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Donovan Solano

A Minor Signing Pays Off For Giants

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Giants infielder Donovan Solano has somewhat quietly held his own since the team selected his contract from Triple-A Sacramento on May 7. Dating back to then, Solano has slashed .331/.363/.471 (119 wRC+) with four home runs across 168 plate appearances. Not bad for someone who had to settle for a minor league pact when he joined the Giants last offseason.

Solano’s output this year has been all the more impressive considering he hadn’t appeared in the majors since 2016 prior to his promotion to San Francisco’s roster. He logged a fair amount of playing time with the Marlins from 2012-15 and a bit with the Yankees the year after his Miami tenure ended, but he only managed a .257/.306/.331 line during that 1,168-PA span between the two teams. What’s more, Solano didn’t acquit himself particularly great as a minor leaguer with the Marlins, Yankees or Dodgers, evidenced in part by his lifetime .724 OPS in 2,570 PA at the Triple-A level. He was solid – albeit far from excellent – as a member of the Giants’ top minors affiliate at the outset of the season, hitting .322/.392/.437 (108 wRC+) with a pair of homers over 97 attempts as part of the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League.

Solano’s early season production in Sacramento was enough to earn him another big league call-up, and he hasn’t looked back. His effectiveness has played a role in the resurgence of the Giants, who have rallied from the dead this summer to at least enter the National League wild-card conversation. The question is: Might the Giants – who haven’t gotten much from any second base choice but Solano – have actually found a legitimate late bloomer? Going by the numbers, it’s a mixed bag.

Solano’s .397 batting average on balls in play isn’t going to continue, which is especially ominous for someone who doesn’t hit for much power, and his 87 mph average exit velocity ranks toward the bottom of the league. He also seldom walks, having drawn free passes at a subpar 4.8 percent clip.

Solano has, however, offset his lack of walks to some degree by striking out less than most hitters (20.2 percent). When he has put the bat on the ball, the right-hander has increased his line drives and hard-contact rate (according to FanGraphs), cut down on grounders, and recorded quality production against righty and lefty hurlers alike. Solano has struggled mightily at the Giants’ pitcher-friendly confines of Oracle Park, where he has batted .266/.289/.304, though he has made up for that by slashing a fantastic .397/.435/.641 on the road. Overall, Statcast shows little difference between Solano’s weighted on-base average (.356) and expected wOBA (.359).

While Solano had made clear improvements this season, it’s highly debatable whether he could emerge as a multiyear solution for the Giants. Even if he doesn’t, the Giants couldn’t have expected Solano to put up what has easily been a career campaign in 2019 when they inked him to a no-risk deal. Given the work Solano has done in a San Francisco uniform, he looks like one of the winter’s top minor league signings at this point.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Giants To Select Contract Of Donovan Solano

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The Giants are preparing to select the contract of utilityman Donovan Solano, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area (via Twitter). He joined the organization on a minors deal over the winter.

That’ll force another 40-man move to go with the one needed for outfielder Mac Williamson. With another pitcher also slated to come onto the active roster — Williams Jerez could get the nod — there will be at least three changes to the makeup of the current MLB club.

This has all the makings of a rather significant shake-up for a team in transition. The Giants are in last place in the NL West, with a 15-20 record. That’s hardly surprising given the awkward state of the team’s roster, which includes a group of high-priced veterans and a variety of unestablished younger players.

Solano, 31, will make it up to the majors for the first time since 2016. He hit well at Triple-A last year with the Dodgers organization before following top baseball operations executive Farhan Zaidi to San Francisco. Solano has turned in a nice .322/.392/.437 batting line in 97 plate appearances to open the current season with the Giants’ top affiliate.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/13/19

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Catching up on some recent minor league moves from around the baseball world….

  • The Cubs signed catcher Francisco Arcia to a minor league deal, as originally reported by the Cubs Prospects Twitter feed.  Originally signed as a teenager by the Yankees in 2006, the 29-year-old Arcia finally cracked the big leagues last season, appearing 40 games for the Angels and hitting .204/.226/.427 with six homers over 106 plate appearances.  Arcia will provide the Cubs with some depth behind backup Victor Caratini, and Arcia could also battle for the backup role himself in Spring Training.
  • The Rays signed right-hander Luis Santos to a minors contract, Baseball America’s Matthew Eddy reports.  Santos posted a 5.15 ERA over 36 2/3 innings out of the Blue Jays’ bullpen over the last two seasons, though a big problem with the long ball (2.0 HR/9) belied some better peripherals, such as a 9.8 K/9 and a 2.86 K/BB rate.
  • Also from Eddy, the Rockies re-signed left-hander Sam Howard to a minors deal, after originally non-tendering Howard at the start of December.  Howard was a third-round pick for the Rockies in 2014, and he made his Major League debut last season, tossing four innings over four games with Colorado.  MLB.com ranks Howard as the 24th-best prospect in the Rockies’ farm system, describing him as a potential fourth starter in the big leagues “if he can improve his slider and command.”
  • The Padres signed left-hander Eric Stout to a minor league contract, according to Zone Coverage’s Brandon Warne (Twitter link).  Stout posted a 3.68 ERA, 2.63 K/BB rate, and 7.4 K/9 over 269 1/3 career innings in the Royals’ farm system, appearing as a reliever in all but five of his 153 career games.    Stout also made his MLB debut in 2018, appearing in three games for Kansas City.
  • Also from Warne, the Royals inked infielder Taylor Featherston to a minors contract.  After playing in 137 games with the Angels, Phillies, and Rays from 2015-17, Featherston didn’t see any Major League action last season, spending time in the farm systems of the Twins and Reds, plus a short stint in independent ball.  Featherston has offered more with the glove than his bat over his career, with a lot of experience at second base, third base, and shortstop, plus some time as a left field and first baseman.
  • The Giants have signed righty Keyvius Sampson to a minors deal.  Sampson makes his return to North American baseball after spending 2018 with the Hanwha Eagles of the Korea Baseball Organization, posting a 4.68 ERA over 161 2/3 IP for the Eagles and posting a league-best 195 strikeouts.  Sampson has pitched for five different MLB organizations during his 10-year pro career, though he only reached the majors for 91 2/3 innings with the Reds in 2015-16.
  • The Giants also signed second baseman Donovan Solano to a minors deal, as per the Giants Prospects Twitter feed.  Solano was a regular for the Marlins in his first three MLB seasons, though he appeared more sporadically for the Marlins and Yankees in 2015-16 and hasn’t since returned to the Show, playing for the Yankees’ and Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliates over the last two seasons.  Playing mostly as a second baseman but with some experience around the infield, Solano has a .257/.306/.331 slash line over 1168 MLB plate appearances.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/19/18

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We’ll keep track of Friday’s minor moves here…

  • Infielder Tommy Field is hanging up his spikes, according to Rochester Red Wings’ director of communications Nate Rowan (via Twitter). The thirty-year-old says he has been unable to play at the top of his game due to a series of injuries. Field has seen limited MLB action in parts of four seasons, appearing with the Rockies, Angels, and Rangers. He was originally taken by Colorado in the 24th round of the 2008 draft. Field spent the 2017 season at Rochester, the Twins’ top affiliate, where he compiled a .231/.296/.348 slash in 447 plate appearances.
  • The Dodgers have agreed to a minor league deal with infielder Donovan Solano, tweets SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo. The 30-year-old has spent parts of five seasons in the Majors, appearing semi-regularly with the Marlins from 2012-15 and much more briefly with the Yankees in 2016. Solano is a career .257/.306/.331 hitter in the Majors and has spent the vast majority of his time at second base, though he’s also played a handful of games at shortstop, at third base and in left field. He spent the 2017 season with the Yankees’ Triple-A affiliate and slashed a respectable .282/.329/.391 in 405 plate appearances over the course of 99 games.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/31/17

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It’s been nearly two years since Wily Mo Pena’s name has come up at MLBTR, but the outfielder has agreed to a minor league pact with the Indians that will pay him $700K if he cracks the Major League roster, according to FanRag’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). Now 35 years of age, Pena hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2011. As a young slugger with the Reds, Pena belted 26 homers back in 2004 and was traded to the Red Sox a year later in the deal that sent right-hander Bronson Arroyo to Cincinnati. Pena never demonstrated enough ability to make contact or draw walks to carve out consistent playing time in Boston, though, and he ultimately found the most success of his career overseas in Japan. Pena spent the 2012-15 seasons in Nippon Professional Baseball, and while he struggled in 2013, he OPSed better than .800 in each of the three other campaigns and hit a combined 71 homers in his Japanese career.

Here are the rest of the day’s minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Braves announced that slugging outfielder Adam Walker, who was designated for assignment last week, has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Gwinnett. That marks the end of a whirlwind winter for Walker, who was placed on outright waivers by the Twins in November and then bounced from Minnesota, to Milwaukee, to Baltimore, to Atlanta on waivers. He’ll now remain with the Braves organization but will not occupy a spot on the 40-man roster. Atlanta did not announce whether Walker will receive an invite to Major League Spring Training, but he’s likely to open the season in Triple-A. The former third-round pick has displayed enormous power in the Twins’ minor league system in recent years but also posted prodigious strikeout totals. He’s limited to left field and possibly first base from a defensive standpoint, so he’ll need to curb the strikeout tendencies to give himself a chance to stick on a big league roster.
  • Atlanta also inked lefty Michael Kirkman to a minors pact, tweets Heyman. Kirkman, who will make $600K if he cracks the roster, has a 5.28 ERA in 109 Major League innings and most recently appeared with the Padres and Brewers in 2016 (though he totaled just 2 1/3 innings). Kirkman has consistently demonstrated an ability to miss bats in both the Majors and minors but has also struggled with control.
  • Southpaw Nick Hagadone has joined the Mariners on a minor-league pact, as Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times first reported on Twitter. The former Indians left-hander hasn’t pitched since 2015 due to an elbow fracture that required surgical repair. Hagadone struck up a minor league deal with Atlanta last winter but had the contract voided due to concerns in his physical. He didn’t pitch at all in 2016 but will aim to prove he’s healthy enough for a big league look with Seattle in 2017. Hagadone, 31, posted a 3.55 ERA with a 55-to-18 K/BB ratio in 50 2/3 innings with Cleveland from 2014-15 and was once well-regarded enough as a prospect to be ranked in the Top 100 of both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus. He was also one of three pieces sent from the Red Sox to the Indians in the 2009 Victor Martinez swap.
  • The Yankees announced their invitations to Major League Spring Training today, and the list includes infielder Donovan Solano and right-hander Nick Rumbelow, each of whom re-signed to a minor league deal. (Others on the list have already been noted at MLBTR in recent months.) Solano, 29, hit .227/.261/.455 with a homer and a pair of doubles in 23 plate appearances with the Yankees last season. Capable of playing second base, shortstop and third base, Solano also slashed .257/.307/.328 over the life of 1145 plate appearances across parts of four seasons with the Marlins prior to his time with the Yankees. As for Rumbelow, the 25-year-old had Tommy John surgery last season. He’d made his Major League debut in 2015 and tossed 15 2/3 innings of 4.02 ERA ball as a followup to 52 2/3 innings with a 4.27 ERA in Triple-A. Rumbelow has averaged better than 10 strikeouts per nine innings in the minors while also walking just 2.4 batters per nine frames.

Donovan Solano Elects Free Agency Following Outright

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1:15pm: The Yankees also announced that Solano has elected free agency, as he was expected to do.

11:35am: The Yankees announced that they’ve outrighted infielder Donovan Solano off the 40-man roster. The 28-year-old Solano has enough big league service to elect free agency following his removal from the 40-man roster and figures to do so in the near future. Earlier this morning in MLBTR’s arbitration projections, we noted that Solano would’ve been arbitration eligible and in line for a modest bump from the league minimum salary (or thereabouts) to about $700K (he’s since been removed from the list, as he obviously won’t be going to arbitration now that he’s been outrighted).

Solano, a longtime infielder for the Marlins, appeared in just nine games with the Yankees and hit .227/.261/.455 with a homer and a pair of doubles in 23 plate appearances. Prior to the 2016 campaign, the entirety of his big league experience came in Miami, where he slashed .257/.307/.328 over the life of 1145 plate appearances across parts of four seasons. While the vast majority of Solano’s experience in the Majors has been as a second baseman, he’s also appeared at shortstop, third base and left field in the bigs and has amassed more than 1800 innings at each of those three infield slots in his minor league career.

Starlin Castro Strains Hamstring, Could Miss Rest Of Season

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Yankees infielder Starlin Castro suffered a Grade 1 hamstring strain while running the bases Saturday and could miss the rest of the season, as MLB.com’s Bryan Hoch notes. Grade 1 strains are the least severe type of strain, but could require a two-week recovery time. The Yankees are likely to use Ronald Torreyes and Donovan Solano at second base in Castro’s absence. The Yankees promoted Solano today after a .319/.349/.436 season for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The loss of Castro is a tough one for the Yankees, who are currently 3 1/2 games back in the AL Wild Card race. Castro has batted .273/.304/.439 in 593 plate appearances in his first season in pinstripes, but he’s been hot down the stretch, hitting .313/.333/.571 in August and .310/.328/.483 in September.

The 26-year-old Castro will, of course, remain under team control for the foreseeable future, with the Yanks paying him a total of $30MM over the next three years, plus either a $16MM 2020 option or a $1MM buyout, as per the terms of the pre-arbitration extension he signed with the Cubs in 2012.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/9/16

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Here are today’s minor moves from around the league.

  • The Royals have agreed to terms with lefty David Huff on a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite, MLBTR has learned. Huff will receive $1.1MM plus a possible $300K in performance bonuses if he’s in the Majors, and his deal contains opt-outs on May 15 and June 15. Huff appeared briefly with the Dodgers last season, but spent most of the year at Triple-A Oklahoma City, where he posted a 2.20 ERA, 6.8 K/9 and 1.3 BB/9 over 57 1/3 innings. The 31-year-old has a 5.08 ERA, 5.4 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9 in parts of seven big-league seasons, which he’s split between starting and relieving.
  • The Padres have selected the contract of lefty Ryan Buchter, Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune tweets. The Friars had previously signed Buchter to a minor league deal, but now, before he had even pitched an inning for them, they’ve placed him on their 40-man roster. Buchter had an excellent (if somewhat control-challenged) season at Triple-A in 2015, posting a 1.78 ERA, 11.0 K/9 and 4.4 BB/9 in 50 2/3 innings of relief for two teams, and he has good velocity and is very tough on lefties. Getting him on a minor league deal looked like a small coup for the Padres, and it’s possible they’re adding him to their 40-man roster in order to avoid losing him, maybe to an opt-out clause or an offer from overseas.
  • The Pirates have released righty Casey Sadler, Matt Eddy of Baseball America tweets. Sadler underwent Tommy John surgery after the 2015 season and was subsequently outrighted. The 25-year-old made one strong start with the Bucs in 2015 and spent the rest of the year at Triple-A Indianapolis, where he posted a 4.56 ERA, 5.3 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9 before getting hurt.
  • The Brewers have announced that they’ve signed lefty Pat Misch to a minor league deal with a Spring Training invite. The 34-year-old Misch appeared in parts of six big-league seasons with the Giants and Mets, but he hasn’t been in the Majors since 2011. He’s had a strange journey since having Tommy John surgery in August 2013, as BA’s John Manuel writes — beginning last winter, he pitched in the Puerto Rican Winter League, then pitched 72 innings in a swingman role with Triple-A New Orleans in the Marlins system (posting a 3.25 ERA, 5.0 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9), then 64 2/3 with Lamigo in the Chinese Professional Baseball League. That stint finished with a Game 7 no-hitter to end the Taiwan Series.
  • The Yankees have signed infielders Donovan Solano and Jonathan Diaz to minor league deals with Spring Training invites, Eddy tweets. Solano, formerly the Marlins’ semi-regular second baseman, did not hit well in 2015 and bounced back and forth between Miami and New Orleans. He has a career .257/.307/.328 batting line in parts of four big-league seasons. The 30-year-old Diaz has played briefly with the Red Sox and Blue Jays; he spent most of 2015 with the Jays’ Triple-A Buffalo affiliate, where he played shortstop, second base and center field and batted .223/.328/.284.
  • The Braves have agreed to terms with righty Rob Wooten, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo tweets. The 30-year-old appeared in the Brewers bullpen in the 2013 through 2015 seasons, posting a combined 5.03 ERA, 7.0 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 and throwing in the high 80s. He spent most of 2015, in a tough pitching environment at Triple-A Colorado Springs, with a 4.67 ERA, 8.7 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9 over 52 innings.
  • The Reds have signed infielder Carlos Triunfel to a minor league deal, tweets Eddy. The former top Mariners prospect, now 25, batted .264/.287/.398 in 329 plate appearances with Triple-A Sacramento in the Giants organization in 2015, splitting his time between shortstop, second and third. He has appeared briefly in the big leagues with the Mariners and Dodgers.

Marlins Outright Five Players

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Here are the day’s outright assignments:

  • The Marlins have announced that five players were outrighted off of the 40-man roster. Preston Claiborne, Erik Cordier, Chris Narveson, Chris Reed, and Donovan Solano each lost their slots. With three 60-man DL placements, Miami says it has five open roster 40-man positions as things stand. Claiborne missed the entire season with a shoulder injury. Cordier, a 29-year-old righty, was strong at Triple-A. but allowed eight earned and posted a 7-to-6 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 12 1/3 innings of work in the majors. The 33-year-old Narveson marked his most extensive big league usage since 2011, but posted only a 4.45 ERA in 30 1/3 frames. Reed, meanwhile, made just two big league appearances after coming from the Dodgers in a minor mid-season swap. He scuffled at the Triple-A level in his first season of exclusive bullpen work. Solano is a 27-year-old utility infielder. He had seen extensive action in each of the three prior campaigns, but earned only 94 plate appearances this year. All told, he owns a .257/.307/.328 slash in his big league career.

Quick Hits: LaRoche, Marlins, Delmon Young, Brewers

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The Mills Commission published its final report on this date in 1907 concluding Abner Doubleday invented the game of baseball in Cooperstown, NY in 1839 and had invented the word "baseball," designed the diamond, indicated fielders' positions, and written the rules. The commission's report remained the authoritative work on the origins of baseball for over a half a century before being scrutinzed by historians. It is now believed baseball did indeed evolve from rounders. Here's a round up of the latest news from around baseball:

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