Diamondbacks Sign Oliver Perez To Minor League Deal
The D-backs have signed lefty Oliver Perez to a minor league contract, Perez himself tells Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic (Twitter thread). Perez is a client of the Boras Corporation.
The deal with Arizona represents a change of plans for the veteran Perez, who’d previously been slated to play with los Toros de Tijuana in the Mexican League for the upcoming season. Perez announced that he planned to retire after spending the season with the Toros, although that signing and the announcement by Perez came while the MLB lockout was still in place. For now, Perez will shift his focus and instead take aim at an incredible twentieth MLB season.
Perez, 40, has spent the past four seasons in Cleveland, where he’s pitched to a combined 2.57 ERA in 94 2/3 frames of relief work. Perez, however, only tossed 3 2/3 innings in the Majors last year. He spent the rest of the season pitching with that same Toros club for which he’d been planning to play while the lockout was still ongoing.
At this point, the veteran Perez’s track record largely speaks for itself. After a roller-coaster run as a starting pitcher from 2002-10, Perez moved to the bullpen with the 2012 Mariners and embarked on what has essentially amounted to a second career as a reliever. Working for a long time as the quintessential lefty specialist, Perez has made 489 relief appearances and totaled 350 innings of 3.42 ERA ball since that 2012 campaign began.
The implementation of the three-batter minimum wasn’t a great development for pitchers with specialized skill sets of this nature, but Perez had no trouble getting right-handed opponents out in 2020. It was an admittedly short sample, and his career numbers tell another story, but Perez held righties to a .229/.342/.286 slash in 41 plate appearances that year and was similarly effective in another dozen tries last year.
Diamondbacks Sign Wilmer Difo To Minors Contract
The Diamondbacks have inked utilityman Wilmer Difo to a minor league deal, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports (via Twitter). Difo receives an invitation to Arizona’s big league spring camp as part of the contract.
Difo hit .269/.329/.384 over 240 plate appearances with the Pirates last season, appearing in 116 games after signing another minors contract last winter. It marked the first time Difo had ever played outside the Nationals organization, as Difo had spent his entire 11-year pro career with Washington since D.C. signed him to an amateur contract out of the Dominican Republic in 2010.
That stint in the District resulted in 373 big league games spread over the 2015-20 seasons, with Difo seeing a lot of time as a starting shortstop when Trea Turner was injured in 2017 and 2019, and as part of a second base platoon in 2018. Known more for his versatility than his switch-hitting production at the plate, Difo hit .247/.309/.348 over 1060 PA in a Nationals uniform. While he didn’t appear on the postseason roster in 2019, Difo’s 43 games played for the Nats that season earned him a World Series ring for his contribution to the championship year.
Difo has spent much of his career at the two middle infield positions, but has also played a good deal of third base and at least a couple of games at all three outfield positions. The D’Backs don’t have much in the way of veteran utility players competing for jobs on the MLB roster, so Difo’s experience could give him an edge in competing for a roster spot.
Diamondbacks’ J.B. Bukauskas To Miss “Months” With Teres Major Injury
Diamondbacks right-hander J.B. Bukauskas has suffered a grade two tear of his teres major muscle, manager Torey Lovullo told MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert and other reporters. A specific timetable is not yet known for Bukauskas’ return, but Lovullo said the righty will miss “months, not weeks.”
Former D’Backs righty Taylor Clarke was cited as possible comp, as Lovullo noted that Clarke suffered a similar injury last season. In that situation, Clarke missed just over a month and a half of action, hitting the injured list on June 15 and being activated on August 5. However, it is probably safe to guess that Bukauskas will be sidelined for a longer amount of time, given that he’ll have to both recover from the injury and then do some extra prep work to make up for missing so much of Spring Training.
The teres major tear is another in a series of injury setbacks for Bukauskas, who missed about six weeks of the 2021 himself himself due to a flexor strain in his throwing elbow. Wrist and other elbow problems have been issues in the past, and Bukauskas also hurt his back during a car accident during Spring Training 2018 when he was a member of the Astros organization.
With all these injuries in mind, it isn’t surprising that Bukauskas has yet to produce much at the big league level. Making his debut last season, he had a 7.79 ERA over 17 1/3 relief innings for the Diamondbacks, though advanced metrics (4.49 SIERA, 4.50 xFIP) were a bit more favorable, accounting for Bukauskas’ .357 BABIP and an absurdly low 47.2% strand rate. That said, Bukauskas didn’t help himself with only a 17.3% strikeout rate, and four homers allowed during his brief time in the Show.
Concerns over Bukauskas’ durability have lingered for a while, though it also wasn’t long ago that he drew some attention on top-100 prospect lists. Houston selected Bukauskas with the 15th overall pick of the 2017 draft, and the righty was one of the key pieces of the four-player package the Astros sent to Arizona for Zack Greinke at the 2019 trade deadline. Bukauskas hasn’t actually started a game at the major or minor league level since 2019 when he was with the Diamondbacks’ Double-A affiliate, and with his injury history only lengthening, it remains to be seen if his future will be as a starter or as a reliever.
Diamondbacks Release Zack Burdi
The Diamondbacks released right-handed pitcher Zack Burdi earlier this week according to MLB.com’s transaction tracker. Arizona frees up a spot on its 40-man roster, which currently has 39 spots filled.
Acquired in an October waiver claim out of the Baltimore organization, Burdi’s time in the desert will prove practically nonexistent. A former first-round pick with the White Sox, Burdi has endured a trying handful of years since a scintillating minor league debut in 2016. After he skyrocketed all the way up to Triple-A in his first minor league season, the one-time relief prospect has endured a number of health issues, headlined by Tommy John surgery in July 2017.
While Burdi has shown promise when taking the (predominately minor league) field in recent seasons, hitting the mid to upper 90’s with his fastball and striking out batters in droves, he’s also proven awfully susceptible to walks and home runs. Last season proved no different, unfortunately, as the 27-year-old was rocked in Triple-A and in the Majors. Between a Chicago call-up and a cameo out of the Orioles bullpen Burdi sported a 5.40 ERA, with his three home runs and five walks allowed through 10 innings actually looking better than his work in 28 plus Triple-A frames.
Given his pedigree, it’s likely Burdi can latch onto another organization via a minor league deal. Teams who feel they can tap into the right-hander’s potential may also find his remaining minor league option year appealing, given that they can shuttle him between the big leagues and minor leagues if he can stick on a team’s 40-man roster.
Diamondbacks Sign Ian Kennedy
TODAY: The D’Backs officially announced the signing, also including the detail that Kennedy’s contract includes a mutual option for the 2023 season.
MARCH 13: The Diamondbacks are in agreement on a one-year deal with reliever Ian Kennedy, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. According to Jon Heyman of MLB Network, the deal is worth $4.75MM plus $2.35MM in incentives. Kennedy, 37, returns to the place of his initial big league success, as he had a strong three-plus-year run as a member of Arizona’s rotation from 2010-13. The righty is represented by the Boras Corporation.
Kennedy signed a five-year, $70MM free agent deal with the Royals back in January of 2016. Kennedy scuffled in the second and third years of that deal, missing a large chunk of the second half of 2018 with an oblique injury. By 2019, the Royals felt they’d get more value out of Kennedy in a relief role. That proved correct, as he served as the team’s closer that year and saved 30 games with a 3.41 ERA.
Kennedy failed to get on track in the shortened 2020 season, suffering from a calf strain and generally working in the middle innings. In February of last year, Kennedy wound up with the Rangers on a minor league deal. He made the team and generally worked as the Rangers’ closer until he was traded to the Phillies along with Kyle Gibson. On the season Kennedy worked to a 3.20 ERA, 27.2 K%, 7.5 BB%, and 23.3 groundball rate in 56 1/3 innings. It was the lowest groundball rate of his 15-year career, so the resulting 12 home runs allowed were no surprise. Statcast doesn’t speak highly of Kennedy’s work in 2021.
Kennedy will not likely be asked to close by D’Backs manager Torey Lovullo, as the team inked longtime stopper Mark Melancon to a two-year, $14MM deal prior to the lockout. Though Arizona tied the Orioles for the worst record in baseball in 2021, GM Mike Hazen isn’t looking to launch a rebuild. Third base remains an area of need, though Mike Puma of the New York Post reported that the Diamondbacks were “among the teams showing the most interest in [Michael] Conforto before the lockout.”
Kennedy was one of seven relievers to reach or near an agreement on a big league deal today, along with Jesse Chavez, Matt Strahm, Jake Diekman, Adam Ottavino, Nick Wittgren, and Brad Boxberger. Click here to see which relievers are still available.
D-backs, Keone Kela Agree To Minor League Deal
The D-backs have agreed to a minor league deal with veteran righty Keone Kela, reports Fansided’s Robert Murray. Kela had Tommy John surgery mid-May in 2021, so he won’t be ready for the beginning of the season but will give Arizona a potential high-end reliever to join the bullpen at some point midseason.
The 28-year-old (29 next month) has seven seasons of MLB experience under his belt, spending time with the Rangers, Pirates and Padres. From 2015 to 2019, he appeared in 228 games, throwing 214 2/3 innings, recording a 3.23 ERA, along with an excellent 30.1% strikeout rate and slightly-high 9.4% walk rate.
Unfortunately, health issues have slowed him down since then. In 2020, a positive COVID-test and forearm tightness limited him to just two innings on the season. Last year, he logged 10 2/3 frames before requiring Tommy John. As part of his contract with the Padres, the surgery meant that they were allowed to retain Kela for 2022 via a club option valued at $800K. However, they decided not to pick that up, presumably not confident that Kela could make it back to the mound in time for it to be worth their while. Tommy John surgery typically comes with a recovery time of 12 to 18 months for pitchers, meaning that Kela could be ready to go a few months into the season but also could miss the entire year.
For the Diamondbacks, they are coming off a miserable 52-110 campaign that saw them even with the Orioles for worst record in the majors. Despite that, they don’t seem interested in stripping down the roster, instead opting for making some upgrades and hoping for better results this year. In the bullpen, they’ve already added Mark Melancon and Ian Kennedy, who are likely to take the high leverage spots. If Kela can come back from his surgery and perform like he did from 2015 to 2019, he’ll give the club yet another experienced veteran to help out their relief corps. Should the team struggle to contend again, these relievers could all make for intriguing trade chips at the deadline.
Diamondbacks Sign Grayson Greiner To Minor League Deal
The D-backs have signed catcher Grayson Greiner to a minor league contract and invited him to Major League Spring Training, per an announcement from their Triple-A affiliate.
Greiner, 29, was a third-round pick of the Tigers in 2014 and has spent his entire career in that organization up until now. Listed at a towering 6’6″ and 238 pounds, Greiner has seen some big league time in each of the past four seasons but has yet to produce at the MLB level. In 477 trips to the plate, he’s a .201/.274/.309 hitter with a solid 8.8% walk rate but a lofty 32.1% strikeout rate.
Greiner has spent parts of four seasons in Triple-A, where he’s logged solid framing marks and thrown out a third of runners who’ve attempted to steal against him. He’s a .233/.314/.347 hitter through 388 plate appearances of Triple-A ball.
With Carson Kelly set to serve as the regular catcher in Arizona and another pair of options — center fielder/catcher Daulton Varsho and prospect Jose Herrera — on the 40-man roster, Greiner doesn’t have much of an immediate path to playing time. He joins veterans Juan Centeno and Juan Graterol as non-roster invitees to D-backs camp.
Zac Gallen Questionable For Opening Day Due To Shoulder Issue
Diamondbacks right-hander Zac Gallen‘s Opening Day status is in doubt due to right shoulder discomfort, manager Torey Lovullo tells reporters (Twitter thread via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic). Gallen originally felt discomfort during the lockout, when he was unable to consult with team physicians, and underwent an MRI on his own. He was diagnosed with bursitis and is still dealing with some of the effects of that issue. He’ll throw off the mound within the next few days, at which point the Snakes will have a better sense of his timeline.
There’s little denying the talent of the 26-year-old Gallen, but this will mark the second straight season that he’s been limited by an arm injury of note. Gallen missed the first few weeks of the 2021 season with a hairline fracture in his forearm — an injury sustained while taking batting practice. He later spent more than a month on the injured list due to a small tear in the ulnar collateral ligament of his right elbow — a far more ominous injury. Gallen returned and avoided arm troubles for the remainder of the season, but he did miss a couple weeks in July owing to a hamstring strain.
All told, that trio of injuries limited Gallen to 23 starts and a total of 121 1/3 innings. That still marked a career-high at the MLB level, as he was a midseason call-up in 2019 and didn’t have the opportunity to pitch a full workload of 30-plus starts during the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign.
When he’s been on the mound, Gallen has been strong. In 273 1/3 Major League innings, he carries a 3.46 ERA with a 27.6% strikeout rate, a 9.6% walk rate and a 42.8% ground-ball rate. Gallen worked to a sub-3.00 ERA in each of his first two seasons in the big leagues, and his 2.75 mark through 72 innings in 2020 was enough to land him some down-ballot Cy Young votes, as evidenced by his ninth-place finish. Arizona controls Gallen through the 2025 season, and he won’t be eligible for arbitration until next winter.
Were Gallen to miss time early in the season, the D-backs would likely rely on Madison Bumgarner, Merrill Kelly and Luke Weaver in the top three spots. Non-roster invitee Dan Straily seems likely to crack the roster, and the D-backs have a host of options in the fifth spot, including Tyler Gilbert, Corbin Martin, Humberto Mejia and Humberto Castellanos, among others.
NL West Notes: Weaver, Mets, Roberts, Dodgers, Giants, La Stella
The Mets “have done some background work on” Diamondbacks righty Luke Weaver as New York continues to explore trade possibilities, SNY’s Andy Martino reports (via Twitter). A right shoulder strain limited Weaver to only 65 2/3 innings last season, giving him two injury-plagued seasons sandwiched around a dismal 2020 campaign that saw him post a 6.58 ERA. Despite these recent issues, Weaver is still controlled via arbitration for the next two seasons (projected for $2.7MM in 2022) and has shown some signs of quality throughout his career in Arizona and St. Louis, so the D’Backs might still want to see if Weaver can get healthy and be an inexpensive rebound candidate at the back of their rotation.
For the Mets, Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, Taijuan Walker and Carlos Carrasco are penciled into the top four rotation spots, and Tylor Megill and David Peterson are the favorites for the fifth starter’s role. Weaver brings his own set of question marks, but he would add depth to a group that also has plenty of injury concerns. Given how aggressive the Mets will likely continue to be in their offseason endeavors, New York is likely to check in on just about any pitching option available, whether a bigger name in free agency or on the trade market, or perhaps a more modest acquisition like Weaver.
More from around the NL West…
- Dave Roberts and the Dodgers are “really close” on a contract extension, the manager told reporters (including The Athletic’s Fabian Ardaya) today. Reports surfaced last month that the team was looking into a new deal for the World Series-winning skipper, as Roberts is entering the last year of his current contract.
- Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi told reporters (including The San Francisco Chronicle’s Susan Slusser) that his team was still looking to add some hitting, yet even though the Giants lineup is short on right-handed bats, Zaidi said that they are looking at options on both sides of the plate. “I don’t think we’re going to be totally fixated on that side. If there’s a left-handed bat that makes sense for us, I think we can find a way to fit that as well,” Zaidi said. “We obviously love versatility. Handedness isn’t as critical.”
- Also from Zaidi, he said that Tommy La Stella‘s recovery from left Achilles surgery is coming along well, though the infielder will be a little behind during the Giants‘ Spring Training camp. La Stella underwent the surgery at the end of October and had a rough timeline of four months, so it isn’t surprising that La Stella isn’t quite yet fully ready. There doesn’t yet seem to be concern, however, that La Stella might miss any time at the start of the season. La Stella battled several injuries during his first season in San Francisco, likely contributing to his underwhelming .250/.308/.405 slash line over 242 plate appearances. Due to the backloaded nature of his three-year, $18.75MM free agent contract, La Stella is still owed $16.75MM over the final two seasons of that deal.
Latest On Michael Conforto’s Market
4:10PM: Conforto is “not a top priority” for the Rockies, Patrick Saunders of The Denver Post reports, though the club has some level of interest.
1:52PM: Michael Conforto‘s market continues to grow, as the Diamondbacks “were among the teams showing the most interest in Conforto before the lockout,” The New York Post’s Mike Puma writes. The Marlins had also been previously linked to Conforto, and Joe Frisaro of Man On Second tweets that Conforto remains on Miami’s list of outfield targets.
Such clubs as the Padres, Rockies, and Yankees have also been reported as suitors for Conforto’s services, with his market thus far representing an interesting cross-section of contenders and teams who struggled in 2021. The D’Backs are coming off a 110-loss season, while the Marlins followed up an appearance in the expanded 2020 playoff bracket with a 95-loss campaign last year.
This wide range of interested clubs could reflect Conforto’s status coming off a subpar (by his standards) .232/.344/.384 season over 479 plate appearances with the Mets. While Conforto rejected the Mets’ qualifying offer, speculation persists that Conforto might look for a shorter-term contract that would allow him to re-test free agency next winter. Since Conforto surely feels he’ll hit better in 2022, he naturally wouldn’t want to short-change himself by signing a longer-term contract now that is reflective of his 2021 numbers.
Even if Conforto is “looking for big free agent pay day,” as Frisaro puts it, he could still land a healthy salary on a one-year deal, which opens the door for many teams as possible fits. Clubs that may be wary of a longer-term commitment to Conforto (or not keen on longer-term commitments in general) could certainly be more open to a one-year arrangement, since a Conforto that returns to his 2015-20 form is a major addition to any lineup.
Though Arizona would seemingly be closer to a rebuild than a true push for contention next season, the D’Backs haven’t been willing to entirely blow things up, as the team still has some interesting core pieces as well as some younger players hoped to be on the verge of a breakout. To this end, the Snakes signed Mark Melancon to a two-year, $14MM deal prior to the lockout, and president/CEO Derrick Hall said yesterday that the Diamondbacks were looking to add some offense.
Hall said he “could easily” see a scenario where Arizona spends $17MM to push the projected 2022 payroll up to the $110MM range. Since Conforto would certainly want to at least top the cost of the qualifying offer ($18.4MM) on any one-year deal, he’d cost more than $17MM, thus putting him at the high end of the Diamondbacks’ possible spending range. Plus, if that hypothetical $17MM represents all the front office would have to spend on remaining needs, it is quite possible the D’Backs would prefer to spread that money around to several players rather than splurge on Conforto alone.
Conforto’s rejection of the QO could represent an obstacle for both the Diamondbacks and the Marlins, as either team would have to give up their third-highest pick in the 2022 draft as compensation for signing the outfielder. Surrendering such a notable pick for what might be a short-term deal is a hefty price to pay for an Arizona team that isn’t really in position to contend in 2022.
Likewise, the Marlins had also been wary about QO free agents when making their winter moves, but Miami has been more clear about its intent to challenge for a postseason berth next season. The Marlins have already signed Avisail Garcia and traded for both Jacob Stallings and Joey Wendle, and the Fish have also been reportedly chasing such big-ticket trade candidates as the Pirates’ Bryan Reynolds.
Just how much more the Marlins are willing to spend on upgrades, however, is still an unknown. Derek Jeter‘s surprising departure as the team’s CEO was (according to some accounts) due to a change in ownership’s approach to spending heading into the 2022 campaign. Prior to the lockout, the Jeter-led Marlins were in talks with Nick Castellanos on a contract of longer than five years, according to MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link), though only time will tell if such major expenditures are still on the Marlins’ radar now that the lockout is over.
Naturally, the Marlins can still improve their team without spending a ton of money — the Stallings and Wendle trades are evidence of that, and Miami has a lot of young pitching depth that could bring back a cost-controlled talent like Reynolds in a further swap. Conforto might also represent an interesting middle ground for the team, if he was indeed open to only a one-year contract. Miami could take the one-year payroll boost to add Conforto, look to benefit from a possible rebound year from the former All-Star, and then watch him depart in free agency next winter.