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Kean Wong

Angels Select Kean Wong, Designate Drew Butera

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The Angels selected the contract of infielder Kean Wong prior to today’s game with the Athletics.  Catcher Drew Butera was designated for assignment last night to open up a roster spot.

Wong was in today’s starting lineup, marking his first appearance in an MLB game since the 2019 season.  Wong made his Major League debut that season, appearing in seven total games with the Rays and (after a late-season waiver claim) Angels.  The Giants then claimed Wong off waivers in November 2019, before he returned to Anaheim on a minor league contract this past winter.

A veteran of nine minor league seasons, Wong will add some depth to an Angels infield that lost Jose Iglesias and Franklin Barreto to the injured list.  Wong has spent much of his career as a second and third baseman, but has also gotten playing time as a left fielder and seen a handful of games as a shortstop and corner outfielder.  With Iglesias out and David Fletcher taking over shortstop duties, Wong and Phil Gosselin are likely to combine for an interim second base platoon.  (Wong started at second base for the Halos today.)

Butera was acquired in a minor trade with the Rangers earlier this month, when the Angels were hurting for catching depth due to injuries.  With Max Stassi now on a Triple-A rehab assignment following a concussion, the Halos seem content with Stassi, Kurt Suzuki and Anthony Bemboom as their catching mix, leaving Butera expendable.

If this is it for Butera with the Angels, his 12 games will at least exceed his previous stint with the team — 10 games during the 2015 season.  The well-traveled veteran is in his 12th Major League season, and now may be looking to join his ninth different organization.

Minor MLB Transactions: 11/12/20

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The latest minor moves from around baseball…

  • The Red Sox have inked right-handed reliever Kevin McCarthy to a minor league contract, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports. McCarthy will earn an $825K salary if he makes the majors in 2021. The 28-year-old appeared in the bigs with the Royals in each season from 2016-20, and despite a meager 5.63 K/9, he recorded a 3.80 ERA/4.11 FIP in 191 2/3 innings. McCarthy has three seasons of between 45 and 70 innings under his belt, but after a 2020 in which he threw a mere six frames, the Royals outrighted him.
  • The Angels have signed infielder Kean Wong and righty Jake Reed to minors contracts with invitations to MLB camp, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweets. A fourth-round pick of Tampa Bay in 2013, Wong’s only major league experience came when he went 3-for-18 with the Rays and Angels in 2019. Wong does, however, own a respectable .286/.350/.413 line in 1,425 Triple-A plate appearances. The 25-year-old is the younger brother of free-agent second baseman Kolten Wong, whom the Angels have shown interest in this offseason. Reed entered the pro ranks as a Twins fifth-rounder in 2014, but he hasn’t gotten to the majors yet. The 28-year-old appeared at the Triple-A level from 2016-19, during which he logged a 3.68 ERA with 9.6 K/9 against 3.8 BB/9 over 164 innings.

Giants Outright Kean Wong, Jose Siri

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The Giants announced Thursday that infielder Kean Wong and outfielder Jose Siri have cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Sacramento.

Wong was not in the Giants’ 60-man player pool, which means he’s technically still eligible to be added to the pool and selected to the big league roster this season. Siri, who was in the player pool, remains in the organization but cannot be added back to the pool — at least not with the Giants. Siri is still eligible to be traded elsewhere by virtue of beginning the season on a 40-man roster/Major League contract; that’s the same rule that allowed the Orioles to trade Hector Velazquez to the Astros yesterday even though he’d previously been removed from Baltimore’s player pool (also via outright).

Wong, the younger brother of Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, was the Rays’ fourth-round pick back in the 2013 draft and made his MLB debut as a September call-up with Tampa Bay last year. He barely saw any big league time (seven games) but enjoyed a second consecutive quality season at the plate, hitting .307/.375/.464 slash with 10 homers, 29 doubles, six triples and six steals. Offense was elevated throughout the league in Triple-A, but Wong’s output checked in at 16 percent better than league average, as measured by wRC+. Primarily been a second baseman in his minor league career, Wong has also seen time at third base and in the outfield.

Siri, 24, spent the 2013-19 seasons in the Reds organization after signing as an amateur out of the Dominican Republic. At one point he was considered one of the Reds’ best prospects, but the shine has worn off him in recent years. Siri raked at a .293/.340/.531 clip with 24 homers and 46 stolen bases as a 21-year-old in Class-A back in 2017, but in the two seasons since that time he’s posted a disappointing .238/.297/.397 slash between Double-A and Triple-A.

Giants Select Rico Garcia, Darin Ruf, Rob Brantly, Tyler Heineman

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The Giants have announced their Opening Day roster, which includes several players who’ll need to be added to the 40-man. Reliever Rico Garcia and first baseman Darin Ruf will join catchers Rob Brantly and Tyler Heineman on the 30-man active unit.

Those moves necessitated some departures. Outfielder Jose Siri and infielder Kean Wong were each designated for assignment, Henry Schulman of the San Francisco Chronicle tweets.

Garcia will enter his first season with the Giants, who claimed him off waivers from the division-rival Rockies last November. He entered the pro ranks as a 30th-round pick of the Rockies in 2016 and has generally posted good results in the minors, though he struggled during his Triple-A and major league debuts last season. The 26-year-old put up a woeful 6.90 ERA/6.47 FIP with 7.48 K/9 and 4.11 BB/9 in 61 1/3 innings at the minors’ top level. In six frames with the Rockies, he allowed seven earned runs on nine hits and five walks (with two strikeouts).

Ruf, meanwhile, joined the Giants in July on a minors pact after thriving in the Korea Baseball Organization from 2017-19. Ruf does have previous MLB experience as a member of the Phillies, with whom he batted .240/.314/.433 in 833 plate appearances from 2012-16. The 33-year-old will now get a chance to pick up at-bats in San Francisco, whose starting first baseman, Brandon Belt, will open the season on the injured list because of a heel issue.

The 31-year-old Brantly, another minor league pickup, has never hit much in MLB stints with the Marlins, White Sox and Phillies, but he’ll could get quite a bit of playing time at catcher for the Buster Posey-less Giants. The same goes for Heineman, whose first 12 major league PA came last season as a member of the Marlins. The former eighth-rounder (Astros, 2012) was excellent in Triple-A last year, when he slashed .341/.397/.622 with 10 homers in 182 PA.

Siri and Wong were both waiver claims in recent months, and they’re now in limbo once again. Siri’s a former Reds farmhand who owns a .264/.313/.447 line with 68 homers and 155 steals in 2,438 minor league PA. Wong combined for 18 trips to the plate with the Angels and Rays last year, but the vast majority of the 2013 fourth-rounder’s experience has come in the minors. He has amassed 1,425 PA in Triple-A and batted .286/.350/.413.

Giants Announce Series Of Roster Moves

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The Giants announced a flurry of roster moves, claiming infielder Kean Wong from the Angels and right-hander Trevor Oaks from the Royals. The Giants also formally announced their previously reported claim of righty Rico Garcia from the Rockies organization. In order to open space on for the trio of new additions, San Francisco designated outfielder Mike Gerber and right-hander Ricardo Pinto for assignment.

Wong’s time in the Angels organization will ultimately last barely more than a month. The Halos claimed him from the Rays near the end of the season, and the 24-year-old went hitless in four plate appearances in the lone game for which he suited up with the team. Wong, the younger brother of Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, was the Rays’ fourth-round pick back in the 2013 draft and made his MLB debut as a September call-up with Tampa Bay. Between his six games with the Rays and one game with the Angels, he went 3-for-18.

Wong spent the rest of the season with Triple-A Durham, where he logged his second consecutive above-average season at the plate. After hitting .282/.345/.406 with nine homers, 23 doubles, three triples and seven steals in 2018, he turned in a .307/.375/.464 slash with 10 homers, 29 doubles, six triples and six steals in 2019. Offense was elevated throughout the league in Triple-A this season, but Wong’s output checked in at 16 percent better than league average, as measured by wRC+. Primarily been a second baseman in his minor league career, Wong began logging time at third base and in the outfield beginning in 2018 as the Rays looked to enhance his versatility.

Oaks, meanwhile, is a known commodity for Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi. The 26-year-old Oaks was a seventh-round pick by Zaidi’s former club, the Dodgers, back in 2014 and was traded to Kansas City in a three-team swap while Zaidi was serving as general manager under L.A. president of baseball ops Andrew Friedman.

At the time of that trade, which sent Scott Alexander to Los Angeles, Oaks was ranked in the middle of the Dodgers’ farm system. He looked like a potential back-of-the-rotation option but has seen his prospect status derailed by hip surgery that wiped out his 2019 season. He was healthy enough to take the ball in the Arizona Fall League this year, though, where he allowed six earned runs on 14 hits and three walks with 11 strikeouts in 12 innings of work.

Oaks was hit hard in his MLB debut in 2018 but did put together 128 1/3 innings of 3.23 ERA ball with Kansas City’s Triple-A affiliate that season. Unfortunately, he averaged a dismal 4.9 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9 along the way — though his 50.8 percent ground-ball rate was a bit more encouraging. For now, Oaks will add some upper-level depth to the Giants roster.

None of the three players claimed today, however, should be considered any kind of lock to survive the winter on the Giants’ roster. Zaidi and his staff have been known to aggressively claim players off waivers in hopes of successfully passing that player through waivers themselves shortly thereafter as a means of keeping those new talents without dedicating a 40-man roster spot.

As for the players cut loose — neither is particularly surprising. Gerber, 27, went 1-for-24 in his brief time with the Giants at the MLB level, though he did author an impressive .308/.368/.569 batting line with 26 homers in Triple-A. The former Tigers prospect had never hit much in Triple-A before that, however, and he’ll turn 28 next summer.

Pinto, meanwhile, was a September waiver claim out of the Rays organization who never pitched in a game for San Francisco. He allowed four runs in 2 1/3 innings with Tampa Bay this season in addition to 123 1/3 innings of 4.23 ERA ball at the Triple-A level. The Giants have seven days to trade, release or waive Gerber and Pinto.

Angels Claim Kean Wong

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The Angels announced Tuesday that they’ve claimed infielder Kean Wong off waivers from the Rays. Wong, the younger brother of Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong, was designated for assignment over the weekend. The Angels transferred right-hander Griffin Canning from the 10-day injured list to the 60-day injured list in order to open a spot for Wong on the roster.

Wong, 24, was the Rays’ fourth-round pick back in the 2013 draft and made his MLB debut earlier this month, going 3-for-14 in a six-game cup of coffee. He spent the rest of the season with Triple-A Durham, where he logged his second consecutive above-average season at the plate. After hitting .282/.345/.406 with nine homers, 23 doubles, three triples and seven steals in 2018, Wong turned in a .307/.375/.464 slash with 10 homers, 29 doubles, six triples and six steals in 2019. Offense was elevated throughout the league in Triple-A this season, but Wong’s output checked in at 16 percent better than league average, as measured by wRC+.

While he’s primarily been a second baseman in his minor league career, Wong has begun to see time at third base and in the outfield — mostly the corners but also 24 innings in center — over the past couple of seasons. Defensive versatility is a hallmark of the Rays organization, and familiarizing himself with multiple spots on the diamond obviously increased Wong’s chances of cracking a deep Rays roster. Now, that versatility will help in affording him more opportunities with a new organization.

Wong ranked 40th in an absolutely stacked Rays farm system heading into the season, per Kiley McDaniel and Eric Longenhagen of Fangraphs. Their scouting report pegs Wong as more of a utility option than an everyday player, but he’ll aim to prove himself capable of handling a prominent role with the club over the next few days and possibly next spring, if he survives the offseason on the Angels’ 40-man roster. The Angels control Tommy La Stella for another season and also have Zack Cozart under contract through the 2020 campaign. But La Stella might not make it back to the field in 2019 after suffering a fractured tibia in early July, and Cozart’s Angels tenure has been absolutely decimated by injuries of his own

Younger options like David Fletcher and Matt Thaiss have seen action at second and third in lieu of those injured veterans, but Wong would add another versatile candidate to the mix for playing time. As somewhat of a bonus, he brings a left-handed bat to an Angels roster where the majority of the team’s regulars hit from the right side. Wong’s contract was selected to the MLB roster for the first time earlier this month, meaning he’ll have all three of his minor league option years remaining beyond the 2019 season.

Rays Activate Brandon Lowe, Designate Kean Wong

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The Rays have activated rookie Brandon Lowe from the 60-day injured list. Fellow infielder Kean Wong has been designated for assignment to open 40-man roster space. Lowe is hitting fifth in today’s lineup and playing second base.

Lowe’s return is a welcome sight for Rays’ fans. He last played July 2, when he went down with a bone bruise on his shin from a foul ball. After experiencing difficulty moving laterally for weeks, Lowe embarked on a minor-league rehab assignment in August, where he strained a quad. Initially believed to be season-ending, Lowe has somewhat remarkably returned for the season’s final seven games.

The timing couldn’t be better for a Rays’ club that sits a game up on Cleveland for the AL’s final postseason spot entering play today. Any hope Tampa has at making a playoff run involves the Wild Card, as the Yankees have officially sewn up the AL East. Tampa sits two games behind Oakland for the AL’s top Wild Card position.

The return of Lowe for the season’s final week (and potential postseason play) gives the Rays one of their most impactful bats. The 25-year-old was slashing .276/.339/.523 (128 wRC+) at the time of his injury, perhaps the frontrunner for AL Rookie of the Year. That honor will almost certainly go to Yordan Álvarez now, but Lowe nevertheless looks like a key piece in Tampa short and long-term.

Lowe’s slash line is inflated by a .381 batting average on balls in play and masks a concerning 33.9% strikeout rate, so it’s difficult to imagine he’ll remain this productive at the dish. That said, Lowe’s 90.7 MPH average exit velocity is quite strong, so he should continue to be a bona fide power threat even if his on-base numbers drop off some moving forward. For a quality baserunner and versatile defender capable of playing second base, that’s more than enough to be a key piece on a contender.

Wong, 24, is also a left-handed hitting second baseman, although he’s not generally viewed as anywhere near the caliber of player Lowe is. Nevertheless, he’s been productive in the high minors for quite some time, seemingly a victim of the Rays’ crowded infield mix. He got his first big league call this September after slashing .307/.375/.464 in 506 plate appearances in his third season with Triple-A Durham. Wong, the younger brother of Cardinals’ second baseman Kolten Wong, comes with a clean slate of team control and option seasons. Between that roster flexibility, his defensive profile and high-minors offensive track record, it would be surprising if another organization with a little more uncertainty in the infield didn’t take a flier on him on the waiver wire.

Rays To Promote Kean Wong

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1:39PM: The Rays have officially called up Wong, and moved left-hander Jose Alvarado to the 60-day injured list to create roster move.

8:35AM: The Rays will call up utilityman Kean Wong, The Athletic’s Josh Tolentino reports (Twitter link).  Wong — the younger brother of Cardinals second baseman Kolten Wong — isn’t on the 40-man roster, so the Rays will have to make another move prior before the 24-year-old prospect’s contract is officially selected.

It will mark the Major League debut for Wong, who was a fourth-round pick for Tampa Bay in the 2013 draft.  Originally selected as a second baseman, Wong also began to see some time as a third baseman, and then over the last two seasons has expanded his defensive repertoire to include shortstop and all three outfield positions.

This type of versatility will have Wong fit right into a Rays lineup that values multi-positional ability.  Wong is also a left-handed hitter, giving a bit more balance amongst the middle infield options.  Wong, Eric Sogard, and Joey Wendle all hit from the left side, while Matt Duffy, Daniel Robertson, and everyday shortstop Willy Adames are all right-handed bats.

MLB.com doesn’t rank Wong within the top 30 prospects in the deep Tampa farm system, though he punched his ticket to the big leagues with a breakout season at the plate.  Wong hit  .307/.375/.464 with 10 homers over 506 plate appearances for Triple-A Durham this season.  The power surge is of particular note, as Wong’s previous high in slugging percentage was a .406 mark in 2018.

While Wong is far from the only Triple-A player to suddenly start mashing in 2019, it provides some evidence that he’ll be able to hit MLB pitching, which was the biggest question mark facing Wong’s prospect status.  Even counting his big 2019 numbers, he still has an overall modest .287/.342/.383 slash line over 3052 career PA in the minors.

AL East Notes: Red Sox, Bleier, Gurriel, Rays

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The Red Sox have been surprisingly silent on the bullpen market this winter despite the fact that Joe Kelly has left for the Dodgers and Craig Kimbrel remains unsigned — seemingly likely to land with another organization as well, based on comments from Boston president of baseball ops Dave Dombrowski. ESPN.com’s Buster Olney writes (subscription required), however, that the Sox are confident in a number of internal options. Recent draftees Travis Lakins (sixth round, 2015) and Durbin Feltman (third round, 2018) could both emerge at the MLB level in 2019, while many in the Red Sox’ analytics department are intrigued by trade pickup Colten Brewer (whom the Sox tried to acquire last summer as well, Olney notes). Tyler Thornburg represents a notable bounceback option, as well. It’s nonetheless jarring to see the Sox take a passive approach to rounding out the ’pen on the heels of a World Series championship. Perhaps there’s yet another move in store with several relievers still available (MLBTR Free Agent Tracker link), but it seems likely that the Boston ’pen will have to prove its share of naysayers wrong in 2019.

Here’s more from the division…

  • Orioles southpaw Richard Bleier tells Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com that he believes he’ll be ready to roll for the start of the 2019 season. That’s great news for the O’s, as Bleier had been a revelatory hurler before suffering a major injury to his lat. Already 31 years of age, Bleier certainly qualifies as a late bloomer. He’s also an outlier, having now made it through 119 MLB innings with a sub-2.00 ERA despite averaging just 4.1 strikeouts per nine. A big 63.3% groundball rate and low 1.6 BB/9 walk rate go a long way toward explaining the results. Before he can get back to disproving those who question the sustainability of that success, Bleier will need to show he’s back to full health. For the O’s, it would help quite a bit if he can do so. After all, Bleier could be quite a nice trade asset this summer or in the winter to come, especially since he’s still shy of reaching arbitration eligibility.
  • The Blue Jays’ signing of Freddy Galvis this week was tied to the club’s uncertainty about the glovework of Lourdes Gurriel Jr., writes Shi Davidi of Sportsnet. As Davidi explores at length, the Jays are wary of poor infield defense at a time when they’re developing numerous young pitchers and when rotation holdovers Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez are heavy ground-ball pitchers. Gurriel has more offensive upside than Galvis but could be squeezed for playing time with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Brandon Drury and Devon Travis all still factoring into the infield mix. There have been suggestions that Gurriel could land in the outfield eventually, but as Davidi outlines, that already crowded mix is further muddied with the now-out-of-options Dalton Pompey surprisingly still on the roster. It’s a comprehensive look at a crowded roster, though surely injuries and Spring Training roster moves could eventually impact how things play out. It’s also worth noting that Gurriel still has a minor league option remaining.
  • Juan Toribio of MLB.com tackles a number of questions on the Rays’ roster in his latest Inbox column, highlighting several battles for Opening Day roster spots while also writing that the Rays look unlikely to add another free-agent reliever this offseason. That, he notes, could open the door for Triple-A standout Colin Poche to crack the big league roster either out of camp or early in the season. The Rays, as Toribio notes, are rife with infield depth both on the 25-man roster and in the upper minors but are also cognizant that their projected group of 2019 infielders is lacking experience. So while players such as Christian Arroyo and Kean Wong don’t have clear paths to the Majors at the moment, Tampa Bay is likely to hang onto its depth. Arroyo, once a top prospect with the Giants and the key player received in last winter’s Evan Longoria trade, struggled through a lost season in 2018 and still has a minor league option remaining.
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