Headlines

Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Brewers Rumors

Minor MLB Transactions 12-12-15

By | at

Here are the day’s minor transactions:

  • The Tigers signed 17 minor leaguers, reports Anthony Fenech and James Jahnke of the Detroit Free Press. Among the most notable names are left-handed pitcher Drake Britton and right-handed pitchers Rafael Dolis, Lendy Castillo, and Preston Guilmet. The club also inked infielder Tommy Field. Britton, a former top Red Sox prospect, has pitched well in limited major league action. However, he scuffled with the Cubs Triple-A affiliate last season, posting a 5.08 ERA in 83 innings. Guilmet has strong minor league peripherals, but he’s struggled through 23 major league innings with a 8.22 ERA (4.28 xFIP).
  • The Tigers also inked right-handed pitcher Jake Brigham. However, his situation is unique in that he’s also pursuing a contract with NPB’s Rakuten Eagles. Brigham, soon-to-turn-28, has posted decent numbers as a minor league swingman. The Braves gave him a brief major league audition last season in which he threw 16 innings with a 8.64 ERA.
  • The Braves have signed former Reds starter David Holmberg, reports Baseball America’s Matt Eddy. Holmberg, 24, has thrown 62 major league innings over 12 starts and two relief appearances. He has a 6.24 ERA with 4.79 K/9 and 5.08 BB/9. Atlanta also acquired reliever Ethan Martin. The former Phillies swingman flashed decent stuff with command problems in the majors, leading to a 5.93 ERA, 10.43 K/9, and 5.93 BB/9 in 44 innings.
  • The Orioles have signed lefty Jeff Beliveau. The southpaw missed most of 2015 with a labrum injury. He’s experienced success as a situational reliever, including a 2.63 ERA with 10.50 K/9 and 2.63 BB/9 in 2014 (24 innings, 30 appearances).
  • The Marlins have added righty Dustin McGowan. The once successful 33-year-old pitched poorly for the Phillies while struggling with control in 2015. He was only marginally better at Triple-A. If McGowan recovers his form, he could be a valuable reliever. He has a career 4.68 ERA with 7.35 K/9 and 3.90 BB/9 in 505 innings.
  • The Mets have inked former Brewers closer Jim Henderson. Injuries caused the 33-year-old to lose his ninth inning role in 2014, and he’s failed to reestablish himself since then. Last season in 29 innings for Milwaukee’s Triple-A affiliate, Henderson posted a 4.55 ERA with 7.58 K/9 and 5.16 BB/9.
  • The Padres have signed Philip Humber to a minor league deal. Humber pitched the 2015 for the KBO’s KIA Tigers in 2015. He posted a 6.75 ERA in the offensively charged league. Humber is perhaps best remembered for his unlikely perfect game for the White Sox in April of 2012. He was also part of the haul that brought Johan Santana to the Mets.

Brewers Scouring Market For First Basemen

By | at

The Brewers are taking a wide-angled approach to finding a first baseman, tweets Jerry Crasnick of ESPN. Among the potential fits are Pedro Alvarez, Ike Davis, Steve Pearce, Chris Carter, and Daniel Nava. One notable name missing from the report is veteran Justin Morneau, although he may still be under consideration.

Milwaukee traded first baseman Adam Lind to the Mariners last week for three minor league pitchers. Lind, a 32-year-old left-handed platoon bat, had just one year of club control remaining. Since he didn’t fit into the club’s long term plans, he was deemed expendable. While some of the names listed above represent a definite downgrade to Lind, the Brewers may be best served by targeting a player they can trade at the deadline.

Alvarez, Carter, and Morneau strike me as the most likely to return value down the road. Miller Park is a home run friendly stadium which should benefit all three sluggers. Alvarez and Carter generally post hefty home run totals combined with a poor batting average. Morneau is a different sort of hitter with high averages and moderate power. Whereas both Alvarez and Carter are entering their age 29 seasons, Morneau will turn 35 next May and has battled serious injuries in recent years.

Nothing is preventing the club from signing two players from this list. In particular, Pearce makes sense as a platoon option for Alvarez. The former Oriole offers some defensive versatility. He has experience in the outfield and even managed to play a decent second base in a tiny sample last season. Similarly, Nava, a switch-hitter, could provide some depth in the outfield while platooning with Carter. Nava has been much better against right-handed pitching throughout his career.

Brewers Acquire Manny Pina To Complete Francisco Rodriguez Trade

By | at

The Brewers announced that they’ve acquired catcher Manny Pina from the Tigers as the player to be named later in last month’s Francisco Rodriguez trade. Milwaukee also picked up minor league infielder Javier Betancourt in the deal.

Pina, 28, received a pair of brief call-ups with the Royals back in 2011-12 but hasn’t appeared in the Majors since. He enjoyed a productive 2015 campaign with Triple-A Toledo, where he batted .305/.379/.461 with seven homers, and on the defensive side of the coin, he also caught 46 percent of attempted base-stealers. Pina has caught 37 percent of attempted runners over the life of his minor league career, and he’s a .264/.343/.395 hitter in 232 games at Triple-A. Pina will give the Brewers additional depth in the event of a trade or further injuries to Jonathan Lucroy.

Brewers Acquire Garin Cecchini From Red Sox

By | at

The Red Sox have traded third baseman/outfielder Garin Cecchini to the Brewers in exchange for cash considerations, reports Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). The former top prospect was recently designated for assignment in Boston.

Cecchini, 25 next April, will provide the Brewers with an option at third base or first base, where they’re quite thin on MLB-ready talent. The 2010 fourth-rounder has received 40 plate appearances in Boston over the past two seasons and batted .229/.325/.400, but his bat never really came around in two seasons at the Triple-A level. Viewed as a consensus top 100 prospect heading into the 2014 season, Cecchini has batted just .238/.314/.333 in two seasons at the top minor league level.

Following the 2013 season Baseball America lauded Cecchini for his knowledge of the strike zone and ability to barrel up pitches and hit to the opposite field, projecting that even if his glove would cause him to move to first base or left field, his on-base skills and high averages could make him a big league regular. Last winter, BA wrote that he still had considerable offensive upside even as his defensive question marks grew, but he struggled a great deal in Triple-A this year.

Quick Hits: Murphy, Padres, O’s, Kazmir, Brewers, Astros

By | at

Here are a few odds and ends left over from the past 24 hours or so of Winter Meetings action.

  • The Angels are open to a reunion with David Murphy as a backup plan in case they’re unable to sign a top free agent, Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com tweets. The 34-year-old Murphy hit .265/.281/.400 in 155 plate appearances after the Angels traded for him in July. If they do re-sign him, they’ll use him as the lefty half of a platoon.
  • The Padres are still looking for a shortstop, but they’d like to make sure there aren’t any trades available before they head to the free-agent market to sign one, FOX Sports’ Jon Morosi tweets. Perhaps that makes sense — Ian Desmond (who didn’t have a very strong year by his standards) stands head and shoulders above the rest of the current group of free agent shortstops, and he’s followed by a number of veterans coming off weak seasons, like Jimmy Rollins, Stephen Drew and Alexei Ramirez.
  • The Orioles are one of many teams interested in free agent starter Scott Kazmir, CBS Sports’ Jon Heyman tweets. With the departure of Wei-Yin Chen, the Orioles’ rotation is entirely right-handed, and they’re reportedly interested in a lefty to balance it. Kazmir would fit the bill.
  • The Brewers will look to take at least one player in this morning’s Rule 5 Draft, Tom Haudricourt of the Journal Sentinel writes. As Baseball America’s J.J. Cooper previously noted, several potential Rule 5 picks come from the Astros’ system (lefty Reymin Guduan, outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, catcher Roberto Pena, righty Chris Devenski). Haudricourt wonders if, with the fifth pick today, former Astros exec and new Brewers GM David Stearns could choose a player from his old organization.

Law On Walker, Giles, Lind Trades

By | at

Here are a few of Keith Law of ESPN’s takes on some of Wednesday’s key transactions. Law’s articles are Insider-only and contain significantly more detail that we’ll present here. We highly recommend subscribing.

  • The trade for Neil Walker was a good one for the Mets, although Law is puzzled by the team’s addition of Asdrubal Cabrera. Cabrera’s deal would make sense if he were a second baseman, but with Walker in the fold, Cabrera will play shortstop, a position he can no longer play well. The Walker trade reflects the Mets’ skepticism that Dilson Herrera can take over second base next season, but Walker is a consistently solid player, and the Mets only gave up Jon Niese, who didn’t figure to play an important role for them going forward. Niese will allow the Pirates to move top prospect Tyler Glasnow along slowly, although Law notes that Niese’s lack of strikeout ability makes him a back-end starter and writes that Niese will have to improve next season to justify the Bucs picking up the first of his two options.
  • In Ken Giles, the Astros got a strikeout reliever who will be a good addition to a bullpen that did register enough Ks in 2015, Law writes. They’ll also get five years of control, making Giles a valuable asset. The Phillies, however, did get plenty in return, including Vincent Velasquez, who Law thinks can stick as a starter, and Brett Oberholtzer, a back-of-the-rotation lefty who can soak up innings as the Phillies continue their rebuild.
  • Adam Lind isn’t much of a defensive first baseman, Law writes, but for the Mariners, he’s still an upgrade over the recently traded Mark Trumbo. Platooning the left-handed Lind with the right-handed Jesus Montero would be a good plan, Law suggests. The Brewers, meanwhile, got three young pitchers who are possible future relievers. None of them are outstanding talents, but Milwaukee did well to get something in return for a player they didn’t really need in 2016.

Brewers Interested In Pedro Alvarez

By | at

The Brewers have interest in free agent slugger Pedro Alvarez, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports tweets. Alvarez would take over for the recently departed Adam Lind at first base. Alvarez is Brewers bench coach Pat Murphy’s son-in-law, Morosi notes.

The Pirates non-tendered the 28-year-old Alvarez after he hit .243/.318/.469 with 27 home runs in 491 plate appearances in 2015. Despite a proliferation of strikeouts, those offensive numbers were clearly fine, and Alvarez’s already-impressive power numbers might be even better in homer-happy Miller Park. Alvarez’s non-tender resulted largely from his struggles to learn first base — he made 23 errors and struggled to handle balls hit to his right, leading to a horrific -13.8 UZR and plenty of speculation that he would wind up as a DH in the American League. A Brewers team that doesn’t figure to contend in 2016 would have little to lose from playing Alvarez at first, however, and could conceivably trade him in July if he’s able to improve defensively.

Rangers Notes: RH Bat, Barnette, Moreland, Catchers, Nathan

By | at

The Rangers are “making progress” in talks with a yet-unknown right-handed hitter, reports Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News. That hitter isn’t Mike Napoli, Grant hears, and while he initially noted that the Rangers have some interest in Steve Pearce, he’s since tweeted that it’s not Pearce, either. Ideally, the Rangers want a player that can handle first base and also spell Josh Hamilton in left field against left-handed starters, Grant notes. There aren’t many right-handed first base/outfield types on the market at present, though I wonder if Ryan Raburn could be of interest in such a role, provided he can prove capable at first.

A few more Rangers notes…

  • General manager Jon Daniels “hasn’t been motivated” by any of the trade talks he’s had regarding Mitch Moreland, per Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (links to Twitter). Wilson adds that if the Rangers are to make any trades, they’ll likely trade away prospects or Major League relievers rather than dealing from their core of position players or starting pitchers.
  • Wilson also reports that the Rangers are among the teams with interest in right-hander Tony Barnette — a former D-backs farmhand that broke out as a dominant closer with Japan’s Yakult Swallows in recent seasons. Yakult set a $500K posting fee on Barnette, and MLBTR reported recently that five teams were in the mix for his services. Daniels confirmed the interest to Wilson tonight when speaking to the media.
  • Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets that the Rangers checked in with the Orioles on Matt Wieters after Wieters accepted the one-year, $15.8MM qualifying offer. Wieters, of course, would’ve had to approve any trade proposal that may have arisen (as is stipulated by the CBA for players who accept QOs), but talks went nowhere anyhow, according to Rosenthal.
  • The Rangers like Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy but consider the cost to acquire him to be prohibitive, Rosenthal further tweets. That shouldn’t come as a surprise in light of a tweet from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt, who says the asking price for Lucroy begins with highly touted minor league slugger Joey Gallo.
  • The Rangers were one of eight clubs to visit with right-hander Joe Nathan in Nashville, tweets Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. The Giants and Tigers also met with the former All-Star at the Winter Meetings as he seeks a new team while recovering from 2015 Tommy John surgery.

Latest On Orioles’ Pursuit Of Bats

By | at

2:19pm: Baltimore is one of several teams to have checked in on Carlos Gonzalez of the Rockies, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com tweets.

12:25pm: Will Venable could also present an option for the Orioles, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets.

10:02am: Baltimore met twice with Scott Boras regarding Davis and have told him that they “soon might pivot” to other options, per Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports (Twitter links). Meanwhile, Baltimore is “out” on both Mitch Moreland of the Rangers and Adam Lind of the Brewers.

The O’s also have been looking at 27-year-old Korean outfielder Hyun-soo Kim, a polished hitter who is available as a free agent.

9:39am: The Orioles met recently with Justin Upton’s agent, Larry Reynolds, as the team continues to pursue power options in free agency, Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com reports on Twitter. Baltimore reportedly made a huge offer to Chris Davis, but seems to be pursuing other avenues as well.

Meanwhile, the club is “hoping” to add a left-handed hitter (possibly in addition to a pitcher) at some point today, Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports on Twitter. In theory, at least, that could represent a free agent outfielder as Gerardo Parra or Alex Gordon, a slugging first base/DH option such as Pedro Alvarez, some unknown trade target, or a major move on Davis.

It’s not immediately clear what level of interest the O’s have in Upton, but it could be more of an opportunistic fit than the team’s dogged pursuit of Davis. As Kubatko tweets, the club “won’t pass up impact” regardless whether the hitter acquired is a righty or a lefty. And as MLB.com’s Britt Ghiroli notes on Twitter, executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette has said the team will be aggressive rather than waiting to see what Davis decides.

Mariners Acquire Adam Lind

By | at

Another day, another trade for Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto. The Mariners and Brewers have announced a trade sending first baseman Adam Lind to Seattle in exchange for minor league right-handers Carlos Herrera, Freddy Peralta and Daniel Missaki.

"<strong

Following the trades of Mark Trumbo and Logan Morrison, the Mariners had a clear need for an upgrade at first base, and Lind should fill that void nicely. The 32-year-old is coming off a strong season with the Brewers in which he batted .277/.360/.460 with 20 home runs in 572 trips to the plate. Milwaukee made the easy call to exercise his $8MM club option this offseason, though the expectation has long been that the rebuilding Brewers would look to trade the final year of club control over Lind, who will be a free agent next winter.

That, of course, makes Lind a short-term upgrade for the Mariners, who will probably also look to add a platoon partner for him (although an in-house option like Jesus Montero could function well in that capacity). Lind batted just .221/.277/.298 against left-handed pitching in 2015 and was limited to 112 plate appearances against same-handed pitching, as his troubles in that regard are a known factor in his game. In parts of 10 seasons at the Major League level, Lind has batted just .213/.259/.327 against lefties. On the flip-side of that ugly split, however, is an impressive .293/.354/.509 batting line against right-handed pitching. Assuming a strict platoon deployment, Lind figures to give the Mariners a nice boost in on-base percentage at first base, and one can imagine a platoon of him and a righty with some notable pop — Mike Napoli, for instance, is a speculative fit with the Mariners — approximating or exceeding the power output that Trumbo would have delivered in a full-time capacity.

The acquisition gives new Mariners manager Scott Servais the option to run out a lineup that features Lind, Robinson Cano, Ketel Marte, Kyle Seager, Seth Smith, Leonys Martin and Nori Aoki against right-handed pitchers. Servais will have the option to deploy Montero (or a yet-unsigned platoon partner for Lind) and Franklin Gutierrez against left-handed pitching. The Mariners, of course, already have one of the game’s more potent right-handed bats in the form of Nelson Cruz.

The addition of Lind continues what has been one of the most active offseasons for any GM in recent memory, as Jerry Dipoto has wildly reshaped the Seattle roster in his first three months on the job. In addition to trading Trumbo and Morrison, Dipoto has also shipped out Brad Miller, Danny Farquhar, Tom Wilhelmsen, Carson Smith and multiple prospects in order to bring in Martin, Nate Karns, Wade Miley, Joaquin Benoit, Steve Clevenger, Anthony Bass, Luis Sardinas and Evan Scribner. Additionally, he’s re-signed Gutierrez and signed other free agents such as Aoki, Chris Iannetta and Justin De Fratus as he looks to reshape a roster that won a disappointing 76 games in 2015.

As for the Brewers, they’ll receive a trio of young arms that didn’t rank in the Mariners’ top 30 prospect on MLB.com’s end-of-season rankings, although each is exceptionally young and has a good bit of time to rise up the prospect ranks in Milwaukee.

Peralta, 19, did rank as Seattle’s No. 24 prospect in the eyes of Baseball America one winter ago. He spent his second season with the team’s Rookie-level affiliate in Arizona this season, and while he logged an uninspiring 4.11 ERA in 57 innings, he also posted an electric 67-to-8 K/BB ratio while spending most of his time (nine of 11 appearances) as a starting pitcher.

Seattle only signed Herrera, 18, in July of 2014. BA’s Ben Badler wrote at the time that Herrera’s fastball was topping out at 90 mph as a 16-year-old, but his projectable 6’3″, 170-pound frame gave reason to believe that more velocity would come as he filled out. He also noted that Herrera had a 72-74 mph curve ball in his arsenal. Herrera debuted in the Dominican Summer League this past season, pitching to a 3.26 ERA with 73 strikeouts against just 13 walks in 80 innings.

Missaki, 19, is a Brazilian-born right-hander who, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel tweets, underwent Tommy John surgery back in May. Despite his young age, Missaki opened the season in the Class-A Midwest League and looked impressive in six starts, pitching to a 3.41 ERA with a 34-to-5 K/BB ratio in 34 1/3 innings against markedly older competition. He’ll presumably be ready to take the mound this summer and could see some more action at Class-A upon a return to health.

The three prospects acquired here demonstrate that new Brewers GM David Stearns is committed to restocking the farm and won’t be shy about moving Major League assets for players that are years away from contributing in the Majors. Each of the pitchers acquired has displayed impressive control for a young pitcher, which could be a point of emphasis in future trades as the Brewers look to return to prominence in an absolutely stacked National League Central Division.

Ken Rosenthal and Jon Morosi of FOX Sports initially reported that the Mariners were pursuing Lind and making progress in talks. Jon Heyman of CBS Sports reported that the deal was in place (Twitter link). Jim Bowden of ESPN and MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM said the Brewers would get three minor leaguers (links to Twitter). Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweeted that all three were pitchers.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Show all

MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

hide arrows scroll to top