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Edgar Garcia

Reds Claim Beau Taylor, Designate Deivy Grullon

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The Reds have claimed catcher Beau Taylor off waivers from the Indians, and designated catcher Deivy Grullon for assignment.  Taylor will be optioned to the Reds’ alternate training site.  The club also announced that right-hander Edgar Garcia is also headed for the alternate training site, as Garcia (who was designated for assignment earlier this week) has cleared waivers and been outrighted off the 40-man roster.

The 31-year-old Taylor is moving onto his fourth different organization in as many seasons, with an MLB resume that includes 25 games with Oakland, Toronto, and Cleveland.  Originally a fifth-round pick for the Athletics back in 2011, Taylor has only a .492 OPS over 60 big league appearances, but a much more respectable .256/.373/.385 slash line in 798 PA at the Triple-A level.  Cincinnati now has both Taylor and Rocky Gale at the alternate site as depth options while top prospect Tyler Stephenson and utilityman Kyle Farmer are handling backup catcher duties behind Tucker Barnhart on the big league roster.

Grullon was himself a waiver claim acquisition for the Reds, selected away from the Red Sox back in December.  Grullon has appeared in five total Major League games — four with the Phillies in 2019 and one with the Red Sox in 2020 — and 606 minor league games in a pro career that began back in 2013.  The 25-year-old didn’t hit much until the 2018 and 2019 seasons, and Grullon has delivered a .283/.354/.496 slash line over 457 Triple-A plate appearances.  Considering this resume and Grullon’s well-regarded throwing arm, it’s quite possible another team could pluck Grullon off the waiver wire.

Reds Designate Edgar Garcia, Select Jonathan India

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The Reds announced this morning that they’ve selected the contract of infielder Jonathan India and cleared a spot on the 40-man roster by designating right-hander Edgar Garcia for assignment. Cincinnati also activated Joey Votto from the injured list and optioned Max Schrock and Mark Payton to the alternate training site. Right-hander Sonny Gray (back injury) and outfielder Shogo Akiyama (hamstring strain) were both placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to March 29, as expected.

Garcia, 24, had a nice spring with the Reds but now could be headed elsewhere before ever playing in a regular-season game for them. Signed to a non-guaranteed big league deal over the winter, Garcia held opponents to a pair of runs on five hits and three walks with eight strikeouts through 7 1/3 Cactus League innings. He struggled with the Phillies and Rays in the Majors from 2019-20 — 6.17 ERA, 16 percent walk rate — but Garcia has posted strong ERAs with very good strikeout and walk rates in both Double-A and Triple-A. He has a minor league option remaining, which could attract the interest of another team.

None of the other moves announced Thursday were unexpected. Cincinnati confirmed what had long been apparent yesterday when declaring that India, the No. 5 overall draft pick in 2018, had made their Opening Day roster. He’s expected to serve as their primary second baseman.

Reds Sign Edgar Garcia To Major League Contract

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The Reds have signed right-hander Edgar Garcia, Bobby Nightengale of the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. It’s a major league deal, per Mark Sheldon of MLB.com. Garcia could earn a $600K salary if he makes the Reds’ roster, according to Nightengale.

The Rays non-tendered the 24-year-old Garcia earlier this month, which came not long after they acquired him from the Phillies in August. But Garcia failed to keep runs off the board in a small sample of work as a member of the Rays, with whom he yielded four ER on three hits (including two homers) and four walks in 3 1/3 innings.

Garcia saw much more action in 2019 with the Phillies, throwing 39 innings, but the results also weren’t great then. He ended the year with a 5.77 ERA/6.57 FIP and 10.38 K/9 against 6.0 BB/9.

American League Non-Tenders

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With revenue losses expected to result in reduced payrolls around baseball, a larger number of players than usual are expected to be let go by their current teams by tonight’s 7pm CT non-tender deadline.  Some of these players could end up re-signing with their teams for salaries below what they were projected (by MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz) to earn through the arbitration process, or teams could end up simply opting to explore other options…with many of those options arriving on the market through this same non-tender process.

You can track all of the arbitration and non-tender activity here, and we’ll also run through the list of American League players who have been let go in this post.  (The NL list is available here.)

  • In addition to Naquin, covered below, the Indians announced that they’ve non-tendered outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. and right-hander Jefry Rodriguez. Cleveland picked up DeShields in the Corey Kluber salary dump to the Rangers last winter, and he managed a tepid .252/.310/.318 slash in 137 plate appearances. Rodriguez wasn’t arb-eligible yet and didn’t pitch in the Majors this season, but the Indians obviously wanted to open the 40-man spot. He has a career 5.20 ERA and 5.29 FIP in 98 2/3 innings.
  • The Rangers non-tendered utilityman Danny Santana, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports. The 30-year-old switch-hitter had a big season with Texas in 2019, but as was the case with his rookie showing in Minnesota, the results were largely BABIP-driven. Santana underwent elbow surgery in September and may not be ready for Opening Day, so his non-tender isn’t a surprise. Outfielder Scott Heineman and righty Jimmy Herget were also non-tendered, the team announced.
  • Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times tweets that the Rays have non-tendered righty Edgar Garcia, who was not yet eligible for arbitration. Tampa acquired Garcia for a PTBNL in August after the Phils designated him for assignment, but he was hit hard in a small sample of work. The Rays prefer to have an open roster spot and will make Garcia a free agent.

Earlier Non-Tenders

  • The Indians have non-tendered outfielder Tyler Naquin, Paul Hoynes of cleveland.com tweets. Naquin, who would have earned around $2MM in arbitration, is coming off a poor year in Cleveland. The 29-year-old slashed .218/.248/.383 with four home runs, 40 strikeouts and five walks in 141 plate appearances. Naquin joined the Indians as the 15th overall pick in 2012, but he has only provided league-average offense since debuting in 2016.
  • The Royals also non-tendered Maikel Franco, as covered here. The White Sox, meanwhile, cut ties with Nomar Mazara and Carlos Rodon, as outlined here.

Phillies Acquire Rodolfo Sanchez From Rays

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The Phillies and Rays have completed their August 18 trade that sent Edgar Garcia to Tampa Bay, as the Phillies announced the acquisition of player-to-be-named-later Rodolfo Sanchez.

A 20-year-old right-hander, Sanchez was an international signing out of the Dominican Republic in 2016.  While not seen as a top-30 prospect in Tampa’s farm system, Sanchez has some solid numbers thus far in this pro career, posting a 3.03 ERA, 3.28 K/BB rate, and 8.6 K/9 over 160 1/3 innings.  63 1/3 of those innings came at the lower A-ball level in 2019, as Sanchez was used exclusively as a starting pitcher for an entire season.

Garcia ended up with a 10.80 ERA over 3 1/3 innings and four appearances with the Rays, getting touched for three runs in an inning’s worth of work against the Yankees on August 31.  That marked his last MLB appearance of the season, as the Rays soon optioned Garcia down to their alternate training site.

Rays Acquire Edgar Garcia; Designate Daniel Robertson

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The Phillies have agreed to trade right-hander Edgar Garcia to the Rays in exchange for a player to be named later, Matt Gelb of The Athletic reports (via Twitter).  Tampa Bay has designated infielder Daniel Robertson for assignment to create roster space for Garcia, MLB.com’s Juan Toribio reports (Twitter link).

Philadelphia designated Garcia for assignment late last week.  The 23-year-old made his big league debut in 2019, tossing 39 innings out of the Phils’ bullpen and posting 5.77 ERA, 10.4 K/9, and 1.73 K/BB.  Homers and walks were Garcia’s biggest issue, as he allowed 11 home runs and issued 26 free passes over his 39-inning stint.

The long ball also developed as a problem for Garcia at Triple-A (1.6 HR/9), though admittedly over the small sample size of 33 2/3 career innings at the top minor league level.  For his entire minor league career, Garcia has posted some solid numbers — a 3.43 ERA, 3.27 K/BB rate, and 9.3 K/9 through 301 1/3 innings in Philadelphia’s farm system.  The Rays obviously think there’s some potential for Garcia to add their ever-revolving bullpen mix.

It wasn’t long ago that Robertson was considered to be a potential shortstop of the future in Tampa, or at least the type of multi-positional player the Rays love to deploy.  He even hit .262/.382/.415 over 340 plate appearances in 2018, though a thumb injury shortened that season and then a knee problem hampered Robertson in 2019.  With Willy Adames taking over at shortstop (with Wander Franco looming on the horizon) and Joey Wendle and Mike Brosseau emerging as utility infield answers, it seems like Robertson was simply squeezed out of a job.

Robertson has hit .231/.340/.352 with 16 home runs over 831 career MLB plate appearances, and he also has a .280/371/.411 slash line through 2389 PA in the minors.  Between these numbers, his former first-round pedigree (34th overall pick in 2012), and his ability to play left field and all over the infield, Robertson seems like a decent candidate to be plucked off the DFA wire.

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