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John Andreoli

Red Sox Release John Andreoli, Add Seth Blair To Player Pool

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The Red Sox have released outfielder John Andreoli in order to open a spot in their 60-man player pool for right-hander Seth Blair, per a team announcement. Blair will join the club’s alternate training site.

Andreoli, 30, is a Worcester native with 26 games and 67 plate appearance of big league experience under his belt. That all came back in 2018, when he hit .230/.284/.262 in a small sample with the Mariners and Orioles. Lack of big league experience aside, Andreoli is a solid depth piece for big league clubs given a career .262/.375/.416 slash in nearly 2500 Triple-A plate appearances. He’s also logged more than 2000 minor league innings at all three outfield positions and racked up 259 minor league stolen bases. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see him latch on with a club hurting for outfield depth.

Blair, meanwhile, is something of a remarkable story. The 31-year-old was selected by the Cardinals with the No. 46 overall pick of the 2010 draft and looked to have washed out of baseball after an ugly season in 2014. Blair didn’t throw a professional pitch from 2015-18 but was given a chance at a comeback by the Padres organization in 2019. He spent the year with San Diego’s Class-A Advanced affiliate, and while his 4.11 ERA doesn’t stand out as a particularly impressive mark, Blair also notched an impressive 47-to-14 K/BB ratio in 35 frames. Now that he’s in Boston’s player pool, he’s closer to an improbable big league debut than he was at any point in 2019.

Red Sox Announce Eight Minor League Signings

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The Red Sox on Friday announced an octet of minor league signings, revealing that they’ve added catcher Jett Bandy; outfielder John Andreoli; left-hander Mike Kickham; corner infielder Jantzen Witte; first baseman/outfielder Nick Longhi; and right-handers R.J. Alvarez, Domingo Tapia and Robinson Leyer as non-roster invitees to Spring Training. Each of Bandy, Andreoli, Kickham and Alvarez has some MLB experience.

Bandy, 30 in March, was once viewed as a potential long-term option behind the dish for the Angels but hasn’t panned out as such. He’s logged 156 games in the big leagues between Anaheim and Milwaukee, posting a .218/.282/.365 batting line through 492 plate appearances. He’s adept at shutting down the running game (32 percent career caught-stealing rate) but has drawn more questionable marks for his framing efforts.

Andreoli, 29, has only collected 67 plate appearances at the MLB level but has been an on-base machine in Triple-A, where he’s put together a .262/.375/.416 batting line across parts of five seasons (2465 plate appearances). The right-handed-hitting veteran has seen ample time at all three outfield spots since being selected in the 17th round of the 2011 draft by the Cubs.

The 31-year-old Kickham hasn’t pitched in the Majors since 2013-14 with the Giants and has allowed more runs than he has completed innings pitched in his short MLB career (37 runs, 30 2/3 innings). But Kickham has displayed strong control and pitched reasonably well in a tough pitchers’ environment with the Marlins’ Triple-A club in each of the past three seasons in addition to a strong winter ball showing in Mexico (1.96 ERA in 41 1/3 innings). He’ll give the club some depth that has experience working as both a starter and a reliever.

Alvarez, 28, hasn’t pitched in the big leagues since 2015 and was also with Miami’s Triple-A affiliate in 2019. His bottom-line results in parts of five Triple-A seasons don’t immediately jump out, but he’s averaged nearly 12 strikeouts per nine innings pitched throughout his minor league career. Control has been an issue as well, however, evidenced by the fact that he’s yielded nearly five walks per nine frames en route to his lifetime 4.22 ERA in Triple-A.

Mariners Acquire John Andreoli

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The Mariners have acquired outfielder John Andreoli from the Twins, as per reporter Joe Veyera (Twitter link).  Andreoli appeared in the lineup tonight for Triple-A Tacoma.

Andreoli is back for his third separate stint with the Mariners organization, originally signing with the M’s in the 2017-18 offseason and eventually making his MLB debut with the team last May.  Andreoli was claimed off waivers by the Orioles in August and then claimed back by Seattle after the season, kicking off a busy winter of activity that saw Andreoli briefly join the Rangers and Giants on waiver claims before being traded to Minnesota in March.

After that whirlwind, Andreoli ended up batting .196/.324/.359 over 185 PA for the Twins’ Triple-A affiliate.  Over 3458 career plate appearances in the minors, Andreoli (who turns 29 next week) has a .266/.370/.386 slash line, plus an impressive 250 stolen bases in 312 chances.  As a big leaguer, Andreoli appeared in 20 games with the Mariners and Orioles last season, amassing 67 PA.  With extensive experience at all three outfield positions, Andreoli will once again give the Mariners some outfield depth at the Triple-A level.

Giants Acquire Michael Reed From Twins

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Per Dan Hayes of the Athletic, the Giants have acquired OF Michael Reed from Minnesota for OF John Andreoli and cash. Per Kerry Crowley of the Mercury News, lefty Steven Okert was designated for assignment to make room on the 40-man.

Reed, 26, was in camp with the Twins after an outstanding AAA performance in the Atlanta system last year. A career .269/.382/.395 hitter in the minors, Reed took it up a notch last season, slashing a ridiculous .363/.459/.539 in 229 plate appearances for AAA-Gwinnett.  Scouts were never too bullish on the longtime Brewer – his highest ever rank in the Milwaukee system per Baseball America was 14th, following the 2014 season – but the recent performance has been too enticing to ignore.

Incredibly, Reed may slot in as the San Francisco’s top projected outfielder for the upcoming season – Steamer, at least, seems to agree. The Giants may not, but the righty-swinging Reed should see plenty of time at each outfield position in ’19, which he may well begin by serving as the weak-side platoon option in center field for lefty Steven Duggar.

Andreoli, 28, was brought in with a host of others to compete for a spot in the wide-open SF outfield, though his minor-league track record doesn’t glow nearly as brightly as Reed’s. The righty did put up an impressive .397 OBP at the AAA level last season, albeit in the much more hitter-friendly confines of the Pacific Coast League.

Okert, 27, has been decent in limited action for the Giants over the last three seasons, and had a banner (3.30 FIP, 12.22 K/9 vs. 2.27 BB/9) AAA season in 2018. Righties have always given the southpaw trouble, but he should have no issue latching on with a new franchise in the coming days.

Minor MLB Transactions: 2/10/19

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

Latest Moves

  • The Giants outrighted right-hander Derek Law and outfielder John Andreoli to Triple-A after both players cleared waivers, as per a team announcement (hat tip to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Alex Pavlovic).  Law and Andreoli were both recently designated for assignment; in fact, Law was DFA’ed to clear roster space for Andreoli’s signing on February 1.  The two will remain in San Francisco’s farm system as depth options, though Andreoli might have a clearer path to winning a big league job given the Giants’ lack of everyday outfielders.

Earlier Today

  • The Marlins have outrighted outfielder Isaac Galloway to Triple-A New Orleans after he cleared waivers, Wells Dusenbury of the Sun Sentinel tweets. Galloway will attend major league spring training as a non-roster invitee, the team announced. The Marlins designated Galloway for assignment this past Monday to make room for the addition of right-hander Austin Brice, whom they claimed off waivers from the Orioles. A member of the Marlins since they selected him in the eighth round of the 2008 draft, the 29-year-old Galloway finally debuted in the majors last season, when he totaled 74 plate appearances and slashed .203/.301/.391 with three home runs. Galloway has posted nearly identical numbers at the Triple-A level, where he has hit .256/.304/.393 in 1,395 PAs, though he is coming off a 20-stolen base season in the minors.

Giants Acquire Jake Barrett, Designate John Andreoli

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The Giants announced another move on the fringes of the team’s 40-man roster, acquiring righty Jake Barrett from the Diamondbacks after he was recently designated for assignment by the Arizona organization. Just-claimed outfielder John Andreoli was in turn designated to create space.

This is hardly the first time the San Francisco organization has undertaken such fast-paced roster churn this winter. Whether the club is mostly seeking to stash players off of the 40-man, or simply keeps finding new players it prefers to the others it has claimed, the result has been a fair bit of movement.

In this case, the 27-year-old Barrett will come aboard after his once-promising MLB career fizzled in Arizona. He has shown an ability to get strikeouts at the game’s highest level and could compete for a pen job in camp.

Andreoli may yet be an outfield option for the Giants, if he clears waivers, but will need to earn his way back onto the 40-man roster in that case. This is now the third time this winter that Andreoli has been designated for assignment.

Giants Claim John Andreoli, Designate Derek Law

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The Giants announced Friday that they have claimed outfielder John Andreoli off waivers from the Rangers. Texas designated him for assignment earlier this week after signing Shawn Kelley to a one-year contract. In order to make room on the 40-man roster for Andreoli, the Giants designated right-hander Derek Law for assignment.

Andreoli split the 2018 season between the Orioles and the Mariners, posting a combined .230/.284/.262 slash in a tiny sample of 67 plate appearances. He has a strong track record of getting on base in the upper minors, as evidenced by his .264/.371/.408 batting line in nearly 2000 Triple-A plate appearances, and he’s knocked 34 homers, 83 doubles and 26 triples in that time while also collecting 121 steals. He’ll give the Giants a much needed outfield option, although with San Francisco reportedly on the hunt for additional veteran outfielders, it’s far from a guarantee that Andreoli will factor prominently into the organization’s 2019 plans.

As for Law, the 28-year-old burst onto the scene with a dominant rookie campaign in 2016 but has failed to approximate that year’s success in two subsequent efforts. Law was dominant as a rookie, recording a 2.13 ERA with a 50-to-9 K/BB ratio and a 50.3 percent ground-ball rate in 55 innings out of Bruce Bochy’s bullpen. Fielding-independent metrics largely supported that emphatic announcement of his arrival in the Majors, with FIP (2.53), xFIP (3.12) and SIERA (3.00) all concurring on his excellence.

Since that time, however, Law has been torched for a 5.68 ERA in 50 2/3 MLB frames. While his strikeout rate has remained constant, his 3.9 BB/9 mark over the past two seasons is two and a half times higher than his 1.5 mark as a rookie. His ground-ball rate, meanwhile, plummeted by more than 10 percent, with his home-run rate experiencing a corresponding spike. Law’s fastball velocity hasn’t depreciated, so perhaps another club will look at him as an intriguing bullpen reclamation project. He’s out of minor league options, so any club that picks him up (be it via trade or waivers) will need to carry him onto the Opening Day roster or else expose him to waivers.

Rangers Designate John Andreoli For Assignment

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The Rangers announced that they’ve designated outfielder John Andreoli for assignment in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster for right-hander Shawn Kelley, whose one-year deal with the team is now official. Texas had claimed the 28-year-old Andreoli off waivers just two weeks ago.

Andreoli split the 2018 season between the Orioles and the Mariners, posting a combined .230/.284/.262 slash in a tiny sample of 67 plate appearances. He has a strong track record of getting on base in the upper minors, as evidenced by his .264/.371/.408 batting line in nearly 2000 Triple-A plate appearances, and he’s knocked 34 homers, 83 doubles and 26 triples in that time while also collecting 121 steals.

This past season in Triple-A was one of his best, as Andreoli got on base at a robust .397 clip in 388 PAs with the Seattle organization. He has experience playing all three outfield positions and has minor league options remaining, although this is also the fourth time he’s lost a 40-man roster spot since mid-August.

Rangers Claim John Andreoli

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The Rangers have claimed outfielder John Andreoli off waivers from the Mariners, according to club announcements. He had been designated for assignment recently.

Whether this’ll be the final landing spot for Andreoli remains to be seen. He was bumped from the Orioles’ 40-man at the end of October, landing back in Seattle — where he spent the bulk of the 2018 season.

Andreoli began his career with the Cubs organization, but never cracked the bigs there despite three consecutive full seasons (2015-17) at Triple-A. He made it up to the majors for the first time last year, but received only minimal opportunities. Through nearly two thousand career plate appearances at the highest level of the minors, Andreoli is a .264/.371/.408 hitter with 121 stolen bases.

Mariners Designate John Andreoli

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The Mariners have designated outfielder John Andreoli for assignment. His roster spot was needed for the team’s just-announced (but previously reported) signings of Tim Beckham and Cory Gearrin.

Andreoli, 28, received his first, brief look at the MLB level last year. He managed only a .230/.284/.262 slash in 67 plate appearances while bouncing between the Mariners and Orioles organizations.

Unsurprisingly, Andreoli has generally been quite a bit more successful in the upper minors. He’s a .264/.371/.408 hitter in four seasons at Triple-A, where he has shown a propensity for drawing walks and swiping bags.

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