Minor MLB Transactions: 3/16/22
Some minor league signings from what’s shaped up to be a very busy Wednesday…
- The Yankees announced their minor league signing of outfielder Ryan LaMarre, who has received an invitation to Spring Training. The 33-year-old LaMarre is no stranger to the Bronx, having spent last season in the Yankees organization. A strong 60-game showing (.826 OPS) in Triple-A led to a few big league call-ups, in which LaMarre hit two home runs and stole a base across just nine games. The speedy outfielder can cover all three outfield spots in a pinch and should serve as some nice depth behind New York’s top center field options in Aaron Hicks and the recently re-signed Tim Locastro.
- The Angels have signed infielder Kean Wong to a minor league deal with an invite to MLB Spring Training camp. Primarily a second baseman, Wong has also demonstrated the ability to handle third base and both outfield corners. Despite the cancellation of the 2020 minor league season, the 26-year-old showed no signs of rust in Triple-A last year. In 46 games the left-handed hitter slashed .339/.384/.476 with 10 steals (13 attempts). He didn’t show as much firepower in 66 big league at-bats last season with just a .427 OPS, but there may be time to build on those numbers with a Halos club that has recently found health and production elusive at second and third base.
Steinbrenner: Yankees Will Soon Open Extension Talks With Aaron Judge
Yankees owner Hal Steinbrenner spoke to various members of the media today and gave some updates regarding the team. Perhaps most notably, he said that the club plans to engage Aaron Judge and his representatives to talk about a contract extension soon. (Links from Chelsea Janes of The Washington Post, Mark Feinsand of MLB.com and Erik Boland of Newsday.) He says that he instructed general manager Brian Cashman to focus on immediate needs first due to the lockout creating a time crunch for roster building, but that the talks would begin before Opening Day on April 7th.
The slugging right fielder is entering his final year of team control. Since the 2021 season ended, Judge has frequently said that he is open to an extension that would keep him in the Bronx beyond this year. However, the star outfielder indicated yesterday he’s not interested in carrying on negotiations beyond Opening Day.
“If we’re able to talk and get something done in spring training before the season starts, that would be ideal, especially since this is an important year,” Judge told reporters (including Andy Martino of SNY). “We’ve got a lot of things to focus on during the course of the year, winning a division and winning a championship here in New York. I don’t want contract talks or extensions and all that talk to be a distraction throughout the year. So, if we’re able to agree to something here in the spring before we head up to New York, that’s wonderful and it would be an honor. If not, we’ll talk after the season.”
Needless to say, an extension for Judge won’t be cheap. In 572 games to this point in his career, he’s hit 158 home runs and has a slash line of .276/.386/.544, producing a wRC+ of 151 and 24.3 fWAR. The three-time All-Star is coming off one of the best showings of his career. Judge tallied 633 plate appearances last season and hit .287/.373/.544 with 39 home runs. As he has throughout his time in the big leagues, he posted top-of-the-scale exit velocities and rated as a capable defender in right field.
Judge certainly won’t feel any financial pressure to take a below-market deal. Not only is he six months from free agency, he has already banked upwards of $13MM in arbitration earnings. More importantly, he’s in line to more than double that this upcoming season. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects Judge for a hefty $17.1MM salary during his final trip through the arbitration process. He’s slated to hit the market next winter in advance of his age-31 campaign, where he could be one of the top players available if he doesn’t sign an extension in the coming weeks.
Orioles Re-Sign Chris Ellis To Minor League Deal
The Orioles announced that they have re-signed right-handed pitcher Chris Ellis to a minor league pact. It’s the team’s second minor league pitcher signing in three days, after signing right-handed pitcher Conner Greene to a deal on Monday.
The 29-year-old pitched part of last season with the Orioles after a mid-season claim out of the Rays’ DFA purgatory. Ellis started six games down the stretch for a rebuilding Baltimore team, posting a cool 2.49 ERA in 25 plus innings.
As the minor league deal indicates, there was trepidation around the league that Ellis was a pitcher who could be counted on to repeat last season’s performance with the Orioles. After all, the right-hander pitched to a 6.32 ERA at the Triple-A level with the Rays in 2021, a mark that’s only slightly higher than his career 6.09 ERA through 314 plus innings at the level.
A starter with consistently below average strikeout and groundball rates is unlikely to offer much upside moving forward, but if nothing else Ellis can serve as a source of bulk innings for a team with a shaky pitching core. A fastball with above average spin, plus a track record that includes looks from six different organizations suggests though that there may be more talent for Baltimore to tap into yet.
Padres Finalize Agreement With Nick Martinez
The Padres announced this evening they’ve signed right-hander Nick Martínez. They agreed to terms with the former NPB starter in the waning hours before the lockout, but the deal wasn’t finalized before the work stoppage.
Martínez’s deal was originally reported as a four-year, $20MM guarantee that included opt-outs after each of the first two seasons. However, the team announced the agreement as a one-year contract with successive player options for 2023, 2024 and 2025 — indicating he can opt-out after any of the first three years. Meanwhile, Dennis Lin of the Athletic reports (on Twitter) that he’s actually guaranteed $25.5MM.
That breaks down as a $2MM signing bonus and a $4MM salary this year followed by successive $6.5MM player options, each of which include buyouts worth $1.5MM. Were Martínez to opt out next winter, he’d be leaving $18MM over three years on the table. For every season in which he starts 20 games, the following year’s salary escalates by $1MM.
Martínez commanding such a strong deal registered as a surprise. Padres president of baseball operations A.J. Preller is familiar with him from their days together with the Rangers organization, however, and the Fordham product is coming off an excellent run in Japan. Over three seasons in NPB split between the Nippon-Ham Fighters and the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks, Martínez pitched to a 3.02 ERA.
To clear space on the 40-man roster, San Diego placed left-hander Adrian Morejón on the 60-day injured list. Morejón underwent Tommy John surgery last April and will miss at least the first two months of this season as he continues his recovery.
Pirates Sign Austin Brice To Minor League Deal
The Pirates have signed right-handed pitcher Austin Brice to a minor league contract, according to Alex Stumpf of DK Pittsburgh Sports. It’s a continuation of Pittsburgh’s busy week adding depth to their pitching staff, as they claimed pitcher Adonis Medina earlier today and re-signed Chase De Jong to a minor league accord yesterday.
The 29-year-old Brice is coming off a season split between Boston’s Triple-A and big league teams, his second straight year with the Red Sox. While he made a solid impression in the minors, posting a 3.27 ERA and 34 strikeouts across 33 innings, that wasn’t the case at the Major League level. The out-of-options Brice was shuttled back and forth between Boston’s top two teams throughout the season and was left with a 6.59 ERA in just north of 13 innings for the Red Sox.
While Brice didn’t find a ton of success with Boston, he’s not far removed from a strong 2019 showing out of the Miami bullpen. Through 44 innings that season the Marlins draftee pitched to a solid 3.43 ERA, though several of his peripherals hinted that his ERA figure was a bit lucky. Furthermore, Brice has proven himself plenty adept at getting minor league hitters out, with a career 2.92 ERA at the Triple-A level that looks a lot rosier than his 5.17 ERA across six Major League seasons.
All told, it’s a low risk signing for the Pirates, as is typically the case with minor league pacts. Should Brice and his 80th percentile curveball carry his minor league success over to the big leagues Pittsburgh will have quite the nice pickup on their hands.
Pirates Claim Adonis Medina Off Waivers From Phillies
The Pirates have claimed right-hander Adonis Medina off waivers from the Phillies, according to an announcement from Philadelphia. This ends a months-long stay in DFA limbo for Medina, as he was designated for assignment on December 1st of last year when the Phillies signed Johan Camargo. Shortly after that, MLB instituted a lockout, keeping Medina’s status frozen until that lockout ended last week.
This will be just the second organization for Medina, who was signed by the Phillies as an international free agent back in 2014. As he climbed the minor league ranks, he cracked Baseball America’s list of the 100 prospects in baseball, coming in at #84 in 2018.
However, since that time, he’s mostly struggled with the competition in the upper levels of the minors and in the majors. In 2019, he made 21 starts in Double-A, along with one appearance in relief, throwing 105 2/3 innings of 4.94 ERA ball. He only struck out 17.5% of the batters he faced, well below average, but did get ground balls at an encouraging clip of 45.1%. In 2020, the pandemic wiped out the minor league seasons, though Medina was able to make his MLB debut, making one four-inning start. In 2021, he logged another 7 2/3 innings in the big leagues but mostly pitched in Triple-A, making 17 starts for 67 2/3 innings 5.05 ERA ball. Much like 2019, his ground ball rate was good at 45.7%, but the 18.5% strikeout rate was still lacking.
For a Pirates team that’s firmly in rebuild mode, there’s little harm in taking a flier on Medina, especially considering he’s still just 25 years old and has less than a year of MLB service time. He is out of options, however, meaning the club will have to keep him on the 40-man roster or else designate him for assignment again. Outside of veteran Jose Quintana, the team’s rotation currently consists of inexperienced younger hurlers. Medina will be competing against the likes of JT Brubaker, Zach Thompson, Bryse Wilson, Mitch Keller and others.
Rangers Sign Greg Holland To Minor League Deal
The Rangers announced this evening they’ve signed reliever Greg Holland to a minor league contract with an invitation to big league Spring Training. If he cracks the Opening Day roster, he’ll receive a $2.1MM base salary, reports Levi Weaver of the Athletic (Twitter link).
Holland is a 12-year big league veteran and a three-time All-Star. An elite closer and vital piece of the bullpens that made the Royals so tough to beat in the middle of the last decade, he unfortunately blew out his UCL late in 2015 and required Tommy John surgery. Holland returned to post an NL-best 41 saves with the Rockies in 2017, but he wasn’t quite as dominant as he’d been in K.C. before the surgery.
Since then, Holland’s performance has fluctuated wildly as he’s bounced between a few different clubs. He posted an ERA above 4.50 in both 2018 (which he split between the Cardinals and Nationals) and 2019, where he played in Arizona. Holland returned to his old stomping grounds in Kansas City for 2020, where he pitched to a 1.91 ERA over 28 1/3 frames. The Royals re-signed him to a $2.75MM guarantee last winter, but he couldn’t replicate that success over a larger body of work.
Holland posted a 4.85 ERA in 55 2/3 frames last season. His 21.8% strikeout percentage and 10.7% walk rate were each a bit worse than the respective league averages, although he still generated swinging strikes at a decent 12.3% clip. The 36-year-old joins a rather crowded list of righty bullpen options the Rangers have added as non-roster invitees. Dan Winkler, Brandon Workman, Matt Bush, Justin Anderson and Jesús Tinoco are among the other players in camp.
Jon Heyman of the MLB Network reported Holland was signing with the Rangers shortly before the team announcement.
Giants To Sign Joc Pederson
The Giants are in agreement on a contract with outfielder Joc Pederson, reports MLB Network’s Jon Morosi. Pederson will receive $6MM on a one-year deal, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network. Pederson is represented by Excel Sports Management.
Pederson, 30 in April, posted a 94 wRC+ in 481 plate appearances for the Cubs and Braves last year, joining Atlanta in one of Chicago’s many July trades. Pederson has picked up World Series rings in each of the last two seasons for the Dodgers and Braves. He was particularly effective in the NLDS against the Brewers last year, bashing a pair of home runs and inspiring Braves fans to sport pearl necklaces. Pederson will spend his 2022 season less than an hour away from where he played attended high school in Palo Alto, California.
A left-handed hitter, Pederson has long struggled against southpaws, and signed a one-year, $7MM deal with the Cubs in January 2021 in part because he sought to avoid a platoon situation. Oddly enough, since 2020 Pederson has a 99 wRC+ in 122 plate appearances against lefties, but just a 91 mark against righties. From 2015-19 as a Dodger, Pederson torched righties to the tune of a 132 wRC+, a mark which ranked 21st in the game during that time. Assuming Pederson can regain some of that success, he’d pair well with the right-handed-hitting Austin Slater.
Though Pederson has played a significant amount of center field in his career, at this stage he fits better in a corner spot. The Giants have LaMonte Wade Jr., Steven Duggar, Mike Yastrzemski, Darin Ruf, and Slater as outfield incumbents, but they’ve also got a regular DH job for the first time in their history.
Two members of the club’s 2021 outfield found new homes today, with Alex Dickerson signing a one-year deal with Atlanta and Kris Bryant signing a seven-year, $182MM deal with the division-rival Rockies. The Giants’ interest in retaining Bryant seemed minimal. Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi has avoided large free agent contracts in his four-year tenure, with his recent two-year, $44MM contract for Carlos Rodon marking his largest expenditure. The Giants also let Kevin Gausman leave for greener pastures this winter, instead electing to spread the wealth among veteran free agents on shorter-term deals. Zaidi served as Dodgers GM prior to joining the Giants, so he became quite familiar with Pederson while both were employed by Los Angeles.
Pederson’s signing comes as part of a wave of free agent outfielder deals today, as the Phillies signed Kyle Schwarber, the Braves brought Eddie Rosario back, and the Rockies inked Bryant to a megadeal. Several quality bats remain free agents, including Nick Castellanos, Michael Conforto, Tommy Pham, and Jorge Soler.
Angels Sign Matt Duffy, Place Griffin Canning On 60-Day IL
The Angels have announced that they’ve signed infielder Matt Duffy to a one-year deal. Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register relays that he’ll make a salary of $1.5MM and that Griffin Canning is going on the 60-day IL to open up a roster spot.
The 31-year-old Duffy has had a real up-and-down career thus far. After making his MLB debut and getting a cup of coffee with the Giants in 2014, he broke out in 2015 to the tune of a .295/.334/.428 slash line over 149 games, producing a 113 wRC+. That offensive output, combined with this excellent defense, produced 4.4 fWAR. 2016 was a step in the wrong direction, however, as his bat slipped below league average and the Giants sent him to the Rays as part of the Matt Moore trade.
2017, his pendulum swung back in the other direction, as he hit .294/.361/.366, for a wRC+ of 107 and 2.5 fWAR. In 2019, injuries sapped him of his playing time and production, as he only played 46 games and wasn’t very good when he was on the field. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, he signed a couple of minor league deals but couldn’t crack the big leagues. In 2021, he parlayed a minor league deal with the Cubs into yet another bounceback effort, playing 97 games and hitting .287/.357/.381, for a wRC+ of 102 and 1.5 fWAR.
Defensively, Duffy spent most of his time at third base last year but also saw significant action at second, as well as cameos at shortstop, left field and first base. For the Angels, the hot corner is spoken for as long as Anthony Rendon is healthy. He was limited to just 58 games last year due to injuries but seems to be fully recovered for this season. For the middle infield reps, manager Joe Maddon recently said that Andrew Velazquez was the favorite to get the majority of playing time at shortstop, with Tyler Wade, Luis Rengifo and David Fletcher also in the mix. One of that group will also have to cover second base, with Duffy now competing against them all as well.
As for Canning, his 2021 season was cut short in August due to back issues that seem to still be lingering. Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reported earlier today that Canning had a setback and wouldn’t be ready for Opening Day.
Brewers Sign Andrew McCutchen
MARCH 16: It’s a one-year, $8.5MM pact, reports Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.
MARCH 14: Outfielder Andrew McCutchen is in agreement on a deal with the Brewers, reports Daniel Álvarez Montes of El ExtraBase (on Twitter). Ken Rosenthal of the Athletic had reported this afternoon the sides were in discussions.
McCutchen, 35, has 13 MLB seasons under his belt at this point, having broken into the league as a Pirate in 2009. From that season to 2019, he posted a wRC+ of at least 120 in each season except for a slight dip to 105 in 2016. In 2013, he hit 21 home runs, stole 27 bases and put up an incredible line of .317/404/.508, wRC+ of 156. Combined with his excellent center field defense, he was worth an incredible 8.1 fWAR on the year, winning National League MVP and helping the Pirates make the postseason for the first time since 1992.
In 2018, he had one year remaining on the extension he signed with the Pirates back in 2012. The Bucs sent him to the Giants in exchange for Bryan Reynolds, Kyle Crick and international bonus money. The Giants, in turn, sent McCutchen to the Yankees at the August waiver deadline. Reaching free agency for the first time, he signed a three-year, $50MM deal with the Phillies prior to the 2019 season.
His production has naturally declined somewhat over the years, with his elite center field defense gradually becoming subpar left field defense. He hasn’t reached double-digit steals since 2018. However, he’s still plenty useful with the bat, particularly against left-handed pitching. Over the past two seasons, he’s hit 37 home runs and slashed .232/.331/.441, wRC+ of 106. But when he has the platoon advantage, his line jumps up to .290/.402/.603, wRC+ of 164.
For the Brewers, they went 95-67 last year and won the NL Central, despite a fairly tepid offense. The batting line for the entire team was .233/.317/.396, adding up to a wRC+ of just 91, ranking them 23rd out of the 30 teams in the league. Their moves this offseason have largely been about trying to complement their superb pitching with some increased firepower in the lineup. To that end, they traded for Hunter Renfroe and Mike Brosseau before the lockout, and have now added McCutchen into the mix as well.
McCutchen will join Renfroe in an outfield group that also includes Christian Yelich, Lorenzo Cain and Tyrone Taylor. That’s a bit of a crowded mix, but with the recent implementation of the designated hitter in the National League, they should be able to spread at-bats around to whichever part of this group needs a day off their feet. McCutchen and Cain are both 35 years old, with Cain turning 36 in less than a month, making them particularly good fits for some time in the DH slot, in order to keep them healthy and in the lineup throughout the season.
However manager Craig Counsell decides to construct the lineup, it seems like it will be capable of more firepower than last year’s version, as they attempt to defend their division title and make the postseason for a fifth consecutive season.