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Rangers Sign Curt Casali

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The Rangers have announced the signing of catcher Curt Casali to a minors deal with an invitation to participate in MLB Spring Training. He had recently been released by the Angels after previously signing with that organization earlier in the winter.

Texas also announced that it will bring back outfielder Jose Cardona and righty Tayler Scott. Both also have minors deals with spring invites.

The 29-year-old Casali could battle with Juan Centeno, Brett Nicholas, and Mike Ohlman for the reserve job behind regular Robinson Chirinos. The losers of that fight, presumably, will line up as organizational depth or land with other organizations.

Casali has racked up 19 home runs in 466 career MLB plate appearances — all coming with the Rays in the past four seasons — but also carries a .285 on-base percentage at the game’s highest level. He’s a .246/.349/.352 hitter in 739 career plate appearances at Triple-A.

Of course, a variety of defensive attributes are often deemed most important for reserve catchers. Casali is generally considered a sturdy all-around asset behind the dish. He has graded well as a framer and has succeeded in cutting down would-be base stealers in the majors.

The 23-year-old Cardona reached the upper minors for the first time last year but managed only a .277/.316/.385 slash in 465 Double-A plate appearances. He became a minor-league free agent at the end of the year but will return to the only professional organization he has known.

Scott, 25, landed with the Rangers last season in the deal that sent Jeremy Jeffress to the Brewers. He was bombed in his 13 appearances at Triple-A, but had been more successful with the Brewers and could yet contribute at some point as a releiver.

AL Notes: Rangers, Ramirez, Betts, Orioles

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Rangers GM Jon Daniels cast doubt on the idea of the team making any marquee additions in comments yesterday to the media, including MLB.com’s TR Sullivan. Daniels called it “unlikely” that the club would end up with a top starter, though he said he also wouldn’t “close the door” on a market that includes former ace Yu Darvish. More likely, it seems, would be a depth addition of some kind, though Daniels also emphasized that the organization is not close to any new deals. Broadly, the organization remains steadfast in its “realistic” assessment of its abilities and needs. While the anticipated roster mix is likely “to create some challenges,” says Daniels, that doesn’t mean it will vary from its strategy entering the winter. The Rangers, he says, were “not going to go all-in, spending big dollars this year, nor were we going to be looking to trade all of our young players.”

More from the American League:

  • The Angels received some promising news on righty J.C. Ramirez, GM Billy Eppler tells Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (via Twitter). Ramirez is continuing to show healing in his right elbow, where he suffered a season-ending partial UCL tear. Stem cell treatment has been promising to this point, giving the team some renewed confidence that it will receive a contribution again from Ramirez, who agreed to a $1.9MM arbitration salary after turning in 147 1/3 innings of 4.15 ERA ball in 2017.
  • As the Red Sox prepare for an arbitration show-down with star outfielder Mookie Betts, Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald argues the team never should have put itself in this position. The sides have a $3MM gap at present ($10.5MM vs. $7.5MM) and indications are they’ll resolve it in a hearing, meaning the Sox will be put in the position of presenting Betts in a less-than-positive light before an arb panel. With a prior disagreement over his 2017 pre-arb salary, the financial relationship between the sides isn’t exactly off to the most promising start. For what it’s worth, MLBTR contributor and arbitration guru Matt Swartz argued before numbers were exchanged that Betts is likelier to command a first-time arb payday on the lower side of the existing gulf.
  • Speaking of arbitration, the Orioles will evidently not commit to going to trial over their remaining cases, per Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com. Rather the club is still willing to engage in negotiations with both infielder Jonathan Schoop ($9MM filing versus $7.5MM counter) and righty Kevin Gausman ($6.225MM filing versus $5.3MM counter). Whether that’ll mean avoiding a hearing isn’t yet known, but the seeming strategic shift will at least leave remaining room for talks on a few players of quite a bit of importance to the organization’s future.

Angels Grant Curt Casali His Release

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  • The Angels have granted catcher Curt Casali his release from the organization, tweets Chris Cotillo of SB Nation. The former Rays backstop signed a minor league pact with the Halos earlier this winter with the intent of competing for a backup job in Spring Training, but those hopes were dashed when the Angels signed Rene Rivera to a Major League deal to pair with 2017 Gold Glove winner Martin Maldonado. Casali will again hit free agency in search of a new landing spot.

Agent: Yelich’s Relationship With Marlins “Broken”

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In the latest dose of Marlins-related drama, agent Joe Longo of Paragon Sports International, who represents Christian Yelich, tells ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick that a trade of his client in the next month would be in the best interest of both team and player.

Longo states that he respects the Marlins’ long-term plan for a return to contention, but states that the “…plan shouldn’t include Christian at this point in his career.” Yelich’s relationship with the Marlins has been “irretrievably broken” and has “soured,” according to Longo, who goes on to speak about the disappointment that Yelich has felt in watching the Marlins’ new ownership group gut the roster in trades that have sent Giancarlo Stanton, Dee Gordon and Marcell Ozuna elsewhere.

“The new ownership regime needs to get new parts into this plan and move forward, and [Yelich] needs to get on with his career where he’s got a chance to win,” Longo tells Crasnick. The agent goes on to explain that Yelich signed his seven-year, $49.57MM contract extension with the Marlins in a “completely different climate” — that is, one where the organization looked to be making a clear push to win in the short term. Yelich’s deal (which Longo and Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill discussed at length with MLBTR’s Zach Links back in 2015) was agreed upon in the same offseason that saw the Fish sign Stanton to a record-setting $325MM contract. New ownership, however, clearly has no intent of pushing for a division title in 2017 as payroll has been slashed by roughly $50MM.

Longo’s comments, of course, don’t ensure that a trade of Yelich will transpire before or during Spring Training. Such decisions are up to president of baseball operations Michael Hill and his staff, who needn’t feel pressure to move Yelich in the same manner as they did with regard to Stanton, Gordon and Ozuna. The Marlins’ payroll projection is inching closer to its reported target of roughly $90MM, and Yelich’s $7MM salary for the coming season isn’t especially burdensome. Moreover, the fact that Yelich can be controlled for another five years at a total of $58.25MM is a clear indicator that he’ll be an asset with considerable surplus value at virtually any point the Marlins decide to make him available.

Yelich is hardly the only player that is less than enthused about the notion of suiting up for a Miami club that looks destined for the NL East cellar. Catcher J.T. Realmuto’s agents have reportedly informed the Marlins that their client would prefer to be traded, and infielder Starlin Castro (acquired as a financial component in the trade that sent Stanton to the Yankees) is reportedly hoping to be dealt elsewhere before so much as playing a single game for the Marlins.

Per Crasnick, the Blue Jays, Braves, Dodgers, Angels, Padres, D-backs and Phillies are “among” the teams that have reached out to the Marlins to gauge the asking price for Yelich in a trade, though there are assuredly more team that have expressed interest. Toronto GM Ross Atkins recently suggested that virtually every team in the league would have interest in a Yelich trade, and reports have suggested that more than 15 teams have at least kicked the tires on the former Gold Glove and Silver Slugger winner.

Yelich, just 26 years of age, is a career .290/.369/.432 hitter. He’s averaged 20 homers and a dozen steals over the past two seasons and has proven to be a capable center fielder or an elite defender in left field. Crasnick notes that Yelich himself may speak publicly in the coming days, and the column is stuffed with additional quotes from Longo. It’s well worth a full read-through, both for those that have been diligently tracking the Marlins’ offseason roller coaster and those who haven’t been monitoring the situation as closely.

Ian Kinsler On Why Angels Were Originally On His No-Trade List

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  • When the Angels agreed to acquire Ian Kinsler from the Tigers in December, the second baseman had the Halos on his 10-team no-trade list. Kinsler explained to Katie Strang of The Athletic (subscription required/highly recommended) that it was “because of tax reasons.” He also pointed out that taxes led him to put the other California teams and both New York clubs on his no-trade list. Kinsler still waived his NTC for the Angels, though, thanks in part to the presence of good friend and teammate Justin Upton (whom he played with in Detroit). Kinsler revealed that the Halos were the only one of the 10 clubs for which he’d have waived his limited no-trade rights. His interview with Strang is worth checking out in full, as it includes Kinsler’s thoughts on prospects, new teammates Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout, and the Tigers, among other subjects.

Angels Outright Nate Smith

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  • Angels lefty Nate Smith will remain in the organization after clearing waivers and being outrighted, the club announced. The 26-year-old had earned a 40-man spot in advance of the 2017 Rule 5 draft, but he ended up missing the bulk of the year due to elbow/forearm issues. Things only got worse this winter, as Smith ended up requiring anterior capsule surgery that will cost him all of the coming season. He was designated for assignment recently. Smith has generally been regarded as one of the Halos’ best pitching prospects in recent years, though he had struggled somewhat at Triple-A in 2016 (4.61 ERA in 150 1/3 innings) before the injury bug hit late that season.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: American League

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The deadline for MLB teams to exchange salary arbitration figures with their arbitration-eligible players is today at 1pm ET. As such, there will be a veritable flood of arb agreements piling up in the next few hours — especially in light of a more universal approach to the “file and trial” method for teams. (That is to say, those teams will no longer negotiate one-year deals after arb figures are exchanged and will instead head to a hearing with those players, barring an agreemenr on a multi-year deal.)

Note that you can keep an eye on all of today’s deals using MLBTR’s 2018 Arbitration Tracker, which can be filtered to show only the results of the team you follow and is also sortable by service time and dollar value of the agreement. All projections that are referenced come from MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz’s annual compilation of projected arbitration salarie

American League West

  • The Astros and Evan Gattis agreed to a $6.7MM deal for 2018, per FanRag’s Robert Murray (Twitter link). A free agent next season, Gattis lands within $100K of his $6.6MM projection. The club also has deals (for values unknown) with starters Dallas Keuchel, Lance McCullers Jr., and Brad Peacock, Jake Kaplan of the Houston Chronicle tweets.
  • The Rangers agreed to a $1.05MM deal with infielder Jurickson Profar, tweets Murray. Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, meanwhile, tweets that lefty Jake Diekman landed a $2.7125MM deal and righty Keone Kela will earn $1.2MM. Profar had been projected at $1.1MM and is controllable another three seasons. Diekman, a free agent next winter, was projected at $2.8MM. And Kela, still controlled for three more years, matched his $1.2MM projection on the dot.
  • The Athletics and closer Blake Treinen agreed to a $2.15MM deal for next year, tweets Murray. The A’s can control Treinen for another three years. He was projected at $2.3MM. Shortstop Marcus Semien has settled for $3.125MM, Heyman tweets; his $3.2MM projection was nearly spot-on. Oakland has announced that it has avoided arbitration with Liam Hendriks and Josh Phegley as well, but their salaries have yet to be reported.
  • The Angels have a one-year, $7.3MM agreement in place with right-hander Garrett Richards, per Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (Twitter link). Richards, a free agent next offseason, tops his $7MM projection by a margin of $300K. The Halos have also avoided arb with first baseman C.J. Cron ($2.3MM) and left-hander Tyler Skaggs ($1.875MM), tweets USA Today’s Bob Nightengale. Cron’s total falls a ways shy of his $2.8MM projection, while Skaggs comes in just $25K south of his $1.9MM projection. Both are controllable through the 2020 season. Lastly, Murray tweets that Matt Shoemaker agreed to a $4.125MM deal. He’s controlled through 2020 and projected at $4.4MM. Fletcher also tweets that the club has agreed with righty J.C. Ramirez ($1.9MM salary vs. $2.6MM projection) and lefty Jose Alvarez ($1.05MM salary vs. $1.1MM projection). Finally, righty Cam Bedrosian has agreed at $1.1MM, Flecher tweets, which represents a payday close to his projection of $1.2MM.
  • Left-hander James Paxton will earn $4.9MM with the Mariners in 2018, tweets Ryan Divish of the Seattle Times. Murray tweets that the Mariners and David Phelps agreed to a $5.55MM deal. Paxton, controlled through 2020, projected to earn $5.6MM, while Phelps was pegged at $5.8MM. He’s a free agent next winter. Righty Erasmo Ramirez took a $4.2MM deal, MLB.com’s Greg Johns reports. That’s half a million shy of what the model suggested. Fellow right-hander Nick Vincent also has an agreement, but the terms aren’t yet known.

American League Central

  • New lefty Luis Avilan has agreed to a $2.45MM deal with the White Sox, Chris Kuc of the Chicago Tribune reports via Twitter. The recent trade acquisition came with a projected $2.3MM price tag. Fellow southpaw Carlos Rodon will receive $2.3MM, a bit of a bump over the $2MM he projected to receive. Also, utilityman Leury Garcia gets $1.175MM, which is just $25K short of his projected value.
  • The Royals and righty Nate Karns agreed to a $1.375MM deal for 2018, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet reports (on Twitter). That lands within $25K of his $1.4MM projection for the coming season. Kansas City controls Karns through 2020. Meanwhile, MLB.com’s Jeffrey Flanagan reports (via Twitter) that Kelvin Herrera will earn $7.9375MM in 2018, landing a bit shy of his $8.3MM projection. Herrera is a free agent next winter.
  • The Indians have a $5MM agreement with righty Danny Salazar, MLB.com’s Jordan Bastian tweets. He had projected to earn just $200K more, this falls right in line with expectations. Cleveland also agreed with Lonnie Chisenhall on a $5.5875MM deal, tweets Nightengale. The third baseman-turned-outfielder, who was projected to earn $5.8MM, will be a free agent following the 2018 season.
  • Trevor May has a $650K agreement with the Twins for the 2018 season, according to Phil Miller of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. May, who missed the entire season due to Tommy John surgery (and did some writing for MLBTR during his rehab process), had been projected at $600K. The Twins also agreed to a $1MM deal with infielder Ehire Adrianza, per La Velle E. Neal III of the Star Tribune. Meanwhile, righty Ryan Pressly has agreed to a $1.6MM deal, tweets Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN. Both deals are identical matches with their projections. Adrianza has three years of team control remaining, while Pressly has two. Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press tweets that outfielder Robbie Grossman settled at $2MM, leaving him $400K shy of his projection. Grossman is controlled for another three seasons.
  • Tigers third baseman/outfielder Nick Castellanos will earn $6.05MM, per Heyman (via Twitter). He had projected at a much heftier $7.6MM in his second-to-last season of arb eligibility. MLB.com’s Jason Beck reports (Twitter links) that the Tigers and right-handed reliever Alex Wilson settled at $1.925MM, while fellow righty Shane Greene will earn $1.95MM. Wilson was projected to earn $2.1MM, while Greene was at $1.7MM. Wilson is controlled through 2019, while Greene is under control through 2020.

American League East

  • The Yankees have knocked out some of their biggest arb cases, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (Twitter links). Shortstop Didi Gregorius receives $8.25MM and righty Sonny Gray checks in at $6.5MM. The former had projected to earn $9.0MM while the algorithm was just $100K high on the latter.Backstop Austin Romine will earn $1.1MM, Heyman also tweets, which is also $100K below the projection. Righty Adam Warren and the Yankees have a $3.315MM deal, per Murray (Twitter link). This is Warren’s final season of eligibility before hitting the open market next winter. He’d been projected at $3.1MM. Meanwhile, fellow right-hander Dellin Betances has agreed to a $5.1MM deal, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). That’s just $100K more than Betances had sought last year, when he took his case to a hearing that he ultimately lost. But it’s quite a bit more than the $4.4MM he projected to receive after a subpar season in which he played at a $3MM salary.
  • The Red Sox have agreed to pay $8.5MM to southpaw Drew Pomeranz, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). That’s short of the $9.1MM that had been projected after Pomeranz turned in a productive 2017 season. Boston and Jackie Bradley Jr. settled at $6.1MM, tweets Murray. That’s a bit north of the $5.9MM at which he’d been projected for the upcoming season. Bradley Jr., a Super Two player, has another three seasons of club control remaining. Nightengale tweets that righty Joe Kelly ($3.6MM projection) agreed to a $3.825MM deal. He’ll be a free agent next winter. Lefty Eduardo Rodriguez ($2.375MM salary vs. $2.7MM projection) and righty Brandon Workman ($835K salary vs. $900K projection) are two other Sox hurlers that have agreed to terms, Speier reports (Twitter links). On the position player side, catcher Sandy Leon falls a bit under his projection $1.95MM (via Speier, on Twitter) while utilityman Brock Holt just beats expectations at $2.225MM (per ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick, on Twitter). The team also agreed with shortstop Xander Bogaerts for $7.05MM, Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston tweets, which comes in a bit shy of his $7.6MM projection. Boston also announced agreement with backstop Christian Vazquez, who’ll earn $1.425MM, per MLB.com’s Ian Browne (via Twitter). That’s just under the projection of $1.5MM.
  • The Blue Jays and righty Aaron Sanchez agreed to a $2.7MM deal for 2018, according to Nightengale (Twitter link). That crushes his $1.9MM projection, which was likely suppressed due Sanchez’s lack of innings (just 36) in 2017. He’s under Jays control through 2020. Sportsnet’s Ben Nicholson-Smith, meanwhile, tweets that second baseman Devon Travis will make $1.45MM next year, falling a bit shy of his $1.7MM forecast. Other Toronto players agreeing to terms include Kevin Pillar ($3.25MM vs. $4.0MM projection) and Dominic Leone ($1.085MM vs. $1.2MM projection), MLB.com’s Gregor Chisholm tweets.
  • The Rays and closer Alex Colome settled at $5.3M, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale (on Twitter). He’d been projected at $5.5MM and is controllable for three more years. They also settled at $5.95MM with outfielder/DH Corey Dickerson ($6.4MM projection) and $4.5MM with infielder Brad Miller ($4.4MM projection), per Murray (all Twitter links). Steven Souza, according to Murray will earn $3.55MM, placing him right in line with his $3.6MM projection. Dickerson and Miller are controlled through 2019. Souza is controlled through 2020.

Angels Avoid Arbitration With Blake Parker, Martin Maldonado

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  • Angels righty Blake Parker will receive $1.8MM, Heyman tweets. That’s within close range of the $1.7MM we projected for his 3+ service-class season. While the 32-year-old had bounced around since a fantastic 2013 season, he re-emerged in 2017. He gave the Halos 67 1/3 innings of 2.54 ERA ball with 11.5 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9.
  • Nightengale also tweets that Angels catcher Martin Maldonado has agreed to a $3.9MM salary for the upcoming season, meaning the reigning AL Gold Glove winner behind the dish rather handily trounced his $2.8MM projection. Maldonado, 31, is also entering his final year of team control and will be a free agent next winter.
  • Angels righty Blake Parker will receive $1.8MM, Heyman tweets. That’s within close range of the $1.7MM we projected for his 3+ service-class season. While the 32-year-old had bounced around since a fantastic 2013 season, he re-emerged in 2017. He gave the Halos 67 1/3 innings of 2.54 ERA ball with 11.5 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9.

Angels Sign Rene Rivera, Designate Nate Smith For Assignment

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10:26pm: Rivera will be guaranteed $2.8MM on his deal with the Angels, Fletcher reports (also via Twitter).

9:39pm: The Angels announced tonight that they’ve agreed to terms on a one-year, Major League contract with veteran catcher Rene Rivera. In order to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, the Halos have designated lefty Nate Smith for assignment. As Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register reports, via Twitter, Smith is undergoing shoulder surgery and is expected to miss the entire 2018 season.

Rene Rivera | Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

By adding the 34-year-old Rivera, the Angels further bolster what is shaping up to be one of the top defensive clubs in all of Major League Baseball. Rivera isn’t likely to start in Anaheim, but he carries a superlative defensive reputation and will complement 2017 Gold Glove winner Martin Maldonado to form a terrific defensive duo behind the dish.

Rivera split this past season between the Mets and the Cubs, combining to bat .252/.305/.431 with 10 homers in 237 trips to the plate. That marked his most productive season since a career year with the Padres back in 2014, during which he batted .252/.319/.432 with a career-high 11 homers.

Overall, Rivera is a rather light-hitting catcher, as evidenced by a career .220/.271/.349 batting line and a .224/.280/.368 slash over the past four seasons. But, he’s also thrown out 36 percent of would-be base thieves in his big league career and has been remarkably consistent in that regard; Rivera has never posted a caught-stealing rate lower than the 30 percent clip he registered in 2016, and he halted a hefty 37 percent of stolen-base attempts against him this past year in 2017.

[Related: Updated Los Angeles Angels depth chart]

From a pitch-framing standpoint, Rivera was only a tick above average in ’17, but he’s been average or better in that regard in each season of his Major League career. Baseball Prospectus considered Rivera a roughly average defender at the position overall this past season, but he ranked as the fifth-most valuable defensive backstop in the game as recently as 2016, per their Fielding Runs Above Average metric.

The addition of Rivera pushes Carlos Perez and Juan Graterol, both on the 40-man roster, out of the picture as Maldonado’s backup. That’s especially significant for Perez, who is out of minor league options and now stands out all the more as a change-of-scenery candidate. (Graterol, meanwhile, has a pair of minor league options remaining.) The Angels have also picked up former Rays catcher Curt Casali on a minors pact this offseason, and the presence of Rivera further muddies his path to the big league roster.

As for Smith, he’s long been touted as one of the Angels’ best prospects, but injuries limited him to just 15 innings between Rookie ball (on an injury rehab) and Triple-A in 2017. A former eighth-round pick (2013), Smith tore through the lower minors and thrived with a 2.63 ERA, 8.1 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9 in 164 Double-A innings, but his effectiveness evaporated upon reaching Triple-A. In 192 career frames at that level, he’s pitched to a 5.06 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 2.8 BB/9.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Avoiding Arbitration: Andrew Heaney, Ryan Rua

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We’ll use this post to track some of the day’s arbitration agreements. As always, you can reference MLBTR’s 2018 arbitration projections and 2018 MLB arbitration tracker as needed.

  • Lefty Andrew Heaney is in agreement on a $800K deal with the Angels, per Jon Heyman of Fan Rag (via Twitter). The 26-year-old lands right at MLBTR’s projection for his Super Two salary. Heaney has scarcely pitched in the majors over the past two seasons owing to Tommy John surgery. But he did make it back late last year and will hope for a healthy and productive 2018 season after an opportunity to build up over the offseason. The Halos need Heaney to regain the trajectory he was on when he arrived in the organization. In his first 18 starts in L.A., Heaney managed 105 2/3 innings of 3.49 ERA ball with 6.6 K/9 and 2.4 BB/9.
  • The Rangers have avoided arbitration with oufielder Ryan Rua, per a club announcement. He is slated to earn $870K, per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (via Twitter). Rua, 27, just did quality for arbitration as a Super Two. MLBTR projected him to earn $900K in his first trip through the process, so he’ll land just below that mark. It is not immediately clear just how Rua will fit into the Ranger’ roster mix, though that’s due in no small part to the fact that the team is still said to be looking into options to upgrade. The right-handed hitter has spent the bulk of his time in the majors in left field, though he can also play some first base. Over 608 total MLB plate appearances, Rua owns a .246/.305/.388 batting line with 17 home runs. He has shown more in a similar sample at Triple-A, where he has posted a .272/.343/.459 output.
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