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Quick Hits: Cubs, Rollins, Yankees, Suarez

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The Cubs can look forward to a bright future, writes Peter Gammons of Gammons Daily. Top prospect Kris Bryant is busy hammering Double-A pitching (.358/.462/.713 in 286 plate appearances), fourth overall pick Kyle Schwarber homered in his professional debut, and high profile Cuban Jorge Soler is back on the field. Gammons points to Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro as two useful building blocks, and he credits recent trades as another reason for optimism. The Cubs acquired much of their current bullpen, along with Mike Olt and Jake Arrieta, at the 2013 trade deadline. This season, Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel headline the list of Cubbies potentially on the trade block.

  • Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins hit a single today for his 2,235th base knock with the club, moving him past Mike Schmidt for the franchise lead in hits. As Ken Rosenthal speculated last weekend, Rollins may be more willing to waive his ten and five rights now that he holds that club record. Rollins himself said today that he would consider accepting a trade if the Phillies end up pursuing a full rebuild, reports Jim Salisbury of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. Of course, even if Rollins does waive his no-trade clause, the club may need to eat some salary in order to receive a valuable player in return. His $11MM vesting option for 2015 will vest with another 156 plate apperances.
  • Pending the results of tonight’s matchup against the Athletics, the Yankees have played to a healthy 35-31 record. Much of the club’s success can be attributed to rotation depth, says Jorge Castillo of The Star Ledger. With Ivan Nova, Michael Pineda, and C.C. Sabathia missing substantial time, it has fallen to David Phelps, Vidal Nuno, and Chase Whitley to keep the staff afloat. Whitley has been the most surprising story for the Yankees with a 2.41 ERA (backed up by a 2.58 FIP) in six starts. Of course, steady production from Hiroki Kuroda and a Cy Young quality performance from Masahiro Tanaka have also helped to stabilize the rotation.
  • Recent Tigers call-up Eugenio Suarez fell just a single short of the cycle today in Detroit’s 12-9 victory over the Twins. Despite a rough spring training, the Venezuelan shortstop hit well in the minors this season before earning his promotion. In a post earlier this week on MLB.com, Phil Rogers discussed Suarez’s work with former defensive wizard Omar Vizquel.  It appears Vizquel also believes in Suarez’s bat, citing a shorter swing and improved discipline against breaking balls for his success in the upper minors. The shortstop position has been a problem area all year for the AL Central leading Tigers. If the 22-year-old Suarez continues to perform, the club may be able to focus more attention at the trade deadline on its bullpen.

Yankees Sign Jacob Lindgren

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The Yankees have signed second-round pick Jacob Lindgren, Chad Jennings of LoHud.com tweets. This morning, George A. King III of the New York Post wrote that Lindgren’s signing was expected, and that he would receive the bonus pool amount, which is around $1.02MM for the No. 55 overall pick.

Baseball America ranked Lindgren the No. 50 prospect in the draft, and MLB.com ranked him No. 51. The Mississippi State junior throws a low-90s fastball and a very good slider, and appears likely to pitch as a reliever, although MLB.com notes the possibility that he could start.

Quick Hits: Rodon, Iglesias, Yankees, Tigers

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Five clubs now have new top prospects heading out of the amateur draft, writes ESPN.com’s Keith Law (Insider link). He lists the White Sox (Carlos Rodon), Angels (Sean Newcomb), Mariners (Alex Jackson), Tigers (Derek Hill), and Mets (Michael Conforto) as teams with a new man on top of their respective totem poles. Of course, none of these players have been reported to have signed with their new clubs.

Here’s more on Rodon as well as some other notes from around the game:

  • The White Sox appear to have saved $385.6K with their round two-through-ten amateur draft signings, tweets Jim Callis of MLB.com. That would free the club to commit up to $6,107,100 to Rodon, the third overall selection of the draft, without incurring any penalties.
  • Cuban prospect Raisel Iglesias, a right-handed pitcher, has been granted an extended signing window, reports Ben Badler of Baseball America. By operation of several rules, Iglesias would have been required to sign by June 15 to avoid being subject to the next year’s July 2 bonus pools. Instead, he and three other, lesser-regarded Cubans (Jozzen Cuesta, Eduardo Rives, and Orestes Solano) will now be permitted until July 1 of this year to sign without being subject to changes in the international signing system. Last we heard, Iglesias (whose first name has been spelled in various ways in different reports) was set to put on a showcase in Haiti, where he has established residency. He is said to be capable of potentially joining a major league bullpen as soon as this year.
  • In other international news, the Yankees have agreed to substantial bonuses with several top July 2 players, reports Andy Martino of the New York Daily News. Dermis Garcia ($3.6MM bonus), Nelson Gomez ($2.8MM), and Christopher Torres ($2.6MM) are all said to be headed to the Yankees. Kiley McDaniel of Scout.com previously reported that the trio, among others, was set to sign with New York, though the indication at the time was that Garcia would land $3MM while Torres would get just $1MM.
  • The Tigers could end up regretting their move to lock up Justin Verlander two years before his original extension was set to expire, Ben Lindbergh writes for FOX Sports. Though Verlander bounced back from struggles last year, Lindbergh explains that a variety of indicators suggest that the 31-year-old may no longer be the elite arm that he once was.
  • In an interesting discussion of pitching risk regarding another key Tigers hurler, Max Scherzer, Dave Cameron of Fangraphs writes that the ace is showing the possible value of utilizing private insurance rather than opting for the two extremes of signing an extension or bearing the risk of reaching (and landing a big contract in) free agency. Cameron concludes that policies like Scherzer’s “are almost certainly cheaper [for the player] than taking the kinds of long-term deals that MLB teams have been offering of late.” You’ll want to give the fascinating piece a full read.

AL East Notes: Gausman, Yankees, Uehara, Drew, Lackey

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Orioles righty Kevin Gausman has made a strong showing in his most recent MLB stint, and that could set him up for a more permanent big league assignment, reports Eduardo Encina of the Baltimore Sun. The 23-year-old came into the year rated as the 20th prospect in the game by Baseball America. Having entered the season with 71 days of service to his credit, Gausman would line himself up for potential Super Two status down the line if he can stay up for most or all of the rest of the season.

  • The latest injury news out of the Yankees’ rotation is not promising, reports Jorge Castillo of the Star-Ledger. Manager Joe Girardi said today that C.C. Sabathia is not expected to return until after the All-Star break, while Michael Pineda will probably be out until August at the earliest. Those updates certainly seem to increase the already-strong odds that New York will be in the market for starting pitching help at the trade deadline.
  • Red Sox closer Koji Uehara addressed his future recently, as Rob Bradford of WEEI.com reports. He said that his approaching free agency has not changed anything about how he goes to work, and indicated that he is taking things year to year at this point. “If I could change how I perform based on my free agent year, I would,” said Uehara. “But I can’t, so I’m just going to pitch how I can pitch. It doesn’t really affect me because I’m an older player. Every year I consider my last year.” As Bradford notes, it is reasonable to wonder whether Boston will consider making Uehara a qualifying offer after the season. As with last season, there are several high-performing late-inning relievers set to hit the open market, including Uehara, the Yankees’ David Robertson, Sergio Romo of the Giants, and the Jays’ Casey Janssen. Though he is throwing in his age-39 season, the righty has been nothing short of outstanding since coming to Boston on a one-year, $4.25MM deal that included an option that vested for 2014.
  • Boston CEO Larry Lucchino addressed several topics in an interview with WEEI.com’s Dennis & Callahan (story via WEEI.com’s Nick Canelas). Signing Stephen Drew made sense in part based on “the idea of paying money rather than paying prospects,” he said. While Drew is off to a rough start and is currently sidelined with an oblique injury, Lucchino says that the evaluation of the deal will still depend on how the rest of the year plays out.
  • Lucchino also touched on the situation of starter John Lackey. The club owns a league-minimum option over the starter for 2015 by operation of a vesting clause in his free agent contract. The Boston CEO said that the expectation is that Lackey will be back next year, but that it may not be at the relatively meager sum of $500K. “It depends on the circumstances,” he said. “John Lackey has been a tremendous contributor to this team this year and last. And we love having him here, and we’d like to have him here for a longer period of time. We’ll see when the time comes to negotiate whether there should be a playing out of the contract, whether there should be renegotiation with an extension. We’re open to a variety of possibilities.”

Yankees To Sign Third-Rounder Austin DeCarr

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The Yankees have agreed to go significantly over slot to sign third-round pick Austin DeCarr, reports Jim Callis of MLB.com (Twitter link). DeCarr will take home a $1MM bonus, well above the $585.1K slot value for the 91st overall pick.

DeCarr is a prep righty from Connecticut who had been committed to Clemson. He did not make the top-100 list of ESPN.com’s Keith Law, but was rated at 68th by Baseball America and 70th by MLB.com’s Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo. BA says that DeCarr works in the low-to-mid-90s and has a nice curve, but lacks another above-average secondary offering at the moment.

DeCarr was the only non-collegian chosen in the first ten rounds by New York. The Yankees entered the draft with just $3.2MM in available bonus pool money, the least of any club other than the Orioles.

Yankees To Sign Heath Bell

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The Yankees have agreed to sign reliever Heath Bell to a minor league deal, reports Chad Jennings of LoHud.com (via Twitter). (Mark Feinsand of the New York Daily News tweeted that a deal appeared to have been reached, since Bell was added to the roster of Triple-A Scranton.)

That makes Bell’s third AL East team on the season. He started the year with the Rays after coming over in trade from the Diamondbacks, and was signed to a minor league deal with the Orioles upon being released by Tampa Bay. But Bell opted out of his contract with the O’s.

The 36-year-old righty has had a rocky go of it in recent years, though advanced metrics suggested that bad luck had explained some of his poor results. But things went from bad to worse in 2014, as Bell owns a hard-to-sugarcoat 7.27 ERA through 17 1/3 innings with the Rays and a 4.22 mark in 10 2/3 frames with Triple-A Norfolk (the Orioles’ top affiliate).

Minor Moves: Clark, Hoffman, Sanchez, Fox, Yankees

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

  • Orioles right-hander Zach Clark has been released, tweets Steve Melewski of MASNsports.com. Clark, a knuckleballer by trade, tweeted a thank you to the organization today. The 30-year-old made a brief cameo with Baltimore last season — his only Major League experience to date. The University of Maryland alum has spent eight years in Baltimore’s system after signing as an undrafted free agent. He owns a career 4.21 ERA with 5.5 K/9 and 2.9 BB/9 in 869 1/3 innings in the minors.
  • Twins Triple-A lefty Matt Hoffman has opted out of his deal with the club, the team announced via press release (hat tip: Phil Miller of the Star Tribune, who tweeted the news of the release, and the Pioneer Press’ Brandon Warne, who noted the Triple-A press release indicated it was an opt-out). The 25-year-old Hoffman pitched well at Triple-A, posting a 3.80 ERA with 8.0 K/9 and 3.8 BB/9 in 21 1/3 innings of work.
  • Infielder Angel Sanchez has inked a minor league deal with the Dodgers and will report to Double-A Chattanooga, according to Ken Davidoff of the New York Post (Twitter link). Sanchez, 30, has a career .254/.303/.307 batting line between the Astros, Royals, Red Sox and White Sox. He has experience at shortstop, second base and third base.
  • The Phillies have acquired catcher/outfielder/corner infielder Jake Fox from the Mexican League, according to the team’s transactions page. The 31-year-old Fox had been destroying pitching in Mexico, slashing .307/.397/.605 with 16 home runs in 247 plate appearances. Fox hasn’t appeared in the Majors since 2011 with Baltimore, but he’s a career .237/.288/.425 hitter with 20 homers in 534 PAs.
  • The Yankees inked three undrafted college players following the 2014 draft, Baseball America’s Josh Norris tweeted earlier in the week: Liberty University right-hander Matt Marsh, USC catcher Jake Hernandez and Wright State right-hander Travis Hissong. The YES Network’s Lou DiPietro has more on each of the three players.

Yankees Acquire David Huff, Designate Wade LeBlanc For Assignment

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6:11pm: The Yankees officially announced both moves, noting that the team sent cash considerations to the Giants in exchange for Huff.

5:52pm: The Yankees have acquired left-hander David Huff from the Giants and designated fellow lefty Wade LeBlanc for assignment in order to create roster space, according to Daniel Barbarisi of the Wall Street Journal (on Twitter). Huff had been designated for assignment by the Giants last week. He will be with the Yankees for tonight’s game.

This will mark Huff’s second stint with New York, as he finished the 2013 campaign in Yankee pinstripes. Huff posted a 4.67 ERA with a 26-to-8 K/BB ratio in 34 1/3 innings for the Yanks last season and found himself traded to San Francisco in exchange for cash considerations in late January. With the Giants, Huff pitched to a disappointing 6.30 ERA with 11 strikeouts and six walks in 20 innings. He did manage a career-best 50.7 percent ground-ball rate in his 20 innings with San Fran, in part due to the introduction of a cut-fastball into his repertoire.

LeBlanc pitched just an inning for the Yankees, allowing two runs in his lone appearance. He’s allowed six runs in 7 1/3 innings this season between the Angels and Yankees, and he has a career 4.56 ERA with 6.0 K/9, 3.3 BB/9 and a 35.4 percent ground-ball rate in 424 1/3 innings between the Padres, Marlins, Angels, Yankees and Astros.

Minor Moves: Tomko, Burres, Aceves, Paxton

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Here are today’s minor league transactions from around baseball, with the latest moves at the top of the post…

  • Veteran Brett Tomko has found a new home with the Rockies on a minor league deal, reports Robert Murray of Sports Rumor Alert. Chris Cotillo of MLBDailyDish.com (Twitter link) also cites a source saying that the 41-year-old righty is headed to Colorado Springs. Tomko, who was recently set loose by the Royals, last threw in the bigs in 2011 with the Rangers. He owns a 4.65 ERA over 1,816 career innings with ten clubs, much of them as a starter.
  • Pitcher Brian Burres has also signed a minor league deal with the Rockies and will join their Triple-A affiliate, reports Mike Ashmore of MyCentralJersey.com (via Twitter). MLBTR reported back in May that Burres, most recently of the independent league Southern Maryland Blue Crabs, was drawing interest. The 33-year-old owns a 5.75 ERA through 358 1/3 career MLB frames.
  • Alfredo Aceves has accepted his outright assignment to Triple- A rather than electing free agency, MLB Daily Dish’s Chris Cotillo tweets. Aceves was designated for assignment last week and outrighted to Triple-A on Sunday.
  • The Mariners moved southpaw James Paxton to the 60-day disabled list in order to open a 40-man roster spot for Ji-Man Choi, the team announced.  Paxton has already spent more than 60 days on the DL while recovering from shoulder inflammation.  Choi will return to Double-A action after serving a 50-game PED suspension.
  • The Mets selected the contract of catcher Taylor Teagarden on Sunday, the team announced.  Teagarden will replaced the demoted Travis d’Arnaud on New York’s 25-man roster.  For making the Major League roster, Teagarden will earn $725K, as per the minor league deal he signed with the Mets in January.  The 30-year-old Teagarden posted a .950 OPS in 127 PA at Triple-A Las Vegas, a notoriously hitter-friendly park.
  • The Angels released outfielder Chevy Clarke, Baseball America’s Matt Eddy reports.  Clarke was picked in the first round (30th overall) of the 2010 draft as a high schooler, but he has yet to play above the high-A level, hitting .219/.306/.337 with 23 home runs over 1542 career PA.
  • Also from Eddy, the Diamondbacks released right-hander Eric Smith.  Originally taken by Arizona in the second round of the 2009 draft, Smith posted a 5.10 ERA over 429 minor league innings (65 starts, 77 relief appearances).  Smith was hit with a 50-game suspension last season for taking a drug of abuse, his second such violation.
  • The Rangers released right-hander Chris Schwinden last week, as announced by the team’s Triple-A affiliate (via Twitter).  Schwinden was hit hard in three starts for Round Rock, posting an 11.25 ERA over 12 innings.  The 27-year-old pitched 29 2/3 innings for the Mets in 2011-12 and has pitched for five different organizations (plus an independent league team ) since the start of the 2012 season.

AL East Links: Balfour, Price, Drew, BoSox

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Grant Balfour is no longer the Rays’ closer, as manager Joe Maddon told reporters (including Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times) that his team is moving to a closer committee.  The demotion comes as no surprise following Balfour’s rough performance on Sunday, when he allowed the Mariners to score five runs in the ninth inning.  Balfour has struggled badly this season, posting a 6.46 ERA and recording almost as many walks (20) as strikeouts (21) over 23 2/3 innings of work.  The 36-year-old signed a two-year, $12MM free agent contract with Tampa in the offseason.  If you have Balfour on a fantasy team, stay tuned to @CloserNews (MLBTR’s save-centric sister Twitter account) to keep tabs on the Rays’ bullpen and other late-game situations throughout baseball.

Here’s some more from the AL East…

  • The Rays could be sellers at the trade deadline, and Fangraphs’ Eno Sarris looks at some of the club’s veteran pieces with a particular focus on David Price.  While Tampa Bay will rightly seek a big prospect haul for Price, Sarris notes the difficulty in finding a contender (especially outside the AL East) who has the necessary minor league depth to swing a trade.  Sarris also notes that a fire sale seems unlikely, as the Rays will still look to contend in 2015.
  • Peter Gammons discussed several Red Sox topics in an interview on the Dennis & Callahan radio show this morning (WEEI.com’s Conor Ryan has a partial transcript).  While Gammons doesn’t think the Red Sox regret signing the struggling Stephen Drew, “there are so many political angles at play here that you’ve just got to wonder, ‘€˜What are they going to be a year from now?”  Gammons believes the Boston media’s criticisms of Xander Bogaerts’ ability to play short pressured the club to re-sign Drew, whereas Gammons felt the Red Sox should’ve acquired an outfielder instead.
  • Gammons doesn’t see the Red Sox becoming major sellers if they fall out of the race because they want pitchers like Jon Lester and John Lackey back in 2015 and also “just because of the nature of the Boston fans and because of the nature of the market and because of NESN.”  A.J. Pierzynski could potentially become a trade chip if the Sox fell far enough out of a playoff spot, which would open the door for Christian Vasquez to get called up and gain some big league experience.
  • Red Sox GM Ben Cherington won’t make moves for the sake of making moves, John Tomase of the Boston Herald writes, as the current roster will have to prove its worth as a contender over the next six weeks to convince the front office to pursue upgrades.
  • Orioles executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette appeared on Middays With MFB today (again, tip of the cap to WEEI.com’s Conor Ryan) and said that trade talk around the league is slow since so many teams are still technically in contention.  “There aren’t many sellers, from what I can tell. Usually after the draft, which was just completed, teams will start calling around, but I only know that there’€™s just a couple of sellers right now….It’€™s going to be challenging to add to the team,” Duquette said.
  • The Yankees should look to shake up their struggling lineup by getting rid of Brian Roberts and Alfonso Soriano, Mike Axisa of the River Ave Blues blog opines.  Since Derek Jeter won’t be moved down in the lineup due to his stature, Axisa suggests that Jeter actually become the leadoff hitter in order to have the Yankees’ best four hitters (Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury, Mark Teixeira, Yangervis Solarte) all hit in a row.
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