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Minor Moves: Gillespie, Palmer, Ramirez, Blackley, Morgan

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Here are some minor moves to pass on …

  • The Mariners announced three minor league signings that come with MLB Spring Training invites. Outfielder Cole Gillespie, along with righties Matt Palmer and Ramon Ramirez, will try to impress the Seattle brass in Peoria, AZ. All three players have seen MLB action, though only Ramirez (3.42 ERA in 433 2/3 innings as a reliever) has a history as a big league regular.
  • Angels minor league backstop Carlos Ramirez has received a 100 game ban for his third positive test for a "drug of abuse," MLB announced. The 25-year-old has yet to see time above Double-A, and has largely failed to hit in three stints at that level.
  • Two former big leaguers experienced status changes in December with regard to their current careers in Japan. Southpaw Travis Blackley reached terms on a one-year deal with the Rakuten Golden Eagles after spending most of last year in the Astros pen, while outfielder Nyjer Morgan has become a free agent after a productive first season with the Yokohama Bay Stars. (All information courtesy of Nikkan Sports, via Yakyu Baka.)
  • You can keep track of any players currently in DFA limbo via MLBTR's DFA Tracker. Three players currently await a final disposition: Santos Rodriguez (White Sox), Rafael Ortega (Rangers), and Adys Portillo (Padres).

AL Notes: Drew, Williams, Carson

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Let's take a look at a few American League notes:

  • A return of shortstop Stephen Drew to Red Sox seems more and more likely with each passing day, writes Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal. Most of his potential landing spots appear to have alternative, in-house options that make it hard to justify a big contract and the sacrifice of a draft pick, says MacPherson: the Mets have Ruben Tejada, the Pirates have Jordy Mercer, the Twins have Pedro Florimon, and the Yankees have Derek Jeter.
  • Former Angels swingman Jerome Williams expects to field offers over the next week or two, reports MLBTR's Zach Links, after having already received a few offers during the Winter Meetings. Primary interest in Williams has come from clubs in the AL West and Central. (Links to Twitter.) Williams was non-tendered when the Halos decided they did not want to pay a projected $3.9MM arbitration price tag, though we heard recently that he is expected to beat that figure on the open market.
  • After being claimed off of waivers by the Angels in mid-October, southpaw reliever Robert Carson will look to harness his big arm and make a run at a MLB relief role, Mike DiGiovanna writes for Baseball America (subscription required). The club likes his live arm and makeup, according to farm director Bobby Scales, leading DiGiovanna to suggest that Carson could follow the path of Dane De La Rosa in combining raw ability with a change of scenery to have a big league impact for the Halos. 

Angels To Sign Mark Mulder

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TODAY, 1:25pm: Mulder's deal includes no guaranteed money, tweets Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register. He will have to make the opening day roster to guarantee his $1MM base, and must stay active and in the rotation for the full season to reach the $6MM in incentives, according to Fletcher.

YESTERDAY, 6:36pm: Mark Mulder has agreed to a minor league deal with a big league invite with the Angels, according to Jerry Crasnick of ESPN.com (on Twitter).  The veteran, who is represented by Brian Charles of Big League Management Company, LLC, can earn more than $6MM if all incentives are met, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets.  The deal comes with a guaranteed $1MM base salary, tweets Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe. Mulder

Mulder, 36, hasn't pitched since 2008 because of shoulder issues, and has been working as an analyst with ESPN since 2011.  Mulder began his comeback in Arizona in November and auditioned for the Giants, Diamondbacks, and numerous other clubs before reaching agreement with the Halos.  In nine seasons with the Athletics and Cardinals, Mulder owns a 4.18 ERA with 5.7 K/9 and 2.8 BB/9.

The veteran will get an opportunity to compete for a starting job while also training near his home in the Phoenix area, tweets Crasnick.  The Halos have Jered Weaver and C.J. Wilson atop the rotation, with Joe Blanton, Garrett Richards, and lefties Tyler Skaggs and Hector Santiago also in the rotation mix.  The agreement with Mulder shouldn't preclude them in their pursuit of Japanese ace Masahiro Tanaka or Matt Garza.  The baseball world will be rooting for Mulder, who last pitched in '08 and hasn't spent a full season as a starter since '05.

While it's a minor league deal, Mulder's agent won't commit to the left-hander actually pitching in the minors. "Mark will evaluate that if and when the time comes," Charles told Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (via Twitter).

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.  Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe first reported that Mulder was nearing agreement with the Angels.

Quick Hits: Brewers, Twins, Mulder, Angels, Red Sox

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It wouldn't make sense for the Brewers to move Rickie Weeks or Ryan Braun to first base, MLB.com's Adam McCalvy writes. The Brewers have been connected to Corey Hart, Ike Davis and other first basemen this winter, but they haven't landed any of them. Scooter Gennett figures to be the Brewers' second baseman next season, leaving no obvious spot for Weeks. Weeks doesn't have an ideal bat for first base, and the Brewers could try to trade him, if they can find a taker. Milwaukee sees Braun as a long-term fix in right field, McCalvy notes. (Also, we might add that Braun's performance at third base in 2007 very persuasively suggests that he stay in the outfield.) Here are more notes from around the Majors.

  • McCalvy also notes that Rule 5 pick Wei-Chung Wang's chances of sticking with the Brewers are "very slim," noting that the Brewers haven't kept a Rule 5 pick for an entire season since 2004 with reliever Jeff Bennett (who, like Wang, was selected out of the Pirates organization). Wang has also never pitched above the Gulf Coast League. McCalvy does point out, however, that there will be chances to stick in the Brewers' bullpen, particularly if they use lefty Will Smith as a starter.
  • The Angels want to keep their first-round pick in this year's draft, MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez writes. They're still looking for pitching, though, and if they don't want to surrender their pick, then signing Ervin Santana or Ubaldo Jimenez, who each rejected qualifying offers, won't be possible for them. That limits them to Masahiro Tanaka, Matt Garza, and Bronson Arroyo, followed by less-desirable options like Paul Maholm, Jason Hammel and Chris Capuano.
  • The Twins had "some interest" in Mark Mulder, 1500ESPN.com's Darren Wolfson tweets. Mulder was not interested in signing with Minnesota, however, and he ended up heading to the Angels instead.
  • Mulder says he's open to pitching in the minors if he feels like he's on a path back to the big leagues, but he doesn't want to stay in the minor leagues the whole season, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets.
  • It looks more and more likely that the Red Sox will re-sign Stephen Drew, and if so, that doesn't mean they'll necessarily trade Will Middlebrooks, writes Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal. A number of potential suitors, including the Mets, Pirates, Twins and Yankees, appear content to go with internal options rather than signing Drew and losing a draft pick, which could leave the Red Sox as the only team standing. Boston currently figures to head into the season with Xander Bogaerts at shortstop and Middlebrooks at third, but if they re-signed Drew, Bogaerts would head to third and Middlebrooks wouldn't have a place to play. The Red Sox could then keep Middlebrooks for depth. MacPherson points to the example of Mike Carp, who demonstrated last year that a player need not have an obvious starting role to be helpful — perhaps Middlebrooks could follow in his footsteps.

West Notes: GMs, Tanaka, A’s DH, Cruz

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The annual "Black Monday" NFL head coach firing day does not have an analog for baseball GMs, who have enjoyed much better job security than either those coaches or MLB managers, writes Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic. Since 2011, only Larry Beinfest (the Marlins' former president of baseball operations) has been canned amongst top baseball operations men. Ten GMs have been in place since at least 2006, while only nine of the remaining twenty teams have undergone what Piecoro classifies as "full regime changes." Though several elements — such as baseball's long player development timeline — may support this phenomenon, Piecoro says that we could see more front office shakeups in the near future. He lists several GMs who could be on a short leash, many of whom represent western division clubs: Kevin Towers of the Diamondbacks, Dan O'Dowd of the Rockies, Jack Zduriencik of the Mariners, Ruben Amaro Jr. of the Phillies, and Jerry Dipoto of the Angels.

Here's more from the National and American League West:

  • D-Backs fans should temper their expectations about the possibility of the club landing Masahiro Tanaka, writes MLB.com's Steve Gilbert. Though Arizona has been prominently connected to the hurler, Gilbert says that the commitment needed to beat the market on Tanaka would be "very tough" to cram into the club's payroll space.
  • The Athletics are likely to employ John Jaso as the club's primary designated hitter rather than adding salary to put a new bat in the lineup, says Jane Lee of MLB.com. Yoenis Cespedes and Coco Crisp could also see time in the DH slot to reduce their wear and tear in the outfield, Lee notes. Meanwhile, Lee notes, the club is highly unlikely to trade away Cespedes (unless it gets a huge offer) and does not seem to be in play for free agent Nelson Cruz.
  • The Astros made a surprising addition to the club's 40-man roster recently, protecting unheralded 23-year-old Luis Cruz from the Rule 5 draft. As Jose De Jesus Ortiz of the Houston Chronicle writes for Baseball America (subscription required), Cruz exploded last year and caught the attention of GM Jeff Luhnow. "We promoted him to Double-A not really expecting him to do what he did," said Luhnow. "He went out and dominated." Though Cruz threw only 17 innings at that level, he also notched 10.2 K/9 against 3.2 BB/9 across 113 1/3 innings  in High-A (though his 5.16 ERA was less promising). "The fact is that he is lefthanded, he profiles as a starting pitcher and has dominant stuff," Luhnow explained.
  • The American League West race gets its own spot on ESPN.com's Buster Olney's top storylines of 2014 (Insider link). The division features big money additions to the Rangers and Mariners, as well as numerous interesting newcomers to the rosters of the A's, Angels, and Astros. As Olney explains, the results of the division's arm race — and the fallout for those teams that fail to meet expectations — promises to be great baseball theater.

Braves Notes: Kendrick, Uggla, Vasquez, Mejia

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Here's the latest on the Braves from David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution…

  • The Braves aren't pursuing Angels second baseman Howie Kendrick, O'Brien tweets.  Kendrick was thought to be on the trade market earlier this offseason as the Angels were looking to acquire young pitching, though now that the Halos have added Hector Santiago and Tyler Skaggs by dealing Mark Trumbo, it seems unlikely that they'd unload another regular unless they were trying to create payroll space for another move.
  • Of course, Atlanta already has a second baseman in Dan Uggla, though the veteran has struggled badly over the last two seasons and wasn't on the Braves' postseason roster in October.  The Braves were known to be exploring an Uggla trade this offseason but O'Brien tweets that he hasn't heard of any teams interested in taking Uggla.
  • Right-hander Luis Vasquez was signed to a minor league deal in November and has drawn the attention of several teams due to a standout performance in the Dominican League.  At the Winter Meetings, Braves GM Frank Wren said that received several comments and queries about Vasquez from other scouts and executives.  Vasquez will fight for a job in Atlanta's bullpen at Spring Training.
  • The acquisition of minor league first baseman Mark Hamilton could make Ernesto Mejia more expendable, O'Brien opines.  Mejia, 28, has hit 78 homers over his last three seasons and a career .279/.340/.493 slash line in 3492 minor league PA, but he has yet to reach the majors after nine pro seasons.  Mejia is defensively limited at first base and records a lot of strikeouts, which is why O'Brien categorizes him as a "Quad-A" type of player.

Quick Hits: Angels, Cardinals, Yankees, O’Flaherty

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Playing winter ball in Venezuela can help North American ballplayers make ends meet, and Joshua Goodman of the Associated Press provides a fascinating look into what their lives are like as they deal with the wildly different stadium atmosphere there, not to mention the different political atmosphere. Players often make $10K to $20K a month in Venezuela, far more than most of them do in the US minor leagues or in independent ball. They play for large, raucous crowds, unlike some of those in the minors. "I've never played in the big leagues, but I don't think the environment is nearly as fun" as it is in Venezuela, says Jamie Romak, a 28-year-old minor-league veteran who played in the Cardinals system last year and is now playing for La Guaira. Here are more notes from around baseball.

  • Masahiro Tanaka's free agent contract will have much to say about the way we value prospects, writes Dave Cameron of FanGraphs. The market might value Tanaka at something like $120MM to $150MM, even though he is generally considered to be a lesser talent than Yu Darvish was before his debut, and Darvish ranked behind several prospects (like Matt Moore and Shelby Miller) on some analysts' lists at the time. So if Tanaka is worth $120MM, how much is Taijuan Walker worth? How much, for that matter, is Xander Bogaerts worth? Estimates might end up somewhere north of $100MM, even though those players haven't yet proven themselves in the big leagues. That's why, Cameron argues, the Royals should not have included Wil Myers in the James Shields trade last year.
  • The Angels haven't been known for their farm system in recent years, but MLB.com's Jim Callis writes that their 2009 draft was the best one of the past decade. The Angels had five selections in the first 48 picks, and with the second of those, they landed Mike Trout, currently baseball's best all-around player. They also grabbed Patrick Corbin and Tyler Skaggs (who both went to Arizona in the Dan Haren deal, although Skaggs returned earlier this month as Mark Trumbo went to the desert), outfielder Randal Grichuk (who was part of the David Freese trade) and Garrett Richards.
  • Meanwhile, Callis' colleague at MLB.com, Jonathan Mayo, argues that the Cardinals' 2009 draft was actually the best. That draft produced Matt Carpenter, Shelby Miller, Trevor Rosenthal, Matt Adams and Joe Kelly.
  • Even if they sign Tanaka, the Yankees might be able to get below the $189MM luxury-tax threshold for 2014 if they trade high-priced players during the season, Joel Sherman of the New York Post points out. Even that would be tricky, however. Alex Rodriguez would still have to miss a hefty chunk of the season due to his suspension (however his appeal turns out), and the Yankees would have to trade a number of expensive players. Sherman suggests that the Yankees may have missed a better opportunity to try something like this — with much of their core injured in 2013, they could have dealt free-agents-to-be like Robinson Cano, Curtis Granderson, Hiroki Kuroda and Phil Hughes to get under last year's threshold. Such a move would have reduced their tax burden and allowed them to spend even more heavily this offseason. It would have been unlikely if the Yankees had waved the white flag on 2013, however, because they don't typically behave that way.
  • The Braves are still in talks with reliever Eric O'Flaherty, David O'Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution tweets. O'Flaherty had Tommy John surgery last May and will likely miss the beginning of the season. He's one of only a handful of lefty relievers remaining on the free agent market, along with Oliver Perez, Mike Gonzalez, Jose Mijares and Rich Hill.

AL West Notes: Tanaka, Ibanez, Astros

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In today’s press conference to introduce Raul Ibanez, Angels GM Jerry Dipoto declined to comment on whether he’s in on Masahiro Tanaka, tweets Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register.  “It’s not fair to the player or the organization to openly discuss free agents,” said Dipoto (link).  Despite that, Fletcher thinks it’s still safe to assume they’re interested in the Japanese hurler. More out of the AL West..

  • Brian McTaggart of MLB.com looked at the Astros’ top storylines from 2013, including owner Jim Crane expanding the payroll and the appointment of Ryan Reid as president of business operations.
  • Ibanez told reporters, including Fletcher (Twitter link) that he wouldn’t still be playing if he didn’t think he could do it at a high level.  The 41-year-old inked a one-year deal worth a guaranteed $2.75MM that can go as high as $5MM with incentives.
  • Ibanez also talks about why he hits well at the Angels’ home park, tweets Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times.  The slugger said the background allows him to see ball well, he benefits from the park’s wide open gaps, and he says the ball moves well through the infield.  His value is also helped by the fact that he won’t have to play the outfield in Anaheim.

Cafardo On Tanaka, Jimenez, Cruz, Lackey, Ichiro

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In this week's column, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes that the Orioles owe it to their fans to take a shot at a championship by bolstering the roster.  The O's moved Jim Johnson to save on his expected $10MM salary for 2014 but the nixing of Grant Balfour's deal leaves them without a proven closer.  The Orioles, with a few fixes, could be exciting and fun to watch, but they need more if they want to win it all.  More from this week's column..

  • Cafardo cautions not to sleep on the Red Sox in the Masahiro Tanaka hunt and one AL scout says it’s the perfect time for the Red Sox to strike. “They have veteran pitchers in the final year or two years remaining on their deals,” he said. “They’ll be clearing out a lot of payroll soon. I know they feel they have good young pitching on the horizon, but Tanaka should be a very good No. 2 or No. 3 starter on any staff. I would think with their emphasis on pitching, they would get into it.” The Yankees, Cubs, Rangers, and Dodgers figure to be the most aggressive and the Angels, Phillies, Royals, and Blue Jays are expected to get into it.
  • Will the Red Sox's experience with Daisuke Matsuzaka scare them off of Tanaka?  “I don’t think that can enter their thinking. I’m sure they would have gone after Yu Darvish in retrospect,” said one National League GM.
  • Cafardo recently spoke with a few GMs who feel the Yankees may wind up with Ubaldo Jimenez, even if they land Tanaka.  “He had an excellent second half, has great stuff, and he has the type of personality that would fit New York,” one GM said. “He doesn’t let things get to him. He’s good at shrugging off things and turning the page.”  If the Yankees ink both pitchers, it's pretty difficult to see them staying under the $189MM mark.
  • Nelson Cruz is the best available free agent among position players, but his demand of four years at $75MM has turned off teams.  While other PED guys such as Jhonny Peralta have cashed in, teams are worried that Cruz, who more relies on his power is of greater concern for teams who worry that being off the stuff could hurt his power numbers.
  • John Lackey’s name has come up consistently this winter, but the Red Sox aren’t motivated to deal him.  That could change, but the club is enthused about his $500K option for 2015.
  • It'll be interesting to see if the Yankees can move Ichiro Suzuki given their crowded outfield.  The Giants remain a possibility, Cafardo writes.
  • The Dodgers could still trade from their outfield surplus.  When it comes to Matt Kemp, of course, teams want to see how he rebounds from shoulder and ankle surgeries.
  • With Brian McCann aboard and Francisco Cervelli as backup, Yankees catcher Austin Romine is very much available.  
  • Johan Santana is getting closer to making a decision on a minor league deal with a team. There’s been some speculation about the Twins since Santana still resides in Fort Myers, Fla., where the Twins have spring training.  A small-market team such as the Astros could also have some interest.

Angels Could Soon Sign Mark Mulder

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8:24pm: Mulder has offers from "several" teams and has not yet decided who he'll sign with, agent Brian Charles tells Fletcher (via Twitter).

8:00pm: Mulder and the Angels have not yet agreed to terms, but if they do, it will be on a minor-league deal, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register tweets.

5:17pm: The Angels appear to be the favorites to sign free-agent pitcher Mark Mulder, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe tweets. Cafardo reports that the Angels could soon sign Mulder to an incentive-laden contract.

Mulder, 36, is trying to make a comeback after retiring in 2010. He has not appeared in the Majors since 2008, and has only appeared in six games since 2006, having spent the last few years of his career struggling through shoulder injuries. He threw for three teams in November. Giants GM Brian Sabean recently said Mulder was looking for a big-league contract. Given his history, though, it would be surprising if he got one.

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