: Paco, Pirates, Frandsen, Mets
The Dodgers have been aggressively pursuing bullpen depth and their search could well continue now that southpaw Paco Rodriguez has been placed on the 15-day DL with a strained left elbow. Rodriguez will return to Los Angeles to visit with the team doctor and undergo an MRI this week to determine the extent of the injury. Rodriguez has a 2.61 ERA, 7.0 K/9 and 2.67 K/BB rate over 10 1/3 relief innings this season, and he’ll join other Dodger pitching notables as Hyun-jin Ryu, Brandon McCarthy, Brandon League and Joel Peralta on the injured list. Here’s some more from around the National League…
- The Pirates are getting on track after a slow start, in large part because of several fairly inexpensive but productive offseason additions have helped, Fangraphs’ Jeff Sullivan writes in a piece for FOX Sports. A.J. Burnett is throwing like a Cy Young candidate, Jung Ho Kang has been a power bat at short, Arquimedes Caminero and Rob Scahill are pitching well out of the bullpen and Francisco Cervelli has essentially replaced Russell Martin‘s elite pitch-calling at a fraction of Martin’s price tag.
- Kevin Frandsen is excited to be joining the Giants, telling Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle (Twitter links) that he was eager to join a team that valued utility players. The veteran will join the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate after signing a minor league contract earlier today.
- As many as eight of the 15 NL teams could be trade deadline sellers, according to what the New York Post’s Joel Sherman has been hearing from league executives, though the Reds, Padres and Marlins may hold out from trades as long as possible out of a refusal to give up on the season. The Mets seems to be one of the buyers, and Sherman lists four big-name players (Aroldis Chapman, Martin Prado, Justin Upton and Ben Zobrist) who could help New York’s playoff chances. The versatile Prado and Zobrist could help all over the diamond given some of the Mets’ unsettled injury situations, Upton would add another big bat and Chapman’s addition would solidify the Mets’ bullpen and thus take pressure off the rotation. While any of this quartet would certainly be upgrades for the Mets, it remains to be seen, however, how much (if any) money the club is willing to spend for in-season additions.