Tigers Rumors

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/7/17

By Jeff Todd | November 7, 2017 at 8:36am CDT

After a busy transactional day yesterday, let’s catch up on some of the latest minor moves:

Catcher Bryan Holaday and outfielder Alex Presley have elected free agency from the Tigers, Evan Woodberry of MLive.com reports on Twitter. Each of the veterans was outrighted recently, though Woodberry hints that Detroit has interest in bringing both back on minors deals. Holaday will enter the pool of catchers that are looking for opportunities to compete for reserve jobs in camp. The 32-year-old Presley should also draw attention from other organizations; he turned in 264 plate appearances of .314/.354/.416 hitting in 2017.
The Rockies selected the contract of outfielder Noel Cuevas, per a club announcement. Acquired from the division-rival Dodgers in the trade that sent Juan Nicasio to Los Angeles, Cuevas blossomed at Triple-A Alburquerque in 2017. Across 528 plate appearances, he posted a .312/.353/.487 slash with 15 long balls and 16 steals.
Two players were also added to the Yankees 40-man roster, the club announced. Outfielder Jake Cave is one of them; the one-time Rule 5 pick won’t be eligible for the draft again this year. He turned in a compelling season in the upper minors, including a robust .324/.367/.554 batting line with 15 long balls in 297 Triple-A plate appearances. Joining him is righty Nick Rumbelow, who returned from Tommy John surgery with aplomb last year. Over 40 1/3 innings, he allowed just five earned runs on 21 hits while racking up a 45:11 K/BB ratio.
The Indians selected the contract of Eric Haase, per the MLB.com transactions page. The 24-year-old backstop knocked around Double-A pitching to the tune of a .258/.349/.574 batting line and 26 homers through 381 plate appearances.
Cuban catcher Lorenzo Quintana is joining the Astros for a $200K bonus, per MLB.com’s Jesse Sanchez (via Twitter). The 28-year-old is not subject to international signing restrictions. Quintana was long one of the most productive receivers in Cuba’s Serie Nacional, carrying a lifetime .310/.377/.438 batting line, but he last played there in the 2014-15 season.

AL Notes: Cora, Tigers, Astros

By Kyle Downing | November 5, 2017 at 10:56pm CDT

There are many reasons that Alex Cora is the right man to manage the Red Sox. As Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald points out, the fact that he’s Latino only adds to that list. Cora is the 47th manager in the history of the Red Sox franchise, and, up until now, every single one of them had been white. The former middle infielder will be involved with a front office that is mostly white while managing a team on the field that has often been predominantly black and hispanic. Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy has stressed that Cora’s minority status is “a bonus rather than impetus”, but regardless, it looks great for a franchise that took 12 years longer to integrate their roster than the first MLB team to do so. Interestingly, Silverman notes that in 2017, 43 percent of major league baseball players were players of color, while only three of 30 managers were non-white.

Tigers Decline Anibal Sanchez’s Option, Outright Eight Players

By Steve Adams | November 3, 2017 at 5:20pm CDT

TODAY, 5:12pm: The Tigers have also outrighted catcher Bryan Holaday and first baseman Efren Navarro. Both are eligible to decline the assignments and instead elect free agency, though they’ll qualify for minor-league free agency in a few days regardless.

Holaday, 29, saw brief action for the Tigers this year and spent most of the season at Triple-A. He slashed .269/.325/.450 over 347 plate appearances at Toledo and will certainly land somewhere as a depth option. As for the 31-year-old Navarro, it was much the same story. He saw 557 plate appearances at Triple-A, posting a .276/.370/.395 batting line.

YESTERDAY, 9:10pm: Detroit has also placed righty Myles Jaye and lefty Kyle Ryan on outright waivers, per Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free-Press (via Twitter).

The 25-year-old Jaye cracked the bigs for the first time, but received a rude welcome. In 12 2/3 frames, including two starts and three relief appearances, he was tagged for 17 earned runs and managed just four strikeouts against ten walks. That said, Jaye has been a steadier option in the upper minors; in 25 starts in the Detroit system in 2017, he compiled 131 2/3 innings of 3.96 ERA ball with 7.9 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9.

As for Ryan, 26, he has thrown 128 MLB innings over the past four seasons and was rather effective in 2016. But he struggled badly in just eight major league appearances in the 2017 campaign. In his 45 1/3 Triple-A frames, Ryan managed only a 4.96 ERA with 7.7 K/9 and 5.4 BB/9.

1:43pm: The Tigers announced that they have formally declined their $16MM club option on right-hander Anibal Sanchez, opting instead for a $5MM buyout. Additionally, the Tigers announced that right-hander Jeff Ferrell and outfielders Tyler Collins, Jim Adduci and Alex Presley have been outrighted off the 40-man roster after clearing waivers. Each can become a free agent. Detroit also added that utilityman Andrew Romine was claimed off waivers by the Mariners, as Seattle had announced.

The 33-year-old Sanchez signed a five-year, $80MM contract with the Tigers that spanned the 2013-17 seasons and turned in a sensational campaign in the first year of that deal. In 182 innings that year, Sanchez captured the American League ERA title with a mark of 2.57, averaging 10.0 K/9 against 2.7 BB/9 along the way. He finished fourth in the AL Cy Young voting and was worth roughly six wins above replacement per both fWAR and rWAR. Though he was limited to 126 innings in 2014, Sanchez was again quite good, logging a 3.43 ERA with improved control but diminished strikeouts.

Since contributing about nine wins’ worth of value in those first two seasons, though, the Sanchez contract has been regrettable for the Tigers. He’s logged a total of 415 2/3 innings in that time and surrendered 262 earned runs (5.67 ERA) on the strength of 462 hits (85 homers) and 131 walks. Sanchez still shows a penchant for missing bats (8.2 K/9 over the final three years of the deal, 8.9 K/9 in 2017), but his ground-ball rate has eroded and he’s become stunningly homer prone.

Collins, 27, showed promise back in 2015 when he hit .266/.316/.417 in 207 plate appearances as a 25-year-old, but his bat has tailed off since that time. In 2016-17, he’s managed just a .213/.291/.357 line through 320 trips to the plate. He struggled enormously in Triple-A in 2016 as well, though he bounced back with a strong .288/.358/.462 slash there in 296 PAs this season.

Presley, 32, posted a very solid .314/.354/.416 with three homers and five steals through 264 PAs. A veteran of eight big league seasons, Presley hasn’t settled in as a regular with one organization but has found his way onto a 25-man roster in each of the past eight campaigns. Since 2011, he’s averaged 211 MLB plate appearances per season and batted .263/.306/.390 in the process. He shouldn’t have much trouble finding an opportunity to head to camp and compete for a roster spot in 2018.

Adduci, also 32, returned from a strong stint in the Korea Baseball Organization this year and made his way to the Tigers’ big league roster, where he batted .241/.323/.398 in 93 PAs. Adduci has just 241 big league PAs, which have resulted in a .209/.283/.302 slash.

Ferrell will turn 27 in three weeks and just wrapped up his first full season back from Tommy John surgery. He has a career 6.53 ERA in 20 2/3 big league innings but owns strong K/BB numbers in a limited sample of 65 2/3 innings in Triple-A. Ferrell has averaged better than 93 mph on his fastball in the big leagues and otherwise relies primarily on a changeup for his secondary offering.

Coaching Notes: Amaro Jr., Astros, Pirates, Red Sox, Tigers

By Steve Adams | November 3, 2017 at 8:22am CDT

Ruben Amaro Jr. will leave the Red Sox’ coaching staff and join the Mets as their new first base coach and outfield/baserunning coach, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (via Twitter). Amaro, long the general manager of the Phillies, has spent the past two seasons as the first base coach in Boston. While his path from the front office to a big league coaching staff is anything but conventional, but his experience in a front office will add a unique perspective to rookie manager Mickey Callaway’s staff. It was reported yesterday that the Mets were also promoting Pat Roesseler to hitting coach and hiring veteran pitching coach Dave Eiland.

A few more notes out of the dugout from around the league…

The Astros will hire Yankees third base coach Joe Espada as their new bench coach, reports ESPN’s Marly Rivera. Espada will step into the role that was vacated when Alex Cora left the Astros to become the new manager of the Red Sox. Like Cora, the 42-year-old Espada will bring a relatively youthful presence to the Houston coaching staff. He’s spent seven seasons as a third base coach at the big league level (2010-13 in Miami, 2015-17 in New York) and has also served as a professional scout in the Yankees organization for a year. He’s also served as a minor league hitting coach and infield coordinator in the Marlins organization.
After recently extending general manager Neal Huntington and manager Clint Hurdle, the Pirates announced yesterday that their entire coaching staff has been extended through the 2019 season. Hurdle’s current contract runs through the 2021 season. Renowned pitching coach Ray Searage is the most oft-discussed member of Hurdle’s staff, which also includes bench coach Tom Prince, first base coach Kimera Bartee, third base coach Joey Cora, bullpen coach Euclides Rojas, hitting coach Jeff Branson and Major League coach Dave Jauss.
The Red Sox will have a former big league manager on their staff to support rookie skipper Alex Cora, the team announced yesterday. Former Brewers manager Ron Roenicke, who spent the 2016-17 seasons as the Angels’ third base coach, will serve as Cora’s bench coach. Former Mets first base coach Tom Goodwin will join Boston’s staff as the first base coach and outfield instructor, effectively meaning the Mets and Red Sox have swapped first base/outfield coaches. The Sox also announced that Carlos Febles, who managed their Double-A affiliate in 2017, will join the club as its new third base coach and infield instructor. Bullpen coach Dana LeVangie, will return for his sixth season in that role. He’ll also serve as a catching instructor and assist in advance scouting.
The Tigers also announced their full staff under new manager Ron Gardenhire yesterday. Former Twins coach Steve Liddle will serve as Gardenhire’s bench coach, returning to the dugout for the first time since 2012 after an 11-year run in Minnesota. Third base coach Dave Clark and hitting coach Lloyd McClendon will return to the staff, and the Tigers are adding minor league hitting coach Phil Clark to the big league staff as an assistant hitting coach as well. Former big league infielder Ramon Santiago, who recently retired from his playing career, will jump right onto the Tigers’ staff as a first base coach. As had already been reported, the Tigers plucked Twins bench coach Joe Vavra to serve as a Quality Control coach and hired former Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson to serve as the bullpen coach. Both were with Gardenhire throughout his tenure as Twins skipper. The club also confirmed its hiring of recently dismissed Cubs pitching coach Chris Bosio to occupy that same role in Detroit.

Mariners Claim Andrew Romine From Tigers

By Steve Adams | November 2, 2017 at 1:39pm CDT

The Mariners announced that they’ve claimed infielder/outfielder Andrew Romine off waivers from the Tigers. He would’ve had the opportunity to elect free agency had he not been claimed. Seattle’s 40-man roster is now at 35 players after also declining options on Hisashi Iwakuma and Yovani Gallardo.

Romine, 32 in December, has been one of the Tigers’ most versatile players in recent years. He’s played all over the diamond for Detroit since coming over from the Angels, including a game at the end of the 2017 season in which he played all nine spots on the field. Despite that Swiss-army-knife-esque profile, though, Romine hasn’t drawn strong reviews from defensive metrics for his infield work, though he has been viewed more favorably in a smallish sample of work in the outfield.

The benefit the Tigers see in his defensive flexibility clearly was outweighed by his lack of offensive production and projected arbitration price point, however. Romine batted just .233/.289/.336 through 348 plate appearances this season and has hit .236/.293/.313 (66 OPS+) overall in parts of four years with the Tigers. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz had projected him to earn $1.9MM via arbitration.

It remains to be seen if the Mariners will keep Romine on the 40-man roster all winter, but he’s presently a candidate to compete with Taylor Motter for a utility role next spring.

Tigers Hire Joe Vavra

By Jeff Todd | October 30, 2017 at 9:45pm CDT

The Tigers have hired Joe Vavra to join the staff of new skipper Ron Gardenhire, LaVelle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune reports. Vavra had been employed as the bench coach with the Twins but will become “quality control coach” in his new job, per Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free-Press (via Twitter).

Gardenhire, of course, previously managed in Minnesota. Vavra had never served as his bench coach, but slid into that role under Paul Molitor when he took over for Gardenhire.

Another former Twins coach is also joining the Detroit staff, per the report. Rick Anderson, who served as the pitching coach under Gardenhire, is “expected” to become the Tigers’ bullpen coach.

While the move fills some staff vacancies for the Tigers, it creates a new opening for the Twins. The club had previously announced that it was retaining Vavra and others, after hammering out a new deal with Molitor. Now, it’ll be back on the market for a bench coach.

Tigers to Hire Chris Bosio as Pitching Coach

By Kyle Downing | October 27, 2017 at 2:50pm CDT

In a move they were already expected to make, the Detroit Tigers are set to sign former Cubs pitching coach Chris Bosio to their staff. Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times was the first to tweet that a deal was close, and Bob Nightengale of USA Today has confirmed the news with his own tweet.

Bosio served as the Cubs’ pitching coach for five seasons, including their 2016 title run, before being dismissed last week. During his time with the organization, Chicago’s staff pitched to a 3.81 ERA across 8,693 1/3 innings, good for sixth-best in all of baseball. Starters for the Cubs during that time combined for 78.1 fWAR. Bosio coached Jake Arrieta during his Cy Young-winning season, and the club also saw fantastic overall results from pitchers like Jeff Samardzija, Jon Lester and Kyle Hendricks during his tenure with the organization.

Bosio will join the Tigers during a massive teardown, and will be tasked with helping to develop a lot of young players. While Tigers starters as a group have been one of the best in baseball across the past five seasons, their relievers during that span are the worst in baseball by combined fWAR (10.5) and xFIP (4.25). Detroit will hope to turn their bullpen around in a big way with Bosio’s help.

The Tigers are set to open the 2018 season with a group that includes former Rookie of the Year Michael Fulmer, along with Daniel Norris, Jordan Zimmerman and Matt Boyd, along with a relief staff that hasn’t shown much promise outside of Shane Greene. The fact that the Tigers hired Bosio so quickly speaks to their confidence in him. Based on his body of work with the Cubs, it seems as though the Tigers have made a fantastic hire at the outset of a long rebuilding process.

Coaching Notes: Bosio, Honeycutt, Espada, Padres

By Mark Polishuk | October 27, 2017 at 1:49pm CDT

The latest on some coaching vacancies (or potential vacancies) around baseball…

The Tigers are “close” to hiring Chris Bosio as their next pitching coach, Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times tweets. The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal previously reported that Bosio was Detroit’s top choice for the job. Bosio worked as the Cubs’ pitching coach for the previous six seasons before being fired after Chicago’s elimination in the NLCS.
It isn’t yet certain if longtime Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt will remain in his current job in 2018, Bill Shaikin of the L.A. Times reports. Honeycutt’s two-year contract is up after the World Series and, at the time of the contract’s signing, it was believed that Honeycutt would into a front office job at deal’s end. GM Farhan Zaidi, however, said that “If there’s mutual interest in him continuing in this role, I wouldn’t rule it out,” noting that “We just want to leverage his expertise and experience however we can, with whatever [job] makes the most sense.” Both Zaidi and Honeycutt said that no decisions would be made until after the season is over, with Honeycutt adding “I’m enjoying it as much this year as I ever have. I still enjoy what I do.”
Yankees third base coach Joe Espada could be a candidate to be the next bench coach for either the Astros or Red Sox, George A. King III of the New York Post writes. Espada has worked in his current role for three seasons, and has previously worked as a Yankees scout, a manager in the Puerto Rican Winter League and as a minor league coach in the Marlins organization. Espada has also been mentioned as a potential contender for the Yankees’ managerial vacancy.
The Padres will move first base coach Johnny Washington to the assistant hitting coach role and outfield coach Jon Matthews has been reassigned to a new role, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports (Twitter links). 2017 was Washington’s only season as a first base coach; he spent the rest of his nine-year coaching career as a hitting coach at various levels of the Dodgers’ and Padres’ farm systems. Lin notes that the Padres will fill their first base coaching vacancy from within the organization.

Avila On Tigers’ Approach In Free Agency

By Steve Adams | October 23, 2017 at 9:45am CDT

More typically known for their aggressive spending on the free-agent market, the Tigers appear likely to take a very reserved approach to free agency for a second consecutive offseason, reports MLive.com’s Evan Woodbery. General manager Al Avila tells Woodbery that he’ll be “looking for Major League free agents that are maybe bargains” and suggests that Detroit might not make any additions until January or later.

A quiet offseason for the Tigers on the free-agent front has long looked likely with the team embarking on an aggressive rebuild and working to pare back its payroll. Detroit has already parted ways with Cameron Maybin, Justin Wilson, Justin Upton and Justin Verlander in the past calendar year, and it seems extremely likely that longtime second baseman Ian Kinsler and the final year of his contract will be on the move this offseason as well. In making those moves, the Tigers have seen their total of guaranteed contracts owed in 2018 fall from $138MM to $97MM — a number that will fall to $86MM if Kinsler is indeed traded.

As Woodbery points out, the fact that the Tigers are looking to be opportunistic doesn’t mean they won’t spend at all. Detroit will have needs in the outfield, the bullpen and at the back of the rotation, after all, and the asking prices of remaining free agents often begin to come down after the New Year. While many Tigers fans will bristle at the notion of a bargain-bin approach after years of contending atop the AL Central, it’d be virtually impossible to patch the holes that permeate the team’s roster in a single trip through free agency.

While the Tigers’ record doesn’t reflect this, they actually had a fair amount of success with a similar approach last winter. Alex Avila was the team’s lone MLB signing, and he was flipped alongside Wilson to the Cubs in the trade that netted a potential cornerstone piece in Jeimer Candelario. The Detroit front office also eschewed free agency entirely when pursuing a center field addition, ultimately acquiring Mikie Mahtook from the Rays for right-hander Drew Smith (now with the Mets following another trade). Mahtook hit .276/.330/.457 with a dozen homers in 379 PAs and can be controlled for another four seasons. The Tigers also received a solid year at the plate from minor league signee Alex Presley in 2017.

There will likely be a dozen or so starting pitchers that sign one-year commitments this offseason, giving the Tigers a number of options to pursue. Some speculative one-year candidates on the 2017-18 free agent market include Chris Tillman, Brett Anderson, Jeremy Hellickson, Hector Santiago, Francisco Liriano and old friend Doug Fister. The bullpen market contains even more options for Detroit to pursue, and that market, in particular, seems to net several late-offseason bargains on an annual basis.

Quick Hits: Ichiro, Yankees, D’Backs, Gardenhire

By Mark Polishuk | October 22, 2017 at 11:23pm CDT

Happy birthday to Ichiro Suzuki, as the future Hall-of-Famer turns 44 years old today. Clark Spencer of the Miami Herald takes a look at Ichiro’s offseason training regimen, though “offseason” may not be the correct term since the outfielder has continued to work out at Marlins Park almost every day since the season ended. Near-daily training has been a staple of almost every offseason for Suzuki — he took a month off in 2005 but tells Spencer via an interpreter that “my body just didn’t feel like my own body. My body was, like, sick.” Ichiro has long been known for his incredible fitness regime, and he doesn’t appear to be stopping anytime soon, as he has said that he hopes to keep playing into his 50s.

Here’s the latest from around baseball…

With the Yankees making a deep postseason run this year, Joel Sherman of the New York Post has a few suggestions on what the club must now do to cement itself as a World Series contender. The list includes signing Shohei Otani, cutting down on strikeouts, re-signing CC Sabathia, reinforcing the bullpen by signing Mike Minor, and trading a high-paid veteran to ensure that the team gets under the $197MM luxury tax threshold. Sherman also floats the idea of shifting Gary Sanchez into a part-time DH role with Otani, which then necessitates signing a backup catcher capable of handling a workload of around 60 games.
The Diamondbacks’ roster is broken down by Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, who looks at both 2018 salary (hat tip to Piecoro for citing MLBTR’s arbitration projections) and each player’s role on next year’s club. With payroll size still an issue for the D’Backs, players such as Patrick Corbin or even A.J. Pollock could come up in trade talks since both will be free agents in the 2018-19 offseason. Brandon Drury or Nick Ahmed are cheaper but could also potentially be shopped due to a logjam of other infield options. Piecoro predicts Arizona will exercise its $2MM club option on Daniel Descalso since the veteran “was a big part of the clubhouse culture.”
The Tigers’ choice of Ron Gardenhire as the team’s next manager “was a solid hire. It was a safe one, too,” The Athletic’s Katie Strang writes (subscription required and recommended). Both Gardenhire and Tigers GM Al Avila are under contract through 2020, so there is no small sense that Avila’s own job security will be scrutinized as the Tigers undergo a lengthy rebuild. Strang also shares some details on the Tigers’ managerial search, which included a wide variety of candidates but seemed to wrap up quickly (before even a second round of interviews) once Gardenhire emerged as the top contender.

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