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White Sox Sign Dioner Navarro

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The White Sox continued to reshape their catching corps on Friday, officially announcing the signing of veteran switch-hitter Dioner Navarro to a one-year, $4MM contract.

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Chicago has now completed a total overhaul of its backstop situation this winter. The club signed Alex Avila to a one-year deal, non-tendered Tyler Flowers last night, and has now brought in Navarro to share time with his fellow free agent signee.

Navarro, a client of MDR Sports Management, served as the Blue Jays’ primary receiver in 2014 after signing a two-year deal. He put up a solid .274/.317/.395 slash with 12 home runs. But he lost his starting role last year when the Jays added Russell Martin. In his 192 turns at the plate in 2015, Navarro slashed .246/.307/.374, which was still good for an 88 OPS+.

On the defensive side of the ledger, Navarro was one of the league’s worst-rated pitch framers in 2014. But he’s generally rated more as a below-average framer than an awful one, and he returned to that status last year. More broadly, Defensive Runs Saved has pegged Navarro right at league average in terms of overall performance behind the plate.

It remains to be seen exactly how the South Siders will deploy this two-backstop unit, but presumably both were enticed to join the team by the promise of significant time. Avila, who hits from the left side, is much more productive against right-handed pitching, slashing .251/.348/.423 over his career with the platoon advantage. The opposite is true of Navarro, who has hit lefties to the tune of .270/.336/.439. GM Rick Hahn would surely be thrilled to get that kind of combined production from the position for a limited overall investment.

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports first reported the agreement (on Twitter).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

White Sox Re-Sign Jacob Turner

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The White Sox announced on Friday that they have re-signed the recently non-tendered Jacob Turner to a one-year contract that will pay the right-hander $1.5MM.

It seems curious, at first glance, that Chicago declined to tender Turner a contract at yesterday’s deadline but then struck a deal with him today. Turner, after all, was projected to earn $1MM in arbitration this year, as it’s standard for players to receive an identical salary to the previous year after sitting out a season due to injury.

However, Turner’s situation was rather unique, as the former top prospect signed a Major League contract out of the draft (an outcome that is no longer possible under the since-revamped collective bargaining agreement). Turner’s big league deal out of the draft — he was selected ninth overall in 2009 — included a $4.7MM signing bonus, and an annualized portion of that sum has to be included when calculating his salary. As such, the White Sox and Turner have most likely split the difference between what he might’ve netted in arbitration and what the team would have filed.

The White Sox claimed Turner off waivers just over a month ago from the cross-town Cubs, who carried him for most of the season on the 60-day DL as Turner dealt with arm issues. Turner is out of minor league options and will have to stick on the club’s 40-man roster this spring or be exposed to outright waivers, but the Sox will hope that he can maintain better health in 2016 and realize some of the potential that once made Turner such a highly touted arm.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports first reported the agreement (on Twitter).

Free Agent Notes: Navarro, Madson, Leake, Soria, Flowers

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Switch-hitting catcher Dioner Navarro is a “name to keep an eye on” in connection to the White Sox, says Yahoo’s Jeff Passan (links to Twitter). The sense among competitors for Navarro’s services is that something could come together quickly between Navarro and the ChiSox now that Tyler Flowers has been non-tendered, according to Passan, who calls Navarro the “top” offensive catcher on the market. I’d posit that Wilin Rosario certainly gives Navarro a run for his money in that regard, though Navarro probably comes with the better defensive reputation of the two. Regardless, a match between the Sox and Navarro certainly seems plausible.

A few more notes on some various free agents for those who are joining me in the realm of insomnia…

  • MLB.com’s Jane Lee reports that the Athletics are interested in right-hander Ryan Madson, with one source telling her that the A’s are a “legitimate suitor” for Madson’s services. Oakland is “square in the mix” for Madson, says Lee’s source. She notes that the former Phillies closer, who enjoyed a brilliant bounceback campaign in Kansas City this past season, is looking for a multi-year deal. While Oakland has already picked up reliever Liam Hendriks from Toronto, Lee writes that the team isn’t shying away from the concept of adding another relief arm. She adds that GM David Forst has stated that payroll won’t be a deterrent in the team’s pursuit of an additional setup arm.
  • The Giants still haven’t engaged in talks with right-hander Mike Leake, tweets Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle. While San Francisco is widely believed to be interested in retaining the right-hander it acquired in late July, Schulman says the belief is that the team’s pursuit of ace Zack Greinke needs to be resolved before a serious effort to re-sign Leake is made. Greinke is reportedly deciding between the Giants and his former club (and San Francisco division rival), the Dodgers.
  • The Blue Jays and Royals are among the clubs monitoring the market for right-hander Joakim Soria, reports ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick (Twitter link). The Tigers are out of the mix for Soria after acquiring Francisco Rodriguez, he adds. Both Toronto and K.C. are known to be interested in relief help, though a recent report from Crasnick indicated that the Blue Jays aren’t inclined to pay top dollar for any bullpen arms right now, and Soria is reportedly seeking a $27MM total over a three-year span, which seems to make the two an unlikely match.
  • CSN Chicago’s Dan Hayes tweets that the White Sox’ decision to non-tender Flowers might have been a blessing in disguise for the catcher. One scout texted Hayes shortly after the news of Flowers’ non-tender broke, telling Hayes that Flowers “should thank” the White Sox for cutting him loose, because his belief is that Flowers will get more than his projected $3.5MM arbitration salary in this market. That seems potentially steep to me, considering the fact that Alex Avila and Geovany Soto have both signed for under $3MM, but Flowers did post standout framing numbers last year and does have some pop, so clubs are sure to be interested. If nothing else, he could probably surpass that number by way of incentives in a one-year deal with a new club.

White Sox Non-Tender Tyler Flowers

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The White Sox have non-tendered catcher Tyler Flowers and right-hander Jacob Turner, tweets Mark Gonzales of the Chicago Tribune. Cutting ties with Flowers is at least somewhat of a surprise, as many considered Flowers likely to at least find himself in a timeshare with newly signed Alex Avila. He’d been projected to earn $3.5MM by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz, while Turner had been projected at $1MM.

Flowers, who turns 30 in January, is just a career .223/.289/.376 hitter across parts of seven seasons, but he’s produced offensively at a clip that is roughly average for catchers over the past two seasons (.240/.296/.378, 90 OPS+). He also delivered positive pitch-framing metrics in 2015 and has caught about 28 percent of attempted base-stealers over the past two seasons.

The departure of Flowers leaves Rob Brantly and Kevan Smith as the two other backstop options on the White Sox’ 40-man roster. I’d imagine that the departure of Flowers opens the White Sox up to possible trades for catching help or free-agent additions such as Michael McKenry and Dioner Navarro, as well as Wilin Rosario, who recently elected free agency.

Coaching Notes: McGwire, Henley, Magadan, Rowand

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Let’s catch up on the latest coaching signings as teams finalize their field staffs:

  • One-time superstar slugger Mark McGwire is set to join the Padres as the bench coach alongside new manager Andy Green, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com recently reports. (Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune first reported as a strong possibility.) McGwire has worked as a hitting coach with the Cardinals and Dodgers over the past six years. The 52-year-old’s ascension to a bench coach role suggests that a managerial opportunity might not be far off.
  • The Nationals have brought back Bobby Henley as the team’s third base coach, per a club announcement. Henley was set loose along with the rest of the staff (and manager Matt Williams) at the end of a disappointing 2015 campaign, but he’ll join hitting coach Rick Schu in reprising their roles. Most of skipper Dusty Baker’s staff is now set.
  • Dave Magadan has been announced as the Diamondbacks’ new hitting coach. A 16-year MLB veteran, Magadan has previously worked in the Padres, Red Sox, and Rangers organizations, most recently serving as the top batting instructor for Texas.
  • Former big leaguer Aaron Rowand will serve as a minor league outfield and baserunning instructor, the White Sox have announced. Rowand, 38, retired after the 2011 season. He’ll return to the place where he started his professional and MLB career.

Minor MLB Transactions: 11-25-15

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Here are the day’s minor moves:

  • The Rays released catcher J.P. Arencibia after recently designating him for assignment, per the team’s transactions page. Arencibia, 29, had an impressive 24-game run with Tampa Bay late in the season, but it wasn’t enough for the club to tender him a contract. He ought to get plenty of interest as a free agent from teams looking for major-league-capable receiving options.
  • Mariners lefty Danny Hultzen cleared outright waivers, the club announced. Though his talent has always been evident, Hultzen’s shoulder has not been willing. Despite going second overall in the 2011 draft, Hultzen has yet to tally 200 professional innings pitched.
  • Backstop Adrian Nieto tweets that he’s signed on with the Marlins. Nieto was a Rule 5 pick of the White Sox who stuck on the big league roster for all of 2014, but the switch-hitter didn’t hit much at the Double-A level last year and lost his roster spot in Chicago.
  • The Orioles announced a host of minor league signings today. Among the notable names are righties Pedro Beato and Todd Redmond, lefty Cesar Cabral, and catcher Audry Perez. The 29-year-old Beato has 93 1/3 innings of MLB experience under his belt, while Redmond was a regular part of the Blue Jays’ pen from 2013-14 before losing his job last year. Cabral and Perez both have much more limited MLB experience. They each return to the Baltimore organization after spending most of 2015 at Triple-A Norfolk.
  • The Blue Jays have signed lefty Scott Diamond to a minor league deal, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca reports.  The 29-year-old will receive a big league camp invite after tossing 150 1/3 solid Triple-A frames last year in the Rays organization.

White Sox Sign Alex Avila

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The White Sox announced that they have signed catcher Alex Avila to a one-year deal worth $2.5MM. Avila, who has spent his entire career with the Tigers, will remain in the AL Central and presumably pair with Tyler Flowers behind the plate for the Sox.

Alex Avila

Avila, 29 in January, has been with the Tigers since Detroit selected him in the fifth round of the 2008 draft. He’s a lifetime .242/.345/.397 hitter in 2445 Major League plate appearances, but his recent seasons haven’t been near as successful as that relatively productive line would suggest. Since 2013, Avila has batted .216/.326/.351, including a dismal .191/.339/.287 effort in the 2015 campaign.

Knee injuries and multiple concussions have sapped what was at one time a far more productive bat for Avila, who has been forced to begin spending some time at first base. It’s unlikely that the Sox view him as anything more than an emergency fill-in at first base with the roster’s present construction, however, as both Jose Abreu and Adam LaRoche would figure to be ahead of him on Chicago’s depth chart at that position.

More likely is that Avila will see the lion’s share of a platoon with Flowers, who has handled left-handed pitching considerably better than right-handed pitching over the past couple of seasons. Avila is a lifetime .251/.348/.423 hitter when holding the platoon advantage (with most of those at-bats coming at the pitcher-friendly Comerica Park), so if he can remain healthy, there’s the possibility for a productive and reasonably affordable platoon.

While Avila has drawn negative reviews for his pitch-framing efforts in each of the past two seasons, he was considerably above average in that regard from 2010-13. And, while his framing has seemingly declined, his throwing rebounded in 2014-15, as he caught 34 percent of attempted base thieves in each of those two seasons. Avila has been generally strong when it comes to gunning down runners, though he did struggle in 2013, catching runners at just a 17 percent clip. That appears to be little more than an aberration, however, as Avila has caught at least 30 percent of stolen base threats in five of seven seasons in the Majors and 27 percent or better in six of seven.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

White Sox Acquire Tommy Kahnle From Rockies

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The White Sox announced that they have acquired right-hander Tommy Kahnle from the Rockies in exchange for minor league right-hander Yency Almonte (Twitter link). Kahnle was designated for assignment by the Rockies last Friday in a series of moves to set the club’s roster in advance of the Rule 5 Draft.

Kahnle, who turned 26 in August, came to the Rockies from the Yankees organization by way of the Rule 5 Draft in 2013. He’s totaled 102 innings for the Rox over the past two years — his lone MLB experience — and posted a 4.41 ERA while averaging exactly one strikeout per inning to go along with a strong 49.4 percent ground-ball rate. Kahnle’s problem, however, has been a lack of control. Though he’s averaged 95 mph on his fastball in the Majors (95.9 mph in 2015), he’s averaged 5.2 walks per nine innings pitched and issued an alarming 27 unintentional walks in 33 1/3 innings this past season.

The 21-year-old Almonte came to the Sox as the player to be named later in the 2014 deal that sent Gordon Beckham to the Angels. Almonte spent the 2015 campaign pitching for Class-A Kannapolis and Class-A Advanced Winston-Salem, posting a combined 3.41 ERA with 7.2 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 in 137 1/3 innings (22 starts; 24 total appearances). He didn’t rank among Chicago’s Top 30 prospects, per MLB.com.

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/23/15

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

  • Infielder Steve Tolleson is headed to the Orioles on a minor league deal, Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun reports on Twitter. Tolleson will receive an invitation to major league camp. The 32-year-old owns a .245/.299/.372 slash in 363 career plate appearances in the bigs.
  • Shortstop Hak-Ju Lee is joining the Giants on a minor league deal, Matt Eddy reported as part of a slew of signings. (See his Twitter feed for these and more.) Formerly a top prospect with the Rays, the 25-year-old suffered a serious knee injury and has not hit much since at the Triple-A level. Among other deals, San Francisco also brought back lefty Ricky Romero, per Eddy.
  • The Diamondbacks have added righty Kyle Drabek on a minors deal, according to Eddy. He joins outfielder Kyle Jensen and third baseman Carlos Rivero as Arizona minor league free agent signees. Once one of the game’s best-regarded pitching prospects with the Blue Jays, the 27-year-old Drabek did not live up to his promise in Toronto. But he did toss a solid 137 1/3 innings last year at Triple-A for the White Sox, working to a 3.47 ERA with 5.5 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9.
  • The White Sox have signed righty Phillippe Aumont to a minor league pact, Josh Norris of Baseball America tweets. The former Phillies prospect lost his 40-man roster spot last year. He did put up a 3.14 ERA after moving back into the rotation at Triple-A, but continued to demonstrate serious control problems with 6.8 BB/9.

Earlier Transactions

  • The Blue Jays have signed first baseman Casey Kotchman, second baseman David Adams and shortstop Jiovanni Mier to minor league contract with invitations to Major League Spring Training, writes Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet. The 32-year-old Kotchman comes with far and away the most big league experience, having served as an everyday first baseman (or close to it) with the Angels, Braves, Red Sox, Mariners, Rays and Indians from 2007-12. However, Kotchman hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2013 and hasn’t experienced much in the way of success since his career year with the 2011 Rays. He’s a lifetime .260/.326/.385 hitter in the Majors. Adams, meanwhile, was once a promising second base prospect with the Yankees but never received a consistent chance in the Majors (in part, due to injuries). The now-28-year-old did receive 152 PAs in New York in 2013 but batted just .193/.252/.286 in that short stint. Mier, meanwhile, is a former first-round pick and top 100 prospect, but his bat has never really come around. He’s now 25 years of age and is a career .239/.333/.340 hitter in the minors.

Free Agent Starter Notes: Price, Zimmermann, Buehrle

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Here are some items about some notable pitchers on the open market…

  • David Price and Jordan Zimmermann have both been cited as Cubs targets this winter, and ESPN Chicago’s Jesse Rogers looks at the pros and cons for signing each starter for the Northsiders.
  • A reunion between Mark Buehrle and the White Sox is probably unlikely, MLB.com’s Scott Merkin writes as part of a reader mailbag, since adding Buehrle would give the Sox five left-handers in the rotation.  It isn’t yet clear if Buehrle plans to pitch in 2016 but at least 10 teams have shown interest if he did come back for another season.
  • Colby Lewis underwent meniscus surgery after the season and will have a checkup on his progress around Thanksgiving, MLB.com’s T.R. Sullivan reports.  The Rangers are interested in re-signing Lewis but they’ll wait to see the results of the checkup before they revisit negotiations.
  • The Rangers have been aggressive in checking out the trade and free agent markets for a pitching upgrade, but Sullivan notes that the most expensive pitchers (i.e. Price, Zack Greinke) aren’t being targeted.  Beyond finding a new starter, the biggest help to the Texas rotation will be if Yu Darvish, Martin Perez, Derek Holland are all healthy next season.
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