Tigers Sign Daniel Norris, Jacob Barnes To Minor League Deals
The Tigers announced agreement with relievers Daniel Norris and Jacob Barnes on minor league contracts. Detroit also confirmed the signing of righty Chi Chi González to a non-roster deal, which was first reported over the weekend. Chris McCosky of the Detroit News reported (Twitter links) both of today’s signings before the club announcement.
Norris and Barnes have each previously been members of the organization. The former spent six seasons in Detroit. Acquired from the Blue Jays as the centerpiece of the David Price deadline deal in 2015, Norris spent his first few years in the rotation. His tenure was up-and-down, and the Tigers kicked him to the bullpen starting with the shortened 2020 campaign. The left-hander posted a 3.25 ERA through 27 2/3 frames as a multi-inning type that year. Norris struggled to keep runs off the board in the first half of the following season, but he had impressive enough strikeout and ground-ball numbers the Brewers acquired him for pitching prospect Reese Olson last summer.
That deal didn’t pan out for Milwaukee, as Norris’ ERA never bounced back. He qualified for free agency and signed a $1.75MM guarantee with the Cubs this spring. The 29-year-old tossed 30 innings for the North Siders but allowed nearly seven earned runs per nine. He struck out an excellent 32.1% of opponents, but a lofty 15.7% walk percentage and marked home run issues led Chicago to release him last week. The Tigers would only owe Norris the prorated portion of the $700K league minimum salary if he makes it back to the majors.
Barnes was a Tiger as recently as last month. The right-hander broke camp with Detroit and made 22 appearances, managing only a 6.10 ERA across 20 2/3 frames. Typically a high-strikeout arm, Barnes generated swinging strikes on a meager 7.7% of his offerings this season. The Tigers cut him loose last month. The 32-year-old signed a minor league deal with the Mariners, briefly reached the majors but didn’t make an appearance, and was then outrighted off Seattle’s roster. He elected free agency and now returns to his first organization of the season in hopes of getting back to the big leagues.
González has already suited up for two MLB teams this year. He began the season on a non-roster pact with the division-rival Twins, making a pair of starts. The Brewers claimed him off waivers and deployed him four times before outrighting him off the roster. The 30-year-old has a 6.87 ERA in 18 1/3 big league innings this season, although he posted a much more palatable 3.44 mark in Triple-A. Unlike Morris and Barnes, González can serve as rotation depth.
The additions to the pitching depth come at a time when the Tigers are widely expected to move multiple hurlers off the big league staff. As MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently explored, veteran relievers Andrew Chafin, Michael Fulmer and Joe Jiménez are among the league’s more obvious candidates to change teams before next Tuesday’s trade deadline.
Red Sox Reportedly Listening To Offers For J.D. Martinez
As the Red Sox continue to flounder through the month of July, there are increasing levels of speculation that Boston could sell off some short-term veterans — even if they continue to opportunistically look to add longer-term pieces who’ll help in 2023 and beyond. To that end, ESPN’s Buster Olney said on today’s Baseball Tonight podcast that designated hitter J.D. Martinez “is out in the trade market.” Boston was recently swept by the division-rival Blue Jays, dropping them to 17 games back in the AL East and three back in the Wild Card chase.
The 34-year-old Martinez (35 next month) would immediately become one of the best bets on the market if the Sox indeed do intend to trade him within the next week. Fresh off his fifth career All-Star appearance, Martinez remains a standout bat, hitting .302/.368/.481 with nine homers on the season. He may not be the 45-homer threat he was at his 2017-18 peak, but Martinez’s 8.7% walk rate and 23.6% strikeout rate are both right in line with his career levels, and he’s been 36% better than league-average at the plate by measure of wRC+.
Martinez is in the final season of a frontloaded five-year, $110MM contract that calls for a $19.375MM salary for the current season. He’s still owed about $7.55MM of that salary between now and season’s end, as of this writing, but for a hitter of his caliber it’s a generally reasonable rate of pay.
The extent to which the Red Sox are attempting to move Martinez isn’t yet known. Chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom typically takes an open-minded approach to the trade deadline and offseason alike, so it’s certainly feasible that he’s simply entertaining offers from other clubs. At the same time, if the Sox have determined that they don’t want to make a qualifying offer to Martinez at what will likely be a comparable rate to his current salary, they could more aggressively contact other clubs and try to initiate negotiations themselves.
Making Martinez available would obviously bring about further questions regarding the Sox’ roster. If they’re willing to move Martinez, it stands to reason that other clubs would inquire about the team’s other slate of pending free agents, at the very least. Nathan Eovaldi would quickly become the top name on the rental market for starting pitchers, and the Sox also have catcher Christian Vazquez, starters Michael Wacha and Rich Hill, utilityman Enrique Hernandez and reliever Matt Strahm set to reach free agency this winter.
Wacha, Hill, Strahm and Hernandez are all on the injured list at the moment, but all four are progressing toward returns (Twitter link via MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo). Hill is slated for a rehab assignment beginning tomorrow, while Wacha recently threw a simulated game. Strahm is only on the IL due to a wrist contusion (the All-Star break likely contributed to the factor to place him on the IL at all). Hernandez will be swinging a bat by the end of the week.
Of course, those players may not be considered quite as “easy” to replace as Martinez. While there’s no Martinez-level bat readily available to take his place, the Sox do have top prospect Triston Casas in Triple-A. Bobby Dalbec is playing third base right now with Rafael Devers on the injured list but could get a look at DH — or the Sox could simply use the designated hitter slot as a means of rotation their regulars and keeping them fresh down the stretch.
While a brief rental of a designated hitter might not generally be expected to produce a significant return, it at least bears mentioning that the Twins were able to pry minor league right-handers Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman from the Rays in last summer’s Nelson Cruz trade. Ryan, then an upper-level starter who’d recently pitched for Team USA in the Olympics, quickly found his way to the big leagues and has been Minnesota’s best starter since last September’s debut. That’ll likely be seen as the gold standard for rental trades of this nature for some time, however, and it’s not necessarily reasonable to expect the Red Sox — or any team — to pull off a return of that quality in exchange for a rental bat.
Obviously any talk of the Red Sox trading rental players will bring about speculation regarding shortstop Xander Bogaerts, who can and almost certainly will opt out of the final three years and $60MM remaining on his contract at season’s end. Bogaerts, however, has full no-trade protection under that contract. Paired with the opt-out provision on the deal, that makes a trade involving him a difficult (albeit not impossible) one to envision. ESPN’s Jeff Passan noted this morning that other teams expect Bogaerts to remain put even if Boston sells off other short-term pieces.
Twins Reinstate Miguel Sano
The Twins announced Tuesday that they’ve reinstated first baseman Miguel Sano from the 60-day injured list. Left-hander Danny Coulombe was moved from the 10-day IL to the 60-day IL in order to open a spot on the 40-man roster, while outfielder Gilberto Celestino was optioned to Triple-A St. Paul to open a spot on the active roster.
Sano, 29, got out to the worst start of his career with the Twins earlier this year when he began the season with a calamitous .093/.231/.148 batting line through 17 games and 65 plate appearances. That dismal start came in spite of a modest improvement in his still sky-high strikeout rate (32.3%, down from 34.4% in 2021) and a huge 52.9% hard-hit rate. Sano hit just one home run and did not have a multi-hit game on the season prior to injuring his knee during a walk-off celebration. He eventually underwent surgery to repair a torn meniscus and missed all of May and June in addition to most of July.
Because he’s in the final season of a three-year, $30MM contract and because the Twins have received strong production from prospects Alex Kirilloff and Jose Miranda in his absence, it looked for some time like Sano might not have a roster spot waiting for him when he returned. However, Sano decimated minor league opponents during his rehab assignment, hitting .333/.422/.795 with five home runs and three doubles through just 45 plate appearances. He drew six walks, punched out a dozen times and even swiped a base along the way.
That showing was enough to get Sano another opportunity despite the slow start, and it can’t hurt his cause that the now-optioned Celestino has faded after a blistering start to the season. The 23-year-old Celestino has been operating primarily as a fourth outfielder anyhow, and his last multi-hit effort came back on June 14. In 57 plate appearances since that time, he’s hitting just .148/.193/.222. Celestino still provides speed off the bench and elite defense across the outfield, so he can still provide value even if he’s not hitting. For now, however, it’ll be utilityman Nick Gordon serving as the primary backup to Byron Buxton in center field.
Sano is back in the Twins’ lineup today, but the former cleanup hitter has been dropped all the way to ninth. With Miranda hitting .313/.358/.531 in 137 plate appearances since his last recall from the minors and Kirilloff slashing .301/.339/.456 in 112 plate appearances since his own latest recall, Sano’s grasp on the Twins’ first base gig appears tenuous at present.
Both Kirilloff and Miranda are capable options at first base, and with Buxton, Max Kepler and Kyle Garlick in the outfield, plus Gio Urshela as an option at third base, both Kirilloff and Miranda could be used as regular options in a rotation between their respective positions and the DH spot. Sano’s case is aided by the fact that catcher Ryan Jeffers is out six to eight weeks after fracturing his thumb, pushing Gary Sanchez from frequent DH to starting catcher, but the fact remains that the Twins have options in the event that Sano’s struggles continue. With the guaranteed portion of his contract drawing to a close, it becomes more feasible that they could simply move on if he can’t right the ship.
All that said, the Twins would be hard-pressed to find a bigger lineup upgrade than what a healthy and effective Sano can bring to the table. Sano’s .223/.316/.466 batting line from the 2021 season isn’t exactly dominant, but that includes a similarly disastrous start to the one through which he labored earlier this year. From June 4 onward — coincidentally or not, right around the time MLB sent its infamous memo regarding pitcher usage of Spider Tack and other foreign substances — Sano batted .251/.330/.503 with 21 homers and 21 doubles in a span of 373 plate appearances.
The Twins hold a $14MM club option on Sano for the 2023 season — which comes with a $2.75MM buyout. It’s hard to see that option being picked up as things presently stand, but a huge few months from the slugger could change the equation.
Coulombe’s move to the 60-day injured list is largely a formality. He first hit the injured list with a hip impingement on May 11, returned for a day in late May, and went back on the 15-day IL with a recurrence of that same hip issue the very next day. He’s already been on the 15-day IL for for 60 days anyhow, so this switch doesn’t at all impact his ability to return if he gets back to a point where he’s medically cleared to do so. Coulombe, however, has yet to even begin a minor league rehab assignment. In 49 1/3 innings with the Twins dating back to 2020, Coulombe has a 2.92 ERA and a 45-to-19 K/BB ratio.
Yankees Place Giancarlo Stanton On 10-Day Injured List
The Yankees announced Tuesday that outfielder/designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to tendonitis in his left Achilles. The move is retroactive to Sunday. Outfielder Tim Locastro is up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre to take Stanton’s spot on the active roster.
Stanton, 32, was named the All-Star Game’s MVP after swatting a game-tying home run off Tony Gonsolin. He’s hitting .228/.309/.498 with 24 long balls on the season but has been an all-or-nothing hitter for the bulk of the summer. Stanton is just 23-for-138 dating back to June 1 (.167), but 13 of those 23 hits on which he’s connected have been home runs. He’s also plated 26 runs in that time, delivering several key hits despite a generally porous overall output at the plate.
With Stanton sidelined for a yet-to-be-determined period of time — the Yankees have not provided a potential timetable for his recovery — the Yankees can turn to hot-hitting Matt Carpenter for an increased role. Locastro, Aaron Hicks and Aaron Judge should see considerable run in the outfield, while struggling Joey Gallo may also see some increased opportunities to get back on track at the plate. At the same time, Stanton’s absence could further hasten the Yanks to pursue another bat that would push Gallo — whom they’re reportedly trying to trade — out of the picture entirely.
The 30-year-old Locastro is one of MLB’s fastest players and has a .256/.336/.414 batting line through 150 Triple-A plate appearances this season. He hit .240/.321/.480 in a tiny sample of 28 trips to the plate with the Yankees earlier this season but is an overall .232/.333/.337 hitter in parts of six Major League seasons.
Red Sox Designate Phillips Valdez For Assignment
The Red Sox have designated right-hander Phillips Valdez for assignment, the team announced Tuesday. His DFA will open a spot on the 40-man roster for righty Josh Winckowski, whose contract will be selected to the Major League roster today (as MassLive.com’s Chris Cotillo tweeted). Valdez’s subtraction from the roster in Triple-A Worcester also opens a spot there for outfielder Abraham Almonte, whom the Red Sox acquired from the Brewers in exchange for cash yesterday. Almonte is not on the 40-man roster, however.
Valdez, 30, has tallied 16 1/3 innings out of the Boston bullpen this season, pitching to a 4.41 ERA with an 18.1% strikeout rate and a 9.7% walk rate in that abbreviated sample. It’s his fourth consecutive season with big league time — the past three of which have come with the Sox. Overall, he carries a 4.56 ERA with a 20.8% strikeout rate, an 11.1% walk rate and a 53.9% ground-ball rate through 102 2/3 Major League innings.
Valdez has a decent track record in Triple-A, where he’s logged a 3.87 ERA in parts of five seasons — including a 3.06 mark in 17 2/3 innings this year. He was sitting at a career-high 94.4 mph with his sinker in the big leagues this year, although it also bears mentioning that Valdez has walked 14 of the 72 Triple-A opponents he’s faced this year (19.4%). Pair that with the 11.1% walk rate he showed in the Majors and with a whopping six hit batsmen in his limited MLB time this year, and it’s clear that there are some command issues he’s attempting to navigate.
The Red Sox will have a week to trade Valdez, pass him through outright waivers or release him. He can be optioned freely for the remainder of the 2022 season, but this is Valdez’s final minor league option season, meaning he’ll have to either make a team’s big league roster next spring or else pass through waivers unclaimed at some point — be it in the next few days with the Sox or down the road with a new club.
Rays, Chase Anderson Agree To Minor League Deal
The Rays have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Chase Anderson, per the team’s transactions log at MLB.com. The Hub Sports Management client opted out of a minor league pact with the Tigers earlier this month and will now head to Triple-A Durham to give the Rays some additional depth.
Anderson, 34, is an eight-year big league veteran who’s pitched to a 4.20 ERA with a 20.1% strikeout rate, a 7.9% walk rate and a 37.6% ground-ball rate in 938 2/3 innings dating back to his 2014 MLB debut with the Diamondbacks. The past two seasons have been a struggle, as he’s been tagged for a combined 6.94 ERA in 81 2/3 frames between the Blue Jays and the Phillies.
Prior to that tough stretch, however, Anderson was a quietly solid fourth starter for the D-backs and Brewers for several seasons. From 2014-19 he started at least 25 games per full big league season, pitching to a combined 3.94 ERA. He topped out at a career-high 158 innings and averaged about 5 1/3 innings per start along the way, so he was never necessarily a workhorse innings eater, but Anderson was an effective and underrated member of both the Arizona and Milwaukee pitching staffs.
Anderson began the season with the Tigers’ Triple-A affiliate in Toledo and pitched well more often than not. His overall 4.63 ERA in 70 frames isn’t exactly eye-catching, though it’s inflated by one particularly poor outing in which he was blasted for five runs while only recording five outs. Anderson allowed just seven runs over his final 25 Triple-A innings, posting a 24-to-5 K/BB ratio along the way, so it’s a bit surprising that an injury-decimated Tigers club didn’t at least give him a brief big league look.
Anderson will now move from one organization that’s thin on rotation depth to another, however, as the Rays have had their own rash of injuries among the starting staff. Tampa Bay currently has Corey Kluber, Drew Rasmussen, Jeffrey Springs and Cy Young frontrunner Shane McClanahan in the rotation, but each of Shane Baz, Tyler Glasnow, Josh Fleming, Yonny Chirinos and Brendan McKay is on the injured list. As such, starting pitching could well be an area of focus for Tampa Bay in the coming week, but Anderson will give them some veteran depth down the stretch.
MLBTR Chat Transcript
Click here to read a transcript of Tuesday’s chat with MLBTR’s Steve Adams.
Ryan Weber Elects Free Agency
Right-hander Ryan Weber has once again rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency after clearing waivers, the Yankees announced Tuesday. New York designated Weber for assignment for the third time this season back on July 21.
Weber has gone unclaimed on waivers, rejected a minor league assignment and quickly returned to the Yankees on a new minor league deal following each of his prior DFAs, and it wouldn’t at all be surprising to see that same sequence pan out here. Declining the outright assignment is often a formality, allowing veterans of this ilk to quickly scan the league for potential immediate MLB opportunities and perhaps to negotiate a new opt-out date if they ultimately return to the same organization. It’s clear based on how the season has panned out that Weber is comfortable with the Yankees organization and that they find value in hanging onto him as an experienced depth option.
The 31-year-old Weber has now appeared in three games with the Yanks this season — one per stint — and pitched 7 2/3 innings of one-run ball. He’s punched out just two hitters in that time but also allowed only one walk and induced a massive 60.9% ground-ball rate. His most recent appearance saw him pitch three innings of shutout relief against the Red Sox.
Down in Triple-A this year, Weber has pitched to a 2.55 ERA in 24 2/3 innings while logging a terrific 19-to-1 K/BB ratio. Through parts of eight big league seasons, he has a 5.10 ERA 14.7% strikeout rate, 5.2% walk rate and 53.1% grounder rate in a total of 174 2/3 innings.
Brewers Among Teams Interested In Josh Bell
The Brewers are among the growing list of teams with interest in Nationals first baseman Josh Bell, reports SNY’s Andy Martino. Both Martino and Jeff Passan of ESPN suggest that Bell could be among the first notable names to change hands, perhaps sooner than later. Getting a Bell deal completed in the near future would give Washington general manager Mike Rizzo additional time to focus on the deluge of trade interest he’s receiving in star outfielder Juan Soto.
Milwaukee joins the Mets and Astros as teams known to have interest in Bell, a 29-year-old switch-hitter who’s enjoying a .302/.388/.492 batting line in his final season before reaching free agency. Martino reported yesterday that there has not been substantial momentum in talks between the Mets and the Nationals regarding Bell. Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, meanwhile, reports that Bell remains a “priority” for the Astros as they look to upgrade amid Yuli Gurriel‘s struggles.
For the Brewers, Bell would serve as both an offensive and defensive upgrade at first base over Rowdy Tellez. Bell has significantly improved as a defensive option at first base in recent years, going from a bottom-five ranked defender to a player who now has slightly above-average ratings at the position. It’s possible that the Brewers’ internal evaluation still favors Tellez, but both Defensive Runs Saved and Outs Above Average peg Bell as the better option.
That’s not to say that a Bell acquisition would push Tellez out of a job, but Bell could very well result in Tellez spending more time at designated hitter. A Bell-to-Brewers scenario could prove more worrisome for veteran Andrew McCutchen, who hasn’t performed up to expectations since signing a one-year deal and has uncharacteristically been far worse against left-handed opponents than against righties. Were McCutchen handling lefties as he typically does, a Tellez/McCutchen platoon at DH would appear formidable. That’s not the case, though, as McCutchen’s .230/.281/.402 slash against lefties leaves plenty to be desired.
Bell would give Milwaukee (or any other club) a legitimate middle-of-the-order presence against both lefties and righties. While he’s been better as a left-handed batter (.311/.402/.493), the longtime Pirates slugger has still crushed lefties at a .287/.362/.488 clip this season. Bell had a rough first month of the 2021 season but has generally been outstanding since, hitting at a combined .289/.375/.497 with just a 15.1% strikeout rate and an 11.6% walk rate in his past 920 trips to the plate. Bell hits the ball on the ground more than he should (50.9% in that stretch of 920 PAs), but he’s also seen one in five fly-balls he’s hit during that time leave the yard.
The Nats also figure to have several relievers available, with each of Steve Cishek, Carl Edwards Jr. and Kyle Finnegan a candidate to change hands prior to next Tuesday’s deadline. It’s conceivable that the Brewers or any other team with interest in Bell might also try to pry a bullpen arm loose, though Bell should have sufficient value to net a notable prospect or two on his own.
Yesterday’s MLB/MLBPA failure to reach an agreement on an international draft means that the qualifying offer system will remain in place, meaning the Nats will need to be convinced that whichever prospect(s) they receive in exchange for Bell would outweigh the value of a value of a compensatory pick in the 2023 amateur draft. Bell has been a bargain on a $10MM salary this season, so it stands to reason that the Nats would have little hesitation in making a qualifying offer in the $19MM range in order to ensure that they receive draft compensation when he departs as a free agent. That’s an unlikely scenario, given trade interest in Bell, but it’s worth noting that yesterday’s outcome played into the favor of the Nats and a few other non-contenders who are peddling rental players that look like obvious QO candidates this offseason.
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