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CPBL’s Fubon Guardians Sign Eduardo Nunez

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Former big league infielder Eduardo Núñez has signed with the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League, per a team announcement (h/t to CPBL Stats). The 33-year-old’s most recent major league action came with the Mets, with whom Núñez picked up a pair of plate appearances last year.

Núñez has played in parts of eleven big league seasons, seeing rather extensive action with each of the Yankees, Twins and Red Sox. He even earned an All-Star selection after a strong start to the 2016 season in Minnesota. Altogether, the right-handed hitting infielder has compiled a .276/.310/.404 slash line with 58 home runs and 142 stolen bases across 3008 plate appearances at the MLB level.

The Guardians also roster former big league pitchers Manny Bañuelos and JC Ramírez. The team signed Héctor Noesí last December, but he was released in February after suffering an offseason injury, as CPBL Stats noted at the time.

CPBL’s Fubon Guardians Sign Hector Noesi

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Right-hander Hector Noesi has signed with the Fubon Guardians of the Chinese Professional Baseball League, the team announced.  (Hat tip to the CPBL Stats page.)  Apple Daily was the first to break news of the agreement, and media outlet EToday reported that Noesi will earn roughly $500K for the 2021 season.

Noesi is a veteran of six MLB seasons, tossing 395 1/3 innings with four different teams (mostly the White Sox and Mariners) from 2011-15 before resurfacing with the Marlins in 2019.  Noesi posted an 8.46 ERA over 27 2/3 innings with Miami, bringing his career Major League resume to a 5.51 ERA, 1.89 K/BB rate, and 6.4 K/9 over 423 total frames.  Noesi signed a minor league deal with the Pirates last winter but chose to opt out of the 2020 season.

In between being let go by the White Sox and returning to the Marlins, Noesi spent three seasons in the KBO League, so he already has some significant experience pitching outside of North American baseball.  Noesi had 3.79 ERA, 3.22 K/BB rate, and 6.6 K/9 over 582 1/3 innings (all as a starting pitching) for the Kia Tigers, so this could provide some idea of what Noesi can bring to the Guardians heading into his age-34 season.

Hector Noesi Opts Out Of 2020 Season; Keone Kela Still Not In Camp

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Pirates hurler Hector Noesi has opted out of participation in the 2020 season, manager Derek Shelton told reporters including Stephen Nesbitt of The Athletic (via Twitter). Noesi cited family reasons in asking out of his minor-league deal.

In other Pirates news, top relief pitcher Keone Kela still has not appeared at camp, Shelton further advised. (Via MLB.com’s Adam Berry, on Twitter.) The organization has not provided further information on the matter. It certainly could be that Kela is in some stage of protocols relating to COVID-19, though it would be unwise to assume anything about his situation.

Noesi had been looking for another big league opportunity after appearing last year with the Marlins. He struggled quite a bit in his time in Miami, his first MLB action since 2015. In the interim, the journeyman hurler — once a small part of a busted blockbuster — had a few nice campaigns in the KBO.

Kela’s situation is of greater concern to the Pirates from a competitive standpoint. If the club struggles as most anticipated, he’d be an obvious mid-season trade piece as a 2020-21 free agent. Kela turned in 29 2/3 innings of 2.12 ERA ball last year.

Pirates Sign Socrates Brito, Miguel Del Pozo, Phillip Evans

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The Pirates have announced a series of minor-league signings. Outfielder Socrates Brito, southpaw Miguel Del Pozo, and infielder Phillip Evans have all received non-roster invitations, as has Hector Noesi, whose signing was previously reported.

Brito was once viewed as a quality prospect but hasn’t shown much in the majors. The 27-year-old carries a lifetime .179/.216/.309 slash in 218 plate appearances at the game’s highest level. But he did turn in a .282/.328/.510 batting line in 428 trips to the dish last year at Triple-A with the Blue Jays organization. New Pittsburgh GM Ben Cherington is well-acquainted with Brito, having come over from Toronto.

The 27-year-old Del Pozo debuted in the bigs last year with the Angels after a mid-season claim from the Rangers. He didn’t exactly stake out a firm claim to a permanent job, allowing 11 earned runs on three long balls with an 11:8 K/BB ratio in 9 1/3 frames. But the southpaw works in the mid-nineties with his heater and delivered 68 strikeouts in 48 2/3 Triple-A innings.

As for Evans, also 27, he touched the bigs in the two prior seasons with the Mets but didn’t make it back in 2019 with the Cubs. He did see steady action with the Chicago organization’s top affiliate, slashing .283/.371/.470 in 539 plate appearances — good for a solid but hardly exceptional 106 wRC+ in the International League.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/11/19

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There’s been no shortage of front page news this evening, but with the winter meetings not yet halfway through, there’s plenty more to come. For now, let’s take a look at some of the smaller moves that may have snuck beneath the radar…

  • The Pirates signed reliever Hector Noesi to a minor-league contract, per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal. Noesi, 33 by Opening Day, saw his first major league action since 2015 this season with the Marlins. He appeared in 12 games, starting 4, recording a 8.46 ERA/6.39 FIP over that span. The right-hander doesn’t figure to be a primary player for the Pirates, though he certainly brings a fair amount of experience having appeared in the show with the Marlins, White Sox, Rangers, Mariners, and Yankees since his debut in 2011. He performed below replacement level in four of his six major league seasons, with the high water mark coming in 2014 when he made 27 starts for the White Sox. He made very brief appearance with the Rangers and Mariners that year, but it was in Chicago where he spent the brunt of his time, registering a 4.39 ERA/4.85 FIP across 166 innings on the south side.
  • The Braves have brought back outfielder Rafael Ortega on a minor-league contract, tweets Baseball America’s Gabe Burns. Ortega formerly spent time with the Rockies, Angels, and Marlins. He received some prominent playing time opportunities for the NL East Division champs down the stretch in 2019. The 28-year-old appeared in 34 games, while stepping up to the plate just 96 times, hitting .205/.271/307 in those limited opportunities. Ortega represents a depth option for Atlanta, who could still be in the market for a big bat in the outfield, should they be unable to bring back Josh Donaldson. For now, Ortega falls behind Ronald Acuna Jr., Nick Markakis, Ender Inciarte, and Adam Duvall on the depth chart, while Johan Camargo and Austin Riley could also see time in the outfield corners.

Pitchers Recently Electing Free Agency

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Since the conclusion of the regular season, a number of players have elected free agency. That right accrues to certain players who are outrighted off of a 40-man roster during or after the season — namely, those that have at least three years of MLB service and/or have previously been outrighted. Such players that accepted outright assignments during the season have the right to elect free agency instead at season’s end, provided they aren’t added back to the 40-man in the meantime.

We already rounded up the position players. Now, here are the pitchers that have recently taken to the open market, along with their now-former teams (via the International League and PCL transactions pages):

Reds Claim Josh Smith, Designate Juan Graterol For Assignment

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4:45 pm: The Marlins have announced Smith’s claim, with an addendum indicating that Miami has also outrighted catcher Tyler Heineman and righty Hector Noesi to the Triple-A New Orleans roster. This puts Miami’s 40-man roster count at 37.

2:47 pm: The Reds have claimed pitcher Josh Smith off of waivers from the Marlins, according to a tweet from C. Trent Rosecrans of The Athletic (link). In a corresponding move, Cincinnati has designated catcher Juan Graterol for assignment.

The Marlins had claimed the left-handed Smith off of waivers from the Indians on Sept 14, making his time in the Miami organization exceedingly brief. Occasionally referred to as “Josh D. Smith” in order to avoid confusion, the lefty is a soft-tossing reliever with a largely fastball/slider dependent repertoire.  The 30-year-old played in both the Pirates and Red Sox organizations before making his big league debut with Cleveland in 2019; he ultimately made 14 appearances between the Indian and Marlin pens, logging a 6.39 ERA (4.32 FIP) in a small sample of 12.2 innings. Amir Garrett is the only lefty on-hand in the Cincinnati bullpen, so Smith could be a relatively no-cost flier for a club looking to broaden its mix-and-match capabilities.

The 30-year-old Graterol first came up to the bigs with the Angels in 2016, but he’s never really been given an extended look in the majors. Across parts of three seasons, he’s received just 129 plate appearances at the game’s highest level, logging a meek .218/.227/.266 line with zero home runs. He spent most of 2019 at Triple-A in the Reds organization, logging a .249/.301/.325 slash through 226 plate appearances.

Marlins Designate Yadiel Rivera, Select Hector Noesi

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The Marlins have selected the contract of veteran right-hander Hector Noesi to start tonight’s game and designated infielder Yadiel Rivera for assignment in order to clear roster space, per a club announcement.

Noesi, 32, will return to the big leagues for the first time since 2015 when he takes the mound tonight. He spent the interim seasons pitching for the Kia Tigers of the Korea Baseball Organization and throwing rather well; in 582 1/3 KBO innings, Noesi notched a 3.79 ERA with 6.6 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9.

The well-traveled righty has enjoyed a strong season thus far in a deadly Triple-A environment for pitchers, working to a 3.82 ERA with 9.6 K/9, 2.2 BB/9 and a 39.4 percent ground-ball rate. That 3.82 ERA might not sound like much, but Noesi, somewhat remarkably, is one of just seven qualified starters in all of Triple-A with an ERA south of 4.00. The adoption of the homer-happy big league ball in Triple-A has transformed an already hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League into a nightmare for pitchers, and the International League has become extremely hitter-friendly as well.

Noesi’s success has come, in part, due to some good fortune. He’s averaged a whopping 1.94 homers per nine innings pitched, but the majority of the round-trippers he’s yielded have been of the solo variety. He’s likely a short-term option for the Marlins anyhow, although the trades of Zac Gallen and Trevor Richards have thinned out the Miami staff somewhat.

The 27-year-old Rivera appeared in 34 games with Miami but made just 66 plate appearances. He managed only a meager .183/.258/.217 batting line in that time — a similar output to the .173/.269/.216 slash he logged last season in 160 plate appearances as a Marlin.

Marlins To Sign Hector Noesi

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The Marlins have inked a deal with righty Hector Noesi, Jon Heyman of Fancred tweets. It’s not clear whether the minor-league accord includes a spring invite, but Noesi can earn $800K if he cracks the MLB roster.

It has been some time since Noesi, who’ll soon turn 32, has appeared at the game’s highest level. He threw nearly four hundred innings over a five-year span from 2011 to 2015, pitching to a 5.30 ERA with 6.4 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9.

In the interim, Noesi has plied his trade abroad. He carried an excellent 3.44 ERA over 408 1/3 innings in his first two seasons in the hitter-friendly KBO, though he slipped to a 4.60 ERA in 174 frames last year. Most recently, Noesi has made five strong starts in the Dominican Winter League.

NPB/KBO Signings: Moya, Noesi, Bernadina, Paredes

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The free-agent market in Major League Baseball may be crawling along at an all-time slow pace, but there are plenty of recognizable former big league names landing contracts overseas. Here’s the latest group of names signing (or re-signing, in some cases) contracts in Nippon Professional Baseball and in the Korea Baseball Organization…

  • Former Tigers outfielder Steven Moya is headed to Japan on a one-year deal with the Chunichi Dragons, as Emily Waldon of The Athletic and 2080ball.com (Twitter link). The Jackson Management Group client was long considered one of the Tigers’ more promising farmhands but struggled in multiple big league auditions from 2014-16, hitting .250/.293/.452 in 133 plate appearances. The 26-year-old Moya struggled in Double-A and Triple-A this season but hit .284/.310/.501 in Triple-A as recently as 2016.
  • The KBO champion Kia Tigers announced that they’ve re-signed right-hander Hector Noesi, outfielder Roger Bernadina and left-hander Pat Dean to 2018 contracts (link via Jee-ho Yoo of the Yonhap News Agency). Noesi will earn $2MM with the Tigers next year, while Bernadina will earn $1.1MM and Dean will take home $925K. Noesi, 30, struggled through nearly 400 MLB innings from 2011-15 but has carved out a niche for himself as a high-quality starter in Korea, where he’s posted consecutive 200-inning seasons with a 3.44 ERA and a better than 3-to-1 K/BB ratio. Bernadina, who spent parts of six seasons with the Nationals, belted 27 homers with a .913 OPS last year in the KBO. Dean, a former Twins third-round pick who pitched 67 innings for Minnesota in 2016, pitched to a 4.14 ERA with 7.3 K/9 against 2.0 BB/9 in 176 innings out of the Tigers’ rotation in 2017.
  • Former MLB infielder Jimmy Paredes has a deal with the KBO’s Doosan Bears (also per Yoo). The 29-year-old will take home an $800K bonus in his first KBO season. Paredes hit .251/.286/.369 in parts of six big league seasons between the Astros, Orioles, Royals, Phillies and Blue Jays from 2011-16 before latching on with the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball last season. Paredes struggled in his first run through NPB, but he’ll hope to more closely replicate his lifetime .301/.338/.461 Triple-A batting line in his first season with the Bears in 2018.
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