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Kristopher Negron

Minor MLB Transactions: 6/10/18

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Sunday’s minor moves from around baseball…

Newest Moves

  • The Astros announced that catcher Tim Federowicz has been outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers.  Federowicz was designated for assignment two days ago when Brian McCann returned from the disabled list.  After signing a minors deal with Houston in the offseason, Federowicz appeared in two games for the Astros while filling in during McCann’s brief DL stint, and he’ll continue to provide organizational catching depth.

Earlier Today

  • The Diamondbacks have outrighted infielder/outfielder Kristopher Negron to Triple-A Reno, per an announcement from Arizona. Because Negron has been outrighted in the past, he could reject the assignment in favor of free agency, but it seems he’ll stay with the Diamondbacks. Negron lost his spot on Arizona’s 40-man roster this week when the team designated him for assignment to make room for the addition of outfielder Jon Jay. Prior to that, Negron collected 34 plate appearances with the D-backs dating back to last season (including three this year). The 32-year-old has otherwise played with Reno since 2017.
  • The Orioles’ Triple-A team in Norfolk announced that it has released left-hander Jason Gurka. Now 30, Gurka has spent the majority of his pro career with the Orioles, who chose him in the 15th round of the 2008 draft. Although, all 18 of Gurka’s major league innings have come with other teams (the Rockies and Angels). After spending last year with the Halos, Gurka returned to the O’s on a minors deal in the offseason and began 2018 with 22 2/3 innings of 3.18 ERA ball, with 9.53 K/9 against 2.38 BB/9, at Norfolk.
  • One day after they released catcher Trevor Brown, the Giants have brought him back on a new minor league deal, Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area tweets. Brown will return to Triple-A Sacramento, where he has hit .222/.344/.259 in 32 PAs this season.

Diamondbacks Acquire Jon Jay

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9:41pm: Bob Nightengale of USA Today tweets that the D-backs are taking on the remainder of Jay’s salary and will be on the hook for any of the $1.5MM worth of incentives he unlocks. Jay reportedly receives $100K for every 25th plate appearance beginning at 250 plate appearances and escalating up through his 600th plate appearance of the year. He’s already at 266 PAs on the season.

7:52pm: The Diamondbacks announced that they’ve acquired outfielder Jon Jay from the Royals in exchange for minor league left-hander Gabe Speier and minor league right-hander Elvis Luciano. Infielder Kristopher Negron has been designated for assignment to clear roster space.

Jon Jay | Jay Biggerstaff-USA TODAY Sports

Jay, 33, inked a one-year contract worth $3MM this offseason and is still owed about $1.86MM through season’s end. He’s gotten off to a nice start at the plate in his first year with Kansas City, hitting .307/.363/.374 with a homer, nine doubles, two triples and three steals on the year.

That’s a fairly typical year at the plate for Jay, who has batted at least .291 and posted an OBP of at least .339 in four of the past five seasons. While he doesn’t provide much in the way of pop, he’ll give the Diamondbacks a high-average hitter with solid OBP skills who rarely strikes out and can handle all three outfield spots.

For a team that currently strikes out at a 25 percent clip — fourth-highest in the Majors — Jay’s 14.7 percent punchout rate would seem to be particularly appealing. Beyond that, Jay has virtually no discernible platoon split, having hit lefties (.288/.361/.347) at a comparable rate to righties (.290/.354/.393) throughout his career.

Jay will join an outfield mix that also includes David Peralta, Jarrod Dyson and Chris Owings at the moment. Heading into the season, the outfield hardly looked to be a serious need for the D-backs, but they’ve since seen March acquisition Steven Souza hit the DL twice and are also without A.J. Pollock for upwards of two months due to an avulsion fracture in his thumb.

While that has the makings of a potentially crowded outfield mix if everyone can get healthy, the D-backs will worry about that theoretical logjam down the line. For the time being, they’re taking a proactive approach to help stop the bleeding after a dreadful freefall that has seen their once-monstrous division lead whittled down to a half-game advantage over the Rockies.

The price the D-backs paid for Jay appears modest, at best (as one might expect for a part-time outfielder on a modest contract). The 23-year-old Speier was a 19th-round pick by the Red Sox back in 2013 that has now been traded four times in his career. He went from Boston to Detroit in the Yoenis Cespedes/Rick Porcello blockbuster before next making his way to the Braves alongside Ian Krol in the trade that sent Cameron Maybin back to Detroit. Speier never threw a pitch in the Braves organization, though, as he was traded to the D-backs alongside Shelby Miller in the infamous Ender Inciarte/Dansby Swanson deal.

For a player that’s bounced around so much, though, Speier has solid numbers in the minors. He’s currently in his second full season at the Double-A level and has thus far notched a tidy 3.03 ERA with 7.9 K/9, 3.0 BB/9 and a whopping 60.5 percent ground-ball rate through 29 2/3 frames. In all, he has a 3.67 ERA in 112 2/3 innings at that level, though he’s yet to ascend to Triple-A and is not considered to be among Arizona’s top 30 farmhands.

Luciano, then, may be the more notable of the pair of hurlers headed to Kansas City. MLB.com ranks him 26th among D-backs farmhands, while Eric Longenhagen and Kiley McDainiel of Fangraphs noted in their rundown of the system that Luciano has a 55-grade curveball and a chance to start. Of course, at 18 years of age, he’s years away from even sniffing the big leagues.

Luciano pitched in the Dominican Summer League and in Rookie ball last season, posting a combined 2.84 ERA with 7.0 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9. Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com give him a chance to have three average or better offerings, highlighted by the aforementioned hook, but he’ll need quite a bit more development. Callis and Mayo, though, note that he has “plus mound presence and maturity” and was well-regarded by many in the D-backs organization.

For the Royals, the trade of Jay figures to be the first of many in a long summer of rebuilding. Jay was among the many veterans on a contract set to expire after this season, and it’s likely that the Royals front office will field offers on everyone from high-profile rentals like Kelvin Herrera and Mike Moustakas to veteran starters like Jason Hammel and even more controllable assets like Whit Merrifield. The rentals seem like virtual locks to go (Herrera and Moustakas, in particular), but GM Dayton Moore and his staff will undoubtedly carry an open mind as they entertain offers for nearly anyone on the roster.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Diamondbacks Select Contract Of Kristopher Negron

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The Diamondbacks have selected the contract of utilityman Kristopher Negron, per a club announcement. Socrates Brito was optioned to Triple-A to create active roster space; the club had an open 40-man spot, so no move was needed there.

Negron, 32, saw brief time in the majors last year with the Snakes and has spent some time there previously with the Reds. All told, he’s a .214/.296/.338 hitter in 301 MLB plate appearances. And Negron has never shown much more than that with the bat in the upper minors; in parts of nine seasons at Triple-A, he carries a .245/.308/.378 slash.

The appeal here for the D-Backs, clearly, isn’t about boosting the offense. Rather, Negron will help fill in wherever needed, given his professional experience all over the field.

Diamondbacks Outright Kristopher Negron

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The D-backs announced on Tuesday that infielder/outfielder Kristopher Negron has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Reno. Negron, who will turn 32 in February, will have the option of rejecting that assignment in favor of free agency. The move drops Arizona’s 40-man roster count to 39.

Arizona was the fourth organization of which Negron has been a part in a 12-year professional career that dates back to the 2006 draft, when he was selected by the Red Sox in the seventh round. He’s seen MLB action in parts of four seasons, mostly with the Reds, hitting a combined .214/.296/.338 with six homers and seven steals in 301 plate appearances as a big leaguer. He saw just 31 PAs with the D-backs in 2017 and went 4-for-25 with four walks and a double.

Though Negron hasn’t contributed much at the plate in the Majors, he enjoyed a career year in Triple-A this past season, slashing .300/.366/.501 with 13 homers and 13 steals in 120 games. He also appeared at every position on the diamond with the exception of catcher — including an inning on the mound. He’s primarily been a shortstop throughout his career (4815 inning) but has also seen significant time at second base (2750 innings), third base (1340 innings) and in center field (843 innings). Even if he doesn’t return to the D-backs organization, he will in all likelihood ink a minor league pact and vie for a backup role in camp with another club next spring.

Minor MLB Transactions: 1/16/16

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

  • The Mariners’ deal with Travis Ishikawa appears to have fallen apart, Bob Dutton of the Tacoma News-Tribune tweets.  The Mariners had agreed to a minor-league deal with first baseman and corner outfielder Travis Ishikawa, SB Nation’s Chris Cotillo wrote (Twitter links). The deal would pay Ishikawa $900K if he were in the Majors. Ishikawa, a surprising 2014 postseason hero, played sparingly with the Pirates and Giants in 2015, missing time due to back issues and hitting .267/.337/.420 in 169 plate appearances in the minor leagues. The 32-year-old has a career .852 OPS at the Triple-A level, but he’s collected more than 174 big-league plate appearances in only one season in his career.
  • The Cubs have signed utilityman Kristopher Negron and catcher Tim Federowicz to minor-league deals, tweets Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. After a promising 2014 season in Cincinnati, the 29-year-old Negron flopped in 2015, batting .140/.238/.161 in 107 plate appearances. He did, however, play every position but pitcher and catcher, potentially making him an interesting bench piece if he can recover his hitting stroke. The 28-year-old Federowicz missed most of the 2015 season with a knee injury. He had previously hit .194/.247/.300 in parts of four seasons as a reserve with the Dodgers.
  • The Yankees have signed righty Anthony Swarzak to a minor-league deal, Eddy tweets. Swarzak, a longtime swingman in the Twins organization, pitched reasonably well in 13 1/3 innings with Cleveland last year before the Indians sold his contract to the Doosan Bears in Korea. Swarzak served as a starter there and posted a 5.26 ERA, 7.0 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 — not terribly impressive numbers, but also not as bad as they look given how tough the KBO is on pitchers. His ability to start and relieve could make him a useful depth piece for the Yankees.
  • The Giants have signed lefty Mike Kickham and righty Vin Mazzaro and re-signed center fielder Darren Ford, Eddy tweets. Kickham, who briefly appeared for the Giants in 2013 and 2014, struggled at Triple-A stops in the Mariners and Rangers organizations in 2015, walking 35 batters in 27 innings. Mazzaro held his own in 12 innings of relief with the Marlins last season but spent most of the year at the Triple-A level, where he posted a 2.70 ERA, 7.7 K/9 and 3.3 BB/9. Ford, now 30, spent 2015 at Triple-A Sacramento, hitting .261/.333/.403 and stealing 33 bases.
  • The Padres have signed 2B/CF/SS Jemile Weeks to a minor-league deal, Eddy tweets. Weeks, formerly a regular with the A’s, has played mostly at Triple-A the last several seasons. Last year, he batted a mere .204/.297/.281 for Pawtucket in the Red Sox organization, although, as Eddy notes, he has a strong track record at Triple-A, with a .371 career OBP there.

Central Notes: Negron, Cubs Payroll, Olt, Rodon

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Reds utility man Kristopher Negron’s season is over due to a torn labrum and fractured scapula in his left shoulder, tweets C. Trent Rosecrans of the Cincinnati Enquirer. Negron suffered the injury whilst making a spectacular diving catch in left field and was in good spirits about the injury, joking with Rosecrans (Twitter link), “At least it was on a pretty sweet play.” (It was indeed quite a nice grab, as can be seen here.) The versatile Negron’s season will come to an end with a disappointing .140/.238/.161 batting line in 107 plate appearances, though he was much more impressive in 2014 when he slashed .271/.331/.479 in 158 PAs.

A few more notes from the game’s Central divisions…

  • The Cubs project to see an attendance increase of roughly 275,000 fans over their 2014 number, reports Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. That significant spike in fans — due largely to the team’s much-improved on-field results — could result in a substantial payroll increase. As Wittenmyer notes, conservative estimates peg the attendance increase at an extra $20.6MM in revenue, and while perhaps not all of that money will go directly into payroll, the boost could be enough for the Cubs to make a serious run at elite free agents such as David Price and Zack Greinke.
  • Former Cubs farmhand Mike Olt, now with the White Sox after being claimed off waivers, will see plenty of playing time down the stretch, writes Dan Hayes of CSN Chicago. “He’ll probably get the majority of that time as we go through the rest of September, depending on matchups and things like that,” manager Robin Ventura tells Hayes. “We’ll be able to mix and match with him in there, but I would say he would get the majority of it.” Hayes notes that the ChiSox lack a definitive answer at third base in 2016 and will as such give Olt a chance to prove that he’s worthy of that distinction. Formerly a Top 50 prospect in his days with the Rangers, Olt has a lifetime .263/.361/.486 batting line in the minors. He’s battled vision problems and other injuries in the past and has always been strikeout prone, however, all of which have contributed to considerable struggles in the Major Leagues.
  • The White Sox have seen rapid improvement in former No. 3 overall pick Carlos Rodon, writes ESPN Chicago’s Doug Padilla. Ventura tells Padilla that Rodon had a hard time accepting some of the struggles he had early in the season, but he’s come away better off for it. “He took the not-pitching-well part tough, and I think he also was able to put it behind him and come back,” said Ventura. “I think deep down, it’s something he just has. That’s something he can hold onto and know that he can overcome things. When you have that, there’s something you have that nobody can take away from you.” Rodon has a 3.94 ERA with 9.4 K/9, 4.7 BB/9 and a 47.3 percent ground-ball rate in 125 2/3 innings this season, but he’s been much better of late. In his past six starts he has a 1.76 ERA with a 41-to-15 K/BB ratio and a 52 percent ground-ball rate in 41 innings. Rodon told Padilla that he’s enjoying the grind of a 162-game season, and Padilla notes that the talented rookie should finish with more than 150 innings between the Majors and minors this season.

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