Angels To Sign Steve Cishek, Tony Watson
The Angels continue adding to their bullpen: The team announced Monday that it has agreed to deals with right-hander Steve Cishek and left-hander Tony Watson. Both Cishek and Watson will get one-year, $1MM contracts, Mike DiGiovanna of the Los Angeles Times reports. The Halos placed injured RHP Luke Bard on the 60-day IL to help make room for these pickups.
Cishek and Watson are among four notable bullpen additions since Sunday for the Angels. They previously brought back old friend Noe Ramirez and then acquired James Hoyt in trade with the Marlins. It’s clearly a late-spring attempt by first-year general manager Perry Minasian to add as much depth as possible to a bullpen which has other newcomers in Raisel Iglesias, Alex Claudio, Junior Guerra and Aaron Slegers.
Cishek and Watson certainly boast the best track records of the quartet of relievers the Angels have brought in over the past couple days. The 34-year-old Cishek had a rough go with the White Sox in 2020, and he didn’t make the Astros’ roster this spring, but he proved himself as a durable option who could keep runs off the board before then. Since his career began in 2010, the former closer has logged a 2.78 ERA, registered an above-average strikeout rate of 25.2 percent and recorded a 48.9 percent groundball rate in 576 innings.
Watson, 35, failed to crack the Phillies’ roster in spring training, but he has also established himself as an effective big league reliever. He owns a 2.80 ERA with a decent strikeout-walk percentage (15.4) across 591 frames. Watson spent last year as a member of the Giants and continued to hold hitters at bay (2.50 ERA), all while limiting hard contact (84.8 mph exit velocity against) and walks (4.1 percent), and inducing grounders at a 50 percent clip in 18 frames.
MLBTR Poll: Will Mets Extend Francisco Lindor?
The Mets are seemingly running out of time to extend their prized offseason acquisition, shortstop Francisco Lindor. The 27-year-old, who earned four All-Star nods with the Indians before joining the Mets in a blockbuster winter trade, has made it clear he will not negotiate a new contract when the regular season begins Thursday. That means he could become the leading free agent on the board next offseason.
Although the Mets and Lindor are closing in on his self-imposed deadline, they’re not yet moving toward an agreement, per Andy Martino of SNY.tv. The Mets have made Lindor a franchise-record offer worth around $325MM over 10 years, Martino writes, and Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets it’s “believed” the club will not make him another proposal before his deadline. Expectations across the industry are that the two sides will hammer out an agreement, Martino relays, though Lindor is looking for a deal in the 12-year, $400MM range, according to Deesha Thosar of the New York Daily News. Indeed, Lindor’s camp has made the Mets a 12-year, $385MM counteroffer, Tim Healey of Newsday reports.
It appears there is a wide gap to close, but it should help the Mets’ chances that they have baseball’s richest owner, Steve Cohen, who had dinner with Lindor on Saturday. Cohen addressed the Lindor situation in a pre-recorded online Q&A with Mets announcer Wayne Randazzo and fans (via Ken Davidoff the New York Post), saying, “It takes two people to sign a contract, not one.” He added: “Well, we have a deadline [March] 31, today is the 29th. It either will or won’t in the next two days.”
What do you think? Will Cohen & Co. get it done? (Poll link for app users)
Will Mets extend Francisco Lindor?
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Yes 58% (6,206)
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No 42% (4,408)
Total votes: 10,614
Braves Select Pablo Sandoval, Release Jake Lamb, Re-Sign Jason Kipnis
MARCH 29: The Braves have brought Kipnis back on a different minors pact, O’Brien tweets.
MARCH 27, 1:25 pm: Lamb has been released, per a team announcement. While he signed a major league contract in February, it was non-guaranteed. Therefore, the Braves will only be on the hook for a portion of his $1MM salary. The move drops Atlanta’s 40-man roster count to 39. Lamb will again become a free agent.
Atlanta will also option Camargo and catcher William Contreras to the alternate training site to open the year, per David O’Brien of the Athletic (Twitter link). In addition to Sandoval and Adrianza, backup catcher Alex Jackson and fourth outfielder Ender Inciarte will fill out the season-opening bench.
10:48 am: The Braves announced this morning they’ve selected the contract of corner infielder Pablo Sandoval. Outfielder Phil Ervin has been designated for assignment to clear 40-man roster space. Additionally, the Braves released non-roster utilityman Jason Kipnis.
Sandoval made Atlanta’s roster late last season and picked up four postseason plate appearances. The Braves brought him back on a minor-league deal in January, and he’ll now earn a season-opening spot on the active roster. Sandoval will join a crowded but still uncertain third base mix in Atlanta, where Austin Riley, Johan Camargo, Jake Lamb and the newly-added Ehire Adrianza could all get playing time. Sandoval, 34, only hit .214/.287/.262 over 94 plate appearances last season, but he was an above-average hitter as recently as 2019 with the Giants.
Ervin has bounced around via waivers from the Reds to the Mariners to the Cubs and to Atlanta since last summer. The 28-year-old hit fairly well over his first couple seasons in Cincinnati but stumbled to a .149/.292/.189 mark last season. Teams remained intrigued by Ervin’s combination of otherwise decent offense and ability to play all three outfield positions, but the out-of-options outfielder has had trouble sticking on an active roster. Atlanta has a week to trade Ervin or place him on outright waivers.
Kipnis signed a minor-league deal with Atlanta after spending last season with the Cubs. The former Indians second baseman hit .237/.341/.404 with Chicago in 2020. He’ll now return to the open market in search of a new opportunity.
Diamondbacks Select Chris Devenski, Place Tyler Clippard On 60-Day IL
The Diamondbacks have selected right-handed reliever Chris Devenski‘s contract, the team announced. In a corresponding move, the club placed righty Tyler Clippard on the 60-day injured list. Clippard’s dealing with a capsule strain in his throwing shoulder – an injury that will cost the free-agent pickup at least the first couple months of the season.
Devenski was another offseason addition for the Diamondbacks, though he had to settle for a minor league contract after an injury-wrecked 2020 with the Astros. He threw just 3 2/3 innings before undergoing elbow surgery last September.
At his best, Devenski was a multi-inning weapon in Houston from 2016-17, during which he combined for a stingy 2.38 ERA and posted a 21.8 K-BB percentage in 189 innings. But Devenski hasn’t been the same since. Between that excellent two-season run and last year, he managed a 4.56 ERA with a K-BB percentage of 18.0 over 116 1/3 frames from 2018-19. However, he did throw seven scoreless, four-hit innings with seven strikeouts against three walks this spring.
Angels Acquire James Hoyt From Marlins
The Angels have acquired right-handed reliever James Hoyt from the Marlins for cash considerations, the two teams announced.
The Angels will be the fifth major league organization for the 34-year-old Hoyt, who spent last season in Miami after it acquired him from Cleveland. Hoyt ended up performing quite well over 14 2/3 innings in the Marlins’ bullpen with a 1.23 ERA and a 32.3 percent strikeout rate. On the other hand, Hoyt’s 3.71 SIERA and 12.9 percent walk rate were much less impressive, and he also saw his average fastball velocity fall from the 93-94 mph range to slightly below 89.
Overall, Hoyt has pitched to a 3.71 ERA/3.05 SIERA in 94 2/3 big league frames with strikeout and walk percentages of 31.1 and 8.5, respectively. That type of production would be useful out of any team’s bullpen, and with another minor league option left, he’ll at least give the Angels more depth.
Blue Jays Release Francisco Liriano
The Blue Jays have granted left-hander Francisco Liriano his release, tweets Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi, who notes that the veteran had an opt-out over the weekend.
This news means Liriano is unlikely to have a second tenure in the majors as a member of the Blue Jays, with whom he pitched from 2016-17. Liriano worked almost exclusively as a start then, but he spent this spring vying for a role in Toronto’s bullpen. The 37-year-old was highly effective, as he tossed 7 1/3 scoreless innings of four-hit, three-walk ball with six strikeouts, but that wasn’t enough to earn a role in the Blue Jays’ season-opening relief corps. It appears they’ll go into the season with Tim Mayza and Ryan Borucki as the primary lefties in their bullpen.
Liriano, who signed a minors deal in the offseason, will head back to the free-agent market with a solid resume. While Liriano hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2019, he does own a lifetime 4.15 ERA in a combined 1,813 2/3 innings with several teams.
Royals Select Hanser Alberto
The Royals have added infielder Hanser Alberto to their 40-man roster, Alec Lewis of The Athletic was among those to report. Their 40-man is now full.
Alberto, previously with the Rangers and Orioles, signed a minor league contract with the Royals over the winter. He’ll now earn a $1.65MM salary, potentially with another $350K in bonuses, off the Royals’ bench. As someone with quite a bit of experience at both second and third base, the 28-year-old will provide Kansas City some insurance behind Whit Merrifield and Hunter Dozier. He’ll also give the team a stopgap until it’s ready to promote top infield prospect Bobby Witt Jr., whom it reassigned to the minors earlier this month.
Alberto had rough seasons in Texas from 2015-18 (he didn’t appear in the bigs in ’17), but he did hit for good averages in Baltimore in the past two seasons. He ended his Orioles tenure as a .299/.322/.413 batter with a meager 10.2 percent strikeout rate (albeit with a minuscule walk percentage of 2.7) over 781 plate appearances. Most of the 28-year-old right-hander’s damage came against lefty pitchers, whom he victimized for a .394/.411/.532 line in 280 trips to the plate as an Oriole.
Padres To Select Nabil Crismatt
The Padres informed right-hander Nabil Crismatt that he will make their Opening Day roster, Dennis Lin of The Athletic tweets. Because Crismatt isn’t on the Padres’ 40-man roster, which is full, they will need to make a corresponding move to clear space for him.
The Padres made a series of high-profile acquisitions during the offseason, but Crismatt flew under the radar as a minor league signing. Now 26 years old, Crismatt divided 2012-20 among the Mets, Mariners and Cardinals organizations, combining for a 3.82 ERA with better than a strikeout per inning and fewer than three walks per nine over 641 2/3 innings in the minors.
Crismatt made his big league debut last year in St. Louis, and though he only averaged 89.5 mph on his fastball, he gave up just three earned runs on six hits, walked one batter and struck out eight in 8 1/3 innings. He then pitched to a near-spotless 0.87 ERA in 10 1/3 innings this spring, and will try to carry the success he has enjoyed since 2020 into this regular season.
Yankees Notes: Wilson, Luetge, Voit, Wade, King, Nelson
Yankees lefty Justin Wilson will open the 2021 season on the injured list, general manager Brian Cashman announced to reporters Monday. Wilson was slowed by some shoulder discomfort recently, though an MRI taken last week came back clean and the reliever recently threw from 90 feet. Cashman added that Wilson has “responded well” to the downtime he had when he was slowed down and threw a bullpen session today without issue. It seems this is likely just a matter of building him back up, but there is not sufficient time to do so before the season begins Thursday. With Wilson and Zack Britton both sidelined to open the season, the only lefty assured of a spot in the bullpen is closer Aroldis Chapman, though Lucas Luetge has turned heads this spring and could grab a spot, Erik Boland of Newsday tweets. Luetge hasn’t appeared in the bigs since 2015, but he signed a minors deal with the Yankees in the offseason and has since yielded just two earned runs on eight hits and two walks (with a whopping 18 strikeouts) in 10 1/3 innings.
More from the Bronx…
- Luke Voit‘s surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee will be performed tonight, according to Cashman. There’s still no firm timetable for his return to the active roster, though at the time the injury was reported, it was said that the slugging first baseman would go three weeks without baseball activity following the procedure. That alone will take him to April 20 or so, and then Voit will of course need to ramp back up and get in some reps at the alternate site or in a Triple-A game, depending on what happens with the Triple-A season. Cashman added that Britton, who is recovering from arthroscopic surgery on his left elbow, is doing well but is also still without a timeline.
- Tyler Wade, Michael King and Nick Nelson each made the roster, according to Cashman. Wade has barely hit since he debuted in 2016, having slashed .190/.274/.301 in 361 plate appearances, but he’s a speedster who can play several positions. Meanwhile, King and Nelson – both righties – will be part of the Yankees’ bullpen. King has struggled to a 7.22 ERA over 26 2/3 frames in the majors since 2019, but the 25-year-old owns an excellent 2.30 mark with almost a strikeout per inning and fewer than two walks per nine in 62 2/3 Triple-A frames. Nelson, also 25, didn’t post exceptional numbers with the Yankees last year, when he tossed 20 2/3 innings of 4.79 ERA ball with poor strikeout and walk rates (20.0 and 12.2 percent, respectively). However, Nelson dominated this spring, allowing one earned run on six hits and a walk (10 strikeouts) across 10 frames.
Brewers Notes: Topa, Fisher, Cain, JBJ, Vogelbach
MARCH 29: Topa has a flexor tendon strain and is unlikely to pitch for at least the first half of the season, Counsell told Haudricourt and other reporters (Twitter link).
MARCH 28: Brewers manager Craig Counsell discussed some roster situations with MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy (Twitter links), the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt (Twitter links) and other reporters today, and Counsell revealed that right-hander Justin Topa will begin the season on the injured list. Topa underwent an MRI last night after he felt elbow discomfort during a simulated game, and the club is still waiting on the results.
Any sort of elbow problem is of particular concern for Topa, who has already undergone two Tommy John surgeries. Despite these injury setbacks, Topa battled through five seasons in the affiliated minors and an indy ball stint before finally making his MLB debut in 2020. Though Topa only tossed 9 2/3 total innings over six regular-season outings and one postseason game, the righty opened some eyes by allowing just two earned runs and recording 12 strikeouts against just a single walk.
Topa and Derek Fisher (hamstring) will both be on the 10-day injured list, but Counsell doesn’t believe the IL will be necessary for either Lorenzo Cain or Jackie Bradley Jr. The two veteran outfielders had missed some time in camp with quad and wrist problems, respectively, though Counsell indicated that he wouldn’t push Cain or Bradley hard in the early stages of the season. The Brewers were already planning to deploy something of a timeshare in the outfield in order to keep everyone fresh, and beyond Cain, Bradley, Christian Yelich, and Avisail Garcia, Billy McKinney might yet make the team in a bench role for further depth.
Speaking of Milwaukee’s bench, Counsell also said that Daniel Vogelbach made the Opening Day roster. Though the Brewers tendered Vogelbach a contract over the winter, there was some thought that the team could still cut Vogelbach (whose $1.4MM deal isn’t guaranteed until Opening Day) because Vogelbach doesn’t offer much in the way of bench versatility. The slugger is blocked by Keston Hiura at first base, and since the NL won’t have the designated hitter spot available this season, Vogelbach is likely just limited to pinch-hit opportunities and DH duty in interleague games. Still, the Brewers decided Vogelbach was worth keeping in the fold, considering his .987 OPS in 67 PA for Milwaukee last season.