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Minor MLB Transactions: 7/11/15

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Here are the day’s minor moves:

  • The Mariners have signed Chien-Ming Wang to a minor league deal, reports Greg Johns of MLB.com. The 35-year-old made 10 starts and 11 appearances for the Braves’ Triple-A affiliate earlier this season. He posted a 6.10 ERA with 4.06 K/9 and 3.05 BB/9 in 62 innings. More recently, he appeared in the independent Atlantic League where he made one successful 8.2  inning start. Of course, Wang is best known for his work with the Yankees from 2005 through 2008. His best seasons were 2006 and 2007. He posted 19 wins in both seasons. Wang has a career 4.37 ERA with 4.13 K/9, 2.66 BB/9, and a 59.1% GB% at the major league level.
  • The Mets have signed former outfield prospect Joe Benson, tweets Adam Rubin of ESPN New York. Benson, 27, was released by the Braves in mid-June after hitting .246/.346/.331 at the Triple-A level. He briefly appeared for the Twins in 2011. He slashed .239/.270/.352 in his brief 74 plate appearance cup of coffee. Once viewed as a power and speed threat, high strikeout rates have limited his productions.
  • Eric Surkamp has accepted an outright assignment to Triple-A, tweets J.P. Hoornstra of the Los Angeles News Group. The soft tossing lefty made a spot start for the Dodgers last week, allowing four runs and two home runs in 3.1 innings. Surkamp, 27, has a 6.47 ERA in 57 career innings. He’s been much better throughout his minor league career.

Heyman On Grilli, D-backs, Marlins, Dodgers

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Here are the highlights from Jon Heyman’s massive new Inside Baseball article for CBS Sports. Be sure to check out Heyman on the latest edition of the MLBTR Podcast.

  • The Braves have had “serious talks” about dealing closer Jason Grilli to a contender, Heyman writes, with the Blue Jays and Dodgers among the teams that make the most sense.
  • The Diamondbacks have made infielder Aaron Hill and pitchers Jeremy Hellickson and Addison Reed available in trades, and all three players have attracted at least some interest.
  • The Marlins could trade starter Dan Haren for the right return. On paper, the Dodgers would seem to make sense, but that seems unlikely, since the Dodgers treated Haren basically as a throw-in in the Dee Gordon trade in the offseason. The Dodgers would also prefer to find a starter they could use in the playoffs, and Haren likely doesn’t qualify.
  • Dodgers shortstop Jimmy Rollins could become available in a trade as top prospect Corey Seager continues to demonstrate he’s ready for the big leagues.
  • The Dodgers, Blue Jays, Nationals and perhaps other teams had scouts on hand as Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma returned from a lat injury this week. Iwakuma could be a trade candidate, but Heyman notes that giving up four homers to the Tigers probably didn’t exactly increase his value.
  • Brewers third baseman Aramis Ramirez still seems set on retiring after the season, despite agent Paul Kinzer’s efforts to get him to continue.
  • The Padres have been scouting the Mets lately, leading to speculation that the Mets could be trying to trade for Justin Upton.
  • The Phillies are “not bending” in their demands for Cole Hamels, and his limited no-trade clause remains an obstacle.
  • The Giants have had talks with free agent infielder Everth Cabrera. The Orioles released Cabrera last month. He would provide depth for San Francisco.

Mets, Brewers Have Recently Discussed Ramirez, Segura

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The Mets and Brewers have recently had trade talks in which both third baseman Aramis Ramirez and shortstop Jean Segura were discussed, Jon Morosi of FOX Sports reports on Twitter.

It is unclear from the report how advanced discussions are, but certainly it does not sound as if any moves are imminent. Morosi tweeted in early June that the two sides had discussed position players, but this report appears to cover more recent exchanges.

New York is obviously in need of help on the left side of its infield. Third baseman David Wright remains a complete question mark for the rest of the year, while the club has moved Opening Day shortstop Wilmer Flores off of the position. In that regard, both Ramirez and Segura make some amount of sense. But the two players are obviously quite different sorts of trade targets, and it’s far from certain that they would represent much of an improvement.

Ramirez, 37, is a fairly expensive veteran ($14MM this year) at the tail end of his career. He’s had a rough first half at the plate, but has turned things around somewhat more recently. New York would obviously hope that he returns to hitting near his well-above-average career norms, but it’s hard to know how much he’ll contribute the rest of the way. It is also unclear what kind of alignment the Mets would utilize if they installed Ramirez at third. Presumably, Daniel Murphy would bounce over to second and Flores would slide back to short.

Meanwhile, the 25-year-old Segura comes with three more seasons of club control, all through arbitration. An approximately average shortstop, according to Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating, Segura has yet to repeat his stellar 2013 campaign at the plate. He has shown some upside and remains young enough to dream on somewhat. But with Milwaukee surely putting a steep price tag on Segura, it it is particularly hard to ignore his .253/.292/.332 slash since the start of 2014.

Steven Matz Dealing With Lat Injury

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7:25pm: The Mets have announced that Matz has a partial tear of his lat muscle on his left side. He will be shut down for three weeks, then be reexamined. Marc Carig of Newsday has tweeted the text of the Mets’ announcement.

7:08pm: Matz’ injury is “not serious,” a source tells ESPN New York’s Adam Rubin (on Twitter). It does appear, however, that the Mets will skip Matz’s next turn in the rotation.

6:51pm: Mets starting pitcher Steven Matz has a lat injury and will miss several weeks or more, Andy Martino of New York Daily News tweets. The Mets were using a six-man rotation, an arrangement with which ace Matt Harvey had already expressed displeasure, so they will presumably just go back to five.

Matz entered the season as a highly regarded pitching prospect and only enhanced that status with 90 1/3 dominant innings for Triple-A Las Vegas — he posted a 2.19 ERA, 9.4 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in a notoriously difficult environment for pitchers. He made his big-league debut June 28 and allowed two runs in 7 2/3 while firing mid-90s fastballs and going 3-for-3 at the plate in a Mets win. He then pitched six shutout innings and struck out eight last Sunday.

Had Matz remained healthy, he might have met resistance at some point, and the Mets clearly have the depth to withstand a pitching injury. Losing a promising rookie for a significant period of time is, however, a blow to the Mets, who remain in the hunt for both the NL East and the Wild Card.

NL East Notes: Mets, Papelbon, Pettibone, Span

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Mets GM Sandy Alderson indicated today that the trade landscape for bats is starting to take shape, as Mike Puma of the New York Post reports on Twitter. “The target market is just beginning to reveal itself,” said Alderson. New York’s most obvious needs seem to be on the left side of the infield, where the shortstop position continues to be a source of consternation and third bagger David Wright remains an uncertainty.

Here’s more from the NL East:

  • Other teams believed the Phillies were nearing a deal involving closer Jonathan Papelbon at some point in June before putting talks on hold, Jayson Stark of ESPN.com reports (links to Twitter). Per Stark, there is a sense that the decision to pull back came from above GM Ruben Amaro Jr., with Philadelphia choosing to hold off when the Andy MacPhail hiring neared completion. Clubs that were in the conversation included the Blue Jays, Cubs, Rangers, and one of the Los Angeles franchises, according to the report. MLBTR recently posed the question on Instagram whether Papelbon or Francisco Rodriguez is the better closer target. Check it out to join the discussion.
  • Phillies righty Jonathan Pettibone is set for another shoulder surgery, the club announced. The 24-year-old once seemed primed to function as a quality rotation piece, but has not pitched competitively since early last season.
  • The Nationals are waiting to decide on a DL stint for center fielder Denard Span until he sees a back specialist tomorrow, Dan Kolko of MASNsports.com tweets. Span has been excellent when healthy, but continues to deal with a series of nagging injuries. The progress of this particular malady could play a significant role not only in his future free agent case, but also Washington’s motivation to land a player like Ben Zobrist to provide the team with options down the stretch. While Michael Taylor and Matt den Dekker are capable of playing center, the club is also dealing with the absence of Jayson Werth and several other injury and performance issues that could make an addition desirable.

NL East Notes: Phillies, Pettibone, Niese, Miley, Allard

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Phillies GM Ruben Amaro said Tuesday that he’s not under any pressure to make to make a trade and won’t be forced into moving a player, writes Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. Zolecki notes that Amaro is very likely posturing, but the GM implied that the Phillies could wait until the offseason to move some of their pieces. “We’ve debated here internally about when is the greatest value of some of these players, a number of them,” said Amaro. “When does that player become the most valuable asset? Again, a lot of it depends on who’s going to step up, and who’s going to satisfy some of the things that we’re trying to do in a trade. If someone does, and we feel like it’s the right thing to do, we’ll do it.” Amaro did, however, say that he “would like to do something” on the trade market.

More notes from the NL East to kick off Wednesday morning…

  • Phillies right-hander Jonathan Pettibone may need another surgery, writes the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Jake Kaplan. The 24-year-old Pettibone is currently rehabbing from right shoulder surgery, but Amaro told reporters yesterday that he had to shut down a simulated game at the team’s spring complex in Clearwater early. The loss of Pettibone has been a notable one for a Phillies team that is thin on upper-level rotation depth; Pettibone tossed 100 1/3 innings of 4.04 ERA ball in his rookie season back in 2013.
  • Jon Niese has posted stellar results of late, but Andy Martino of the New York Daily News writes that a run of six straight starts has done little to restore the trade value of the Mets lefty. “It changes nothing for me,” an NL exec told Martino. “Stuff has gotten lighter every year. The Mets are going to tell everyone it’s as good as ever to keep trade value high.” A second evaluator told Martino, “I would assume GMs wouldn’t overreact to recent performance, and would consider the long term picture along with health and the financial commitment.” Niese’s hot streak — he has a 2.41 ERA over his past six starts — came up in yesterday’s MLBTR Chat, though I offered a similar take; six starts does little to override a history of shoulder issues, and Niese’s secondary stats haven’t been as impressive as his ERA in that time anyhow.
  • Many reports this offseason noted that the Marlins were interested in, if not close to acquiring Wade Miley prior to the Diamondbacks stepping back and eventually accepting another offer from the Red Sox. The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier spoke with GM-turned-manager Dan Jennings about his club’s interest in Miley: “We had conversations. The closeness, I don’t want to say, but we definitely had conversations,” said Jennings. One source indicated to Speier that the Marlins thought the deal was nearly complete before Boston swooped in.
  • The Braves continue to work toward a deal with No. 14 overall pick Kolby Allard, assistant GM John Coppolella tells David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We’re still going through the process, and we’re very hopeful that we can sign Kolby,” said Coppolella. “You would’ve like to have had him signed earlier, but you understand that it’s a process. I wouldn’t say there’s a holdup on his end or our end, we just haven’t reached the finish line yet.” O’Brien recently reported that there’s a “legit chance” that the Braves won’t ink Allard. He notes that there’s been some speculation that adviser Casey Close of Excel Sports has been seeking a bonus more in line with where Allard would’ve been drafted had a back injury not dropped his stock a bit. As I noted at the time of O’Brien’s initial report, the Braves can offer Allard about $3.462MM (which is $626K over slot) without incurring the loss of a pick.

New York Notes: Drew, Refsnyder, Lagares

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Here’s the latest from both Big Apple teams…

  • Despite Stephen Drew’s struggles, ESPN New York’s Andrew Marchand writes that the Yankes may not address second base in any major way at the trade deadline due to a lack of clear upgrades on the market.  Rob Refsnyder has shown defensive improvement at Triple-A and could be called up to supplant Jose Pirela, yet it’s possible Refsnyder himself could be trade bait; he has some prospect value but he isn’t one of the “top tier guys” in the Yankee farm system.
  • From that same piece, Marchand also notes that the Yankees aren’t likely to obtain an ace starter like Johnny Cueto or Cole Hamels “unless prices drop significantly.”
  • The Yankees are only a season and a half removed from handing more than $500MM in free agent contracts to Carlos Beltran, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Masahiro Tanaka, yet the early returns are still inconclusive at best, Marchand and Wallace Matthews write.  Beltran hasn’t shown much, McCann struggled in 2014 but has hit well this season, and Ellsbury and Tanaka have both looked good when healthy but still have injury question marks hanging over them.  While there’s still plenty of time for the quartet to live up to their big contracts, this uncertainty in the early years of their contracts (when each, save Beltran, should still be in or close to their primes) isn’t an encouraging sign.
  • The Mets have struggled badly against right-handed pitching this season, a problem that Joel Sherman of the New York Post blames on “front office negligence” and a “refusal to churn — to aggressively try to upgrade even marginally” for quality left-handed bench depth.  Juan Lagares has been particularly ineffective against righty pitching, and Sherman lists five players (Brock Holt, Gerardo Parra, David Peralta, Seth Smith and Will Venable) he feels would be good options as platoon partners with Lagares in center field.  Of that group, I highly doubt the Red Sox would deal the versatile Holt and Smith’s contract is likely too expensive for the Mets’ seemingly limited payroll.
  • If Mets GM Sandy Alderson is indeed “prepared to overpay” for a hitting upgrade, ESPN’s Buster Olney (via Twitter) wonders if the team could shop Zack Wheeler to an American League team.  The Mets already have a plethora of young rotation options and Wheeler could be seen as expendable.  An interested team would be making “a futures bet,” as Olney puts it, since Wheeler is out of action until roughly the middle of 2016 recovering from both Tommy John and tendon surgeries.

East Notes: Ramirez, KBO, Red Sox

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Matt Harvey is just the latest reminder that recovery from Tommy John surgery is a process, Barry M. Bloom of MLB.com writes.  In his comeback campaign, the Mets pitcher has had flashes of brilliance but he has also struggled at times.

“It’s definitely hard,” Harvey said after Saturday’s loss to the Dodgers. “It’s like one batter to the next batter, the arm slot, staying back, just trusting that my arm will stay healthy. It’s been a lot different than I thought it was going to be.”

John Smoltz, who will be the first pitcher to have had the surgery to enter the National Baseball Hall of Fame, has talked with Mets skipper Terry Collins about the best way to manage a pitcher coming back from TJ.  In time, Smoltz believes that Harvey will return to his old form.  Here’s more from the East divisions..

  • The Mets tried hard to pry Manny Ramirez from the Red Sox a decade ago and at one point it seemed like there was a good chance of a deal happening, as David Lennon of Newsday writes.  “We weren’t able to match up and give them enough,” former Mets exec Jim Duquette said. “They were looking for more younger players in return. We wanted them to give more money. We weren’t going to take the full freight on that one. I don’t think they thought [Lastings] Milledge was the right guy. That’s why we were trying to bring in a third team.”
  • Ex-Blue Jays pitcher Scott Richmond has been embroiled in a nightmare legal battle with the Lotte Giants of the Korean Baseball Organization League, as Shi Davidi of Sportsnet writes.  The pitcher signed a guaranteed one-year, $700K deal with the KBO team in 2013 but he has yet to receive a dime of that money.  Richmond was good to go for the start of the season after suffering a knee injury, but he was turned away without payment.  RJ Hernandez, Richmond’s representative at Legacy, believes that this situation will dissuade other players from going overseas, particularly if the pitcher is unsuccessful in his suit.
  • For months, there has been talk about the Red Sox’s need for an ace.  Right now, Clay Buchholz looks the part and he could be a big difference maker for Boston, Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald writes.

Mets Notes: Trades, Conforto, Wright

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The Mets’ inaction this season has been “inexplicable,” ESPN’s Buster Olney writes. The Mets have failed to address an injury-ravaged lineup, thus leaving Lucas Duda and an excellent rotation hanging out to dry. As a result, the Mets have scored only 25 runs total since June 16. As Olney points out, of course, there isn’t much happening on the trade market right now, with several weeks to go before the deadline and not many teams yet willing to pull the plugs on their seasons. But Olney suggests the Mets could at least find a depth-type player who might help, much as the Blue Jays did with Chris Colabello. They could also find help by being willing to take on a chunk of a bad contract. The team’s problem isn’t manager Terry Collins, Olney writes — it’s complacency. Here’s more from the Mets.

  • The Mets have decided not to promote top prospect Michael Conforto despite their need for offense, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo writes. “At this point, he’s still in Binghamton and I would expect him to be over the near-term,” says GM Sandy Alderson. The Mets might be right not to see Conforto as a short-term fix for their sagging offense — he’s hitting .333/.414/.521 with Double-A Binghamton, but in only 133 plate appearances, and those represent his only experience in the high minors.
  • Injured star David Wright (spinal stenosis) is hopeful he’ll be able to return to action this season, Adam Rubin of ESPN New York writes. “We’re getting down to the second half of the season now, and I feel like I’ve got one shot to get this thing right,” Wright says. Standing upright no longer causes him discomfort, although he has not yet begun running, and he will probably need several weeks to get back into baseball activities before he can return.

Mets’ Alderson Expresses Support For Terry Collins

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Mets GM Sandy Alderson says manager Terry Collins and is not to blame for the team’s current troubles and that the Mets have no plans to fire him, Adam Rubin of ESPN New York writes. Alderson is traveling with the Mets on the team’s current West Coast road trip, but he says that’s unrelated to Collins’ status.

“We’re a .500 team. We haven’t been moving in the right direction,” Alderson says. However, he adds, “[w]e’ve had a lot of people hurt for long periods of time. … We’ve got some young guys in particular that are not hitting. We’ve got some older players that have had to try to carry the load. I think to put all of this on Terry would be grossly unfair.”

The Mets’ front office also had a meeting Thursday, although FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal indicates that the meeting was routine and that the organization did not discuss Collins’ status. Rosenthal notes,  however, that the next several weeks will be important ones for the team.

The Mets were 15-5 in late April, but since then they’ve gone 26-35 and are currently just one game above .500. Veteran hitters like Michael Cuddyer and Lucas Duda have struggled lately, along with relievers like Carlos Torres and Alex Torres. Cuddyer, David Wright and catcher Travis d’Arnaud are among a number of Mets players currently dealing with injuries.

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