Pirates Sign Michael Plassmeyer To Minor League Deal
The Pirates have signed left-hander Michael Plassmeyer to a minor league deal, according to the transactions section of the southpaw’s MLB.com profile page. It’s not clear whether or not the deal includes an invite to big league Spring Training next month.
Plassmeyer, 27, was a fourth-round pick by Seattle in the 2018 draft. Shortly thereafter, the lefty was included in the five-player trade between the Mariners and the Rays that sent Mike Zunino to Tampa Bay. Plassmeyer dominated the lower levels of the minors with the Rays, pitching to a 1.91 ERA in 25 appearances across three levels with a 21.2% strikeout rate in 132 innings of work. Unfortunately for the lefty, his progress would be delayed by the minor league season in 2020 being cancelled and another trade as he was shipped to San Francisco in exchange for Matt Wisler and cash during the 2021 season.
Upon joining the Giants, Plassmeyer struggled in 16 appearances at the Double-A level with a 5.08 ERA in 79 2/3 innings of work. Those struggles in the San Francisco farm system continued into the 2022 season as the lefty posted a 7.38 ERA in 11 appearances at the Triple-A level. The southpaw’s difficulties with the Giants came to an end midseason when he was traded for the third time in his career, this time to the Phillies. His season took a turn for the better down the stretch at the Triple-A level with Philadelphia, as he posted a 2.41 ERA in 82 innings of work across 16 starts. Plassmeyer’s strong results led to a call up to the majors late in the 2022 season that saw him post a 3.68 ERA in 7 1/3 innings of work across two appearances.
Back in the minor leagues in 2023, Plassmeyer spent much of the summer on the injured list and struggled when he was able to take the mound, with a 5.05 ERA in 16 appearances at the Triple-A level. His second cup of coffee in the majors didn’t go as well as the first, as Plassmeyer allowed ten runs (nine earned) on eight hits and three hit batsmen while striking out just four in 3 2/3 innings of work. Plassmeyer hit minor league free agency on the heels of that difficult season, and will now travel across Pennsylvania to join the Pirates.
The southpaw joins a Pittsburgh organization in need of pitching depth with each of JT Brubaker, Mike Burrows, and Johan Oviedo currently rehabbing Tommy John surgery. While Plassmeyer seems unlikely to break into a rotation mix that currently features Mitch Keller, Marco Gonzales, Martin Perez, Bailey Falter, Roansy Contreras, and Luis Ortiz, he figures to provide the Pirates with a depth option capable of pitching both out of the bullpen and rotation headed into the 2024 campaign.
Astros Sign Chris Gittens To Minor League Deal
The Astros and first baseman Chris Gittens are in agreement on a minor league deal, as noted in the transactions log on his MLB.com profile page. It’s currently unclear whether or not the deal will include an invitation to big league Spring Training next month.
Gittens, 30 in February, was a 12th-round pick by the Yankees back in 2014. He spent several years slowly moving up the big league ladder until he eventually reached the majors during the 2021 season. His stint with the big league club ultimately lasted just 16 games, during which he struggled to a .111/.250/.194 slash line. Despite those brutal numbers in the majors, Gittens excelled at the Triple-A level in 2021 with a fantastic slash line of .301/.440/.644 in 184 trips to the plate.
That strong performance earned Gittens an opportunity overseas, and he signed on with the Tohoku Rakuten Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball prior to the 2022 season. Across two years as a member of the Eagles, Gittens made it into just 50 games, but the slugger impressed in that limited playing time with a .299/.426/.493 slash line in 169 trips to the plate. That performance was evidently enough for the Astros to have interest in Gittens, who figures to carry little risk as a likely minor league signing.
Gittens has struggled to stay on the field in recent years, having stepped up to the plate in a professional game just 289 times since the end of the 2019 campaign. That being said, the slugger has hit well in every opportunity when healthy during that time, with the notable exception of his aforementioned 16-game cup of coffee in the majors back in 2021. Headed into the 2024 season, Gittens could be given the opportunity this spring to compete with fellow first baseman Jon Singleton as a bench bat who can back up veteran Jose Abreu at first.
White Sox Outright Carlos Perez
The White Sox announced this afternoon that catcher Carlos Perez has been assigned outright to Triple-A. The 27-year-old was designated for assignment last week to make room for right-hander Chris Flexen on the 40-man roster.
Not to be confused with older brother Carlos Perez, who caught 66 games with the A’s last year in his fifth major league season, the younger Perez signed out of Venezuela with the White Sox back in 2014. Though Perez didn’t reach the upper levels of the minors until the 2021 season, the backstop has held his own with a .245/.306/.428 slash line in 190 career games at the Triple-A level and has spent the past two seasons as catching depth for the White Sox behind Yasmani Grandal and Seby Zavala. Perez made it into 34 games with the big league club since he first joined the roster in 2022, though he slashed an unimpressive .209/.254/.343 in 71 trips to the plate during that time.
The White Sox have completely revamped their catching corps this offseason as both Grandal and Zavala have departed. Youngster Korey Lee joined the club at the trade deadline last year while offseason deals have brought in both Max Stassi and Martin Maldonado. Those moves have left little room for Perez on a fairly crowded White Sox 40-man roster, prompting the club to designate him for assignment. Now that he’s been successfully passed through waivers, the White Sox have chosen to outright him to the minor leagues.
Perez has neither the requisite service time nor a previous outright assignment on his resume to allow him to elect free agency, meaning he’ll remain in the White Sox organization for the 2024 campaign as non-roster depth who could be called upon in the event of an injury or trade thinning out the club’s catching depth at the big league level at some point during the coming season.
KBO’s Samsung Lions Sign Denyi Reyes
The Samsung Lions of the Korea Baseball Organization have signed right-hander Denyi Reyes, per Jeeho Yoo of Yonhap News. The deal is for $800K, including $200K of incentives.
Reyes, 27, has been a fringy major leaguer for the past few years. He was able to toss 7 2/3 innings for the Orioles in 2022 and 19 2/3 innings for the Mets in 2023. He has a combined 6.26 earned run average in that small sample of 27 1/3 frames. He was outrighted by the Mets at the beginning of the offseason and elected free agency.
A few years ago, he was a notable starting pitching prospect with the Red Sox. In 2018, he tossed 155 2/3 innings in the minors with a 1.97 ERA, split between Single-A and High-A. In 2019, he moved up to Double-A and threw 151 1/3 innings. His ERA jumped to 4.16 but he was still just 22 years old at the time.
The pandemic wiped out the minor leagues in 2020 and Reyes’s results have been on the tepid side since then. As mentioned, his small sample of major league work hasn’t been amazing and he also has a 6.30 ERA at the Triple-A level.
The Lions and Reyes will be hoping that a change of scenery can get him back on track. He will also lock in a salary figure higher than if he stayed in North America, where he likely would have been limited to minor league deals. If things go well overseas, Reyes is young enough that he could perhaps return to North America in a year or two, a path taken by players like Erick Fedde, Josh Lindblom, Merrill Kelly and others.
KBO teams are allowed a maximum of three foreign players and this will be the Lions’ third, as they already signed infielder David MacKinnon and right-hander Connor Seabold. As pointed out by Yoo, this means the Lions won’t be re-signing David Buchanan, who has spent the past four years pitching for the Lions with a 3.02 ERA in that time.
Astros Designate Joel Kuhnel For Assignment
The Astros have designated right-hander Joel Kuhnel for assignment, reports Chandler Rome of The Athletic. Houston needed to open a roster spot for righty Declan Cronin, who they claimed off waivers from the White Sox.
Kuhnel, 29 in February, came to the Astros in June via a cash deal, having spent his entire career with the Reds prior to that. He has 83 2/3 innings of major league experience between those two clubs with an earned run average of 6.02 in that time. His 19.3% strikeout rate is below par but his 6.5% walk rate and 52.5% ground ball rate are both strong. It’s possible there’s some bad luck in there, as his .323 batting average on balls in play and 64.6% strand rate are both on the unfortunate side of average. That’s led to a 4.55 FIP and 5.57 SIERA that are a bit more optimistic than his actual ERA. He’s generally had similar results in the minors, with limited punchouts but lots of worm burners.
Nonetheless, it seems he’s the lesser of two ground ball guys, as Cronin has a similar profile and has now nabbed Kuhnel’s roster spot. The Astros will now have a week to trade Kuhnel or pass him through waivers. If the latter scenario were to come to pass, Kuhnel would be able to elect free agency due to the fact that he has a previous career outright. He still has an option year remaining though and could perhaps appeal to clubs in search of extra bullpen depth.
Twins Claim Ryan Jensen From Marlins
The Twins announced that they have claimed right-hander Ryan Jensen from the Marlins. The latter club designated him for assignment two weeks ago. DFA limbo normally only lasts a week but the clock is paused for the week from Christmas to New Year’s Day. Minnesota’s 40-man roster count is now at 38.
Jensen, 26, now joins his fourth organization, though he still hasn’t made his major league debut. He was drafted by the Cubs with a first-round pick, 27th overall, in 2019. As he climbed the minor league ladder, he posted some mediocre results, largely due to control issues. The Cubs nonetheless added him to their 40-man roster in November of 2022 to keep him out of the Rule 5 draft. His struggles continued in 2023, which put him into the waiver carousel. Between August and today, he has gone to the Mariners, Marlins and now Twins via waiver claims from each club.
He was moved from the rotation to the bullpen this year, which didn’t lead to immediate results. He started the year in the Double-A rotation in the Cubs’ system, got moved to the bullpen and then bumped up to Triple-A. He posted an earned run average of 5.06 at that level between the Cubs and Mariners, walking 20.1% of batters faced in the process. He has walked 14.5% of batters faced in his minor league career overall.
For the Twins, they had a few open roster spots and will take a flier on the former first-round pick to see if they can help him harness his stuff. Despite the free passes, he’s also struck out a strong 25.9% of batters faced in his minor league career overall. He still has a couple of options remaining and can be kept in the minors until he shows some progress.
Yankees Claim Bubba Thompson From Reds
The Yankees announced that they have claimed outfielder Bubba Thompson off waivers from the Reds. The latter club designated him for assignment last week. The Yanks came into today with two open roster spots on their 40-man roster but have now claimed Thompson and reportedly signed right-hander Cody Poteet.
Thompson, 26 in June, has 92 games of major league experience, all of that coming with the Rangers over the past two seasons. He has hit .242/.286/.305 in his first 241 major league plate appearances, which translates to a wRC+ of 65. But he has 22 steals in 27 tries and Statcast considers his sprint speed to be elite, with just Elly De La Cruz and Bobby Witt Jr. ahead of him in 2023.
His hitting has been a bit better at the Triple-A level, where he’s hit .284/.347/.440 for a wRC+ of 95 dating back to the start of 2022. Since he has that elite speed and is considered a strong outfield defender as well, even a bit of offense could make him an intriguing player.
The Yankees have a crowded outfield with Aaron Judge, Juan Soto, Alex Verdugo and Trent Grisham all set for regular or semi-regular playing time. Jasson Domínguez will be in the mix once he rehabs from Tommy John surgery. Oswaldo Cabrera will likely be on the roster in a utility capacity while Everson Pereira and Oscar González are on the 40-man as well.
Thompson still has a couple of options, so the Yanks can keep in the minors to get regular reps and see if his bat develops. Even if that doesn’t happen, his speed and defense could help him carve out a bench role as a pinch runner or defensive replacement at some point. He still has less than a year of service time and is therefore still a ways away from free agency or even reaching arbitration.
Astros Claim Declan Cronin From White Sox
The Astros are claiming right-hander Declan Cronin off waivers from the White Sox, per MLB Transactions Daily. The righty was designated for assignment by the Sox a week ago. Houston has a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move.
Cronin, 26, made his major league debut with the Sox last year, allowing 11 earned runs in 11 innings. He spent most of the year in Triple-A, where his results were naturally better, posting a 3.83 earned run average in 51 2/3 innings at that level. He only struck out 18.7% of batters faced but kept 54.5% of balls in play on the ground. That ability to get worm burners has been a trademark of his, getting more than half of batted balls into the dirt at every stop of his career.
He lost his roster spot when the Sox needed to make room for their signing of Tim Hill and will now join the Astros. Houston has been trying to bolster its bullpen after Héctor Neris, Ryne Stanek and Phil Maton got to free agency. However, general manager Dana Brown has repeatedly talked about a lack of available funds and the club is right around the competitive balance tax line. Roster Resource pegs their CBT number at $237.4MM, just barely above the $237MM base threshold.
Cronin will give them some depth on the cheap, as he’s still at least a couple of years away from reaching arbitration. He also still has all three option years remaining, which could allow the club to keep him in the minors until he earns his way into a major league role.
Yankees Interested In Blake Snell
The Yankees are interested in left-hander Blake Snell, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post. That meshes with reporting from Andy Martino of SNY, who says the club is “planning an active January” as it hopes to add to its pitching staff before Spring Training. Martino adds that Snell has privately expressed an interest in the Yankees, though also adds they are not the only club in his market.
The Yankees were heavily pursuing Yoshinobu Yamamoto, highlighting their desire to add to their rotation. Previous reports from Mark Feinsand of MLB.com and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic suggested that, if the Yanks missed on Yamamoto, they might pivot to build a super bullpen instead of focusing on the rotation. Now that Yamamoto has signed with the Dodgers, the Yankees are exploring their other options and it seems they haven’t totally abandoned the idea of a significant rotation addition. They have had ongoing interest in bringing back Jordan Montgomery and now Snell appears to be on the table as well.
If they were to sign Snell, they would have a rotation fronted by the two reigning Cy Young winners. Snell just took home the National League hardware for his excellent season with the Padres while Gerrit Cole got the American League trophy. Despite that, the pitchers are actually quite different. While Cole has been the poster boy for stability and reliability, Snell’s career has been more erratic.
He finished 2023 with 180 innings pitched for the Friars, registering a 2.25 ERA in that time. He struck out 31.5% of batters faced and kept 44.4% of batted balls on the ground but also gave out walks at a 13.3% clip. That got him second career Cy Young, the first coming with the Rays in 2018 when he had a 1.89 ERA. But the four seasons in between those two elite campaigns were more shaky. His ERA finished 4.20 or higher twice and he didn’t reach 130 innings in any of them, dealing with various injuries.
Those concerns aside, Snell is clearly one of the best pitchers in the league when things are going well and he has received interest from the Giants, Angels, Mets and Red Sox. The Yankees slotting him next to Cole would give the club an excellent one-two punch. Carlos Rodón and Nestor Cortes are each coming off disappointing injury-marred seasons but have been excellent in the past. If they are able to bounce back this year, and the club signs Snell, then they would be looking at arguably the best front four in the league. The depth was thinned out in the Juan Soto deal, with four pitchers going to San Diego, but the Yanks still have Clarke Schmidt, Clayton Beeter, Yoendrys Gómez, Luis Gil and Will Warren as options for the back end.
At the start of the offseason, MLBTR predicted Snell to land a seven-year deal worth $200MM, around $28.6MM per year. The Yankees haven’t been shy about handing out huge deals for starting pitchers in recent years, as they gave Cole $324MM, Rodon $162MM and reportedly offered Yamamoto $300MM over 10 years.
Per Roster Resource, the club currently has a payroll of $279MM and a competitive balance tax figure of $290MM. The Yanks are set to pay the luxury tax for a third straight year, meaning they have a base tax rate of 50% for any spending beyond the lowest threshold of $237MM. As the brackets go up in $20MM increments, their tax rates jump to 62%, 95% and 110%. They are already well beyond the third line and just $7MM away from the highest tier. That means that signing Snell to a salary in the $25-30MM range would actually cost them around twice as much when factoring in the taxes.
Last year, the club was reluctant to pass the final tier but it feels as though they are more willing to blow past it this year, given that they are so close to it and still actively pursuing upgrades. Even if they eventually turn away from a rotation addition and turn instead to relievers like Jordan Hicks or Robert Stephenson, they would still find themselves on the other side of the border.
The Braves’ Fifth Starter Possibilities
There’s no question about the top four in the Braves rotation. Atlanta acquired Chris Sale over the weekend to join Spencer Strider, Max Fried and Charlie Morton in a high-upside staff, then promptly extended Sale. The Braves don’t have a set choice for the #5 spot to open the year. It seems that’ll be up for grabs in camp.
On an appearance on The Bill Shanks Show on Tuesday, Atlanta president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos suggested the front office was willing to consider a number of options for the last rotation job. “It’ll be open competition for the fifth spot,” he told Shanks. The front office leader name-checked five candidates for the position (albeit without saying it was an exhaustive list): Bryce Elder, Reynaldo López, AJ Smith-Shawver, Huascar Ynoa and Hurston Waldrep.
Atlanta had a camp battle for the final two spots last spring. They surprisingly tabbed Jared Shuster and Dylan Dodd, neither of whom had made their MLB debuts, for season-opening roles after impressive Spring Training performances. While neither rookie fared all that well, the Braves are open to again turning to a young arm if they outperform others in the spring.
“We’re going to take the best players,” Anthopoulos said. “We never assume the division. You can lose it or win it by a game, as we saw in 2022 (when) it came down the wire. … We’re going to break with the best team. Like anything, we’ll try to maintain our depth. If there’s a lot of ties or it’s close, we’ll keep our depth. But we’re hopeful these guys are all good in Spring Training and make it hard on us.”
Perhaps an opportunity will arise for the Braves to add a surefire #5 starter within the next couple months. That doesn’t appear to be an organizational priority, however. There seems a good chance Atlanta is content with a camp battle between the group that Anthopoulos referenced. They’ll likely all play roles at some point as injuries necessitate, but we’ll run through the top candidates for the Opening Day job as things currently stand.
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Elder surprisingly emerged as a rotation mainstay for Atlanta a year ago. Despite briefly starting the season with Triple-A Gwinnett, he wound up taking the ball 31 times and tossing 174 2/3 innings — second on the team behind Strider. Elder had a great first half, pitching to a 2.97 ERA en route to an All-Star selection. He didn’t find that same level of success down the stretch, as he surrendered a 5.11 mark in the second half. The Phillies tagged him for six runs in 2 2/3 frames during his only postseason start.
At year’s end, Elder still carried a solid 3.81 ERA. Despite the rough finish, he was a valuable part of Brian Snitker’s pitching staff. It’s nevertheless questionable whether he can replicate a sub-4.00 ERA without missing many bats. Elder had a below-average 17.5% strikeout rate and 9.9% swinging strike percentage a season ago. He’s a ground-ball specialist whose sinker was below the 90 MPH mark on average. It’s a very different profile from the high-octane strikeout stuff of the top four in the rotation (and that of some of his competitors for the #5 job). Anthopoulos pointed out that Elder still has a full slate of minor league options and could start the year in Gwinnett if he doesn’t break camp with the MLB team, as Ian Anderson did in 2023.
López, on the other hand, is certainly going to be on the major league roster. The question is whether that’s in the rotation or the bullpen. Atlanta signed the 30-year-old righty to a three-year, $30MM free agent deal at the start of the offseason. While the price tag wasn’t a surprise, the Braves’ subsequent announcement they might stretch López out as a starter was unexpected.
Teams have used López almost exclusively in relief for the past two and a half seasons. He hasn’t had a full year as a starter since 2019, when he was tagged for a 5.38 ERA in 184 innings for the White Sox. López has shown the durability to hold up from the rotation, topping 180 frames in consecutive seasons for Chicago in 2018-19. The former top prospect has been much more effective when working in shorter stints, though. He owns a 3.02 ERA with a 27.4% strikeout percentage in 131 1/3 innings between a trio of clubs since the start of 2022.
Smith-Shawver, who turned 21 in November, was among the youngest players to reach the majors last season. He got to the big leagues within two years of being drafted out of high school. Smith-Shawver didn’t hold a long-term rotation role, appearing in six games (five starts). He posted a 4.26 ERA through 25 1/3 innings despite middling strikeout and walk rates and seven home runs.
The 6’3″ hurler had a more impressive statistical track record in the minors. He combined for 62 frames between the top three minor league levels, allowing a 2.76 ERA while striking out 31.3% of opponents. Smith-Shawver walked over 13% of batters faced in the minors, so he’s clearly not a finished product. That’s to be expected given his youth. The Braves were impressed enough with the huge swing-and-miss potential he’d shown to carry him in relief on their playoff roster last October. He has two options remaining.
Ynoa, still just 25, pitched at the MLB level from 2019-22. He turned in mid-rotation results (4.05 ERA, 26.9% strikeout rate and 6.7% walk percentage) in 2021, although he was limited to 91 innings thanks to a self-inflicted hand fracture when he punched a dugout wall. He dropped into a depth role by the ’22 season, allowing a 5.68 ERA over 18 Triple-A appearances. He underwent Tommy John surgery that September and missed all of last year. He is expected to be a full participant in Spring Training. The Braves tendered him an arbitration contract but could send him to the minors for another season, as he has one option remaining.
The only player in this quintet who has yet to reach the majors, Waldrep is on a fast track to MLB. Atlanta’s first-round pick a year ago, the hard-throwing righty went from the College World Series in June to Triple-A by September. The Florida product had a brilliant 1.53 ERA while fanning a third of batters faced in his first eight professional starts at four levels (including one appearance in Gwinnett).
Atlanta is among the most aggressive teams in promoting its top prospects. As a college draftee, Waldrep is around nine months older than Smith-Shawver is. He has far less professional experience and isn’t on the 40-man roster, but he was drafted out of a strong program in college baseball’s top conference. Anthopoulos conceded it’d be ideal for both Waldrep and Smith-Shawver to have more developmental time but rhetorically asked, “if they come in and they are so much better than anybody else, how we do deny them?“