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Cheslor Cuthbert

Royals Designate Chris Owings, Select Cheslor Cuthbert

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The Royals announced today that they have designated utilityman Chris Owings for assignment. He’ll be replaced on the active and 40-man rosters by third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert, whose contract was selected.

Owings has just not found a groove in Kansas City since signing a $3MM deal over the offseason. The club will remain on the hook for the balance, less any pro-rated league-minimum earnings he’s able to record with another organization. Because he has more than five years of MLB service, Owings can reject an outright assignment and still keep all he’s owed.

The Royals obviously hoped for more out of Owings, who they targeted after he was non-tendered by the Diamondbacks. He’s striking out at an untenable 37.9% clip despite non-existent power. The resulting .133/.193/.222 slash line equates to an awful 7 wRC+.

With Owings departing, the Royals will welcome back a familiar face that failed to stick around previously. The 26-year-old Cuthbert has not produced much at all in his prior major-league opportunities, with a .252/.303/.378 slash over 830 plate appearances. He’s off to a nice start to the year at Triple-A, turning in .310/.370/.528 batting line and eight long balls across 219 trips to the dish.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/11/19

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We’ll keep track of the day’s minor moves here…

  • The Red Sox have brought outfielder Bryce Brentz back to the organization on a minor league contract with an invitation to Major League Spring Training, the team revealed in announcing a series of non-roster invitations. Now 30 years old, Brentz was drafted by the Red Sox in 2010 and stuck with the organization through 2017 before landing with the Mets. He batted .264/.332/.580 with 15 homers and 16 doubles for the Mets’ Triple-A affiliate in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League last season. Brentz saw brief MLB action with Boston in 2014 and 2016, hitting a combined .287/.311/.379 in 90 trips to the plate.
  • Infielder Cheslor Cuthbert cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Omaha, the Royals announced. He’d been designated for assignment earlier in the week. Cuthbert, 26, long rated as one of Kansas City’s best prospects and showed a bit of promise in 2016 when he hit .274/.318/.413 in 510 plate appearances as a rookie. However, he’s followed that up with a dismal .215/.278/.313 slash in 270 PAs over the past two seasons. The corner infielder could yet emerge in the Majors again with a strong showing in Triple-A, of course.
  • Catcher Tomas Telis and left-handed reliever Dario Alvarez have joined the Twins on minor league contracts, writes La Velle E. Neal III of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Telis, 27, has spent the past three and a half seasons in the Marlins organization but struggled to produce in limited stints at the big league level. He’s a career .230/.267/.298 hitter in 267 Major League plate appearances but owns a strong .304/.349/.413 slash in nearly 1500 Triple-A plate appearances. Alvarez, 30 next week, has a 5.06 ERA in 48 MLB innings but has also racked up 61 strikeouts in that time. He’s been far too homer-prone (1.9 HR/9) and, at times, has struggled with control, but Alvarez has averaged 11+ strikeouts per nine innings in both the Majors and over a nine-year minor league career.

Royals Sign Kyle Zimmer, Designate Cheslor Cuthbert

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The Royals have signed right-hander Kyle Zimmer to a one-year deal, the team announced (Twitter links).  Zimmer’s deal is a Major League deal, and MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan reports (via Twitter) that it is a split contract.  Zimmer will earn $124K in the minors and $555K (the MLB minimum salary) if he cracks the Royals’ big league roster.  In a corresponding move, the Royals have designated third baseman Cheslor Cuthbert for assignment.

After being selected with the fifth overall pick of the 2012 draft, Zimmer has yet to reach the majors, as his development has been stalled by a series of injuries.  Shoulder and elbow problems have been consistent issues, and Zimmer underwent thoracic outlet syndrome surgery in July 2016.  All in all, Zimmer has tossed just 259 minor league innings since making his pro debut in 2012, and he didn’t pitch at all last season.

In this context, it’s a little curious why K.C. felt the need to sign Zimmer to a Major League contract rather than another minor league agreement, though obviously the price is far from prohibitive and the split deal gives Zimmer a bit of extra guaranteed cash.

Despite all the injuries, Zimmer continued to be listed on multiple top-100 prospect rankings as recently as 2016, due to the potential he flashed when he was able to take the mound.  Zimmer has a 3.54 ERA, 10.8 K/9, and a 3.44 K/BB rate in the minors, though he did have a 5.79 ERA over his only Triple-A exposure, a 32 2/3-inning stint in 2017.  Zimmer worked mostly as a reliever in 2017 and that would seem like his clearest path to the majors, though just making the Show would be an achievement for Zimmer at this point given his plethora of health issues.

Cuthbert has also been plagued with injuries over the last two seasons, playing in just 88 total games for the Royals with only a .215/.278/.313 slash line over 270 plate appearances.  Cuthbert looked to breaking in as a regular in the Kansas City lineup in 2016, though his diminished play over the last two years has made him an expendable part of the Royals’ rebuild.

The Royals avoided arbitration with Cuthbert by agreeing to a $850K contract for the 2019 season, though like all arb deals, this contract isn’t guaranteed until the season actually begins.  If the Royals were to part ways with Cuthbert before the 16th day of Spring Training, they would only owe him 30 days of prorated termination pay based on his contract value (so in this case, roughly $143K).  Cuthbert is also out of options, so even if Kansas City wanted to keep him in the organization, he’d have to clear this waiver process.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: Thursday

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With the non-tender deadline looming tomorrow, there figure to be several players agreeing to pre-tender deals to avoid arbitration today. Many players who agree to terms prior to the deadline will be fringe non-tender candidates and, as such, are likelier to sign for less than they’d been projected in order to avoid a non-tender. We’ll keep track of today’s players who are avoiding arbitration in this post (with all referenced projections coming courtesy of MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)…

  • The Royals announced that they’ve agreed to one-year deals with both Cheslor Cuthbert and Jesse Hahn. Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com reports (via Twitter) that Cuthbert will earn $850K, while Hahn’s deal contains an $800K base salary. Both were definitive non-tender candidates, as Cuthbert batted just .194/.282/.301 in 117 plate appearances this past season. Hahn, meanwhile, didn’t pitch in 2018 due to a sprained ulnar collateral ligament that ultimately required “primary repair” surgery — a similar, but less invasive alternative to Tommy John surgery that is perhaps familiar to Royals fans after Seth Maness previously underwent the procedure.

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Royals Outright Brandon Maurer, Paulo Orlando, Ramon Torres

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The Royals announced Friday that right-hander Brandon Maurer, outfielder Paulo Orlando and infielder Ramon Torres all cleared outright waivers. Maurer has already rejected his outright assignment in favor of free agency, while both Orlando and Torres will become minor league free agents tomorrow. In a series of corresponding moves, Kansas City activated Jorge Soler, Cheslor Cuthbert and Jesse Hahn from the 60-day disabled list. The Royals’ 40-man roster sits at 37 players after these moves.

None of the 40-man subtractions come as much of a surprise. Maurer has spent parts of the past two season in the Kansas City bullpen but struggled to catastrophic levels, yielding 45 earned runs, 36 walks and 11 home runs in just 51 1/3 innings pitched. Though he’s shown the ability to miss bats, he’s far too hittable and was projected by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz to earn as much as $3.1MM in arbitration this winter.

Orlando, 33, hit just .167/.194/.200 in 93 plate appearances with Kansas City this year and has never replicated the BABIP-fueled 2016 season he enjoyed when he hit .302/.329/.405. Orlando has drawn walks at a 2.4 percent clip in his career, one of the lowest marks in all of baseball, and is a career .263/.289/.384 hitter. He brings his share of speed to the table, though that hasn’t been enough to outweigh his otherwise lackluster offensive output.

Torres, 25, has seen action in each of the past two seasons but mustered a timid .225/.269/.265 slash in that time. His .230/.279/.343 showing in Triple-A this season gave little reason for optimism, though at the very least he does offer some versatility with the glove, having experience at second base, shortstop and third base.

40-Man Moves: D-backs, Dodgers, Indians, Mets, Mariners, Cubs, Marlins, O’s

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This has been a trade-packed day across Major League Basbeall, meaning there are plenty of corresponding smaller moves that have been announced over the past couple of hours as teams make today’s agreed-upon deals official. Here’s a look at the DFAs, contract selections and other 40-man transactions that came along with today’s action…

  • The Diamondbacks designated left-handed reliever Jorge De La Rosa to make room for newly added southpaw Jake Diekman, Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic tweets. De La Rosa, a longtime Colorado starter who’s in his second season in Arizona, switched to a full-time relief role upon changing teams and hasn’t produced inspiring results. The 37-year-old has logged a 4.38 ERA/4.98 FIP with 7.51 K/9, 4.17 BB/9 in 86 1/3 innings since joining the D-backs. On the bright side, De La Rosa has posted a 48 percent groundball rate and been tough on left-handed hitters. Considering he’s only owed the balance of a $2.25MM salary, perhaps a team will be interested in taking a flyer on De La Rosa.
  • The Dodgers designated righty Ariel Hernandez for assignment to open a spot for John Axford, per the MLB.com transactions page. Hernandez, 26, scuffled through his first MLB action last year with the Reds and hasn’t made it back since. Over fifty frames this year in the upper minors, he’s carrying an appealing 2.52 ERA, but has also handed out 29 walks to go with his 49 strikeouts.
  • The Indians announced that they’ve designated outfielder Johnny Field for assignment. His spot on the 40-man will go to newly acquired outfield prospect Oscar Mercado, whom Cleveland acquired in a rare all-prospects trade with the Cardinals (full details here). Field, 26, only recently landed with the Indians himself after spending most of the year (and his entire professional career to that point) with the Rays. Field posted a meager .213/.253/.373 batting line in his first 179 MLB plate appearances, all accumulated earlier this season.
  • The Mets announced today that they’ve claimed infielder Jack Reinheimer, who was designated for assignment last week, off waivers from the Diamondbacks. A former fifth-round pick, Reinheimer received a cup of coffee with the D-Backs last year but hadn’t done much to force his way back to this point in 2018. In his fifty games at Triple-A, Reinheimer owns a .237/.312/.353 batting line. Additionally, outfielder Matt den Dekker cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A Las Vegas. He’ll have the right to elect free agency now or at season’s end.
  • Outfielder Isaac Galloway is on his way to the Majors to make his MLB debut with the Marlins, the club announced. It’s a long time coming for an eleven-year pro who has never before tasted the majors. Through 356 plate appearances this year at Triple-A, Galloway carries a .262/.315/.429 triple-slash.
  • Galloway’s contract was selected following the trade of Cameron Maybin to the Mariners, who opened a spot for Maybin by moving right-hander Dan Altavilla from the 10-day DL to the 60-day DL in yet another 40-man move. Similarly, Cubs righty Justin Hancock was transferred to the 60-day disabled list in order to open a spot for Brandon Kintzler, who was acquired from the Nationals today.
  • The Orioles are selecting the contract of right-handed reliever Cody Carroll, who will step into the roster spot of Kevin Gausman following today’s trade to Atlanta. Carroll landed with the Baltimore organization in the recent swap that sent reliever Zach Britton to the Yankees.
  • First baseman Ryan O’Hearn had his contract selected by the Royals, per a team announcement. Infielder Cheslor Cuthbert moved to the 60-day DL to open a spot. It’s the first crack at the majors for O’Hearn, who’ll get the call despite tepid results (.232/.322/.391) this year at Triple-A.
  • Righty Warwick Saupold cleared waivers and was sent outright to Triple-A by the Tigers. The Aussie hurler threw 34 1/3 innings of 4.46 ERA ball this year in Detroit, but managed only 16 strikeouts and a 6.1% swinging-strike rate in that span.

AL Notes: Happ, Yankees, Royals, Rays

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The Yankees roughed up Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ on Saturday, but that hasn’t killed New York’s interest in the soon-to-be free-agent lefty. The two teams “have continued conversations” regarding Happ and are “haggling over the price tag,” Buster Olney of ESPN writes. Olney goes on to suggest the Yankees should wait until closer to the July 31 non-waiver deadline to see if better starters than Happ will hit the trade block. As things stand, Happ may end up as the best starter on the move this summer, despite a 4.44 ERA in 105 1/3 innings. However, Happ comes with a strong recent track record and has posted appealing strikeout and walk numbers in 2018 (9.83 K/9, 2.91 BB/9).

Here’s the latest on a pair of other AL teams…

  • The Royals have demoted right-hander Jason Hammel to the bullpen for the time being, Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com was among those to tweet. Hammel had been slated to make his next start Wednesday, but Burch Smith will take his place. With the Royals in the midst of a rebuild and Hammel in the final guaranteed year of his contract, he could have emerged as a summer trade chip with a good showing in the season’s first few months. Instead, the once-competent Hammel has begun his age-35 season with a 6.16 ERA and his lowest K/9 (5.8) since 2011 over 102 1/3 innings. It’s the second disappointing campaign in a row for Hammel, who has combined for a 5.60 ERA across 280 2/3 frames since KC added him on a two-year, $16MM guarantee entering 2017. Hammel, to his credit, is taking his new role in stride, as he told Rustin Dodd of The Athletic (subscription required) and other reporters: “It’s a little slice of humble pie. But sometimes it’s necessary to reshape, reinvent, right the ship. I’ll go down and help out.”
  • One of Hammel’s Royals teammates, infielder Cheslor Cuthbert, has been out for nearly two months with a lower back strain, and his return isn’t imminent. Cuthbert suffered a setback during his rehab assignment with Triple-A Omaha, per Flanagan, who adds that the player “likely will be pulled off his rehab while they determine the next medical step.” That’s a discouraging development for both Cuthbert and Kansas City, the latter of which is in position to evaluate its young players. At 25, Cuthbert’s part of that group, though his production has been rather poor dating back to last season (.215/.278/.313 in 270 plate trips).
  • The Rays have placed reliever Chaz Roe on the 10-day disabled list with a torn left meniscus, Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Roe will undergo arthroscopic surgery Friday and should miss four to six weeks, Topkin adds on Twitter. Roe has been a key part of the Rays’ bullpen this season with a team-leading 41 appearances, during which he has posted a 3.60 ERA, 9.77 K/9, 3.34 BB/9 and a 51.2 percent groundball rate in 35 innings.

Injury Notes: Kendrick, Bumgarner, Mauer, Moore, Souza, Cuthbert

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Things got even worse for the Nationals today; Howie Kendrick appeared to sustain a serious injury while chasing down a Max Muncy fly ball. Kendrick was carted off the field, and was seen pointing to his ankle area. Jamal Collier of MLB.com reports that he’s off to get an MRI. The Nationals are already dealing with injuries to a number of other key players, including Ryan Zimmerman, Adam Eaton, Matt Wieters and Brian Goodwin, and can ill afford to lose another player from their outfield for an extended period of time. They’ll likely be anxious as they await further news on Kendrick.

More injury news from around MLB today…

  • Giants lefty Madison Bumgarner considers his fractured left hand to be “95% or more” healed, according to a tweet from MLB.com’s Chris Haft. He’s on track to throw live batting practice on Tuesday and begin a rehab assignment on Saturday. Meanwhile, Haft says, Johnny Cueto will head to the club’s rehab facility in Arizona. The Giants will hope for the best-case scenarios as far as the timetables of these two players; their depleted rotation is a chief factor in the club’s sub-.500 record on the season.
  • Joe Mauer is headed to the Twins’ DL with concussion symptoms once again, according to LaVelle E. Neal of the Star Tribute. He reportedly did well in regards to concussion tests last night, but is apparently experiencing some sensitivity to light along with some balance issues. Mauer, who has dealt with concussion issues in years past, is walking at a 16.8% clip so far this season en route to a .404 OBP. According to chief baseball officer Derek Falvey (via MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger), the club is “not saying at this time that Joe has a concussion.”
  • The Rangers have placed lefty Matt Moore on the 10-day disabled list with what the club is calling right knee soreness. The move will make room for fellow righty Ariel Jurado, who will make the jump from Double-A to debut in the majors tonight. Jurado has a 2.57 ERA in 35 minor league innings this year, but with a 5.31 FIP that strongly disagrees with those results. He posted a 4.59 ERA at Double-A last season, with 5.45 K/9.
  • Diamondbacks outfielder Steven Souza will avoid the DL for the time being, says Zach Buchanan of The Athletic. A key offseason acquisition by the Dbacks, Souza has already spent the bulk of the season on the DL after suffering a pectoral strain upon diving for a ball in the outfield. Fortunately, it seems as though some minor pec soreness will not require a second DL stint for the time being.
  • The Royals have placed Cheslor Cuthbert on the 10-day DL with a lower back strain, recalling fellow infielder Ramon Torres from Triple-A Omaha in a corresponding move. Cuthbert is a career .252/.308/.383 hitter, and is performing especially poorly this season, as evidenced by his -0.5 fWAR for 2018. However, Torres seems unlikely to provide any significant upgrade; he’s hitting just .229/.280/.307 at the Triple-A level so far this season.

AL Central Notes: Cuthbert, Wilson, Martin, Salazar, Engel

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Rustin Dodd of The Athletic chronicles Cheslor Cuthbert’s improbable ascent to the Major Leagues from his humble beginnings in a fishing village of 6,000 on a small island off the coast of Nicaragua (subscription link). As Cuthbert explains as part of the excellent interview, when he moved from Corn Island to Managua (Nicaragua’s capitol), he actually didn’t even speak any Spanish. His hometown spoke a form of English Creole, making the move to Managua to pursue a career in baseball at the age of 15 all the more difficult. With no understanding of the language in Managua and no family in the city, the decision for Cuthbert to move wasn’t an easy one to make, but it paved the way for him to receive a $1.5MM signing bonus — the largest for any Nicaraguan player in history — just a few years later with the Royals.

Some notes from around the AL Central…

  • An MRI revealed that Tigers reliever Alex Wilson has a 95 percent tear of the plantar fascia in his right foot, reports Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press (Twitter links). While that doesn’t sound like great news for the right-hander, the nearly complete tear isn’t actually as bad as one might think. One doctor to whom Fenech spoke pegged the recovery time for such an injury at a mere two to three weeks, creating some hope that the veteran righty could return in relatively short order after being placed on the DL yesterday. Wilson has managed just a 4.50 ERA in 20 innings this season, though his 16-to-6 K/BB ratio gives a bit more cause for optimism.
  • In a full column, Fenech adds that Tigers center fielder Leonys Martin is undergoing an MRI on his swollen left knee, per manager Ron Gardenhire. The issue seems to be related to a tendon in the back of Martin’s knee, though there’s no word yet as to how serious the issue or how much time he might miss. Through 138 plate appearances, Martin, who signed a one-year deal worth $1.75MM this winter, is hitting .294/.355/.508 with five home runs as Detroit’s primary leadoff hitter.
  • Indians right-hander Danny Salazar will  be shut down for at least the next week after receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection in his ailing right shoulder (link via Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer). Salazar was moved to the 60-day disabled list last week and has yet to pitch in the Majors this season due to an impingement in that right shoulder. At this point, there’s clear indication as to when the Indians can plausibly expect him to return to the roster. Mike Clevinger has stepped up and filled Salazar’s rotation spot quite nicely, though the fifth spot in the Cleveland rotation continues to be an issue.
  • MLB.com’s Scott Merkin tackles several White Sox questions in his latest reader inbox, kicking off by discussing Adam Engel’s spot with the club moving forward. Per Merkin, the organization believes that Engel’s blistering speed gives him the potential for elite range in center field, but GM Rick Hahn has also been “forthright” in stating that the 26-year-old will need to produce more at the plate if he is to have any sort of long-term role with the team. The ChiSox have given Engel 423 plate appearances dating back to Opening Day 2017, but he’s posted a miserable .167/.237/.271 slash with a 33 percent strikeout rate in that time.

AL Central Notes: Royals, LoMo, Moose, Twins, Sano, Abreu

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For the Royals, replacing Eric Hosmer likely won’t mean paying another veteran significant dollars to line up at first base. As Rustin Dodd of the Kansas City Star writes, the current expectation is that Logan Morrison is an “unlikely” target. GM Dayton Moore tells Dodd that while the organization has long “admired” Morrison’s ability, the “economic part of it … is very real to us.”

It also does not seem that the Royals will pivot from Hosmer to fellow former K.C. star Mike Moustakas. Dodd runs down some of the team’s internal options at the infield corners and the organization’s current thinking as it bids adieu to Hosmer. While it’s largely of historical interest at this point, it’s also worth noting a recent report from Robert Murray of Fan Rag suggesting that Kansas City never dangled more than five years and around $100MM to Hosmer. While multiple prior reports had pegged the organization’s interest in the seven-year range, that lesser price point would certainly have left Hosmer with an easier decision.

More from the AL Central…

  • Notably, too, the Royals seem inclined to give an opportunity at third base to Cheslor Cuthbert, as MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan writes. GM Dayton Moore says the organization values Cuthbert “a great deal,” though the 25-year-old will need to turn things around after a tepid 2017 season. To be fair, he did miss quite a lot of time due to injuries and hit at close to a league-average rate over 128 MLB games in 2016, when he carried a .274/.318/.413 slash line. Moore also cited Hunter Dozier as a candidate to see action at the corner spots.
  • The Twins are still considering additions, it seems, with Jon Heyman of Fan Rag tweeting that the organization has “flexibility” remaining despite bringing in a variety of veteran hurlers. Because the team did not end up landing Yu Darvish, there’s still some payroll space left to work with. Certainly, the market still includes some notable pitchers that would no doubt like to see the Minnesota organization make a run at their services. Whether or not the team is willing to extend itself for one of the remaining free-agent starters, though, remains largely unclear at the moment. Jake Arrieta, Alex Cobb and Lance Lynn are the top names left, though each rejected a qualifying offer and is there for attached to draft forfeitures.
  • One area of uncertainty entering camp for the Twins is young star Miguel Sano, who is coming off of surgery and was accused recently of assaulting a photographer. MLB.com’s Rhett Bollinger has the latest, via Twitter. On the health front, the 24-year-old is said to be “doing baseball activities,” though he will surely be handled with care as things ramp up. In regards to the investigation of the troubling claims leveled against Sano, the league has yet to speak with him. It remains unclear just how that investigation is proceeding and when it will be concluded.
  • White Sox slugger Jose Abreu seems comfortable with remaining on hand as the organization continues to bring along its young talent. And he’s even hoping to expand his repertoire as he ages, as James Fegan of The Athletic writes (subscription link). While the post focuses on Abreu’s self-declared intention to begin swiping more bags and a goal of improving defensively, it ultimately delves into the notion that he’s more than a lumbering slugger — and suggests his broader importance to the organization. Fegan notes that manager Rick Renteria routinely effuses praise for Abreu when chatting with the front office about the future of the organization, who has another two years of team control remaining before free agency.

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