- Five players are returning to the Rangers organization on minor-league pacts, per Stefan Stevenson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Twitter links). Utilityman Alex Burg will join right-handed hurlers Dario Beltre, Austin Bibens-Dirkx, Anthony Carter, and David Perez in returning to Texas. There’s a new farmhand coming in, too, as the Rangers added righty James Dykstra from the White Sox in a cash deal. Dykstra, 26, reached Double-A last year, throwing 102 1/3 innings of 4.93 ERA ball with 5.8 K/9 against 3.4 BB/9.
White Sox Rumors
White Sox Sign Derek Holland
The White Sox have officially agreed to a one-year deal with free-agent starter Derek Holland that pays him a reported $6MM. The 30-year-old southpaw, a client of Martini Sports Management, can also earn $2MM in incentives, $1MM apiece upon reaching 150 and 200 innings pitched.
Holland hit the open market when the Rangers declined an $11MM club option, preferring instead to pay a $1.5MM buyout when trade talks did not result in a taker. Now, he’ll head to Chicago to function as a near-term rotation piece to step into the opening created when the team dealt ace Chris Sale to the Red Sox.
Certainly, Holland won’t be expected to produce anything like the output of Sale, one of the game’s best starters, but he offers a bit of upside in his own right. He’ll ultimately land the exact guarantee predicted by MLBTR’s Tim Dierkes, who listed Holland 50th in his pre-offseason ranking of free agents in terms of earning power.
It has been a tough and injury-riddled three-year run for Holland, who has managed to provide only 203 innings since the start of 2014. He hasn’t exactly been dominant when healthy, either, posting a 4.30 ERA with 5.9 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 in that span.
That was certainly not what he or the Rangers hoped for when the sides came together on a five-year, $28.5MM deal in the spring of 2012. After a tough first campaign under the new pact, Holland came through in 2013 with a 213-inning, 3.42 ERA gem of a year in which he compiled 8.0 strikeouts against 2.7 free passes per nine innings pitched.
Things began to turn south in the following season, however, as knee and shoulder issues intervened. While Chicago can certainly hope for a bounceback, it will most likely be expecting some solid frames from the veteran hurler. In 2016, he sat nearly three full ticks below his peak average velocity (93.4 mph, in 2013), with a 7.8% swinging-strike rate that fell well below the ~10% mark he carried when at his best.
Given the limited commitment, and Holland’s positive clubhouse reputation, it seems to be a sensible acquisition for a White Sox organization that is hoping to remain somewhat competitive even as it deals away some of its best assets for upper-level prospects. If Holland can stay healthy and restore some of his prior luster on the hill, it’s conceivable that he could turn into a deadline trade piece or even a qualifying-offer candidate next fall.
MLB.com’s Scott Merkin reported that the deal was nearing finalization. MLB.com’s TR Sullivan reported that the deal was done (via Twitter). Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News had the terms (links via Twitter), with Jon Heyman of Fan Rag adding the incentives breakdown on Twitter.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
White Sox Designate Matt Purke
The White Sox have designated lefty Matt Purke for assignment, per a team announcement. His roster spot will go to just-signed southpaw Derek Holland.
Purke, 26, finally made it to the big leagues last year, throwing 18 relief innings in a dozen appearances. It didn’t go quite as hoped, as Purke allowed 11 earned runs on twenty hits, with 15 strikeouts and 12 walks. He did manage a 3.52 ERA in his 38 1/3 Triple-A frames, though his 8.9 strikeouts were accompanied by 5.4 walks per nine innings at Charlotte.
Still, it was an accomplishment to make it that far for a talented southpaw who had dealt with shoulder problems throughout his career. Given a significant bonus as a third-round pick by the Nationals back in 2011, Purke never developed quite as hoped. While he did average better than 92 mph with his fastball in his brief MLB stint, he obviously has continued to struggle with control — a problem that has reared its head at several points in his minor-league career.
White Sox To Sign Caleb Gindl
- The White Sox have added outfielder Caleb Gindl on a minors pact, Eddy further tweets. Despite showing some promise upon reaching the majors in 2013 with the Brewers, Gindl fell off badly in each of the ensuing two seasons. He ended up playing indy ball last year, but showed enough with the Lancaster Barnstormers to return to an affiliated club.
Nationals Sign Jacob Turner, Three Others To Minors Deals
The Nationals have announced four minor-league signings, most prominently including righty Jacob Turner. Also joining the organization on minors deals with spring invites are lefty Tim Collins, infielder Emmanuel Burriss, and righty Mike Broadway. (The latter two signings were previously reported by Jon Heyman of Fan Rag; Twitter links.)
Turner, who’s still just 25, was once a prized prospect. But he never quite stuck in a big league rotation, and has bounced around in recent years. Most recently, he pitched for the White Sox. Returning to the majors in 2016, mostly as a reliever, Turner threw 24 2/3 innings of 6.57 ERA ball with 6.6 K/9 and 5.8 BB/9.
The 27-year-old Collins has been a successful reliever in the past, racking up 211 frames with a 3.54 ERA and 9.4 K/9 and 5.2 BB/9 between 2011 and 2014. Since then, however, he has undergone a series of Tommy John surgeries.
We covered Burriss already right here. Broadway, 29, has spent less time in the majors than the other two hurlers. Since the start of 2015, he has thrown 22 2/3 frames with the Giants, compiling a 6.75 ERA and 6.8 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9. Broadway also appeared briefly for Japan’s Yakult Swallows in 2016. He was rather good at Triple-A in 2015, it’s worth noting, racking up 48 1/3 innings with just five earned runs on 25 hits and an excellent 64:8 K/BB ratio.
White Sox Believe Moncada Talented, But Inexperienced
Former Twins and Reds reliever Jared Burton is attempting a comeback, LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune tweets. Burton last pitched in the Majors in 2014 and pitched 16 innings in the minors in 2015 before being suspended for 50 games to start the 2016 season after testing positive for the second time for a drug of abuse. He’s now 35. The righty has pitched parts of eight seasons in the big leagues, with a 3.44 ERA, 7.6 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9. Here’s more from the Central divisions.
- Both the White Sox and Red Sox organizations believe new top prospect Yoan Moncada can be an impact player, Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune writes. He’ll still have work to do, however, as his first taste of big-league action late last year (during which he struck out 12 times in 20 plate appearances) showed. “They were coming down, finishing him off underneath the hands down and in,” says White Sox manager Rick Renteria. “He’s a 21-year-old man who has not seen that type of bite coming from pitchers, and it’s probably changing the lane in which he’s looking for that particular type of slider, where he has to get it out and away.” Kane also reports that after learning the White Sox had acquired Moncada, Jose Abreu sent Moncada a congratulatory text message. The two played together in Cuba with Cienfuegos in 2012, when Moncada was 17.
- The Brewers lost Miguel Diaz as the top overall pick in the Rule 5 Draft on Thursday, as Minnesota selected Diaz and then traded him to San Diego. Diaz appeared to be a good prospect, but GM David Stearns says the organization left him unprotected because of his lack of experience, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel writes. The 22-year-old Diaz had elbow surgery in 2015 and only pitched his first full minor-league season in 2016, when he posted a 3.71 ERA, 8.7 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 in 94 2/3 innings for Class A Wisconsin. “He’s never pitched above the Midwest League. It’s very unusual for guys to be able to make that jump,” says Stearns. “We have to be prepared for that but it would be the exception to the norm if someone is able to make that jump successfully and contribute at the Major League level.” Of course, a Rule 5 pick doesn’t have to succeed for his original team to lose him. Before Stearns joined the Brewers organization, the team selected Wei-Chung Wang, a pitcher who had even less minor-league experience than Diaz now does, in the 2013 Rule 5 Draft. Wang pitched poorly in the Majors in 2014 and hasn’t yet returned to the big leagues, but the Brewers did manage to keep him.
White Sox Asked Astros For Musgrove, Martes, Tucker In Return For Jose Quintana
During the Winter Meetings, it emerged that the Astros had asked the White Sox about lefty Jose Quintana, and that the Astros believed the White Sox’ price to be too steep. Today, Peter Gammons tweets that the White Sox asked the Astros for big-league righty Joe Musgrove plus their top two prospects, righty Francis Martes and outfielder Kyle Tucker.
The White Sox’ ask continued their pattern of aiming high (which has worked twice so far this week) and suggests it might be true that, as has previously been reported, the White Sox see no pressing need to trade Quintana, who is controllable at reasonable prices through 2020. The 27-year-old Quintana has emerged as a workhorse, throwing 200-plus high-quality innings in each of the last four seasons. Last season, he posted a 3.20 ERA, 7.8 K/9 and 2.2 BB/9 in 208 frames.
The 24-year-old Musgrove had a successful rookie season last year, posting a 4.06 ERA, 8.0 K/9 and 2.3 BB/9 in 62 innings. Baseball America ranked him the No. 86 prospect in baseball heading into the season.
Martes has emerged as the Astros’ best prospect since arriving from the Marlins’ system in the Jarred Cosart deal in 2014. The 21-year-old posted a 3.30 ERA, 9.4 K/9 and 3.4 BB/9 in 125 1/3 innings at Double-A Corpus Christi in 2016, winning praise from MLB.com (which ranks him the No. 29 prospect in the game) for his 93-95 MPH fastball and filthy curveball.
Tucker was the fifth overall pick in the 2015 draft, and MLB.com now ranks him the No. 50 prospect in baseball. The 19-year-old held his own at Class A Quad Cities in 2016, batting .276/.348/.402, then hit very well in a small sample after heading to Class A+ Lancaster.
How The Chris Sale Trade Went Down; What's Next For White Sox?
- On Wednesday, the White Sox shipped ace lefty Chris Sale to the Red Sox in exchange for a heralded foursome of prospects. That swap, and its build-up, dominated the headlines at the Winter Meetings. Boston president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski discussed the process that led to the move in an excellent interview with Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. He not only provided an interesting account of the information gathering and processing that goes on at the Winter Meetings, as teams jockey for position and look to arrange fits on trades and signings, but went into the details on the pursuit of Sale. The sides built off of their prior “preliminary conversations,” and honed in on an agreement late Tuesday night as the sides began to line up on the complementary pieces that would go to Chicago along with the two headlining prospects (Yoan Moncada and Michael Kopech). Momentum seemingly began to build as early as Friday, before the meetings kicked off, as Dan Hayes of CSNChicago.com explains. It was at that point that White Sox GM Rick Hahn notified Dombrowski that he’d be willing to consider a different sort of return — presumably, top minor leaguers rather than young MLB assets — than had been discussed over the summer. The Nationals and Astros also dangled significant pieces; Hahn notes that “there were similar-type players being offered from other clubs,” leading to “a level of excitement in that room as we debated which was the best path for us.”
- In the aftermath of the Sale trade, as well as the ensuing swap that sent Adam Eaton to D.C., the White Sox are prepared to part with other notable veterans if they can generate sufficient interest, as Hayes further reports. That could potentially include first baseman Jose Abreu — a former teammate of Moncada’s in Cuba — though it’s fair to wonder whether his market will develop with so much power still available in free agency. It’s also reasonable to expect that the South Siders are willing to listen on Jose Quintana, though there’s no real pressure to move his lengthy and affordable contract. It does stand to reason, though, that shorter-term assets (including Todd Frazier, Melky Cabrera, and David Robertson) will be shopped more heavily.
Nationals Discuss David Robertson With White Sox
1:24pm: The Nationals tried to expand the Eaton deal to include Robertson, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets. The White Sox turned them down, however, so the two sides will discuss a Robertson deal as a separate proposition.
11:05am: Here’s the latest on the Nationals’ hunt for a closer, with details trickling in from various reporters, including MASN’s Mark Zuckerman. A new entry to the list of possible closers the Nationals are considering: David Robertson, who Zuckerman says the Nats have discussed with the White Sox. The White Sox are by now very familiar with the Nationals’ farm system after the Adam Eaton deal and the Chris Sale negotiations, so one might think the two sides could piece together a deal if there are additional prospects the White Sox like. At last check, though, the White Sox planned to wait to see where Kenley Jansen landed before striking a deal.
As with the Cubs’ deal for Wade Davis, trading for Robertson (who has two years and $25MM left on his contract) could be a way for the Nationals to avoid paying the exorbitant prices top closers like Aroldis Chapman and Mark Melancon have received on the open market, and that Jansen will likely receive. Robertson is, however, coming off a modestly disappointing season in which he posted a 3.47 ERA and a healthy 10.8 K/9, but with 4.6 BB/9. Robertson can block trades to five teams, but according to Cot’s Contracts, the Nationals are not among them.
As previously noted, the Nats did bid on Jansen, and they met with Jansen’s representatives this week. They join the Marlins and Dodgers in pursuit of the star closer. They’ve also talked with the Rays about a deal for Alex Colome. The 27-year-old Colome just had a brilliant 1.91 ERA, 11.3 K/9, 2.4 BB/9 season while saving 37 games for Tampa Bay. Acquiring Colome would likely require a steeper prospect price than acquiring Robertson, however, due to his low cost and four years of control remaining.
White Sox Pushed For Rafael Devers In Chris Sale Trade
The newest member of the Yankees’ lineup, outfielder/designated hitter Matt Holliday, clearly didn’t enjoy his 93-game stint with the Athletics in 2009. Included in the one-year, $13MM deal Holliday signed with New York is the ability to block a trade to one team – the A’s – tweets Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. Acquiring Holliday from the Rockies in November 2008 cost the A’s reliever Huston Street and, more painfully, outfielder Carlos Gonzalez. Former big-time first base prospect Brett Wallace headlined the package the A’s received from St. Louis for Holliday in July 2009, but Wallace never played a game for Oakland. The A’s dealt him to Toronto for now-former big league outfielder Michael Taylor (not to be confused with the member of the Nationals) the next offseason.
More from the American League:
- One of Holliday’s new teammates, closer Aroldis Chapman, also has a unique no-trade clause in the record-breaking contract he signed with the Yankees on Wednesday. Chapman can block a deal to Oakland and all other West Coast-based teams (Twitter link), and he explained his reasoning to ESPN’s Marly Rivera. “I just didn’t want to go that far from my family. I did have the opportunity to stay here near my house (in Florida, playing with the Miami Marlins) but no, I leaned more towards (going to) New York,” said Chapman.
- The Royals have expressed interest in free agent reliever Greg Holland, per FanRag’s Jon Heyman, who adds that he’ll likely end up out of their price range (Twitter link). Of course, the Royals organization is the only one Holland has been a member of to this point. A 10th-round pick in 2007, Holland made his major league debut in 2010 and soon turned into one of the majors’ premier relievers. Unfortunately, the two-time All-Star underwent Tommy John surgery in October 2015 – shortly before the Royals won their first World Series since 1985 – and missed their playoff run that year and all of last season as a result.
- In their discussions that led to the Chris Sale trade, the White Sox pressed the Red Sox to include top third base prospect Rafael Devers in a potential package, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today (Twitter link). Unwilling to move Devers, Boston compromised by including both right-hander Victor Diaz and outfielder Luis Alexander Basabe. The 20-year-old Devers is MLB.com’s 20th-ranked prospect, while Baseball America placed him 41st on its midseason list.
