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Orioles Sign Nick Ciuffo To Minor League Deal

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The Orioles announced Monday that they’ve signed catcher Nick Ciuffo and righty Claudio Custodio to minor league contracts. Baltimore also confirmed its previously reported minor league deals with lefty Fernando Abad and right-hander Conner Greene.

Ciuffo, 25, was the No. 21 overall draft pick by the Rays back in 2013. He never graded out as a top prospect but made it to the big leagues with Tampa Bay in 2018 and 2019, hitting a combined .186/.250/.279 in a tiny sample of 50 plate appearances. Had he been healthy in 2019, he’d quite likely have gotten a longer opportunity to boost those numbers, but thumb surgery cost him 10 weeks of the season.

Ciuffo spent the 2020 season at the Rangers’ alternate training site but didn’t reach the Majors, where Robinson Chirinos, Jeff Mathis and Jose Trevino shouldered most of the workload before top prospect Sam Huff’s arrival. In seven minor league seasons, Ciuffo is a .250/.299/.379 hitter with a 45 percent caught-stealing rate. He’ll give the O’s some catching depth behind Chance Sisco and Pedro Severino, joining the recently outrighted Austin Wynns as a non-roster option in camp.

The 30-year-old Custodio once ranked near the back end of the Yankees’ top 30 prospects as an infielder, but he moved to the mound in 2015. Injury wiped out his 2017 campaign, and he obviously lost another year to the lack of a minor league season in 2020. Custodio spent 2019 in the Braves organization, where he pitched to a 2.48 ERA with 7.8 K/9 against 2.5 BB/9 in 83 1/3 innings between Class-A and Double-A.

Padres, Royals Among Teams Interested In Jurickson Profar

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The Padres and Royals are among the teams showing interest in free-agent infielder/outfielder Jurickson Profar, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweets the same, adding that the Padres “are trying” to bring Profar back to the organization. It’s sensible that the Padres want him back; he was solid there in 2020 and GM A.J. Preller was an assistant GM with the Rangers during Profar’s developmental years. Royals GM Dayton Moore recently expressed interest in a left-handed bat who can handle third base or the outfield, and the switch-hitting Profar fits that mold.

Profar’s end-of-season numbers certainly look appealing. The 27-year-old (28 in February) slashed .278/.343/.428 with seven homers, six doubles and seven steals through 202 plate appearances, adding in a career-low 13.9 percent strikeout rate. It’s the second time in three seasons that Profar rated as an above-average hitter per both OPS+ and wRC+.

That said, there’s also reason for some caution with regard to Profar’s production. Things can change quickly in a 60-game, 200-plate appearance sample, and that was certainly the case in this instance. Through the first 30 games and 111 plate appearances of the 2020 season, Profar posted a .181/.291/.319 slash with four home runs and one double. He had some miserable batted-ball luck in that time (.171 BABIP), but Profar’s season exemplifies the difficulty of how to evaluate players coming off this year’s 60-game slate; for half the year he was among the worst hitters in MLB, and for his final 91 plate appearances he was among the game’s best (albeit with a whopping .423 BABIP in that time as the pendulum swung the other direction).

Profar is lacking in terms of exit velocity and hard-hit rate, but his low strikeout rate and a passable walk rate still lead metrics like Statcast’s expected batting average (xBA) and expected weighted on-base average (xwOBA) to peg him as a slightly above-average hitter based on the quality and regularity of contact made.

Defensively, Profar has been moved off second base twice in the past two seasons — first in Oakland and then in San Diego (although the move in San Diego was perhaps more about Jake Cronenworth’s emergence as it was Profar’s struggles). Profar developed a case of the yips while serving as Oakland’s regular second baseman early in 2019, at one point making eight errors in a span of 25 games. He righted the ship but was still dinged hard by defensive metrics: -15 Defensive Runs Saved and -5 Outs Above Average. His marks in 2020 were better, and it’s only fair to point out that those same metrics suggest Profar was anywhere from a passable to very good left fielder for the Padres in 2020.

Taken in totality, Profar’s last three seasons have produced a league-average hitter who is capable of playing three infield positions, but perhaps none of them especially well, with an encouraging but small sample of work in left field. He’s an efficient base stealer (26-for-28) but by no means a burner, as Statcast puts his average sprint speed right around the 50th percentile throughout the league. He’s toward the bottom of the league in hard contact but toward the top of the league in terms of putting the ball in play.

Profar is a useful player as is, but the allure of his former prospect status and his youth surely hold appeal to other clubs. He’ll play all of next season at 28, and while it was close to a decade ago, Profar was the consensus No. 1 prospect in baseball heading into the 2013 season, topping the lists from Baseball America, MLB.com, ESPN and Baseball Prospectus alike. He’s had two shoulder surgeries since that time, however, which effectively cost him two full years of development. He was also quite arguably rushed to the Majors in the first place, debuting as a 19-year-old for a win-now Rangers club back in 2012.

There’s still an air of upside surrounding Profar because of that status and his age, even if his batted-ball profile isn’t a particularly encouraging one. The question for Profar may be one of whether to take a one-year deal in hopes of a cashing in on a strong 2021 season or taking a multi-year pact at an annual value that would look like a bargain if he does indeed elevate his game in 2021. Those decisions will be weighed by his camp as he continues to field offers, although the Royals have been surprisingly aggressive with players they identify as targets, which would seemingly bode well for Profar’s market.

Tony La Russa Reaches Plea Agreement Related To February Arrest

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Dec. 21: A Maricopa County judge has accepted La Russa’s guilty plea for reckless driving, per Jon Seidel of the Chicago Sun-Times (Twitter thread). He’s been sentenced to a day of jail time, which has been commuted to home detention, and 20 hours of community service. He’ll be fined $1,383 as well. La Russa also recently went through alcohol counseling, according to his attorney.

Dec. 13: White Sox manager Tony La Russa has agreed to plead guilty to a reduced charge of reckless driving, a class 2 misdemeanor under Arizona law, stemming from his February arrest, reports James Fegan of the Athletic. La Russa was originally charged with two counts of driving under the influence, class 1 misdemeanors.

La Russa’s plea agreement calls for him to serve one day in jail, Fegan reports. However, the state stipulated a willingness to approve work release or house detention in lieu of jail time, so long as the presiding judge approves. The parties’ agreement also calls for La Russa to pay a fine of $1,383 plus incarceration expenses, as well as completing twenty hours of community service. The parties are set for a telephonic hearing in front of a judge to conclude the matter on December 21, Fegan adds.

The White Sox hired La Russa in October. The organization was aware of the charges against him at the time and is not expected to make a change in the dugout.

Blue Jays, Mets Seen As Strongest Suitors For George Springer

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It’s been a slow-moving market for all of the game’s top free agents, but ESPN’s Jeff Passan shines some light on where things stand with George Springer, reporting that the Blue Jays and Mets are generally viewed as the two strongest possibilities for the longtime Astros slugger.

Newly hired Mets general manager Jared Porter plainly acknowledged in an appearance on MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM last week that Springer is “going to be part of the process” as they evaluate options on the high end of both the free-agent and trade markets (Twitter link, with audio). As one would expect, Porter didn’t tip his hand as to anything more specific, but MLB.com’s Jon Morosi did write recently that the Mets are “focused” on Springer at the moment.

In some ways, it’s not particularly surprising to see. The Mets and Jays are widely seen as the two teams most willing to spend this winter, and both could use an impact center fielder. Other teams who are seen as potentially active clubs have reason not to aggressively pursue Springer.

Giants president of baseball ops Farhan Zaidi has suggested his team will focus on pitching and look at more “complementary” hitters. The Yankees are focused on DJ LeMahieu, and their outfield is crowded as is. The Red Sox’ most pressing need is in the rotation, given the uncertainty around the health of their veteran starters. The Twins are focused on Nelson Cruz and their pitching staff. The Braves have eschewed this type of long-term deal under GM Alex Anthopoulos and may be more apt to retain Marcell Ozuna if they do make an uncharacteristic outfield splash. The White Sox have already signed Adam Eaton. Houston is an obvious fit, but an extension between the two sides never came together and the price surely hasn’t come down now that Springer has the benefit of open-market bidding for his services.

Free agency is an ever-fluid situation, as various factors can rapidly change a player’s market. A team could trade a current outfielder or lose someone to injury. An owner not expected to spend lavishly could have a change of heart or be swayed by a direct meeting with Springer’s representatives. However, Passan writes that as things stand right now, executives from other clubs view the  Springer market as a two-horse race between the Jays and Mets.

The Mets have already been aggressive early, signing James McCann (four years, $40.6MM) and Trevor May (two years, $15.5MM) to early deals that bolster the club while still leaving Porter and president Sandy Alderson ample payroll space. The Mets currently owe just shy of $95MM to a combined 10 players, though they have just as many yet-unsigned arbitration-eligible players to whom they tendered contracts. Michael Conforto, Noah Syndergaard and Edwin Diaz headline that group, but most of the group is in line for relatively small-scale salaries. It’s be a surprise if, after their arb work was completed, the current iteration of the Mets roster exceeded a $150MM payroll by much.

The financial outlook in Toronto is even cleaner. Toronto owes about $57.5MM to seven players in addition to forthcoming arbitration raises for two players: Ross Stripling and Teoscar Hernandez. They only have $35MM in guaranteed salaries on the 2022 books, with Tanner Roark, Robbie Ray, Shun Yamaguchi and Rafael Dolis set to come off the books. Signing Springer would likely necessitate a move sending Randal Grichuk elsewhere, and while his remaining three years and $28MM is an overpay, it’s not so glaring that the Jays couldn’t reasonably expect to find a creative solution.

Yankees, Nestor Cortes Jr. Agree To Minor League Deal

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Left-hander Nestor Cortes Jr. is headed back to the Yankees organization, as the pitcher himself revealed last week on Instagram. The team hasn’t formally announced the move, which is surely a minor league pact. “I’m extremely excited to announce I will be a Yankee again,” Cortes wrote. “I’m truly lucky to have this opportunity. It’s time to work to get up there.”

Cortes, who recently turned 26, was a 36th-round pick by the Yankees back in 2013 and has spent parts of the past three seasons in the big leagues. The Orioles selected him in the Rule 5 Draft back in 2017 and gave him his big league debut during the 2018 season. However, the O’s cut him loose after just 4 2/3 frames and returned him to the Yankees.

In 2019, Cortes made his Yankees debut, appearing in 33 Major League games but struggling to the tune of a 5.67 ERA and 5.57 FIP. He averaged better than a strikeout per inning (9.3 K/9) but was too prone to walks (3.8 BB/9) and especially to home runs (2.2 HR/9) to have much success. It was more of the same with the Mariners in 2020, when Cortes was tagged 13 earned runs and a staggering six home runs in just 7 2/3 innings.

All in all, Cortes has a grisly 6.72 ERA in 79 Major League frames, but he’s been excellent in Triple-A, with a 3.11 ERA and a 199-to-62 K/BB ratio in 205 1/3 innings. He’s been sharp thus far in the Dominican Winter League as well, holding opponents to five runs on 11 hits and five walks with 21 strikeouts through 15 2/3 innings.

Big league struggles notwithstanding, three different big league teams have been intrigued enough by Cortes and his potential to give him a look over the past three seasons. He’ll surely have to earn his way onto the roster with a big spring showing or perhaps some early success in Triple-A, but the Yankees are in need of pitching depth and Cortes provides that both in the rotation and the bullpen.

Reds Reportedly Discussing Luis Castillo In Trade Talks

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The Reds are discussing right-hander Luis Castillo in trade talks with other teams, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). He joins Sonny Gray as high-end Cincinnati starters to come up in conversations this winter. The price on both hurlers remains “appropriately high,” Heyman says.

There’s no indication a Castillo deal is close or even especially likely. Teams are constantly in discussions with rival clubs about various players and potential trade frameworks. Most of those talks don’t result in deals; many aren’t publicly reported.

It’s no surprise other teams are calling to gauge Castillo’s potential availability. The 28-year-old has posted a 3.35 ERA/3.42 FIP across 260.2 innings since the start of the 2019 season. Of the 137 starters with at least 100 innings over the last two years, Castillo ranks 20th in park-adjusted ERA. Among that group, he places nineteenth in strikeout rate (29.4%), thirty-first in K% – BB% (19.8 percentage points) and fourth in ground ball rate (56.1%). Only Jacob deGrom, Blake Snell, Gerrit Cole, Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer have gotten swings and misses at a higher clip.

Castillo’s raw stuff supports those results. He’s one of the sport’s hardest-throwing starters, coming off a season in which he averaged a career-high 97.8 MPH on his sinker. He backs that up with an elite changeup and an effective slider. Castillo certainly looks to have cemented himself among the game’s top arms. He’d be a massive upgrade to any team’s rotation.

It has been a difficult offseason for a Reds club obviously looking to scale back payroll. Cincinnati traded Raisel Iglesias to the Angels for a meager return to get most of his $9.125MM salary off the books. They were one of the more aggressive teams to make cuts at the non-tender deadline and have all but ruled out a reunion with Trevor Bauer. There have also been plenty of rumors about a potential move to get Gray’s $10MM salary off the books, although obviously nothing has come together on that front.

Even with the Reds looking to cut costs, there won’t be any urgency to move Castillo. The right-hander is eligible for arbitration for the first of three times this winter and projected for a bargain salary in the $3-5MM range.

AL East Notes: Cashman, Yankees, Orioles, Kim, Rays

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Though Masahiro Tanaka, James Paxton, and J.A. Happ are all free agents, most of the speculation surrounding the Yankees has focused on position players (chiefly DJ LeMahieu) rather than pitching this offseason.  In an appearance on “The Front Office” on SiriusXM’s MLB Network Radio today, GM Brian Cashman said the Yankees “definitely feel like we need to try to address more certain innings because you don’t want to be in a position where you’re scrambling” for pitching due to injuries or other absences.  Whether those additions could come in the near future, however, is in question.

Cashman likes the Yankees’ in-house rotation candidates and suggested the team might wait beyond Opening Day to see what they really have in their current mix before exploring external pitchers.  This doesn’t appear to be their ideal scenario, as Cashman described this route as being a “way we’re forced to go because we don’t have the proper matches” in the marketplace, though the Yankees are “prepared” for such an event: “If I can add to what I have sooner than later, all the better.  If I have to wait to do it in season, so be it.  But we also might have enough right here before us that’s just untested.”  It would seem like a risky tactic for New York given the number of apparent holes in its pitching staff, but if Domingo German can return to his past form after a suspension, or if Jordan Montgomery or Deivi Garcia are ready for regular turns in the rotation, what looks like a major need for veteran pitching could be reduced to perhaps one starter at most.

More from around the AL East…

  • Since Ha-Seong Kim is only entering his age-25 season, there has been some thought that his market could extend to teams who might still be at least a year away from contending (the Rangers, for example, are known to have interest).  However, MASNsports.com’s Steve Melewski thinks “it sure seems unlikely” that the Orioles will make a bid for Kim since the O’s don’t seem to be planning any major expenditures.  Between contract and posting fee, MLBTR projects Kim to cost around $47.625MM this offseason, so Baltimore may not feel like making such an investment at this stage in its rebuild.
  • Since the Rays are open to at least listening to trade offers for Blake Snell, ESPN.com’s David Schoenfield adds an interesting wrinkle to the trade speculation — listing which five teams could conceivably acquire both Snell and Kevin Kiermaier in the same trade, thus allowing Tampa Bay to unload even more payroll.  Schoenfield’s five clubs have needs in both the rotation and in center field, or perhaps in the outfield in general in the cases of the Angels or Padres.  For those teams, Schoenfield opines that their current center fielders (Mike Trout and Trent Grisham) could be moved to a corner outfield slot to accommodate Kiermaier.

Minor MLB Transactions: 12/20/20

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The latest minor transactions from around the sport…

Latest Updates

  • Earlier this week, the Rays signed right-hander Chris Ellis to a minor league deal, as originally reported by MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link).  Originally a third-round pick for the Angels in the 2014 draft, Ellis was part of the trade package that brought Andrelton Simmons to Los Angeles back in November 2015.  The 28-year-old has a 4.80 ERA, 2.10 K/BB rate, and 8.5 K/9 over 645 1/3 career minor league innings for three different organizations (the Angels, Braves, and Cardinals), and he also had a cup of coffee in the big leagues with the Royals in 2019, appearing in one game.

Earlier Today

  • The Nationals have signed right-hander Jefry Rodríguez to a minor-league contract with an invitation to MLB spring training, reports Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post (Twitter link). The 27-year-old originally signed with the Nats as an international amateur from the Dominican Republic. He was traded to Cleveland in the November 2018 Yan Gomes deal. Rodríguez posted a 5.20 ERA with underwhelming strikeout (16.5%) and walk (13.3%) rates in 98.2 MLB innings from 2018-19. He spent last season at the Indians’ alternate training site, where he strained his shoulder in September. Cleveland non-tendered him earlier this month.
  • The Mariners announced they signed reliever Drew Steckenrider earlier this month (h/t to Chris Hilburn-Trenkle of Baseball America). The 29-year-old broke into the majors with a pair of productive seasons with the Marlins but went down early in 2019 with a season-ending flexor strain. He spent all of 2020 on the injured list and was outrighted off Miami’s 40-man roster in October. The right-hander turns 30 in January.

The Rangers’ Joey Gallo Decision

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The Rangers are one of the league’s most obvious sellers this offseason. President of baseball operations Jon Daniels has been open about the organization’s intent to cut payroll and rework the roster in hopes of contending in 2022. They’ve put that into action already, trading Lance Lynn and Rafael Montero for longer-term assets.

Lynn was an obvious trade candidate, as he’s scheduled to hit free agency at the end of next season. Montero is controllable for an additional year, but as a 30-year-old reliever on a team not expecting to immediately contend, he was a sensible player to move. A tougher question for Texas is how to proceed with Joey Gallo.

The 27-year-old Gallo is under control for the next two seasons. He’s projected for a salary in the $5-7MM range this winter and will be eligible for arbitration once more after that. If the Rangers truly believe they can field a contender in 2022, they could elect to proceed year-by-year through arbitration.

There’s a case to be made, though, Texas should approach the Gallo situation more proactively. That could mean him following Lynn and Montero out the door. Texas has made Gallo available to other teams, although it may not be the best time to try to work out a deal. After all, he struggled to a .181/.301/.378 line in 226 plate appearances this past season. An unsustainably low .240 BABIP no doubt played a role in that, but his struggles can’t all be chalked up to bad luck.

Gallo’s already high average launch angle increased by more than four degrees between 2019 and 2020. For many players, that’d be a positive development. Gallo, though, already had an extremely uphill swing path. Hitting the ball higher in the air last season didn’t do him any favors. Gallo’s batting average on airborne contact (fly balls and line drives) dropped from .556 in 2019 to .350 last season. His slugging output had an even more precipitous fall. Making matters worse, Gallo’s average exit velocity fell more than three miles per hour from where it had been in 2018-19.

2020 struggles notwithstanding, the Rangers presumably anticipate Gallo to rebound. In August, Texas manager Chris Woodward called the slugger “by far the best player on the field” in every game he plays. There was a degree of hyperbole in that statement, to be sure, but Woodward’s affinity for Gallo has plenty of merit. Between 2017-19, Gallo hit .217/.336/.533 (120 wRC+) with 103 home runs over 1406 plate appearances. That’s solidly above-average offensive production. And Gallo has consistently rated as a quality outfielder (especially in the corners) and baserunner. Even with one of the league’s highest strikeout rates, Gallo has shown flashes of stardom.

Daniels and newly-minted GM Chris Young have a tough decision with their franchise player coming off a career-worst year. It’s not an ideal time to look for a trade, although there’ll surely be teams that see his off year as an anomaly. Gallo’s young enough that Texas could decide to explore an extension, even with the team taking a step back in 2021. Finding a price point agreeable to both the club and the Boras Corporation client on the heels of a down season might be difficult, though.

So, what course of action should the Texas front office pursue this winter with the 2019 All-Star?

(poll link for app users)

 

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